Re: refactoring basebackup.c

On 2022-Feb-14, Robert Haas wrote:

> A more consistent way of writing the supported syntax would be like this:
> 
>   -Z, --compress={[{client|server}-]{gzip|lz4}}[:LEVEL]|LEVEL|none}
> 
> I would be somewhat inclined to leave the level-only variant
> undocumented and instead write it like this:
> 
>   -Z, --compress={[{client|server}-]{gzip|lz4}}[:LEVEL]|none}

This is hard to interpret for humans though because of the nested
brackets and braces.  It gets considerably easier if you split it in
separate variants:

   -Z, --compress=[{client|server}-]{gzip|lz4}[:LEVEL]
   -Z, --compress=LEVEL
   -Z, --compress=none
                         compress tar output with given compression method or level


or, if you choose to leave the level-only variant undocumented, then

   -Z, --compress=[{client|server}-]{gzip|lz4}[:LEVEL]
   -Z, --compress=none
                         compress tar output with given compression method or level

There still are some nested brackets and braces, but the scope is
reduced enough that interpreting seems quite a bit simpler.

-- 
Álvaro Herrera           39°49'30"S 73°17'W  —  https://www.EnterpriseDB.com/