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Using radar

Each radar invocation runs one collection, writes a single ZIP archive, and exits.

Running a Collection

The following commands collect both kinds of data, system data only, and PostgreSQL data only:

# Collect system and PostgreSQL data (the default)
radar -d mydatabase -U databaseuser

# Collect system data only
radar --skip-postgres

# Collect PostgreSQL data only
radar -d mydatabase -U databaseuser --skip-system

The --skip-system option also skips the PgBouncer collectors, which radar treats as system collectors.

radar prints the archive name and its size in kilobytes when the collection finishes:

$ radar -d mydatabase
Collecting diagnostic data...
✓ Archive created: radar-hostname-20260115-133700.zip (1234 KB)

Reviewing the Command-Line Options

The radar --help command prints the following usage summary:

Usage: radar [options]

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --help         show help
   --version, -V  print the version

Options:
  -U string
        database user
  -d string
        database name
  -data-dir string
        PostgreSQL data directory
  -exclude string
        comma-separated task names to skip (e.g. -exclude bloat,stat_ssl)
  -h string
        database host
  -include string
        comma-separated default-disabled task names to enable (e.g. pgstattuple, disabled by default)
  -p int
        database port (default 5432)
  -pgbouncer-conf string
        PgBouncer configuration directory (default: /etc/pgbouncer, /usr/local/etc/pgbouncer)
  -skip-postgres
        skip PostgreSQL data collection
  -skip-system
        skip system data collection
  -sslcert string
        client SSL certificate file
  -sslkey string
        client SSL key file
  -sslmode string
        SSL mode (prefer, disable, require, verify-ca, verify-full) (default "prefer")
  -sslrootcert string
        SSL root certificate file
  -v    verbose output (summary)
  -vv
        very verbose output (detailed)

Excluding Collectors

The --exclude option skips the collectors that you name, and the --include option enables the collectors that are disabled by default; --include takes precedence over --exclude.

Run radar with -vv to list each collector by name; for a per-database collector, the name after the database prefix is the name that --exclude accepts:

✓ stat_ssl
✓ postgres/tables

The following command skips the bloat and stat_ssl collectors:

radar -d mydatabase -U databaseuser --exclude bloat,stat_ssl