| Type: | string |
| Default: | latest |
| Context: | postmaster |
| Restart: | true |
| Since: | 12 |
Specifies recovering into a particular timeline. The value can be a numeric timeline ID or a special value. The value current recovers along the same timeline that was current when the base backup was taken. The value latest recovers to the latest timeline found in the archive, which is useful in a standby server. latest is the default.
To specify a timeline ID in hexadecimal (for example, if extracted from a WAL file name or history file), prefix it with a 0x. For instance, if the WAL file name is 00000011000000A10000004F, then the timeline ID is 0x11 (or 17 decimal).
You usually only need to set this parameter in complex re-recovery situations, where you need to return to a state that itself was reached after a point-in-time recovery. See backup-timelines for discussion.