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><H1
><A
NAME="APP-PGDUMP"
></A
>pg_dump</H1
><DIV
CLASS="REFNAMEDIV"
><A
NAME="AEN82165"
></A
><H2
>Name</H2
>pg_dump -- extract a <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> database into a script file or other archive file
</DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV"
><A
NAME="AEN82171"
></A
><H2
>Synopsis</H2
><P
><TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>pg_dump</TT
> [<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>connection-option</I
></TT
>...] [<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>option</I
></TT
>...] [<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>dbname</I
></TT
>]</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="PG-DUMP-DESCRIPTION"
></A
><H2
> Description
</H2
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> is a utility for backing up a
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> database. It makes consistent
backups even if the database is being used concurrently.
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> does not block other users
accessing the database (readers or writers).
</P
><P
> Dumps can be output in script or archive file formats. Script
dumps are plain-text files containing the SQL commands required
to reconstruct the database to the state it was in at the time it was
saved. To restore from such a script, feed it to <A
HREF="app-psql.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>psql</SPAN
></A
>. Script files
can be used to reconstruct the database even on other machines and
other architectures; with some modifications, even on other SQL
database products.
</P
><P
> The alternative archive file formats must be used with
<A
HREF="app-pgrestore.html"
>pg_restore</A
> to rebuild the database. They
allow <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_restore</SPAN
> to be selective about
what is restored, or even to reorder the items prior to being
restored.
The archive file formats are designed to be portable across
architectures.
</P
><P
> When used with one of the archive file formats and combined with
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_restore</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> provides a flexible archival and
transfer mechanism. <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> can be used to
backup an entire database, then <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_restore</SPAN
>
can be used to examine the archive and/or select which parts of the
database are to be restored. The most flexible output file format is
the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"custom"</SPAN
> format (<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-Fc</TT
>). It allows
for selection and reordering of all archived items, and is compressed
by default.
</P
><P
> While running <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>, one should examine the
output for any warnings (printed on standard error), especially in
light of the limitations listed below.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="PG-DUMP-OPTIONS"
></A
><H2
>Options</H2
><P
> The following command-line options control the content and
format of the output.
<P
></P
></P><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>dbname</I
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the name of the database to be dumped. If this is
not specified, the environment variable
<TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGDATABASE</TT
> is used. If that is not set, the
user name specified for the connection is used.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-a</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--data-only</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions).
Table data, large objects, and sequence values are dumped.
</P
><P
> This option is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical
to, specifying <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--section=data</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-b</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--blobs</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Include large objects in the dump. This is the default behavior
except when <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--schema</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--table</TT
>, or
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--schema-only</TT
> is specified. The <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-b</TT
>
switch is therefore only useful to add large objects to dumps
where a specific schema or table has been requested. Note that
blobs are considered data and therefore will be included when
--data-only is used, but not when --schema-only is.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-c</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--clean</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Output commands to clean (drop)
database objects prior to outputting the commands for creating them.
(Restore might generate some harmless error messages, if any objects
were not present in the destination database.)
</P
><P
> This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For
the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
call <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>pg_restore</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-C</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--create</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Begin the output with a command to create the
database itself and reconnect to the created database. (With a
script of this form, it doesn't matter which database in the
destination installation you connect to before running the script.)
If <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--clean</TT
> is also specified, the script drops and
recreates the target database before reconnecting to it.
</P
><P
> This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For
the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
call <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>pg_restore</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-E <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>encoding</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--encoding=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>encoding</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Create the dump in the specified character set encoding. By default,
the dump is created in the database encoding. (Another way to get the
same result is to set the <TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGCLIENTENCODING</TT
> environment
variable to the desired dump encoding.)
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-f <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>file</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--file=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>file</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Send output to the specified file. This parameter can be omitted for
file based output formats, in which case the standard output is used.
It must be given for the directory output format however, where it
specifies the target directory instead of a file. In this case the
directory is created by <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>pg_dump</TT
> and must not exist
before.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-F <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>format</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--format=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>format</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Selects the format of the output.
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>format</I
></TT
> can be one of the following:
<P
></P
></P><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>p</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>plain</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Output a plain-text <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>SQL</ACRONYM
> script file (the default).
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>c</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>custom</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Output a custom-format archive suitable for input into
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_restore</SPAN
>.
