The technique is mostly superseded by streaming replication (PSR), so if you are a novice, you probably wouldn't want this recipe yet. Nonetheless, this is relevant and useful as part of a comprehensive backup strategy. It is also worth understanding how this works, as this technique can also be used as the starting phase for a large streaming replication setup. Look at the next recipes for some further details on that.

Log shipping is a replication technique used by many database management systems. The master records database changes in its transaction log, and then the log files are shipped from the master to the standby, where the log is replayed.

File-based log shipping has been available for PostgreSQL for many years now. It is simple, has very low overhead, and is a trustworthy form of replication.