Re: Non-text mode for pg_dumpall

I suspect this is going to end with a structured dump like we use on the
pg_dump (per-database) side.  It's not an accident that v17 pg_restore doesn't
lex text files to do its job.  pg_dumpall deals with a more-limited set of
statements than pg_dump deals with, but they're not _that much_ more limited.
I won't veto a lexing-based approach if it gets the behaviors right, but I
don't have high hopes for it getting the behaviors right and staying that way.

I have been talking offline with Mahendra about this. I agree that we would be better off with a structured object for globals. But the thing that's been striking me all afternoon as I have pondered it is that we should not be designing such an animal at this stage of the cycle. Whatever we do we're going to be stuck supporting, so I have very reluctantly come to the conclusion that it would probably be better to back the feature out and have another go for PG 19.

cheers

andrew

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Andrew Dunstan
EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com