1PG_RESTORE(1)            PostgreSQL 12.6 Documentation           PG_RESTORE(1)
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3
4

NAME

6       pg_restore - restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive file created
7       by pg_dump
8

SYNOPSIS

10       pg_restore [connection-option...] [option...] [filename]
11

DESCRIPTION

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
21       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
29       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

OPTIONS

35       pg_restore accepts the following command line arguments.
36
37       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
42       -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
48           This option is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical
49           to, specifying --section=data.
50
51       -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
58       -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
64           With --create, pg_restore also restores the database's comment if
65           any, and any configuration variable settings that are specific to
66           this database, that is, any ALTER DATABASE ... SET ...  and ALTER
67           ROLE ... IN DATABASE ... SET ...  commands that mention this
68           database. Access privileges for the database itself are also
69           restored, unless --no-acl is specified.
70
71           When this option is used, the database named with -d is used only
72           to issue the initial DROP DATABASE and CREATE DATABASE commands.
73           All data is restored into the database name that appears in the
74           archive.
75
76       -d dbname
77       --dbname=dbname
78           Connect to database dbname and restore directly into the database.
79           The dbname can be a connection string. If so, connection string
80           parameters will override any conflicting command line options.
81
82       -e
83       --exit-on-error
84           Exit if an error is encountered while sending SQL commands to the
85           database. The default is to continue and to display a count of
86           errors at the end of the restoration.
87
88       -f filename
89       --file=filename
90           Specify output file for generated script, or for the listing when
91           used with -l. Use - for stdout.
92
93       -F format
94       --format=format
95           Specify format of the archive. It is not necessary to specify the
96           format, since pg_restore will determine the format automatically.
97           If specified, it can be one of the following:
98
99           c
100           custom
101               The archive is in the custom format of pg_dump.
102
103           d
104           directory
105               The archive is a directory archive.
106
107           t
108           tar
109               The archive is a tar archive.
110
111       -I index
112       --index=index
113           Restore definition of named index only. Multiple indexes may be
114           specified with multiple -I switches.
115
116       -j number-of-jobs
117       --jobs=number-of-jobs
118           Run the most time-consuming steps of pg_restore — those that load
119           data, create indexes, or create constraints — concurrently, using
120           up to number-of-jobs concurrent sessions. This option can
121           dramatically reduce the time to restore a large database to a
122           server running on a multiprocessor machine. This option is ignored
123           when emitting a script rather than connecting directly to a
124           database server.
125
126           Each job is one process or one thread, depending on the operating
127           system, and uses a separate connection to the server.
128
129           The optimal value for this option depends on the hardware setup of
130           the server, of the client, and of the network. Factors include the
131           number of CPU cores and the disk setup. A good place to start is
132           the number of CPU cores on the server, but values larger than that
133           can also lead to faster restore times in many cases. Of course,
134           values that are too high will lead to decreased performance because
135           of thrashing.
136
137           Only the custom and directory archive formats are supported with
138           this option. The input must be a regular file or directory (not,
139           for example, a pipe or standard input). Also, multiple jobs cannot
140           be used together with the option --single-transaction.
141
142       -l
143       --list
144           List the table of contents of the archive. The output of this
145           operation can be used as input to the -L option. Note that if
146           filtering switches such as -n or -t are used with -l, they will
147           restrict the items listed.
148
149       -L list-file
150       --use-list=list-file
151           Restore only those archive elements that are listed in list-file,
152           and restore them in the order they appear in the file. Note that if
153           filtering switches such as -n or -t are used with -L, they will
154           further restrict the items restored.
155
156           list-file is normally created by editing the output of a previous
157           -l operation. Lines can be moved or removed, and can also be
158           commented out by placing a semicolon (;) at the start of the line.
159           See below for examples.
160
161       -n schema
162       --schema=schema
163           Restore only objects that are in the named schema. Multiple schemas
