In PostgreSQL 16, pg_dump has become faster due to the introduction of new compression methods: LZ4 and ZSTD.
- LZ4 Compression:
- LZ4 is known for its high-speed compression and decompression.
- While it may result in slightly larger file sizes compared to other methods, its speed makes it an attractive option for situations where time is a critical factor.
- ZSTD Compression:
- ZSTD, or Zstandard, offers a great balance between compression speed and file size reduction.
- It has been observed that at the default compression level, ZSTD produces the smallest dump file size, followed by LZ4 and gzip.
- In terms of time efficiency, ZSTD takes the least amount of time for compression, followed by LZ4 and gzip.
Example: When using pg_dump in PostgreSQL 16, you can specify the compression method:
- For LZ4:
pg_dump -F c -Z 1 -f dumpfile_lz4 dbname - For ZSTD:
pg_dump -F c -Z 3 -f dumpfile_zstd dbname
Here, -F c specifies custom-format output, -Z specifies the compression level (1 for LZ4, 3 for ZSTD), and -f specifies the output file. The choice between LZ4 and ZSTD would depend on whether the priority is minimizing compression time (LZ4) or reducing dump file size (ZSTD).
