1PG_RESTORE(1) PostgreSQL 10.7 Documentation PG_RESTORE(1)
2
6 pg_restore - restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive file created
7 by pg_dump
8
10 pg_restore [connection-option...] [option...] [filename]
11
13 pg_restore is a utility for restoring a PostgreSQL database from an
14 archive created by pg_dump(1) in one of the non-plain-text formats. It
15 will issue the commands necessary to reconstruct the database to the
16 state it was in at the time it was saved. The archive files also allow
17 pg_restore to be selective about what is restored, or even to reorder
18 the items prior to being restored. The archive files are designed to be
19 portable across architectures.
20 pg_restore can operate in two modes. If a database name is specified,
22 pg_restore connects to that database and restores archive contents
23 directly into the database. Otherwise, a script containing the SQL
24 commands necessary to rebuild the database is created and written to a
25 file or standard output. This script output is equivalent to the plain
26 text output format of pg_dump. Some of the options controlling the
27 output are therefore analogous to pg_dump options.
28 Obviously, pg_restore cannot restore information that is not present in
30 the archive file. For instance, if the archive was made using the “dump
31 data as INSERT commands” option, pg_restore will not be able to load
32 the data using COPY statements.
33
35 pg_restore accepts the following command line arguments.
36 filename
38 Specifies the location of the archive file (or directory, for a
39 directory-format archive) to be restored. If not specified, the
40 standard input is used.
41 -a
43 --data-only
44 Restore only the data, not the schema (data definitions). Table
45 data, large objects, and sequence values are restored, if present
46 in the archive.
47 This option is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical
49 to, specifying --section=data.
50 -c
52 --clean
53 Clean (drop) database objects before recreating them. (Unless
54 --if-exists is used, this might generate some harmless error
55 messages, if any objects were not present in the destination
56 database.)
57 -C
59 --create
60 Create the database before restoring into it. If --clean is also
61 specified, drop and recreate the target database before connecting
62 to it.
63 When this option is used, the database named with -d is used only
65 to issue the initial DROP DATABASE and CREATE DATABASE commands.
66 All data is restored into the database name that appears in the
67 archive.
68 -d dbname
70 --dbname=dbname
71 Connect to database dbname and restore directly into the database.
72 -e
74 --exit-on-error
75 Exit if an error is encountered while sending SQL commands to the
76 database. The default is to continue and to display a count of
77 errors at the end of the restoration.
78 -f filename
80 --file=filename
81 Specify output file for generated script, or for the listing when
82 used with -l. Default is the standard output.
83 -F format
85 --format=format
86 Specify format of the archive. It is not necessary to specify the
87 format, since pg_restore will determine the format automatically.
88 If specified, it can be one of the following:
89 c
91 custom
92 The archive is in the custom format of pg_dump.
93 d
95 directory
96 The archive is a directory archive.
97 t
99 tar
100 The archive is a tar archive.
101 -I index
103 --index=index
104 Restore definition of named index only. Multiple indexes may be
105 specified with multiple -I switches.
106 -j number-of-jobs
108 --jobs=number-of-jobs
109 Run the most time-consuming parts of pg_restore — those which load
110 data, create indexes, or create constraints — using multiple
111 concurrent jobs. This option can dramatically reduce the time to
112 restore a large database to a server running on a multiprocessor
113 machine.
114 Each job is one process or one thread, depending on the operating
116 system, and uses a separate connection to the server.
117 The optimal value for this option depends on the hardware setup of
119 the server, of the client, and of the network. Factors include the
120 number of CPU cores and the disk setup. A good place to start is
121 the number of CPU cores on the server, but values larger than that
122 can also lead to faster restore times in many cases. Of course,
123 values that are too high will lead to decreased performance because
124 of thrashing.
125 Only the custom and directory archive formats are supported with
127 this option. The input must be a regular file or directory (not,
128 for example, a pipe). This option is ignored when emitting a script
129 rather than connecting directly to a database server. Also,
130 multiple jobs cannot be used together with the option
131 --single-transaction.
