1PG_DUMPALL(1) PostgreSQL 15.4 Documentation PG_DUMPALL(1)
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6 pg_dumpall - extract a PostgreSQL database cluster into a script file
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9 pg_dumpall [connection-option...] [option...]
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12 pg_dumpall is a utility for writing out (“dumping”) all PostgreSQL
13 databases of a cluster into one script file. The script file contains
14 SQL commands that can be used as input to psql(1) to restore the
15 databases. It does this by calling pg_dump(1) for each database in the
16 cluster. pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all
17 databases, namely database roles, tablespaces, and privilege grants for
18 configuration parameters. (pg_dump does not save these objects.)
19 Since pg_dumpall reads tables from all databases you will most likely
21 have to connect as a database superuser in order to produce a complete
22 dump. Also you will need superuser privileges to execute the saved
23 script in order to be allowed to add roles and create databases.
24 The SQL script will be written to the standard output. Use the
26 -f/--file option or shell operators to redirect it into a file.
27 pg_dumpall needs to connect several times to the PostgreSQL server
29 (once per database). If you use password authentication it will ask for
30 a password each time. It is convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file in such
31 cases. See Section 34.16 for more information.
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34 The following command-line options control the content and format of
35 the output.
36 -a
38 --data-only
39 Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions).
40 -c
42 --clean
43 Include SQL commands to clean (drop) databases before recreating
44 them. DROP commands for roles and tablespaces are added as well.
45 -E encoding
47 --encoding=encoding
48 Create the dump in the specified character set encoding. By
49 default, the dump is created in the database encoding. (Another way
50 to get the same result is to set the PGCLIENTENCODING environment
51 variable to the desired dump encoding.)
52 -f filename
54 --file=filename
55 Send output to the specified file. If this is omitted, the standard
56 output is used.
57 -g
59 --globals-only
60 Dump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no databases.
61 -O
63 --no-owner
64 Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the
65 original database. By default, pg_dumpall issues ALTER OWNER or SET
66 SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created schema
67 elements. These statements will fail when the script is run unless
68 it is started by a superuser (or the same user that owns all of the
69 objects in the script). To make a script that can be restored by
70 any user, but will give that user ownership of all the objects,
71 specify -O.
72 -r
74 --roles-only
75 Dump only roles, no databases or tablespaces.
76 -s
78 --schema-only
79 Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.
80 -S username
82 --superuser=username
83 Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
84 This is relevant only if --disable-triggers is used. (Usually, it's
85 better to leave this out, and instead start the resulting script as
86 superuser.)
87 -t
89 --tablespaces-only
90 Dump only tablespaces, no databases or roles.
91 -v
93 --verbose
94 Specifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dumpall to output
95 start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to
96 standard error. Repeating the option causes additional debug-level
97 messages to appear on standard error. The option is also passed
98 down to pg_dump.
99 -V
101 --version
102 Print the pg_dumpall version and exit.
103 -x
105 --no-privileges
106 --no-acl
107 Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
108 --binary-upgrade
110 This option is for use by in-place upgrade utilities. Its use for
111 other purposes is not recommended or supported. The behavior of the
112 option may change in future releases without notice.
113 --column-inserts
115 --attribute-inserts
116 Dump data as INSERT commands with explicit column names (INSERT
117 INTO table (column, ...) VALUES ...). This will make restoration
118 very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be loaded
119 into non-PostgreSQL databases.
120 --disable-dollar-quoting
122 This option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bodies,
123 and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syntax.
124 --disable-triggers
126 This option is relevant only when creating a data-only dump. It
127 instructs pg_dumpall to include commands to temporarily disable
128 triggers on the target tables while the data is restored. Use this
129 if you have referential integrity checks or other triggers on the
130 tables that you do not want to invoke during data restore.
131 Presently, the commands emitted for --disable-triggers must be done
133 as superuser. So, you should also specify a superuser name with -S,
134 or preferably be careful to start the resulting script as a
135 superuser.
136 --exclude-database=pattern
138 Do not dump databases whose name matches pattern. Multiple patterns
139 can be excluded by writing multiple --exclude-database switches.
140 The pattern parameter is interpreted as a pattern according to the
141 same rules used by psql's \d commands (see Patterns below), so
142 multiple databases can also be excluded by writing wildcard
143 characters in the pattern. When using wildcards, be careful to
144 quote the pattern if needed to prevent shell wildcard expansion.
145 --extra-float-digits=ndigits
147 Use the specified value of extra_float_digits when dumping
148 floating-point data, instead of the maximum available precision.
149 Routine dumps made for backup purposes should not use this option.
150 --if-exists
152 Use conditional commands (i.e., add an IF EXISTS clause) to drop
153 databases and other objects. This option is not valid unless
154 --clean is also specified.
155 --inserts
157 Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than COPY). This will make
158 restoration very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that
159 can be loaded into non-PostgreSQL databases. Note that the restore
160 might fail altogether if you have rearranged column order. The
161 --column-inserts option is safer, though even slower.
162 --load-via-partition-root
164 When dumping data for a table partition, make the COPY or INSERT
165 statements target the root of the partitioning hierarchy that
166 contains it, rather than the partition itself. This causes the
167 appropriate partition to be re-determined for each row when the
168 data is loaded. This may be useful when restoring data on a server
169 where rows do not always fall into the same partitions as they did
170 on the original server. That could happen, for example, if the
171 partitioning column is of type text and the two systems have
172 different definitions of the collation used to sort the
173 partitioning column.
