Jennifer Spencer <jennifer at sun.Stanford.EDU> writes:
> Hi All -
> I am new to Slony-1.  I have searched the archives for the last six
> months and haven't seen anything about this topic, so I am going to
> ask.
>
> We are hoping to set up Slony-1 log shipping from our shop to a few
> others.  My shop is part of a science mission in the Physics Lab.  A
> lot of our data, essential for science, is stored as "double".  We
> need to be able to log ship that science data.
>
> But, from what I can tell so far, Slony-1 log shipping only uses the
> Plain Text format for its shipped logs.  True or false?  If false, how
> do I specify binary or any other format?

Log shipping uses the same format as regular replication, namely the
plain text form of the Insert/Update/Delete queries.  There is no
option of specifying another format.

> If we must use plain text to log ship, what kind of accuracy can we
> expect for data type 'double', or 64 bit floating point numbers
> contained in that log?

If it *isn't* faithfully replicating the values that are stored, then
you'll have much the same problem with any backups you might do, as
the typical pg_dump also uses Plain Text format for such data.

Thus, if you *are* in trouble (and it is by no means obvious to me
that you are), you were in trouble long before Slony-I got involved.
-- 
let name="cbbrowne" and tld="cbbrowne.com" in name ^ "@" ^ tld;;
http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbbrowne/wp.html
"Thank you for calling PIXAR! If  you have a touch tone phone, you can
get information or reach anybody here  easily!  If your VCR at home is
still blinking '12:00', press '0'  at any time during this message and
an operator will assist you."
-- PIXAR'S toll-free line (1-800-888-9856)