132 -l
134 --list
135 List the table of contents of the archive. The output of this
136 operation can be used as input to the -L option. Note that if
137 filtering switches such as -n or -t are used with -l, they will
138 restrict the items listed.
139 -L list-file
141 --use-list=list-file
142 Restore only those archive elements that are listed in list-file,
143 and restore them in the order they appear in the file. Note that if
144 filtering switches such as -n or -t are used with -L, they will
145 further restrict the items restored.
146 list-file is normally created by editing the output of a previous
148 -l operation. Lines can be moved or removed, and can also be
149 commented out by placing a semicolon (;) at the start of the line.
150 See below for examples.
151 -n schema
153 --schema=schema
154 Restore only objects that are in the named schema. Multiple schemas
155 may be specified with multiple -n switches. This can be combined
156 with the -t option to restore just a specific table.
157 -N schema
159 --exclude-schema=schema
160 Do not restore objects that are in the named schema. Multiple
161 schemas to be excluded may be specified with multiple -N switches.
162 When both -n and -N are given for the same schema name, the -N
164 switch wins and the schema is excluded.
165 -O
167 --no-owner
168 Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the
169 original database. By default, pg_restore issues ALTER OWNER or SET
170 SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created schema
171 elements. These statements will fail unless the initial connection
172 to the database is made by a superuser (or the same user that owns
173 all of the objects in the script). With -O, any user name can be
174 used for the initial connection, and this user will own all the
175 created objects.
176 -P function-name(argtype [, ...])
178 --function=function-name(argtype [, ...])
179 Restore the named function only. Be careful to spell the function
180 name and arguments exactly as they appear in the dump file's table
181 of contents. Multiple functions may be specified with multiple -P
182 switches.
183 -R
185 --no-reconnect
186 This option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards
187 compatibility.
188 -s
190 --schema-only
191 Restore only the schema (data definitions), not data, to the extent
192 that schema entries are present in the archive.
193 This option is the inverse of --data-only. It is similar to, but
195 for historical reasons not identical to, specifying
196 --section=pre-data --section=post-data.
197 (Do not confuse this with the --schema option, which uses the word
199 “schema” in a different meaning.)
200 -S username
202 --superuser=username
203 Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
204 This is relevant only if --disable-triggers is used.
205 -t table
207 --table=table
208 Restore definition and/or data of only the named table. For this
209 purpose, “table” includes views, materialized views, sequences, and
210 foreign tables. Multiple tables can be selected by writing multiple
211 -t switches. This option can be combined with the -n option to
212 specify table(s) in a particular schema.
213 Note
215 When -t is specified, pg_restore makes no attempt to restore
216 any other database objects that the selected table(s) might
217 depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee that a
218 specific-table restore into a clean database will succeed.
219 Note
221 This flag does not behave identically to the -t flag of
222 pg_dump. There is not currently any provision for wild-card
223 matching in pg_restore, nor can you include a schema name
224 within its -t.
225 Note
227 In versions prior to PostgreSQL 9.6, this flag matched only
228 tables, not any other type of relation.
229 -T trigger
231 --trigger=trigger
232 Restore named trigger only. Multiple triggers may be specified with
233 multiple -T switches.
234 -v
236 --verbose
237 Specifies verbose mode.
238 -V
240 --version
241 Print the pg_restore version and exit.
242 -x
244 --no-privileges
245 --no-acl
246 Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
247 -1
249 --single-transaction
250 Execute the restore as a single transaction (that is, wrap the
251 emitted commands in BEGIN/COMMIT). This ensures that either all the
252 commands complete successfully, or no changes are applied. This
253 option implies --exit-on-error.
254 --disable-triggers
256 This option is relevant only when performing a data-only restore.
257 It instructs pg_restore to execute commands to temporarily disable
258 triggers on the target tables while the data is reloaded. Use this
259 if you have referential integrity checks or other triggers on the
260 tables that you do not want to invoke during data reload.