Together with the directory output format, this is the most flexible
output format in that it allows manual selection and reordering of
archived items during restore. This format is also compressed by
default.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>d</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>directory</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Output a directory-format archive suitable for input into
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_restore</SPAN
>. This will create a directory
with one file for each table and blob being dumped, plus a
so-called Table of Contents file describing the dumped objects in a
machine-readable format that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_restore</SPAN
>
can read. A directory format archive can be manipulated with
standard Unix tools; for example, files in an uncompressed archive
can be compressed with the <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>gzip</SPAN
> tool.
This format is compressed by default.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>t</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>tar</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Output a <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>tar</TT
>-format archive suitable for input
into <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_restore</SPAN
>. The tar format is
compatible with the directory format: extracting a tar-format
archive produces a valid directory-format archive.
However, the tar format does not support compression. Also, when
using tar format the relative order of table data items cannot be
changed during restore.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
><P></P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-i</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--ignore-version</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> A deprecated option that is now ignored.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>schema</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--schema=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>schema</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Dump only schemas matching <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>schema</I
></TT
>; this selects both the
schema itself, and all its contained objects. When this option is
not specified, all non-system schemas in the target database will be
dumped. Multiple schemas can be
selected by writing multiple <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
> switches. Also, the
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>schema</I
></TT
> parameter is
interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>psql</SPAN
>'s <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>\d</TT
> commands (see <A
HREF="app-psql.html#APP-PSQL-PATTERNS"
><I
>Patterns</I
></A
>),
so multiple schemas can also be selected by writing wildcard characters
in the pattern. When using wildcards, be careful to quote the pattern
if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards; see
<A
HREF="app-pgdump.html#PG-DUMP-EXAMPLES"
><I
>Examples</I
></A
>.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
> When <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
> is specified, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>
makes no attempt to dump any other database objects that the selected
schema(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee
that the results of a specific-schema dump can be successfully
restored by themselves into a clean database.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
> Non-schema objects such as blobs are not dumped when <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
> is
specified. You can add blobs back to the dump with the
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--blobs</TT
> switch.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>schema</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--exclude-schema=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>schema</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not dump any schemas matching the <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>schema</I
></TT
> pattern. The pattern is
interpreted according to the same rules as for <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
>.
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
> can be given more than once to exclude schemas
matching any of several patterns.
</P
><P
> When both <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
> are given, the behavior
is to dump just the schemas that match at least one <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
>
switch but no <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
> switches. If <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
> appears
without <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
>, then schemas matching <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
> are
excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-o</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--oids</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Dump object identifiers (<ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>OID</ACRONYM
>s) as part of the
data for every table. Use this option if your application references
the <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>OID</ACRONYM
>
columns in some way (e.g., in a foreign key constraint).
Otherwise, this option should not be used.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-O</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-owner</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not output commands to set
ownership of objects to match the original database.
By default, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> issues
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>ALTER OWNER</TT
> or
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</TT
>
statements to set ownership of created database objects.
These statements
will fail when the script is run unless it is started by a superuser
(or the same user that owns all of the objects in the script).
To make a script that can be restored by any user, but will give
that user ownership of all the objects, specify <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-O</TT
>.
</P
><P
> This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For
the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
call <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>pg_restore</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-R</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-reconnect</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> This option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards
compatibility.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-s</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--schema-only</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.
</P
><P
> This option is the inverse of <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--data-only</TT
>.
It is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical to,
specifying
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--section=pre-data --section=post-data</TT
>.
</P
><P
> (Do not confuse this with the <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--schema</TT
> option, which
uses the word <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"schema"</SPAN
> in a different meaning.)
</P
><P
> To exclude table data for only a subset of tables in the database,
see <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--exclude-table-data</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-S <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>username</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--superuser=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>username</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
This is only relevant if <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--disable-triggers</TT
> is used.
(Usually, it's better to leave this out, and instead start the
resulting script as superuser.)
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--table=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Dump only tables (or views or sequences or foreign tables) matching
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
>. Multiple tables
can be selected by writing multiple <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> switches. Also, the
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
> parameter is
interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>psql</SPAN
>'s <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>\d</TT
> commands (see <A
HREF="app-psql.html#APP-PSQL-PATTERNS"
><I
>Patterns</I
></A
>),
so multiple tables can also be selected by writing wildcard characters
in the pattern. When using wildcards, be careful to quote the pattern
if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards; see
<A
HREF="app-pgdump.html#PG-DUMP-EXAMPLES"
><I
>Examples</I
></A
>.
