On 23rd of January, Magnus Hagander committed patch which adds:
Add pg_basebackup tool for streaming base backups This tool makes it possible to do the pg_start_backup/ copy files/pg_stop_backup step in a single command. There are still some steps to be done before this is a complete backup solution, such as the ability to stream the required WAL logs, but it's still usable, and could do with some buildfarm coverage. In passing, make the checkpoint request optionally fast instead of hardcoding it. Magnus Hagander, reviewed by Fujii Masao and Dimitri Fontaine