261 Presently, the commands emitted for --disable-triggers must be done
263 as superuser. So you should also specify a superuser name with -S
264 or, preferably, run pg_restore as a PostgreSQL superuser.
265 --enable-row-security
267 This option is relevant only when restoring the contents of a table
268 which has row security. By default, pg_restore will set
269 row_security to off, to ensure that all data is restored in to the
270 table. If the user does not have sufficient privileges to bypass
271 row security, then an error is thrown. This parameter instructs
272 pg_restore to set row_security to on instead, allowing the user to
273 attempt to restore the contents of the table with row security
274 enabled. This might still fail if the user does not have the right
275 to insert the rows from the dump into the table.
276 Note that this option currently also requires the dump be in INSERT
278 format, as COPY FROM does not support row security.
279 --if-exists
281 Use conditional commands (i.e. add an IF EXISTS clause) when
282 cleaning database objects. This option is not valid unless --clean
283 is also specified.
284 --no-data-for-failed-tables
286 By default, table data is restored even if the creation command for
287 the table failed (e.g., because it already exists). With this
288 option, data for such a table is skipped. This behavior is useful
289 if the target database already contains the desired table contents.
290 For example, auxiliary tables for PostgreSQL extensions such as
291 PostGIS might already be loaded in the target database; specifying
292 this option prevents duplicate or obsolete data from being loaded
293 into them.
294 This option is effective only when restoring directly into a
296 database, not when producing SQL script output.
297 --no-publications
299 Do not output commands to restore publications, even if the archive
300 contains them.
301 --no-security-labels
303 Do not output commands to restore security labels, even if the
304 archive contains them.
305 --no-subscriptions
307 Do not output commands to restore subscriptions, even if the
308 archive contains them.
309 --no-tablespaces
311 Do not output commands to select tablespaces. With this option, all
312 objects will be created in whichever tablespace is the default
313 during restore.
314 --section=sectionname
316 Only restore the named section. The section name can be pre-data,
317 data, or post-data. This option can be specified more than once to
318 select multiple sections. The default is to restore all sections.
319 The data section contains actual table data as well as large-object
321 definitions. Post-data items consist of definitions of indexes,
322 triggers, rules and constraints other than validated check
323 constraints. Pre-data items consist of all other data definition
324 items.
325 --strict-names
327 Require that each schema (-n/--schema) and table (-t/--table)
328 qualifier match at least one schema/table in the backup file.
329 --use-set-session-authorization
331 Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead of
332 ALTER OWNER commands to determine object ownership. This makes the
333 dump more standards-compatible, but depending on the history of the
334 objects in the dump, might not restore properly.
335 -?
337 --help
338 Show help about pg_restore command line arguments, and exit.
339 pg_restore also accepts the following command line arguments for
341 connection parameters:
342 -h host
344 --host=host
345 Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
346 running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
347 directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken from the
348 PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket
349 connection is attempted.
350 -p port
352 --port=port
353 Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension
354 on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to the
355 PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in default.
356 -U username
358 --username=username
359 User name to connect as.
360 -w
362 --no-password
363 Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
364 authentication and a password is not available by other means such
365 as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option
366 can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to
367 enter a password.
368 -W
370 --password
371 Force pg_restore to prompt for a password before connecting to a
372 database.
373 This option is never essential, since pg_restore will automatically
375 prompt for a password if the server demands password
376 authentication. However, pg_restore will waste a connection attempt
377 finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is
378 worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.
379 --role=rolename
381 Specifies a role name to be used to perform the restore. This
382 option causes pg_restore to issue a SET ROLE rolename command after
383 connecting to the database. It is useful when the authenticated
384 user (specified by -U) lacks privileges needed by pg_restore, but
385 can switch to a role with the required rights. Some installations
386 have a policy against logging in directly as a superuser, and use
387 of this option allows restores to be performed without violating
388 the policy.
