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PostgreSQL documentation
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<term><option>--compress=<replaceable class="parameter">0..9</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Specify the compression level to use in archive formats that
- support compression. (Currently only the custom archive
- format supports compression.)
+ Specify the compression level to use. Zero means no compression.
+ For the custom archive format, this specifies compression of
+ individual table-data segments, and the default is to compress
+ at a moderate level.
+ For plain text output, setting a nonzero compression level causes
+ the entire output file to be compressed, as though it had been
+ fed through <application>gzip</>; but the default is not to compress.
+ The tar archive format currently does not support compression at all.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>