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+<!--
+doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_receivewal.sgml
+PostgreSQL documentation
+-->
+
+<refentry id="app-pgreceivewal">
+ <indexterm zone="app-pgreceivewal">
+ <primary>pg_receivewal</primary>
+ </indexterm>
+
+ <refmeta>
+ <refentrytitle><application>pg_receivewal</application></refentrytitle>
+ <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
+ <refmiscinfo>Application</refmiscinfo>
+ </refmeta>
+
+ <refnamediv>
+ <refname>pg_receivewal</refname>
+ <refpurpose>stream write-ahead logs from a <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> server</refpurpose>
+ </refnamediv>
+
+ <refsynopsisdiv>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>pg_receivewal</command>
+ <arg rep="repeat"><replaceable>option</replaceable></arg>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ </refsynopsisdiv>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Description</title>
+ <para>
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> is used to stream the write-ahead log
+ from a running <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> cluster. The write-ahead
+ log is streamed using the streaming replication protocol, and is written
+ to a local directory of files. This directory can be used as the archive
+ location for doing a restore using point-in-time recovery (see
+ <xref linkend="continuous-archiving"/>).
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> streams the write-ahead
+ log in real time as it's being generated on the server, and does not wait
+ for segments to complete like <xref linkend="guc-archive-command"/> and
+ <xref linkend="guc-archive-library"/> do.
+ For this reason, it is not necessary to set
+ <xref linkend="guc-archive-timeout"/> when using
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Unlike the WAL receiver of a PostgreSQL standby server, <application>pg_receivewal</application>
+ by default flushes WAL data only when a WAL file is closed.
+ The option <option>--synchronous</option> must be specified to flush WAL data
+ in real time. Since <application>pg_receivewal</application> does not
+ apply WAL, you should not allow it to become a synchronous standby when
+ <xref linkend="guc-synchronous-commit"/> equals
+ <literal>remote_apply</literal>. If it does, it will appear to be a
+ standby that never catches up, and will cause transaction commits to
+ block. To avoid this, you should either configure an appropriate value
+ for <xref linkend="guc-synchronous-standby-names"/>, or specify
+ <varname>application_name</varname> for
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> that does not match it, or
+ change the value of <varname>synchronous_commit</varname> to
+ something other than <literal>remote_apply</literal>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The write-ahead log is streamed over a regular
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> connection and uses the replication
+ protocol. The connection must be made with a user having
+ <literal>REPLICATION</literal> permissions (see
+ <xref linkend="role-attributes"/>) or a superuser, and
+ <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> must permit the replication connection.
+ The server must also be configured with
+ <xref linkend="guc-max-wal-senders"/> set high enough to leave at least
+ one session available for the stream.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The starting point of the write-ahead log streaming is calculated when
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> starts:
+ <orderedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ First, scan the directory where the WAL segment files are written and
+ find the newest completed segment file, using as the starting point the
+ beginning of the next WAL segment file.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ If a starting point cannot be calculated with the previous method,
+ and if a replication slot is used, an extra
+ <command>READ_REPLICATION_SLOT</command> command is issued to retrieve
+ the slot's <literal>restart_lsn</literal> to use as the starting point.
+ This option is only available when streaming write-ahead logs from
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 15 and up.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ If a starting point cannot be calculated with the previous method,
+ the latest WAL flush location is used as reported by the server from
+ an <literal>IDENTIFY_SYSTEM</literal> command.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </orderedlist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ If the connection is lost, or if it cannot be initially established,
+ with a non-fatal error, <application>pg_receivewal</application> will
+ retry the connection indefinitely, and reestablish streaming as soon
+ as possible. To avoid this behavior, use the <literal>-n</literal>
+ parameter.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ In the absence of fatal errors, <application>pg_receivewal</application>
+ will run until terminated by the <systemitem>SIGINT</systemitem> signal
+ (<keycombo action="simul"><keycap>Control</keycap><keycap>C</keycap></keycombo>).