</P
><P
> The <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-n</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
> switches have no effect when
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> is used, because tables selected by <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> will
be dumped regardless of those switches, and non-table objects will not
be dumped.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
> When <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> is specified, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>
makes no attempt to dump any other database objects that the selected
table(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee
that the results of a specific-table dump can be successfully
restored by themselves into a clean database.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
> The behavior of the <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> switch is not entirely upward
compatible with pre-8.2 <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>
versions. Formerly, writing <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>-t tab</TT
> would dump all
tables named <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>tab</TT
>, but now it just dumps whichever one
is visible in your default search path. To get the old behavior
you can write <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>-t '*.tab'</TT
>. Also, you must write something
like <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>-t sch.tab</TT
> to select a table in a particular schema,
rather than the old locution of <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>-n sch -t tab</TT
>.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-T <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--exclude-table=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not dump any tables matching the <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
> pattern. The pattern is
interpreted according to the same rules as for <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
>.
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-T</TT
> can be given more than once to exclude tables
matching any of several patterns.
</P
><P
> When both <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-T</TT
> are given, the behavior
is to dump just the tables that match at least one <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
>
switch but no <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-T</TT
> switches. If <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-T</TT
> appears
without <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
>, then tables matching <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-T</TT
> are
excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-v</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--verbose</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies verbose mode. This will cause
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> to output detailed object
comments and start/stop times to the dump file, and progress
messages to standard error.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-V</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--version</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Print the <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> version and exit.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-x</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-privileges</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-acl</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-Z <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>0..9</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--compress=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>0..9</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> 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 <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>gzip</SPAN
>; but the default is not to compress.
The tar archive format currently does not support compression at all.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--binary-upgrade</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> This option is for use by in-place upgrade utilities. Its use
for other purposes is not recommended or supported. The
behavior of the option may change in future releases without
notice.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--column-inserts</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--attribute-inserts</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Dump data as <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>INSERT</TT
> commands with explicit
column names (<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>INSERT INTO
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
>
(<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>column</I
></TT
>, ...) VALUES
...</TT
>). This will make restoration very slow; it is mainly
useful for making dumps that can be loaded into
non-<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> databases.
However, since this option generates a separate command for each row,
an error in reloading a row causes only that row to be lost rather
than the entire table contents.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--disable-dollar-quoting</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> This option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bodies,
and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syntax.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--disable-triggers</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> This option is only relevant when creating a data-only dump.
It instructs <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> to include commands
to temporarily disable triggers on the target tables while
the data is reloaded. Use this if you have referential
integrity checks or other triggers on the tables that you
do not want to invoke during data reload.
</P
><P
> Presently, the commands emitted for <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--disable-triggers</TT
>
must be done as superuser. So, you should also specify
a superuser name with <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-S</TT
>, or preferably be careful to
start the resulting script as a superuser.
</P
><P
> This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For
the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
call <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>pg_restore</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--exclude-table-data=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not dump data for any tables matching the <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>table</I
></TT
> pattern. The pattern is
interpreted according to the same rules as for <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
>.
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--exclude-table-data</TT
> can be given more than once to
exclude tables matching any of several patterns. This option is
useful when you need the definition of a particular table even
though you do not need the data in it.
</P
><P
> To exclude data for all tables in the database, see <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--schema-only</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--inserts</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Dump data as <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>INSERT</TT
> commands (rather
than <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>COPY</TT
>). This will make restoration very slow;
it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be loaded into
non-<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> databases.
However, since this option generates a separate command for each row,
an error in reloading a row causes only that row to be lost rather
than the entire table contents.
Note that
the restore might fail altogether if you have rearranged column order.
The <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--column-inserts</TT
> option is safe against column
order changes, though even slower.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--lock-wait-timeout=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>timeout</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not wait forever to acquire shared table locks at the beginning of
the dump. Instead fail if unable to lock a table within the specified
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>timeout</I
></TT
>. The timeout may be
specified in any of the formats accepted by <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>SET
statement_timeout</TT
>. (Allowed values vary depending on the server
version you are dumping from, but an integer number of milliseconds
is accepted by all versions since 7.3. This option is ignored when
dumping from a pre-7.3 server.)
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-security-labels</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not dump security labels.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-tablespaces</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not output commands to select tablespaces.
With this option, all objects will be created in whichever
tablespace is the default during restore.