164           may be specified with multiple -n switches. This can be combined
165           with the -t option to restore just a specific table.
166
167       -N schema
168       --exclude-schema=schema
169           Do not restore objects that are in the named schema. Multiple
170           schemas to be excluded may be specified with multiple -N switches.
171
172           When both -n and -N are given for the same schema name, the -N
173           switch wins and the schema is excluded.
174
175       -O
176       --no-owner
177           Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the
178           original database. By default, pg_restore issues ALTER OWNER or SET
179           SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created schema
180           elements. These statements will fail unless the initial connection
181           to the database is made by a superuser (or the same user that owns
182           all of the objects in the script). With -O, any user name can be
183           used for the initial connection, and this user will own all the
184           created objects.
185
186       -P function-name(argtype [, ...])
187       --function=function-name(argtype [, ...])
188           Restore the named function only. Be careful to spell the function
189           name and arguments exactly as they appear in the dump file's table
190           of contents. Multiple functions may be specified with multiple -P
191           switches.
192
193       -R
194       --no-reconnect
195           This option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards
196           compatibility.
197
198       -s
199       --schema-only
200           Restore only the schema (data definitions), not data, to the extent
201           that schema entries are present in the archive.
202
203           This option is the inverse of --data-only. It is similar to, but
204           for historical reasons not identical to, specifying
205           --section=pre-data --section=post-data.
206
207           (Do not confuse this with the --schema option, which uses the word
208           “schema” in a different meaning.)
209
210       -S username
211       --superuser=username
212           Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
213           This is relevant only if --disable-triggers is used.
214
215       -t table
216       --table=table
217           Restore definition and/or data of only the named table. For this
218           purpose, “table” includes views, materialized views, sequences, and
219           foreign tables. Multiple tables can be selected by writing multiple
220           -t switches. This option can be combined with the -n option to
221           specify table(s) in a particular schema.
222
223               Note
224               When -t is specified, pg_restore makes no attempt to restore
225               any other database objects that the selected table(s) might
226               depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee that a
227               specific-table restore into a clean database will succeed.
228
229               Note
230               This flag does not behave identically to the -t flag of
231               pg_dump. There is not currently any provision for wild-card
232               matching in pg_restore, nor can you include a schema name
233               within its -t. And, while pg_dump's -t flag will also dump
234               subsidiary objects (such as indexes) of the selected table(s),
235               pg_restore's -t flag does not include such subsidiary objects.
236
237               Note
238               In versions prior to PostgreSQL 9.6, this flag matched only
239               tables, not any other type of relation.
240
241       -T trigger
242       --trigger=trigger
243           Restore named trigger only. Multiple triggers may be specified with
244           multiple -T switches.
245
246       -v
247       --verbose
248           Specifies verbose mode.
249
250       -V
251       --version
252           Print the pg_restore version and exit.
253
254       -x
255       --no-privileges
256       --no-acl
257           Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
258
259       -1
260       --single-transaction
261           Execute the restore as a single transaction (that is, wrap the
262           emitted commands in BEGIN/COMMIT). This ensures that either all the
263           commands complete successfully, or no changes are applied. This
264           option implies --exit-on-error.
265
266       --disable-triggers
267           This option is relevant only when performing a data-only restore.
268           It instructs pg_restore to execute commands to temporarily disable
269           triggers on the target tables while the data is reloaded. Use this
270           if you have referential integrity checks or other triggers on the
271           tables that you do not want to invoke during data reload.
272
273           Presently, the commands emitted for --disable-triggers must be done
274           as superuser. So you should also specify a superuser name with -S
275           or, preferably, run pg_restore as a PostgreSQL superuser.
276
277       --enable-row-security
278           This option is relevant only when restoring the contents of a table
279           which has row security. By default, pg_restore will set
280           row_security to off, to ensure that all data is restored in to the
281           table. If the user does not have sufficient privileges to bypass
282           row security, then an error is thrown. This parameter instructs
283           pg_restore to set row_security to on instead, allowing the user to
