PG_ARCHIVECLEANUP(1) PostgreSQL 14.15 Documentation PG_ARCHIVECLEANUP(1)
NAME
pg_archivecleanup - clean up PostgreSQL WAL archive files
SYNOPSIS
pg_archivecleanup [option...] archivelocation oldestkeptwalfile
DESCRIPTION
pg_archivecleanup is designed to be used as an archive_cleanup_command
to clean up WAL file archives when running as a standby server (see
Section 27.2). pg_archivecleanup can also be used as a standalone
program to clean WAL file archives.
To configure a standby server to use pg_archivecleanup, put this into
its postgresql.conf configuration file:
archive_cleanup_command = 'pg_archivecleanup archivelocation %r'
where archivelocation is the directory from which WAL segment files
should be removed.
When used within archive_cleanup_command, all WAL files logically
preceding the value of the %r argument will be removed from
archivelocation. This minimizes the number of files that need to be
retained, while preserving crash-restart capability. Use of this
parameter is appropriate if the archivelocation is a transient staging
area for this particular standby server, but not when the
archivelocation is intended as a long-term WAL archive area, or when
multiple standby servers are recovering from the same archive location.
When used as a standalone program all WAL files logically preceding the
oldestkeptwalfile will be removed from archivelocation. In this mode,
if you specify a .partial or .backup file name, then only the file
prefix will be used as the oldestkeptwalfile. This treatment of .backup
file name allows you to remove all WAL files archived prior to a
specific base backup without error. For example, the following example
will remove all files older than WAL file name
000000010000003700000010:
pg_archivecleanup -d archive 000000010000003700000010.00000020.backup
pg_archivecleanup: keep WAL file "archive/000000010000003700000010" and later
pg_archivecleanup: removing file "archive/00000001000000370000000F"
pg_archivecleanup: removing file "archive/00000001000000370000000E"
pg_archivecleanup assumes that archivelocation is a directory readable
and writable by the server-owning user.
OPTIONS
pg_archivecleanup accepts the following command-line arguments:
-d
Print lots of debug logging output on stderr.
-n
Print the names of the files that would have been removed on stdout
(performs a dry run).
-V
--version
Print the pg_archivecleanup version and exit.
-x extension
Provide an extension that will be stripped from all file names
before deciding if they should be deleted. This is typically useful
for cleaning up archives that have been compressed during storage,
and therefore have had an extension added by the compression
program. For example: -x .gz.
-?
--help
Show help about pg_archivecleanup command line arguments, and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable PG_COLOR specifies whether to use color in
diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never.
NOTES
pg_archivecleanup is designed to work with PostgreSQL 8.0 and later
when used as a standalone utility, or with PostgreSQL 9.0 and later
when used as an archive cleanup command.
pg_archivecleanup is written in C and has an easy-to-modify source
code, with specifically designated sections to modify for your own
needs
EXAMPLES
On Linux or Unix systems, you might use:
archive_cleanup_command = 'pg_archivecleanup -d /mnt/standby/archive %r 2>>cleanup.log'
where the archive directory is physically located on the standby
server, so that the archive_command is accessing it across NFS, but the
files are local to the standby. This will:
• produce debugging output in cleanup.log
• remove no-longer-needed files from the archive directory
PostgreSQL 14.15 2024 PG_ARCHIVECLEANUP(1)
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