# Decompressing backups taken with newer version backup in xbstream format

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/decompressing-backups-taken-with-newer-version-backup-in-xbstream-format/39923>\
**Category:** Percona XtraBackup\
**Tags:** mysql, percona\
**Created:** [December 20, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/decompressing-backups-taken-with-newer-version-backup-in-xbstream-format/39923 "2025-12-20T00:46:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hualong\_qiao](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/hualong_qiao/32/22837_2.png) [@hualong\_qiao](https://forums.percona.com/u/hualong_qiao)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/decompressing-backups-taken-with-newer-version-backup-in-xbstream-format/39923/1 "2025-12-20T00:46:35Z")

</div>

Hi, I don’t believe this was raise before, or I’ve missed this.

Is there any problem using an **older version of xbstream** to decompress backups created by a **newer version of xtrabackup (in xbstream format)**

For example: given my tests, I can use `xtrabackup 8.404` to take a backup in `xbstream` format, and able to extract using `xbstream 2.4`. It works but have anyone come across issues doing this? Thanks. 😃

Command I used to create a backup, used **xtraBackup 8.4.0-4** (I suppose it also used xbstream 84 implicitly):

```auto
xtrabackup --backup --user=root --password=123456 --stream=xbstream \
   --compress=lz4 --compress-threads=4 \
   --target-dir=/home/backup/8.4-config-34 \
   | split -d --bytes=50MB - /home/backup/8.4-config-34/backup.xbstream

```

I have three major versions of xtrabackup installed:

```auto
ls /usr/bin/xbstream*
/usr/bin/xbstream /usr/bin/xbstream-80 /usr/bin/xbstream-84

```

Command I used to decompress (xbstream 24):

```auto
/usr/bin/xbstream-24 -x - -C /home/extracted-backup

```

It worked fine, but should i keep doing this, or ask suggested in another thread, use the same major version of `xtrabackup` to create and restore backup. 🙏

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anil.joshi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/anil.joshi/32/13100_2.png) [@anil.joshi](https://forums.percona.com/u/anil.joshi)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 8:02am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/decompressing-backups-taken-with-newer-version-backup-in-xbstream-format/39923/2 "2025-12-21T08:02:05Z")

</div>

@hualong_qiao

Yes, the same xbstream binary [8.4] comes with PXB [8.4]. We recommend to use the similar PXB version or binaries while performing backup and restoration operations however if the older xbstream binaries works fine while decompressing your backups then it would be okay. But please make sure to test the prepare/restore events as well when using any such older binaries just to confirm nothing breaking.

```auto
xtrabackup --version
2025-12-21T07:17:31.771755-00:00 0 [Note] [MY-011825] [Xtrabackup] recognized server arguments: --server-id=1 --datadir=/var/lib/mysql
xtrabackup version 8.4.0-4 based on MySQL server 8.4.0 Linux (x86_64) (revision id: c584cb20)

```

```auto
/usr/bin/xbstream --version
/usr/bin/xbstream Ver 8.4.0-4 for Linux (x86_64) (revision id: c584cb20)

```

I don’t found any specific issues however it looks the latest version having more option like [**decompress-threads** etc]

> **[fifo-streams - Percona XtraBackup - The xbstream command-line options](https://docs.percona.com/percona-xtrabackup/8.4/xbstream-options.html#fifo-streams)**
>
> This utility has a tar-like interface.

vs

> **[Percona XtraBackup - Known issues and limitations](https://docs.percona.com/percona-xtrabackup/2.4/known_issues.html)**
>
> There is a number of Percona XtraBackup related issues with compressed
> InnoDB tables. These issues result from either server-side bugs, or OS
> configuration and thus, cannot be fixed on the Percona XtraBackup side.