diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/src/sgml/config.sgml | 8 |
2 files changed, 18 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml index be05a332050..8cb24d6ae54 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml @@ -1309,7 +1309,16 @@ restore_command = 'cp /mnt/server/archivedir/%f %p' a new timeline is created to identify the series of WAL records generated after that recovery. The timeline ID number is part of WAL segment file names so a new timeline does - not overwrite the WAL data generated by previous timelines. It is + not overwrite the WAL data generated by previous timelines. + For example, in the WAL file name + <filename>0000000100001234000055CD</filename>, the leading + <literal>00000001</literal> is the timeline ID in hexadecimal. (Note that + in other contexts, such as server log messages, timeline IDs are + usually printed in decimal.) + </para> + + <para> + It is in fact possible to archive many different timelines. While that might seem like a useless feature, it's often a lifesaver. Consider the situation where you aren't quite sure what point-in-time to recover to, diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml index e5c41cc6c6d..481f93cea1b 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml @@ -4114,6 +4114,14 @@ restore_command = 'copy "C:\\server\\archivedir\\%f" "%p"' # Windows </para> <para> + To specify a timeline ID in hexadecimal (for example, if extracted + from a WAL file name or history file), prefix it with a + <literal>0x</literal>. For instance, if the WAL file name is + <filename>00000011000000A10000004F</filename>, then the timeline ID is + <literal>0x11</literal> (or 17 decimal). + </para> + + <para> You usually only need to set this parameter in complex re-recovery situations, where you need to return to a state that itself was reached after a point-in-time recovery. |