PG_RECVLOGICAL(1)

NAME
pg_recvlogical - control PostgreSQL logical decoding streams

SYNOPSIS

pg_recvlogical [option...]

DESCRIPTION

pg_recvlogical controls logical decoding replication slots and streams data from such replication slots.

It creates a replication-mode connection, so it is subject to the same constraints as pg_receivewal(1), plus those for logical replication (see Chapter 47).

pg_recvlogical has no equivalent to the logical decoding SQL interface's peek and get modes. It sends replay confirmations for data lazily as it receives it and on clean exit. To examine pending data on a slot without consuming it, use pg_logical_slot_peek_changes.

In the absence of fatal errors, pg_recvlogical will run until terminated by the SIGINT (Control+C) or SIGTERM signal.

When pg_recvlogical receives a SIGHUP signal, it closes the current output file and opens a new one using the filename specified by the --file option. This allows us to rotate the output file by first renaming the current file and then sending a SIGHUP signal to pg_recvlogical.

OPTIONS

At least one of the following options must be specified to select an action:

--create-slot
    Create a new logical replication slot with the name specified by --slot, using the output plugin specified by --plugin, for the database specified by --dbname.

    The --slot and --dbname are required for this action.

    The --enable-two-phase and --enable-failover options can be specified with --create-slot.

--drop-slot
    Drop the replication slot with the name specified by --slot, then exit.

    The --slot is required for this action.

--start
    Begin streaming changes from the logical replication slot specified by --slot, continuing until terminated by a signal. If the server side change stream ends with a server shutdown or disconnect, retry in a loop unless --no-loop is specified.

    The --slot and --dbname, --file are required for this action.

    The stream format is determined by the output plugin specified when the slot was created.

    The connection must be to the same database used to create the slot.

--create-slot and --start can be specified together. --drop-slot cannot be combined with another action.

The following command-line options control the location and format of the output and other replication behavior:

-E lsn
--endpos=lsn
    In --start mode, automatically stop replication and exit with normal exit status 0 when receiving reaches the specified LSN. If specified when not in --start mode, an error is raised.

    If there's a record with LSN exactly equal to lsn, the record will be output.

    The --endpos option is not aware of transaction boundaries and may truncate output partway through a transaction. Any partially output transaction will not be consumed and will be replayed again when the slot is next read from. Individual messages are never truncated.

--enable-failover
    Enables the slot to be synchronized to the standbys. This option may only be specified with --create-slot.

-f filename
--file=filename
    Write received and decoded transaction data into this file. Use - for stdout.

    This parameter is required for --start.

-F interval_seconds
--fsync-interval=interval_seconds
    Specifies how often pg_recvlogical should issue fsync() calls to ensure the output file is safely flushed to disk.

    The server will occasionally request the client to perform a flush and report the flush position to the server. This setting is in addition to that, to perform flushes more frequently.

    Specifying an interval of 0 disables issuing fsync() calls altogether, while still reporting progress to the server. In this case, data could be lost in the event of a crash.

-I lsn
--startpos=lsn
    In --start mode, start replication from the given LSN. For details on the effect of this, see the documentation in Chapter 47 and Section 54.4. Ignored in other modes.

--if-not-exists
    Do not error out when --create-slot is specified and a slot with the specified name already exists.

-n
--no-loop
    When the connection to the server is lost, do not retry in a loop, just exit.

-o name[=value]
--option=name[=value]
    Pass the option name to the output plugin with, if specified, the option value value. Which options exist and their effects depends on the used output plugin.

-P plugin
--plugin=plugin
    When creating a slot, use the specified logical decoding output plugin. See Chapter 47. This option has no effect if the slot already exists.

-s interval_seconds
--status-interval=interval_seconds
    This option has the same effect as the option of the same name in pg_receivewal(1). See the description there.

-S slot_name
--slot=slot_name
    In --start mode, use the existing logical replication slot named slot_name. In --create-slot mode, create the slot with this name. In --drop-slot mode, delete the slot with this name.

    This parameter is required for any of actions.

-t
--enable-two-phase
--two-phase (deprecated)
    Enables decoding of prepared transactions. This option may only be specified with --create-slot.

-v
--verbose
    Enables verbose mode.

The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.

-d dbname
--dbname=dbname
    The database to connect to. See the description of the actions for what this means in detail. The dbname can be a connection string. If so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options.

    This parameter is required for --create-slot and --start.

-h hostname-or-ip
--host=hostname-or-ip
    Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken from the PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket connection is attempted.

-p port
--port=port
    Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to the PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in default.

-U user
--username=user
    User name to connect as. Defaults to current operating system user name.

-w
--no-password
    Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password authentication and a password is not available by other means such as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a password.

-W
--password
    Force pg_recvlogical to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

    This option is never essential, since pg_recvlogical will automatically prompt for a password if the server demands password authentication. However, pg_recvlogical will waste a connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.

The following additional options are available:

-V
--version
    Print the pg_recvlogical version and exit.

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

EXIT STATUS

pg_recvlogical will exit with status 0 when terminated by the SIGINT or SIGTERM signal. (That is the normal way to end it. Hence it is not an error.) For fatal errors or other signals, the exit status will be nonzero.

ENVIRONMENT

This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 32.15).

The environment variable PG_COLOR specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never.

NOTES

pg_recvlogical will preserve group permissions on the received WAL files if group permissions are enabled on the source cluster.

EXAMPLES

See Section 47.1 for an example.

SEE ALSO
pg_receivewal(1)