389
391 PGHOST
392 PGOPTIONS
393 PGPORT
394 PGUSER
395 Default connection parameters
396 This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
398 environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 33.14). However,
399 it does not read PGDATABASE when a database name is not supplied.
400
402 When a direct database connection is specified using the -d option,
403 pg_restore internally executes SQL statements. If you have problems
404 running pg_restore, make sure you are able to select information from
405 the database using, for example, psql(1). Also, any default connection
406 settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library
407 will apply.
408
410 If your installation has any local additions to the template1 database,
411 be careful to load the output of pg_restore into a truly empty
412 database; otherwise you are likely to get errors due to duplicate
413 definitions of the added objects. To make an empty database without any
414 local additions, copy from template0 not template1, for example:
415 CREATE DATABASE foo WITH TEMPLATE template0;
417 The limitations of pg_restore are detailed below.
419 · When restoring data to a pre-existing table and the option
421 --disable-triggers is used, pg_restore emits commands to disable
422 triggers on user tables before inserting the data, then emits
423 commands to re-enable them after the data has been inserted. If the
424 restore is stopped in the middle, the system catalogs might be left
425 in the wrong state.
426 · pg_restore cannot restore large objects selectively; for instance,
428 only those for a specific table. If an archive contains large
429 objects, then all large objects will be restored, or none of them
430 if they are excluded via -L, -t, or other options.
431 See also the pg_dump(1) documentation for details on limitations of
433 pg_dump.
434 Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each restored table so the
436 optimizer has useful statistics; see Section 24.1.3 and Section 24.1.6
437 for more information.
438
440 Assume we have dumped a database called mydb into a custom-format dump
441 file:
442 $ pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
444 To drop the database and recreate it from the dump:
446 $ dropdb mydb
448 $ pg_restore -C -d postgres db.dump
449 The database named in the -d switch can be any database existing in the
451 cluster; pg_restore only uses it to issue the CREATE DATABASE command
452 for mydb. With -C, data is always restored into the database name that
453 appears in the dump file.
454 To reload the dump into a new database called newdb:
456 $ createdb -T template0 newdb
458 $ pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
459 Notice we don't use -C, and instead connect directly to the database to
461 be restored into. Also note that we clone the new database from
462 template0 not template1, to ensure it is initially empty.
463 To reorder database items, it is first necessary to dump the table of
465 contents of the archive:
466 $ pg_restore -l db.dump > db.list
468 The listing file consists of a header and one line for each item, e.g.:
470 ;
472 ; Archive created at Mon Sep 14 13:55:39 2009
473 ; dbname: DBDEMOS
474 ; TOC Entries: 81
475 ; Compression: 9
476 ; Dump Version: 1.10-0
477 ; Format: CUSTOM
478 ; Integer: 4 bytes
479 ; Offset: 8 bytes
480 ; Dumped from database version: 8.3.5
481 ; Dumped by pg_dump version: 8.3.8
482 ;
483 ;
484 ; Selected TOC Entries:
485 ;
486 3; 2615 2200 SCHEMA - public pasha
487 1861; 0 0 COMMENT - SCHEMA public pasha
488 1862; 0 0 ACL - public pasha
489 317; 1247 17715 TYPE public composite pasha
490 319; 1247 25899 DOMAIN public domain0 pasha
491 Semicolons start a comment, and the numbers at the start of lines refer
493 to the internal archive ID assigned to each item.
494 Lines in the file can be commented out, deleted, and reordered. For
496 example:
497 10; 145433 TABLE map_resolutions postgres
499 ;2; 145344 TABLE species postgres
500 ;4; 145359 TABLE nt_header postgres
501 6; 145402 TABLE species_records postgres
502 ;8; 145416 TABLE ss_old postgres
503 could be used as input to pg_restore and would only restore items 10
505 and 6, in that order:
506 $ pg_restore -L db.list db.dump
508
510 pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)
511PostgreSQL 10.7 2019 PG_RESTORE(1)