+ </para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Options</title>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-D <replaceable class="parameter">directory</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--directory=<replaceable class="parameter">directory</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Directory to write the output to.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This parameter is required.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-E <replaceable>lsn</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--endpos=<replaceable>lsn</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Automatically stop replication and exit with normal exit status 0 when
+ receiving reaches the specified LSN.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ If there is a record with LSN exactly equal to <replaceable>lsn</replaceable>,
+ the record will be processed.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--if-not-exists</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Do not error out when <option>--create-slot</option> is specified
+ and a slot with the specified name already exists.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-n</option></term>
+ <term><option>--no-loop</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Don't loop on connection errors. Instead, exit right away with
+ an error.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--no-sync</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This option causes <command>pg_receivewal</command> to not force WAL
+ data to be flushed to disk. This is faster, but means that a
+ subsequent operating system crash can leave the WAL segments corrupt.
+ Generally, this option is useful for testing but should not be used
+ when doing WAL archiving on a production deployment.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This option is incompatible with <literal>--synchronous</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-s <replaceable class="parameter">interval</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--status-interval=<replaceable class="parameter">interval</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Specifies the number of seconds between status packets sent back to the
+ server. This allows for easier monitoring of the progress from server.
+ A value of zero disables the periodic status updates completely,
+ although an update will still be sent when requested by the server, to
+ avoid timeout disconnect. The default value is 10 seconds.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-S <replaceable>slotname</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--slot=<replaceable class="parameter">slotname</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Require <application>pg_receivewal</application> to use an existing
+ replication slot (see <xref linkend="streaming-replication-slots"/>).
+ When this option is used, <application>pg_receivewal</application> will report
+ a flush position to the server, indicating when each segment has been
+ synchronized to disk so that the server can remove that segment if it
+ is not otherwise needed.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ When the replication client
+ of <application>pg_receivewal</application> is configured on the
+ server as a synchronous standby, then using a replication slot will
+ report the flush position to the server, but only when a WAL file is
+ closed. Therefore, that configuration will cause transactions on the
+ primary to wait for a long time and effectively not work
+ satisfactorily. The option <literal>--synchronous</literal> (see
+ below) must be specified in addition to make this work correctly.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--synchronous</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Flush the WAL data to disk immediately after it has been received. Also
+ send a status packet back to the server immediately after flushing,
+ regardless of <literal>--status-interval</literal>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This option should be specified if the replication client
+ of <application>pg_receivewal</application> is configured on the
+ server as a synchronous standby, to ensure that timely feedback is
+ sent to the server.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-v</option></term>
+ <term><option>--verbose</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enables verbose mode.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-Z <replaceable class="parameter">level</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>-Z <replaceable class="parameter">method</replaceable>[:<replaceable>detail</replaceable>]</option></term>
+ <term><option>--compress=<replaceable class="parameter">level</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--compress=<replaceable class="parameter">method</replaceable>[:<replaceable>detail</replaceable>]</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enables compression of write-ahead logs.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The compression method can be set to <literal>gzip</literal>,
+ <literal>lz4</literal> (if <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
+ was compiled with <option>--with-lz4</option>) or
+ <literal>none</literal> for no compression.
+ A compression detail string can optionally be specified. If the
+ detail string is an integer, it specifies the compression level.
+ Otherwise, it should be a comma-separated list of items, each of the
+ form <literal>keyword</literal> or <literal>keyword=value</literal>.