284           attempt to restore the contents of the table with row security
285           enabled. This might still fail if the user does not have the right
286           to insert the rows from the dump into the table.
287
288           Note that this option currently also requires the dump be in INSERT
289           format, as COPY FROM does not support row security.
290
291       --if-exists
292           Use conditional commands (i.e., add an IF EXISTS clause) to drop
293           database objects. This option is not valid unless --clean is also
294           specified.
295
296       --no-comments
297           Do not output commands to restore comments, even if the archive
298           contains them.
299
300       --no-data-for-failed-tables
301           By default, table data is restored even if the creation command for
302           the table failed (e.g., because it already exists). With this
303           option, data for such a table is skipped. This behavior is useful
304           if the target database already contains the desired table contents.
305           For example, auxiliary tables for PostgreSQL extensions such as
306           PostGIS might already be loaded in the target database; specifying
307           this option prevents duplicate or obsolete data from being loaded
308           into them.
309
310           This option is effective only when restoring directly into a
311           database, not when producing SQL script output.
312
313       --no-publications
314           Do not output commands to restore publications, even if the archive
315           contains them.
316
317       --no-security-labels
318           Do not output commands to restore security labels, even if the
319           archive contains them.
320
321       --no-subscriptions
322           Do not output commands to restore subscriptions, even if the
323           archive contains them.
324
325       --no-tablespaces
326           Do not output commands to select tablespaces. With this option, all
327           objects will be created in whichever tablespace is the default
328           during restore.
329
330       --section=sectionname
331           Only restore the named section. The section name can be pre-data,
332           data, or post-data. This option can be specified more than once to
333           select multiple sections. The default is to restore all sections.
334
335           The data section contains actual table data as well as large-object
336           definitions. Post-data items consist of definitions of indexes,
337           triggers, rules and constraints other than validated check
338           constraints. Pre-data items consist of all other data definition
339           items.
340
341       --strict-names
342           Require that each schema (-n/--schema) and table (-t/--table)
343           qualifier match at least one schema/table in the backup file.
344
345       --use-set-session-authorization
346           Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead of
347           ALTER OWNER commands to determine object ownership. This makes the
348           dump more standards-compatible, but depending on the history of the
349           objects in the dump, might not restore properly.
350
351       -?
352       --help
353           Show help about pg_restore command line arguments, and exit.
354
355       pg_restore also accepts the following command line arguments for
356       connection parameters:
357
358       -h host
359       --host=host
360           Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
361           running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
362           directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken from the
363           PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket
364           connection is attempted.
365
366       -p port
367       --port=port
368           Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension
369           on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to the
370           PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in default.
371
372       -U username
373       --username=username
374           User name to connect as.
375
376       -w
377       --no-password
378           Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
379           authentication and a password is not available by other means such
380           as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option
381           can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to
382           enter a password.
383
384       -W
385       --password
386           Force pg_restore to prompt for a password before connecting to a
387           database.
388
389           This option is never essential, since pg_restore will automatically
390           prompt for a password if the server demands password
391           authentication. However, pg_restore will waste a connection attempt
392           finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is
393           worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.
394
395       --role=rolename
396           Specifies a role name to be used to perform the restore. This
397           option causes pg_restore to issue a SET ROLE rolename command after
398           connecting to the database. It is useful when the authenticated
399           user (specified by -U) lacks privileges needed by pg_restore, but
400           can switch to a role with the required rights. Some installations
401           have a policy against logging in directly as a superuser, and use
402           of this option allows restores to be performed without violating
403           the policy.
404

