alt Hacker News>You can't copy the file of a running, active db receiving updates, that can only result in corruption
There is a slight 'well akshully' on this. A DB flush and FS snapshot where you copy the snapshotted file will allow this. MSSQL VSS snapshots would be an example of this.
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bob1029 • 05/01/2025
MSSQL also offers a virtual backup device interface that 3rd party tools can implement.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/b...
Similarly you can rsync a Postgres data directory safely while the db is running, with the caveat that you likely lose any data written while the rsync is running. And if you want that data, you can get it with the WAL files.
It’s been years since I needed to do this, but if I remember right, you can clone an entire pg db live with a `pg_backup_start()`, rsync the data directory, pg_backup_stop() and rsync the WAL files written since backup start.