pgBackRest 2.59.1 Documentation on PIG.CENTER

News

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

pgBackRest 2.59.1 Released

August 17, 2026

The pgBackRest community is pleased to announce the release of pgBackRest 2.59.1, the latest version of the reliable, easy-to-use backup and restore solution that can seamlessly scale up to the largest databases and workloads.

pgBackRest supports a robust set of features for managing your backup and recovery infrastructure, including: parallel backup/restore, full/differential/incremental backups, block incremental backup, multiple repositories, delta restore, parallel asynchronous archiving, malware/ransomware protection, per-file checksums, page checksums (when enabled) validated during backup, multiple compression types, encryption, partial/failed backup resume, backup from standby, tablespace and link support, S3/Azure/GCS/SFTP support, backup expiration, local/remote operation via SSH or TLS, flexible configuration, and more.

User Guide (Debian/Ubuntu)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

This user guide is intended to be followed sequentially from beginning to end — each section depends on the last. For example, the Restore section relies on setup that is performed in the Quick Start section. Once pgBackRest is up and running then skipping around is possible but following the user guide in order is recommended the first time through.

Although the examples in this guide are targeted at Debian/Ubuntu and PostgreSQL 17, it should be fairly easy to apply the examples to any Unix distribution and PostgreSQL version. The only OS-specific commands are those to create, start, stop, and drop PostgreSQL clusters. The pgBackRest commands will be the same on any Unix system though the location of the executable may vary. While pgBackRest strives to operate consistently across versions of PostgreSQL, there are subtle differences between versions of PostgreSQL that may show up in this guide when illustrating certain examples, e.g. PostgreSQL path/file names and settings.

User Guide (RHEL)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Although the examples in this guide are targeted at RHEL and PostgreSQL 14, it should be fairly easy to apply the examples to any Unix distribution and PostgreSQL version. The only OS-specific commands are those to create, start, stop, and drop PostgreSQL clusters. The pgBackRest commands will be the same on any Unix system though the location of the executable may vary. While pgBackRest strives to operate consistently across versions of PostgreSQL, there are subtle differences between versions of PostgreSQL that may show up in this guide when illustrating certain examples, e.g. PostgreSQL path/file names and settings.

Configuration Reference

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

pgBackRest can be used entirely with command-line parameters but a configuration file is more practical for installations that are complex or set a lot of options. The default location for the configuration file is /etc/pgbackrest/pgbackrest.conf. If no file exists in that location then the old default of /etc/pgbackrest.conf will be checked.

The following option types are used:

String: A text string, commonly an identifier, password, etc.

Release Notes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

pgBackRest release numbers consist of two parts, major and minor. A major release may break compatibility with the prior major release, but v2 releases are fully compatible with v1 repositories and will accept all v1 options. Minor releases can include bug fixes and features but do not change the repository format and strive to avoid changing options and naming. Documentation for the v1 release can be found here . The notes for a release may also contain “Additional Notes” but changes in this section are only to documentation or the test suite and have no direct impact on the pgBackRest codebase.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Frequently Asked Questions are intended to provide details for specific questions that may or may not be covered in the User Guide, Configuration, or Command reference. If you are unable to find details for your specific issue here, remember that the pgBackRest Issues List in GitHub is also a valuable resource.

What if I get the “could not find WAL segment” error?

The cause of this error can be a result of many different issues, some of which may be:

Project Metrics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Code Coverage

pgBackRest aims to have complete function/branch/line coverage for the core C code in /src.

Function/line coverage is complete with no exceptions.

Branch coverage excludes branches inside macros and assert() calls. Macros have their own unit tests so they do not need to be tested everywhere they appear. Asserts are not expected to have complete branch coverage since they test cases that should always be true.