</P
><P
> This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For
the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
call <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>pg_restore</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-unlogged-table-data</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Do not dump the contents of unlogged tables. This option has no
effect on whether or not the table definitions (schema) are dumped;
it only suppresses dumping the table data. Data in unlogged tables
is always excluded when dumping from a standby server.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--quote-all-identifiers</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Force quoting of all identifiers. This option is recommended when
dumping a database from a server whose <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>
major version is different from <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>'s, or when
the output is intended to be loaded into a server of a different
major version. By default, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> quotes only
identifiers that are reserved words in its own major version.
This sometimes results in compatibility issues when dealing with
servers of other versions that may have slightly different sets
of reserved words. Using <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--quote-all-identifiers</TT
> prevents
such issues, at the price of a harder-to-read dump script.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--section=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>sectionname</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Only dump the named section. The section name can be
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>pre-data</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>data</TT
>, or <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>post-data</TT
>.
This option can be specified more than once to select multiple
sections. The default is to dump all sections.
</P
><P
> The data section contains actual table data, large-object
contents, and sequence values.
Post-data items include definitions of indexes, triggers, rules,
and constraints other than validated check constraints.
Pre-data items include all other data definition items.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--serializable-deferrable</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Use a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>serializable</TT
> transaction for the dump, to
ensure that the snapshot used is consistent with later database
states; but do this by waiting for a point in the transaction stream
at which no anomalies can be present, so that there isn't a risk of
the dump failing or causing other transactions to roll back with a
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>serialization_failure</TT
>. See <A
HREF="mvcc.html"
>Chapter 13</A
>
for more information about transaction isolation and concurrency
control.
</P
><P
> This option is not beneficial for a dump which is intended only for
disaster recovery. It could be useful for a dump used to load a
copy of the database for reporting or other read-only load sharing
while the original database continues to be updated. Without it the
dump may reflect a state which is not consistent with any serial
execution of the transactions eventually committed. For example, if
batch processing techniques are used, a batch may show as closed in
the dump without all of the items which are in the batch appearing.
</P
><P
> This option will make no difference if there are no read-write
transactions active when pg_dump is started. If read-write
transactions are active, the start of the dump may be delayed for an
indeterminate length of time. Once running, performance with or
without the switch is the same.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--use-set-session-authorization</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Output SQL-standard <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</TT
> commands
instead of <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>ALTER OWNER</TT
> commands to determine object
ownership. This makes the dump more standards-compatible, but
depending on the history of the objects in the dump, might not restore
properly. Also, a dump using <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</TT
>
will certainly require superuser privileges to restore correctly,
whereas <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>ALTER OWNER</TT
> requires lesser privileges.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-?</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--help</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Show help about <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> command line
arguments, and exit.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
><P>
</P
><P
> The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.
<P
></P
></P><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-h <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>host</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--host=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>host</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken
from the <TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGHOST</TT
> environment variable, if set,
else a Unix domain socket connection is attempted.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-p <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>port</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--port=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>port</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file
extension on which the server is listening for connections.
Defaults to the <TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGPORT</TT
> environment variable, if
set, or a compiled-in default.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-U <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>username</I
></TT
></TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--username=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>username</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> User name to connect as.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-w</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--no-password</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires
password authentication and a password is not available by
other means such as a <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>.pgpass</TT
> file, the
connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in
batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a
password.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-W</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--password</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Force <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> to prompt for a
password before connecting to a database.
</P
><P
> This option is never essential, since
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> will automatically prompt
for a password if the server demands password authentication.
However, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> will waste a
connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password.
In some cases it is worth typing <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-W</TT
> to avoid the extra
connection attempt.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--role=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>rolename</I
></TT
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump.
This option causes <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> to issue a
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>SET ROLE</TT
> <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>rolename</I
></TT
>
command after connecting to the database. It is useful when the
authenticated user (specified by <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-U</TT
>) lacks privileges
needed by <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>, but can switch to a role with
the required rights. Some installations have a policy against
logging in directly as a superuser, and use of this option allows
dumps to be made without violating the policy.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
><P>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN82695"
></A
><H2
>Environment</H2
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGDATABASE</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGHOST</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGOPTIONS</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGPORT</TT
><BR><TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGUSER</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Default connection parameters.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
><P
> This utility, like most other <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> utilities,
also uses the environment variables supported by <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>libpq</SPAN
>
(see <A
HREF="libpq-envars.html"
>Section 31.14</A
>).
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="APP-PGDUMP-DIAGNOSTICS"
></A
><H2
>Diagnostics</H2
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> internally executes
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>SELECT</TT
> statements. If you have problems running
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>, make sure you are able to
select information from the database using, for example, <A
HREF="app-psql.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>psql</SPAN
></A
>. Also, any default connection settings and environment
variables used by the <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>libpq</SPAN
> front-end
library will apply.
