Using pg-osc only for backfilling data

[shayonj]

Using pg-osc only for backfilling data

[jfrost]

Did you already review https://github.com/shayonj/pg-osc#backfill-data ? Sounds like that is what you're looking for.

[ahilmer]

Hi @jfrost thanks for your quick reply!

Sorry, I think my question was not correctly formulated.

Actually I want to use the backfill feature (--copy-statement) but without altering my table.

But I have to specify an alter statement.

I would like to just give the table name which should get backfilled without an alter statement.

Would be adding this "fake" statement be enough?

--alter-statement 'ALTER TABLE books ADD COLUMN email IF NOT EXISTS new_email varchar'

[jfrost]

I see what you're asking now. Yes, you can use any valid alter table. Here's a simple example using our sample books table that has an id column that is of type int:

  --alter-statement "ALTER TABLE books ALTER COLUMN id TYPE int"

Since it is already of type int, this is basically a no-op. It might be nice to allow skipping the alter-statement, but then we would need to pass in the tablename. PRs welcome!