1PG_RESTORE(1)            PostgreSQL 15.4 Documentation           PG_RESTORE(1)
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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. This will cause pg_restore to output
249           detailed object comments and start/stop times to the output file,
250           and progress messages to standard error. Repeating the option
251           causes additional debug-level messages to appear on standard error.
252
253       -V
254       --version
255           Print the pg_restore version and exit.
256
257       -x
258       --no-privileges
259       --no-acl
260           Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
261
262       -1
263       --single-transaction
264           Execute the restore as a single transaction (that is, wrap the
265           emitted commands in BEGIN/COMMIT). This ensures that either all the
266           commands complete successfully, or no changes are applied. This
267           option implies --exit-on-error.
268
269       --disable-triggers
270           This option is relevant only when performing a data-only restore.
271           It instructs pg_restore to execute commands to temporarily disable
272           triggers on the target tables while the data is restored. Use this
273           if you have referential integrity checks or other triggers on the
274           tables that you do not want to invoke during data restore.
275
276           Presently, the commands emitted for --disable-triggers must be done
277           as superuser. So you should also specify a superuser name with -S
278           or, preferably, run pg_restore as a PostgreSQL superuser.
279
280       --enable-row-security
281           This option is relevant only when restoring the contents of a table
282           which has row security. By default, pg_restore will set
283           row_security to off, to ensure that all data is restored in to the
284           table. If the user does not have sufficient privileges to bypass
285           row security, then an error is thrown. This parameter instructs
286           pg_restore to set row_security to on instead, allowing the user to
287           attempt to restore the contents of the table with row security
288           enabled. This might still fail if the user does not have the right
289           to insert the rows from the dump into the table.
290
291           Note that this option currently also requires the dump be in INSERT
292           format, as COPY FROM does not support row security.
293
294       --if-exists
295           Use conditional commands (i.e., add an IF EXISTS clause) to drop
296           database objects. This option is not valid unless --clean is also
297           specified.
298
299       --no-comments
300           Do not output commands to restore comments, even if the archive
301           contains them.
302
303       --no-data-for-failed-tables
304           By default, table data is restored even if the creation command for
305           the table failed (e.g., because it already exists). With this
306           option, data for such a table is skipped. This behavior is useful
307           if the target database already contains the desired table contents.
308           For example, auxiliary tables for PostgreSQL extensions such as
309           PostGIS might already be loaded in the target database; specifying
310           this option prevents duplicate or obsolete data from being loaded
311           into them.
312
313           This option is effective only when restoring directly into a
314           database, not when producing SQL script output.
315
316       --no-publications
317           Do not output commands to restore publications, even if the archive
318           contains them.
319
320       --no-security-labels
321           Do not output commands to restore security labels, even if the
322           archive contains them.
323
324       --no-subscriptions
325           Do not output commands to restore subscriptions, even if the
326           archive contains them.
327
328       --no-table-access-method
329           Do not output commands to select table access methods. With this
330           option, all objects will be created with whichever access method is
331           the default during restore.
332
333       --no-tablespaces
334           Do not output commands to select tablespaces. With this option, all
335           objects will be created in whichever tablespace is the default
336           during restore.
337
338       --section=sectionname
339           Only restore the named section. The section name can be pre-data,
340           data, or post-data. This option can be specified more than once to
341           select multiple sections. The default is to restore all sections.
342
343           The data section contains actual table data as well as large-object
344           definitions. Post-data items consist of definitions of indexes,
345           triggers, rules and constraints other than validated check
346           constraints. Pre-data items consist of all other data definition
347           items.
348
349       --strict-names
350           Require that each schema (-n/--schema) and table (-t/--table)
351           qualifier match at least one schema/table in the backup file.
352
353       --use-set-session-authorization
354           Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead of
355           ALTER OWNER commands to determine object ownership. This makes the
356           dump more standards-compatible, but depending on the history of the
357           objects in the dump, might not restore properly.
358
359       -?
360       --help
361           Show help about pg_restore command line arguments, and exit.
362
363       pg_restore also accepts the following command line arguments for
364       connection parameters:
365
366       -h host
367       --host=host
368           Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
369           running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
370           directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken from the
371           PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket
372           connection is attempted.
373
374       -p port
375       --port=port
376           Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension
377           on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to the
378           PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in default.
379
380       -U username
381       --username=username
382           User name to connect as.
383
384       -w
385       --no-password
386           Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
387           authentication and a password is not available by other means such
388           as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option
389           can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to
390           enter a password.
391
392       -W
393       --password
394           Force pg_restore to prompt for a password before connecting to a
395           database.
396
397           This option is never essential, since pg_restore will automatically
398           prompt for a password if the server demands password
399           authentication. However, pg_restore will waste a connection attempt
400           finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is
401           worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.
402
403       --role=rolename
404           Specifies a role name to be used to perform the restore. This
405           option causes pg_restore to issue a SET ROLE rolename command after
406           connecting to the database. It is useful when the authenticated
407           user (specified by -U) lacks privileges needed by pg_restore, but
408           can switch to a role with the required rights. Some installations
409           have a policy against logging in directly as a superuser, and use
410           of this option allows restores to be performed without violating
411           the policy.
412

