Re: pg_dump custom format without timestamp?

Fabien COELHO <coelho(at)cri(dot)ensmp(dot)fr> writes:
> I was looking into using hardlinks to reduce the storage of keeping and
> syncing periodic database dumps when they are identical. This works fine
> with the textual format, but not for the custom format because the file
> header includes a timestamp set by function WriteHead in file
> "src/bin/pg_dump/pg_backup_archiver.c".

I'm not sure about this goal ...

> In order to circumvent this issue, I would think of adding a
> "--no-timestamp" option to pg_dump and put zeros everywhere in place of
> the actual timestamp in such case, and possibly ignoring the said
> timestamp in function ReadHead.

... and quite dislike this solution. pg_dump has way too many bizarre
options already. Perhaps you should consider making a bit of code that
knows how to compare two custom dumps ignoring the timestamp.

regards, tom lane