PG_ARCHIVECLEANUP(1)    PostgreSQL 9.2.3 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 25.2, "Log-Shipping Standby Servers", in the documentation).
       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 recovery.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 .backup file name, then only the file prefix will be
       used as the oldestkeptwalfile. This 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
           When using the program as a standalone utility, 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.

           Note that the .backup file name passed to the program should not
           include the extension.

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

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:

       o   produce debugging output in cleanup.log

       o   remove no-longer-needed files from the archive directory

AUTHOR
       Simon Riggs <simon@2ndquadrant.com>

SEE ALSO
       pg_standby(1)



PostgreSQL 9.2.3                  2013-02-04              PG_ARCHIVECLEANUP(1)
