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+<!-- doc/src/sgml/backup-manifest.sgml -->
+
+<chapter id="backup-manifest-format">
+ <title>Backup Manifest Format</title>
+
+ <indexterm>
+ <primary>Backup Manifest</primary>
+ </indexterm>
+
+ <para>
+ The backup manifest generated by <xref linkend="app-pgbasebackup" /> is
+ primarily intended to permit the backup to be verified using
+ <xref linkend="app-pgverifybackup" />. However, it is
+ also possible for other tools to read the backup manifest file and use
+ the information contained therein for their own purposes. To that end,
+ this chapter describes the format of the backup manifest file.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ A backup manifest is a JSON document encoded as UTF-8. (Although in
+ general JSON documents are required to be Unicode, PostgreSQL permits
+ the <type>json</type> and <type>jsonb</type> data types to be used with any
+ supported server encoding. There is no similar exception for backup
+ manifests.) The JSON document is always an object; the keys that are present
+ in this object are described in the next section.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect1 id="backup-manifest-toplevel">
+ <title>Backup Manifest Top-level Object</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The backup manifest JSON document contains the following keys.
+ </para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>PostgreSQL-Backup-Manifest-Version</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The associated value is always the integer 1.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Files</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The associated value is always a list of objects, each describing one
+ file that is present in the backup. No entries are present in this
+ list for the WAL files that are needed in order to use the backup,
+ or for the backup manifest itself. The structure of each object in the
+ list is described in <xref linkend="backup-manifest-files" />.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>WAL-Ranges</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The associated value is always a list of objects, each describing a
+ range of WAL records that must be readable from a particular timeline
+ in order to make use of the backup. The structure of these objects is
+ further described in <xref linkend="backup-manifest-wal-ranges" />.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Manifest-Checksum</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This key is always present on the last line of the backup manifest file.
+ The associated value is a SHA256 checksum of all the preceding lines.
+ We use a fixed checksum method here to make it possible for clients
+ to do incremental parsing of the manifest. While a SHA256 checksum
+ is significantly more expensive than a CRC32C checksum, the manifest
+ should normally be small enough that the extra computation won't matter
+ very much.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="backup-manifest-files">
+ <title>Backup Manifest File Object</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The object which describes a single file contains either a
+ <literal>Path</literal> key or an <literal>Encoded-Path</literal> key.
+ Normally, the <literal>Path</literal> key will be present. The
+ associated string value is the path of the file relative to the root
+ of the backup directory. Files located in a user-defined tablespace
+ will have paths whose first two components are <filename>pg_tblspc</filename> and the OID
+ of the tablespace. If the path is not a string that is legal in UTF-8,
+ or if the user requests that encoded paths be used for all files, then
+ the <literal>Encoded-Path</literal> key will be present instead. This
+ stores the same data, but it is encoded as a string of hexadecimal
+ digits. Each pair of hexadecimal digits in the string represents a
+ single octet.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The following two keys are always present:
+ </para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Size</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The expected size of this file, as an integer.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Last-Modified</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The last modification time of the file as reported by the server at
+ the time of the backup. Unlike the other fields stored in the backup,
+ this field is not used by <xref linkend="app-pgverifybackup" />.
+ It is included only for informational purposes.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>
+ If the backup was taken with file checksums enabled, the following
+ keys will be present:
+ </para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Checksum-Algorithm</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The checksum algorithm used to compute a checksum for this file.
+ Currently, this will be the same for every file in the backup
+ manifest, but this may change in future releases. At present, the
+ supported checksum algorithms are <literal>CRC32C</literal>,
+ <literal>SHA224</literal>,
+ <literal>SHA256</literal>,
+ <literal>SHA384</literal>, and
+ <literal>SHA512</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Checksum</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The checksum computed for this file, stored as a series of
+ hexadecimal characters, two for each byte of the checksum.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="backup-manifest-wal-ranges">
+ <title>Backup Manifest WAL Range Object</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The object which describes a WAL range always has three keys:
+ </para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Timeline</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The timeline for this range of WAL records, as an integer.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>Start-LSN</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The LSN at which replay must begin on the indicated timeline in order to
+ make use of this backup. The LSN is stored in the format normally used
+ by <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>; that is, it is a string
+ consisting of two strings of hexadecimal characters, each with a length
+ of between 1 and 8, separated by a slash.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><literal>End-LSN</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The earliest LSN at which replay on the indicated timeline may end when
+ making use of this backup. This is stored in the same format as
+ <literal>Start-LSN</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>
+ Ordinarily, there will be only a single WAL range. However, if a backup is
+ taken from a standby which switches timelines during the backup due to an
+ upstream promotion, it is possible for multiple ranges to be present, each
+ with a different timeline. There will never be multiple WAL ranges present
+ for the same timeline.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+</chapter>