+ Currently, the only supported keyword is <literal>level</literal>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If no compression level is specified, the default compression level
+ will be used. If only a level is specified without mentioning an
+ algorithm, <literal>gzip</literal> compression will be used if the
+ level is greater than 0, and no compression will be used if the level
+ is 0.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The suffix <filename>.gz</filename> will automatically be added to
+ all filenames when using <literal>gzip</literal>, and the suffix
+ <filename>.lz4</filename> is added when using <literal>lz4</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>
+ The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-d <replaceable class="parameter">connstr</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--dbname=<replaceable class="parameter">connstr</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Specifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a <link
+ linkend="libpq-connstring">connection string</link>; these
+ will override any conflicting command line options.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The option is called <literal>--dbname</literal> for consistency with other
+ client applications, but because <application>pg_receivewal</application>
+ doesn't connect to any particular database in the cluster, database
+ name in the connection string will be ignored.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-h <replaceable class="parameter">host</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--host=<replaceable class="parameter">host</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
+ running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
+ directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken
+ from the <envar>PGHOST</envar> environment variable, if set,
+ else a Unix domain socket connection is attempted.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-p <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--port=<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file
+ extension on which the server is listening for connections.
+ Defaults to the <envar>PGPORT</envar> environment variable, if
+ set, or a compiled-in default.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-U <replaceable>username</replaceable></option></term>
+ <term><option>--username=<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ User name to connect as.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-w</option></term>
+ <term><option>--no-password</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires
+ password authentication and a password is not available by
+ other means such as a <filename>.pgpass</filename> file, the
+ connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in
+ batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a
+ password.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-W</option></term>
+ <term><option>--password</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Force <application>pg_receivewal</application> to prompt for a
+ password before connecting to a database.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This option is never essential, since
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> will automatically prompt
+ for a password if the server demands password authentication.
+ However, <application>pg_receivewal</application> will waste a
+ connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password.
+ In some cases it is worth typing <option>-W</option> to avoid the extra
+ connection attempt.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> can perform one of the two
+ following actions in order to control physical replication slots:
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--create-slot</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Create a new physical replication slot with the name specified in
+ <option>--slot</option>, then exit.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--drop-slot</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Drop the replication slot with the name specified in
+ <option>--slot</option>, then exit.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Other options are also available:
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-V</option></term>
+ <term><option>--version</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Print the <application>pg_receivewal</application> version and exit.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-?</option></term>
+ <term><option>--help</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Show help about <application>pg_receivewal</application> command line
+ arguments, and exit.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ </variablelist>
+ </para>
+
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Exit Status</title>
+
+ <para>
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> will exit with status 0 when
+ terminated by the <systemitem>SIGINT</systemitem> signal. (That is the
+ normal way to end it. Hence it is not an error.) For fatal errors or
+ other signals, the exit status will be nonzero.
+ </para>
+
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Environment</title>
+
+ <para>
+ This utility, like most other <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> utilities,
+ uses the environment variables supported by <application>libpq</application>
+ (see <xref linkend="libpq-envars"/>).
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The environment variable <envar>PG_COLOR</envar> specifies whether to use
+ color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are
+ <literal>always</literal>, <literal>auto</literal> and
+ <literal>never</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Notes</title>
+
+ <para>
+ When using <application>pg_receivewal</application> instead of
+ <xref linkend="guc-archive-command"/> or
+ <xref linkend="guc-archive-library"/> as the main WAL backup method, it is
+ strongly recommended to use replication slots. Otherwise, the server is
+ free to recycle or remove write-ahead log files before they are backed up,
+ because it does not have any information, either
+ from <xref linkend="guc-archive-command"/> or
+ <xref linkend="guc-archive-library"/> or the replication slots, about
+ how far the WAL stream has been archived. Note, however, that a
+ replication slot will fill up the server's disk space if the receiver does
+ not keep up with fetching the WAL data.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <application>pg_receivewal</application> will preserve group permissions on
+ the received WAL files if group permissions are enabled on the source
+ cluster.
+ </para>
+
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Examples</title>
+
+ <para>
+ To stream the write-ahead log from the server at
+ <literal>mydbserver</literal> and store it in the local directory
+ <filename>/usr/local/pgsql/archive</filename>:
+<screen>
+<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>pg_receivewal -h mydbserver -D /usr/local/pgsql/archive</userinput>
+</screen></para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>See Also</title>
+
+ <simplelist type="inline">
+ <member><xref linkend="app-pgbasebackup"/></member>
+ </simplelist>
+ </refsect1>
+
+</refentry>