Dump/restore done. Now what?

Nik is joined by Kirk Wolak, Software Architect at KiraSoft, to discuss what a database still needs after pg_restore finishes and before it takes production traffic — what pg_dump and pg_restore leave behind, why autovacuum may not catch up in time, and how Postgres itself could do better. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Times are podcast times of the first mention. Hacking sessions [00:00:27] Hacking Postgres sessions with Andrey, Kirk and Nik (YouTube playlist, PostgresTV) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH8y1BNPAKjKDdJA7sDmFWUkbbYux3TRz [00:00:27] Hacking Postgres website https://hacking.postgres.tv [00:00:27] Hacking Postgres Telegram group https://t.me/postgres_hacking Episodes [00:00:27] Our previous episode with Kirk: GSoC B-Tree Merge https://postgres.fm/episodes/gsoc-btree-merge [00:03:23] Is pg_dump a backup tool? https://postgres.fm/episodes/is-pg_dump-a-backup-tool pgsql-hackers [00:15:39] pg_restore --include-analyze proposal (Jian He, 2025) https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/CACJufxGx_YLLxmnZVMuUApiVYqjKrydvEQqD3qxhwM6e0_8jrQ%40mail.gmail.com [00:30:13] ANALYZE after restore (Christopher Kings-Lynne, 2002) https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/GNELIHDDFBOCMGBFGEFOOEOPCBAA.chriskl%40familyhealth.com.au [00:31:55] Statistics Import and Export (PG18 statistics transfer) https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/CADkLM%3DfzX7QX6r78fShWDjNN3Vcr4PVAnvXxQ4DiGy6V%3D0bCUA%40mail.gmail.com Commits [00:04:39] Transfer statistics during pg_upgrade (adds statistics to pg_dump, PG18) https://github.com/postgres/postgres/commit/1fd1bd871012732e3c6c482667d2f2c56f1a9395 [00:30:13] vacuumdb --analyze-only processes partitioned tables (Laurenz Albe, PG19) https://github.com/postgres/postgres/commit/6429e5b771dbb98aa56441677b79cdb58f6e1675 [00:42:38] Set pd_prune_xid on insert (Melanie Plageman, PG19) https://github.com/postgres/postgres/commit/378a216187aea1b488ce60ed07dd1ac5c14a9984 ~~~ What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc! ~~~ Postgres FM is produced by: Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustard Nikolay Samokhvalov, founder of PostgresAI With credit to: Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork Intro and outro music: our own arrangement of Apple Loops from GarageBand (royalty-free under the GarageBand licence)