pg_dumpall(1)
PG_DUMPALL(1) PostgreSQL Client Applications PG_DUMPALL(1)
NAME
pg_dumpall - extract a PostgreSQL database cluster into a
script file
SYNOPSIS
pg_dumpall [ option... ]
DESCRIPTION
pg_dumpall is a utility for writing out (``dumping'') all
PostgreSQL databases of a cluster into one script file. The
script file contains SQL commands that can be used as input
to psql(1) to restore the databases. It does this by calling
pg_dump(1) for each database in a cluster. pg_dumpall also
dumps global objects that are common to all databases.
(pg_dump does not save these objects.) This currently
includes information about database users and groups, and
access permissions that apply to databases as a whole.
Since pg_dumpall reads tables from all databases you will
most likely have to connect as a database superuser in order
to produce a complete dump. Also you will need superuser
privileges to execute the saved script in order to be
allowed to add users and groups, and to create databases.
The SQL script will be written to the standard output. Shell
operators should be used to redirect it into a file.
pg_dumpall needs to connect several times to the PostgreSQL
server (once per database). If you use password authentica-
tion it is likely to ask for a password each time. It is
convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file in such cases. See in
the documentation for more information.
OPTIONS
The following command-line options control the content and
format of the output.
-a
--data-only
Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions).
-c
--clean
Include SQL commands to clean (drop) databases before
recreating them. DROP commands for roles and
tablespaces are added as well.
-d
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--inserts
Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than COPY). This
will make restoration very slow; it is mainly useful
for making dumps that can be loaded into non-PostgreSQL
databases. Note that the restore may fail altogether if
you have rearranged column order. The -D option is
safer, though even slower.
-D
--column-inserts
--attribute-inserts
Dump data as INSERT commands with explicit column names
(INSERT INTO table (column, ...) VALUES ...). This will
make restoration very slow; it is mainly useful for
making dumps that can be loaded into non-PostgreSQL
databases.
-g
--globals-only
Dump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no
databases.
-i
--ignore-version
Ignore version mismatch between pg_dumpall and the
database server.
pg_dumpall can handle databases from previous releases
of PostgreSQL, but very old versions are not supported
anymore (currently prior to 7.0). Use this option if
you need to override the version check (and if
pg_dumpall then fails, don't say you weren't warned).
-o
--oids
Dump object identifiers (OIDs) as part of the data for
every table. Use this option if your application refer-
ences the OID columns in some way (e.g., in a foreign
key constraint). Otherwise, this option should not be
used.
-O
--no-owner
Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to
match the original database. By default, pg_dumpall
issues ALTER OWNER or SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
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statements to set ownership of created schema elements.
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 -O.
-s
--schema-only
Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.
-S username
--superuser=username
Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling
triggers. This is only relevant if --disable-triggers
is used. (Usually, it's better to leave this out, and
instead start the resulting script as superuser.)
-v
--verbose
Specifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dumpall to
output start/stop times to the dump file, and progress
messages to standard error. It will also enable ver-
bose output in pg_dump.
-x
--no-privileges
--no-acl
Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke com-
mands).
--disable-dollar-quoting
This option disables the use of dollar quoting for
function bodies, and forces them to be quoted using SQL
standard string syntax.
--disable-triggers
This option is only relevant when creating a data-only
dump. It instructs pg_dumpall 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.
Presently, the commands emitted for --disable-triggers
must be done as superuser. So, you should also specify
a superuser name with -S, or preferably be careful to
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start the resulting script as a superuser.
--use-set-session-authorization
Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands
instead of ALTER OWNER commands to determine object
ownership. This makes the dump more standards compati-
ble, but depending on the history of the objects in the
dump, may not restore properly.
The following command-line options control the database con-
nection parameters.
-h host
Specifies the host name of the machine on which the
database 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 PGHOST environ-
ment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket con-
nection is attempted.
-p port
Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file
extension on which the server is listening for connec-
tions. Defaults to the PGPORT environment variable, if
set, or a compiled-in default.
-U username
Connect as the given user.
-W Force a password prompt. This should happen automati-
cally if the server requires password authentication.
ENVIRONMENT
PGHOST
PGPORT
PGUSER
Default connection parameters
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also
uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see in
the documentation).
NOTES
Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic
messages will refer to pg_dump.
Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so
the optimizer has useful statistics. You can also run vacu-
umdb -a -z to analyze all databases.
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pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace directories to
exist before the restore or database creation will fail for
databases in non-default locations.
EXAMPLES
To dump all databases:
$ pg_dumpall > db.out
To reload this database use, for example:
$ psql -f db.out postgres
(It is not important to which database you connect here
since the script file created by pg_dumpall will contain the
appropriate commands to create and connect to the saved
databases.)
SEE ALSO
Check pg_dump(1) for details on possible error conditions.
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