ENVIRONMENT

414       PGHOST
415       PGOPTIONS
416       PGPORT
417       PGUSER
418           Default connection parameters
419
420       PG_COLOR
421           Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible
422           values are always, auto and never.
423
424       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
425       environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15). However,
426       it does not read PGDATABASE when a database name is not supplied.
427

DIAGNOSTICS

429       When a direct database connection is specified using the -d option,
430       pg_restore internally executes SQL statements. If you have problems
431       running pg_restore, make sure you are able to select information from
432       the database using, for example, psql(1). Also, any default connection
433       settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library
434       will apply.
435

NOTES

437       If your installation has any local additions to the template1 database,
438       be careful to load the output of pg_restore into a truly empty
439       database; otherwise you are likely to get errors due to duplicate
440       definitions of the added objects. To make an empty database without any
441       local additions, copy from template0 not template1, for example:
442
443           CREATE DATABASE foo WITH TEMPLATE template0;
444
445       The limitations of pg_restore are detailed below.
446
447       •   When restoring data to a pre-existing table and the option
448           --disable-triggers is used, pg_restore emits commands to disable
449           triggers on user tables before inserting the data, then emits
450           commands to re-enable them after the data has been inserted. If the
451           restore is stopped in the middle, the system catalogs might be left
452           in the wrong state.
453
454       •   pg_restore cannot restore large objects selectively; for instance,
455           only those for a specific table. If an archive contains large
456           objects, then all large objects will be restored, or none of them
457           if they are excluded via -L, -t, or other options.
458
459       See also the pg_dump(1) documentation for details on limitations of
460       pg_dump.
461
462       Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each restored table so the
463       optimizer has useful statistics; see Section 25.1.3 and Section 25.1.6
464       for more information.
465

EXAMPLES

467       Assume we have dumped a database called mydb into a custom-format dump
468       file:
469
470           $ pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
471
472       To drop the database and recreate it from the dump:
473
474           $ dropdb mydb
475           $ pg_restore -C -d postgres db.dump
476
477       The database named in the -d switch can be any database existing in the
478       cluster; pg_restore only uses it to issue the CREATE DATABASE command
479       for mydb. With -C, data is always restored into the database name that
480       appears in the dump file.
481
482       To restore the dump into a new database called newdb:
483
484           $ createdb -T template0 newdb
485           $ pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
486
487       Notice we don't use -C, and instead connect directly to the database to
488       be restored into. Also note that we clone the new database from
489       template0 not template1, to ensure it is initially empty.
490
491       To reorder database items, it is first necessary to dump the table of
492       contents of the archive:
493
494           $ pg_restore -l db.dump > db.list
495
496       The listing file consists of a header and one line for each item, e.g.:
497
498           ;
499           ; Archive created at Mon Sep 14 13:55:39 2009
500           ;     dbname: DBDEMOS
501           ;     TOC Entries: 81
502           ;     Compression: 9
503           ;     Dump Version: 1.10-0
504           ;     Format: CUSTOM
505           ;     Integer: 4 bytes
506           ;     Offset: 8 bytes
507           ;     Dumped from database version: 8.3.5
508           ;     Dumped by pg_dump version: 8.3.8
509           ;
510           ;
511           ; Selected TOC Entries:
512           ;
513           3; 2615 2200 SCHEMA - public pasha
514           1861; 0 0 COMMENT - SCHEMA public pasha
515           1862; 0 0 ACL - public pasha
516           317; 1247 17715 TYPE public composite pasha
517           319; 1247 25899 DOMAIN public domain0 pasha
518
519       Semicolons start a comment, and the numbers at the start of lines refer
520       to the internal archive ID assigned to each item.
521
522       Lines in the file can be commented out, deleted, and reordered. For
523       example:
524
525           10; 145433 TABLE map_resolutions postgres
526           ;2; 145344 TABLE species postgres
527           ;4; 145359 TABLE nt_header postgres
528           6; 145402 TABLE species_records postgres
529           ;8; 145416 TABLE ss_old postgres
530
531       could be used as input to pg_restore and would only restore items 10
532       and 6, in that order:
533
534           $ pg_restore -L db.list db.dump
535

SEE ALSO

537       pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)
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540
541PostgreSQL 15.4                      2023                        PG_RESTORE(1)
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