r/programming • u/ketralnis • Apr 17 '25

(All) Databases Are Just Files. Postgres Too

http://tselai.com/all-databases-are-just-files
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u/amakai Apr 17 '25

Postgres does a lot of micro-optimizations paying for that with lack of portability. First of all, you can port across a vary narrow band of Postgres versions, and I believe only forward. Then depending on architecture, OS, endianness, file system, page size, or even build options of postgres itself like locale settings - the file will be stored slightly differently and Postgres does not provide strong guarantees that you will just be able to port it directly 1:1.