</P
><P
> The database activity of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> is
normally collected by the statistics collector. If this is
undesirable, you can set parameter <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>track_counts</TT
>
to false via <TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGOPTIONS</TT
> or the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>ALTER
USER</TT
> command.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="PG-DUMP-NOTES"
></A
><H2
>Notes</H2
><P
> If your database cluster has any local additions to the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>template1</TT
> database,
be careful to restore the output of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> into a
truly empty database; otherwise you are likely to get errors due to
duplicate definitions of the added objects. To make an empty database
without any local additions, copy from <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>template0</TT
> not <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>template1</TT
>,
for example:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>CREATE DATABASE foo WITH TEMPLATE template0;</PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> When a data-only dump is chosen and the option <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--disable-triggers</TT
>
is used, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> emits commands
to disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data,
and then commands to re-enable them after the data has been
inserted. If the restore is stopped in the middle, the system
catalogs might be left in the wrong state.
</P
><P
> The dump file produced by <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>
does not contain the statistics used by the optimizer to make
query planning decisions. Therefore, it is wise to run
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>ANALYZE</TT
> after restoring from a dump file
to ensure optimal performance; see <A
HREF="routine-vacuuming.html#VACUUM-FOR-STATISTICS"
>Section 23.1.3</A
>
and <A
HREF="routine-vacuuming.html#AUTOVACUUM"
>Section 23.1.6</A
> for more information.
The dump file also does not
contain any <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>ALTER DATABASE ... SET</TT
> commands;
these settings are dumped by <A
HREF="app-pg-dumpall.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dumpall</SPAN
></A
>,
along with database users and other installation-wide settings.
</P
><P
> Because <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> is used to transfer data
to newer versions of <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>, the output of
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> can be expected to load into
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> server versions newer than
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>'s version. <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> can also
dump from <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> servers older than its own version.
(Currently, servers back to version 7.0 are supported.)
However, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> cannot dump from
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> servers newer than its own major version;
it will refuse to even try, rather than risk making an invalid dump.
Also, it is not guaranteed that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
>'s output can
be loaded into a server of an older major version — not even if the
dump was taken from a server of that version. Loading a dump file
into an older server may require manual editing of the dump file
to remove syntax not understood by the older server.
Use of the <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--quote-all-identifiers</TT
> option is recommended
in cross-version cases, as it can prevent problems arising from varying
reserved-word lists in different <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> versions.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="PG-DUMP-EXAMPLES"
></A
><H2
>Examples</H2
><P
> To dump a database called <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>mydb</TT
> into a SQL-script file:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump mydb > db.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To reload such a script into a (freshly created) database named
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>newdb</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>psql -d newdb -f db.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To dump a database into a custom-format archive file:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To dump a database into a directory-format archive:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -Fd mydb -f dumpdir</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To reload an archive file into a (freshly created) database named
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>newdb</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_restore -d newdb db.dump</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To dump a single table named <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>mytab</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -t mytab mydb > db.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To dump all tables whose names start with <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>emp</TT
> in the
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>detroit</TT
> schema, except for the table named
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>employee_log</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -t 'detroit.emp*' -T detroit.employee_log mydb > db.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To dump all schemas whose names start with <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>east</TT
> or
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>west</TT
> and end in <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>gsm</TT
>, excluding any schemas whose
names contain the word <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>test</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -n 'east*gsm' -n 'west*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> The same, using regular expression notation to consolidate the switches:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -n '(east|west)*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To dump all database objects except for tables whose names begin with
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>ts_</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -T 'ts_*' mydb > db.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> To specify an upper-case or mixed-case name in <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> and related
switches, you need to double-quote the name; else it will be folded to
lower case (see <A
HREF="app-psql.html#APP-PSQL-PATTERNS"
><I
>Patterns</I
></A
>). But
double quotes are special to the shell, so in turn they must be quoted.
Thus, to dump a single table with a mixed-case name, you need something
like
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><SAMP
CLASS="PROMPT"
>$</SAMP
> <KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>pg_dump -t '"MixedCaseName"' mydb > mytab.sql</KBD
></PRE
><P></P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN82819"
></A
><H2
>See Also</H2
><A
HREF="app-pg-dumpall.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dumpall</SPAN
></A
>, <A
HREF="app-pgrestore.html"
>pg_restore</A
>, <A
HREF="app-psql.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>psql</SPAN
></A
></DIV
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