1PG_DUMPALL(1) PostgreSQL Client Applications PG_DUMPALL(1)
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6 pg_dumpall - extract a PostgreSQL database cluster into a script file
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10 pg_dumpall [ option... ]
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13 pg_dumpall is a utility for writing out (``dumping'') all PostgreSQL
14 databases of a cluster into one script file. The script file contains
15 SQL commands that can be used as input to psql(1) to restore the data‐
16 bases. It does this by calling pg_dump(1) for each database in a clus‐
17 ter. pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all data‐
18 bases. (pg_dump does not save these objects.) This currently includes
19 information about database users and groups, tablespaces, and proper‐
20 ties such as access permissions that apply to databases as a whole.
21 Since pg_dumpall reads tables from all databases you will most likely
23 have to connect as a database superuser in order to produce a complete
24 dump. Also you will need superuser privileges to execute the saved
25 script in order to be allowed to add users and groups, and to create
26 databases.
27 The SQL script will be written to the standard output. Shell operators
29 should be used to redirect it into a file.
30 pg_dumpall needs to connect several times to the PostgreSQL server
32 (once per database). If you use password authentication it will ask for
33 a password each time. It is convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file in such
34 cases. See in the documentation for more information.
35
37 The following command-line options control the content and format of
38 the output.
39 -a
41 --data-only
43 Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions).
44 -c
46 --clean
48 Include SQL commands to clean (drop) databases before recreating
49 them. DROP commands for roles and tablespaces are added as well.
50 -f filename
52 --file=filename
54 Send output to the specified file. If this is omitted, the stan‐
55 dard output is used.
56 -g
58 --globals-only
60 Dump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no databases.
61 -i
63 --ignore-version
65 A deprecated option that is now ignored.
66 -o
68 --oids Dump object identifiers (OIDs) as part of the data for every ta‐
70 ble. Use this option if your application references the OID col‐
71 umns in some way (e.g., in a foreign key constraint). Other‐
72 wise, this option should not be used.
73 -O
75 --no-owner
77 Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the
78 original database. By default, pg_dumpall issues ALTER OWNER or
79 SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created
80 schema elements. These statements will fail when the script is
81 run unless it is started by a superuser (or the same user that
82 owns all of the objects in the script). To make a script that
83 can be restored by any user, but will give that user ownership
84 of all the objects, specify -O.
85 --lock-wait-timeout=timeout
87 Do not wait forever to acquire shared table locks at the begin‐
88 ning of the dump. Instead fail if unable to lock a table within
89 the specified timeout. The timeout may be specified in any of
90 the formats accepted by SET statement_timeout. (Allowed values
91 vary depending on the server version you are dumping from, but
92 an integer number of milliseconds is accepted by all versions
93 since 7.3. This option is ignored when dumping from a pre-7.3
94 server.)
95 --no-tablespaces
97 Do not output commands to create tablespaces nor select
98 tablespaces for objects. With this option, all objects will be
99 created in whichever tablespace is the default during restore.
100 -r
102 --roles-only
104 Dump only roles, no databases or tablespaces.
105 -s
107 --schema-only
109 Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.
110 -S username
112 --superuser=username
114 Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
115 This is only relevant if --disable-triggers is used. (Usually,
116 it's better to leave this out, and instead start the resulting
117 script as superuser.)
118 -t
120 --tablespaces-only
122 Dump only tablespaces, no databases or roles.
123 -v
125 --verbose
127 Specifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dumpall to output
128 start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to
129 standard error. It will also enable verbose output in pg_dump.
130 -x
132 --no-privileges
134 --no-acl
136 Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
137 --binary-upgrade
139 This option is for use by in-place upgrade utilities. Its use
140 for other purposes is not recommended or supported. The behavior
141 of the option may change in future releases without notice.
142 --inserts
144 Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than COPY). This will make
145 restoration very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that
146 can be loaded into non-PostgreSQL databases. Note that the
147 restore might fail altogether if you have rearranged column
148 order. The --column-inserts option is safer, though even
149 slower.
150 --column-inserts
152 --attribute-inserts
154 Dump data as INSERT commands with explicit column names (INSERT
155 INTO table (column, ...) VALUES ...). This will make restoration
156 very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be
157 loaded into non-PostgreSQL databases.
158 --disable-dollar-quoting
160 This option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bod‐
161 ies, and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syn‐
162 tax.
163 --disable-triggers
165 This option is only relevant when creating a data-only dump. It
166 instructs pg_dumpall to include commands to temporarily disable
167 triggers on the target tables while the data is reloaded. Use
168 this if you have referential integrity checks or other triggers
169 on the tables that you do not want to invoke during data reload.
170 Presently, the commands emitted for --disable-triggers must be
172 done as superuser. So, you should also specify a superuser name
173 with -S, or preferably be careful to start the resulting script
174 as a superuser.
175 --use-set-session-authorization
177 Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead
178 of ALTER OWNER commands to determine object ownership. This
179 makes the dump more standards compatible, but depending on the
180 history of the objects in the dump, might not restore properly.
181 The following command-line options control the database connection
183 parameters.
184 -h host
186 --host=host
188 Specifies the host name of the machine on which the database
189 server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used
190 as the directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is
191 taken from the PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix
192 domain socket connection is attempted.
193 -l dbname
195 --database=dbname
197 Specifies the name of the database to connect to to dump global
198 objects and discover what other databases should be dumped. If
199 not specified, the ``postgres'' database will be used, and if
200 that does not exist, ``template1'' will be used.
201 -p port
203 --port=port
205 Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file exten‐
206 sion on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults
207 to the PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in
208 default.
209 -U username
211 --username=username
213 User name to connect as.
214 -w
216 --no-password
218 Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
219 authentication and a password is not available by other means
220 such as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This
221 option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is
222 present to enter a password.
223 -W
225 --password
227 Force pg_dumpall to prompt for a password before connecting to a
228 database.
229 This option is never essential, since pg_dumpall will automati‐
231 cally prompt for a password if the server demands password
232 authentication. However, pg_dumpall will waste a connection
233 attempt finding out that the server wants a password. In some
234 cases it is worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection
235 attempt.
236 Note that the password prompt will occur again for each database
238 to be dumped. Usually, it's better to set up a ~/.pgpass file
239 than to rely on manual password entry.
240 --role=rolename
242 Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump. This
243 option causes pg_dumpall to issue a SET ROLE rolename command
244 after connecting to the database. It is useful when the authen‐
245 ticated user (specified by -U) lacks privileges needed by
246 pg_dumpall, but can switch to a role with the required rights.
247 Some installations have a policy against logging in directly as
248 a superuser, and use of this option allows dumps to be made
249 without violating the policy.
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252 PGHOST
253 PGOPTIONS
255 PGPORT
257 PGUSER Default connection parameters
259 This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the envi‐
261 ronment variables supported by libpq (see in the documentation).
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264 Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic messages
265 will refer to pg_dump.
266 Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so the opti‐
268 mizer has useful statistics. You can also run vacuumdb -a -z to analyze
269 all databases.
270 pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace directories to exist before
272 the restore, else database creation will fail for databases in non-
273 default locations.
274
276 To dump all databases:
277 $ pg_dumpall > db.out
279 To reload this database use, for example:
282 $ psql -f db.out postgres
284 (It is not important to which database you connect here since the
286 script file created by pg_dumpall will contain the appropriate commands
287 to create and connect to the saved databases.)
288
290 Check pg_dump(1) for details on possible error conditions.
291Application 2011-09-22 PG_DUMPALL(1)