ENVIRONMENT

406       PGHOST
407       PGOPTIONS
408       PGPORT
409       PGUSER
410           Default connection parameters
411
412       PG_COLOR
413           Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible
414           values are always, auto and never.
415
416       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
417       environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 33.14). However,
418       it does not read PGDATABASE when a database name is not supplied.
419

DIAGNOSTICS

421       When a direct database connection is specified using the -d option,
422       pg_restore internally executes SQL statements. If you have problems
423       running pg_restore, make sure you are able to select information from
424       the database using, for example, psql(1). Also, any default connection
425       settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library
426       will apply.
427

NOTES

429       If your installation has any local additions to the template1 database,
430       be careful to load the output of pg_restore into a truly empty
431       database; otherwise you are likely to get errors due to duplicate
432       definitions of the added objects. To make an empty database without any
433       local additions, copy from template0 not template1, for example:
434
435           CREATE DATABASE foo WITH TEMPLATE template0;
436
437       The limitations of pg_restore are detailed below.
438
439       ·   When restoring data to a pre-existing table and the option
440           --disable-triggers is used, pg_restore emits commands to disable
441           triggers on user tables before inserting the data, then emits
442           commands to re-enable them after the data has been inserted. If the
443           restore is stopped in the middle, the system catalogs might be left
444           in the wrong state.
445
446       ·   pg_restore cannot restore large objects selectively; for instance,
447           only those for a specific table. If an archive contains large
448           objects, then all large objects will be restored, or none of them
449           if they are excluded via -L, -t, or other options.
450
451       See also the pg_dump(1) documentation for details on limitations of
452       pg_dump.
453
454       Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each restored table so the
455       optimizer has useful statistics; see Section 24.1.3 and Section 24.1.6
456       for more information.
457

EXAMPLES

459       Assume we have dumped a database called mydb into a custom-format dump
460       file:
461
462           $ pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
463
464       To drop the database and recreate it from the dump:
465
466           $ dropdb mydb
467           $ pg_restore -C -d postgres db.dump
468
469       The database named in the -d switch can be any database existing in the
470       cluster; pg_restore only uses it to issue the CREATE DATABASE command
471       for mydb. With -C, data is always restored into the database name that
472       appears in the dump file.
473
474       To reload the dump into a new database called newdb:
475
476           $ createdb -T template0 newdb
477           $ pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
478
479       Notice we don't use -C, and instead connect directly to the database to
480       be restored into. Also note that we clone the new database from
481       template0 not template1, to ensure it is initially empty.
482
483       To reorder database items, it is first necessary to dump the table of
484       contents of the archive:
485
486           $ pg_restore -l db.dump > db.list
487
488       The listing file consists of a header and one line for each item, e.g.:
489
490           ;
491           ; Archive created at Mon Sep 14 13:55:39 2009
492           ;     dbname: DBDEMOS
493           ;     TOC Entries: 81
494           ;     Compression: 9
495           ;     Dump Version: 1.10-0
496           ;     Format: CUSTOM
497           ;     Integer: 4 bytes
498           ;     Offset: 8 bytes
499           ;     Dumped from database version: 8.3.5
500           ;     Dumped by pg_dump version: 8.3.8
501           ;
502           ;
503           ; Selected TOC Entries:
504           ;
505           3; 2615 2200 SCHEMA - public pasha
506           1861; 0 0 COMMENT - SCHEMA public pasha
507           1862; 0 0 ACL - public pasha
508           317; 1247 17715 TYPE public composite pasha
509           319; 1247 25899 DOMAIN public domain0 pasha
510
511       Semicolons start a comment, and the numbers at the start of lines refer
512       to the internal archive ID assigned to each item.
513
514       Lines in the file can be commented out, deleted, and reordered. For
515       example:
516
517           10; 145433 TABLE map_resolutions postgres
518           ;2; 145344 TABLE species postgres
519           ;4; 145359 TABLE nt_header postgres
520           6; 145402 TABLE species_records postgres
521           ;8; 145416 TABLE ss_old postgres
522
523       could be used as input to pg_restore and would only restore items 10
524       and 6, in that order:
525
526           $ pg_restore -L db.list db.dump
527

SEE ALSO

529       pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)
530
531
532
533PostgreSQL 12.6                      2021                        PG_RESTORE(1)
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