NAME

       pg_receivexlog - streams transaction logs from a PostgreSQL cluster

SYNOPSIS

       pg_receivexlog [option...]

DESCRIPTION

       pg_receivexlog is used to stream transaction log from a running PostgreSQL cluster. The transaction 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
       Section 24.3, “Continuous Archiving and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)”, in the documentation).

       pg_receivexlog streams the transaction log in real time as it's being generated on the server, and does
       not wait for segments to complete like archive_command does. For this reason, it is not necessary to set
       archive_timeout when using pg_receivexlog.

       The transaction log is streamed over a regular PostgreSQL connection, and uses the replication protocol.
       The connection must be made with a superuser or a user having REPLICATION permissions (see Section 20.2,
       “Role Attributes”, in the documentation), and pg_hba.conf must explicitly permit the replication
       connection. The server must also be configured with max_wal_senders set high enough to leave at least one
       session available for the stream.

       If the connection is lost, or if it cannot be initially established, with a non-fatal error,
       pg_receivexlog will retry the connection indefinitely, and reestablish streaming as soon as possible. To
       avoid this behavior, use the -n parameter.

OPTIONS

       The following command-line options control the location and format of the output.

       -D directory, --directory=directory
           Directory to write the output to.

           This parameter is required.

       The following command-line options control the running of the program.

       -n, --no-loop
           Don't loop on connection errors. Instead, exit right away with an error.

       -v, --verbose
           Enables verbose mode.

       The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.

       -d connstr, --dbname=connstr
           Specifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a connection string. See Section 31.1.1,
           “Connection Strings”, in the documentation for more information.

           The option is called --dbname for consistency with other client applications, but because
           pg_receivexlog doesn't connect to any particular database in the cluster, database name in the
           connection string will be ignored.

       -h host, --host=host
           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 PGHOST
           environment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket connection is attempted.

       -p port, --port=port
           Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening
           for connections. Defaults to the PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in default.

       -s interval, --status-interval=interval
           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.

       -U username, --username=username
           User name to connect as.

       -w, --no-password
           Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password authentication and a password is not
           available by other means such as a .pgpass 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.

       -W, --password
           Force pg_receivexlog to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

           This option is never essential, since pg_receivexlog will automatically prompt for a password if the
           server demands password authentication. However, pg_receivexlog will waste a connection attempt
           finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid the extra
           connection attempt.

       Other options are also available:

       -V, --version
           Print the pg_receivexlog version and exit.

       -?, --help
           Show help about pg_receivexlog command line arguments, and exit.

ENVIRONMENT

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, uses the environment variables supported by libpq
       (see Section 31.14, “Environment Variables”, in the documentation).

NOTES

       When using pg_receivexlog instead of archive_command, the server will continue to recycle transaction log
       files even if the backups are not properly archived, since there is no command that fails. This can be
       worked around by having an archive_command that fails when the file has not been properly archived yet,
       for example:

           archive_command = 'sleep 5 && test -f /mnt/server/archivedir/%f'

       The initial timeout is necessary because pg_receivexlog works using asynchronous replication and can
       therefore be slightly behind the master.

EXAMPLES

       To stream the transaction log from the server at mydbserver and store it in the local directory
       /usr/local/pgsql/archive:

           $ pg_receivexlog -h mydbserver -D /usr/local/pgsql/archive

SEE ALSO

       pg_basebackup(1)

PostgreSQL 9.3.24                                     2018                                     PG_RECEIVEXLOG(1)