174 --lock-wait-timeout=timeout
176 Do not wait forever to acquire shared table locks at the beginning
177 of the dump. Instead, fail if unable to lock a table within the
178 specified timeout. The timeout may be specified in any of the
179 formats accepted by SET statement_timeout.
180 --no-comments
182 Do not dump comments.
183 --no-publications
185 Do not dump publications.
186 --no-role-passwords
188 Do not dump passwords for roles. When restored, roles will have a
189 null password, and password authentication will always fail until
190 the password is set. Since password values aren't needed when this
191 option is specified, the role information is read from the catalog
192 view pg_roles instead of pg_authid. Therefore, this option also
193 helps if access to pg_authid is restricted by some security policy.
194 --no-security-labels
196 Do not dump security labels.
197 --no-subscriptions
199 Do not dump subscriptions.
200 --no-sync
202 By default, pg_dumpall will wait for all files to be written safely
203 to disk. This option causes pg_dumpall to return without waiting,
204 which is faster, but means that a subsequent operating system crash
205 can leave the dump corrupt. Generally, this option is useful for
206 testing but should not be used when dumping data from production
207 installation.
208 --no-table-access-method
210 Do not output commands to select table access methods. With this
211 option, all objects will be created with whichever table access
212 method is the default during restore.
213 --no-tablespaces
215 Do not output commands to create tablespaces nor select tablespaces
216 for objects. With this option, all objects will be created in
217 whichever tablespace is the default during restore.
218 --no-toast-compression
220 Do not output commands to set TOAST compression methods. With this
221 option, all columns will be restored with the default compression
222 setting.
223 --no-unlogged-table-data
225 Do not dump the contents of unlogged tables. This option has no
226 effect on whether or not the table definitions (schema) are dumped;
227 it only suppresses dumping the table data.
228 --on-conflict-do-nothing
230 Add ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING to INSERT commands. This option is not
231 valid unless --inserts or --column-inserts is also specified.
232 --quote-all-identifiers
234 Force quoting of all identifiers. This option is recommended when
235 dumping a database from a server whose PostgreSQL major version is
236 different from pg_dumpall's, or when the output is intended to be
237 loaded into a server of a different major version. By default,
238 pg_dumpall quotes only identifiers that are reserved words in its
239 own major version. This sometimes results in compatibility issues
240 when dealing with servers of other versions that may have slightly
241 different sets of reserved words. Using --quote-all-identifiers
242 prevents such issues, at the price of a harder-to-read dump script.
243 --rows-per-insert=nrows
245 Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than COPY). Controls the
246 maximum number of rows per INSERT command. The value specified must
247 be a number greater than zero. Any error during restoring will
248 cause only rows that are part of the problematic INSERT to be lost,
249 rather than the entire table contents.
250 --use-set-session-authorization
252 Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead of
253 ALTER OWNER commands to determine object ownership. This makes the
254 dump more standards compatible, but depending on the history of the
255 objects in the dump, might not restore properly.
256 -?
258 --help
259 Show help about pg_dumpall command line arguments, and exit.
260 The following command-line options control the database connection
262 parameters.
263 -d connstr
265 --dbname=connstr
266 Specifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a connection
267 string; these will override any conflicting command line options.
268 The option is called --dbname for consistency with other client
270 applications, but because pg_dumpall needs to connect to many
271 databases, the database name in the connection string will be
272 ignored. Use the -l option to specify the name of the database used
273 for the initial connection, which will dump global objects and
274 discover what other databases should be dumped.
275 -h host
277 --host=host
278 Specifies the host name of the machine on which the database server
279 is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
280 directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken from the
281 PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket
282 connection is attempted.
283 -l dbname
285 --database=dbname
286 Specifies the name of the database to connect to for dumping global
287 objects and discovering what other databases should be dumped. If
288 not specified, the postgres database will be used, and if that does
289 not exist, template1 will be used.
290 -p port
292 --port=port
293 Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension
294 on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to the
295 PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in default.
296 -U username
298 --username=username
299 User name to connect as.
300 -w
302 --no-password
303 Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
304 authentication and a password is not available by other means such
305 as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option
306 can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to
307 enter a password.
308 -W
310 --password
311 Force pg_dumpall to prompt for a password before connecting to a
312 database.
313 This option is never essential, since pg_dumpall will automatically
315 prompt for a password if the server demands password
316 authentication. However, pg_dumpall will waste a connection attempt
317 finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is
318 worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.
319 Note that the password prompt will occur again for each database to
321 be dumped. Usually, it's better to set up a ~/.pgpass file than to
322 rely on manual password entry.
323 --role=rolename
325 Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump. This option
326 causes pg_dumpall to issue a SET ROLE rolename command after
327 connecting to the database. It is useful when the authenticated
328 user (specified by -U) lacks privileges needed by pg_dumpall, but
329 can switch to a role with the required rights. Some installations
330 have a policy against logging in directly as a superuser, and use
331 of this option allows dumps to be made without violating the
332 policy.
333
335 PGHOST
336 PGOPTIONS
337 PGPORT
338 PGUSER
339 Default connection parameters
340 PG_COLOR
342 Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible
343 values are always, auto and never.
344 This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
346 environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15).
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349 Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic messages
350 will refer to pg_dump.
351 The --clean option can be useful even when your intention is to restore
353 the dump script into a fresh cluster. Use of --clean authorizes the
354 script to drop and re-create the built-in postgres and template1
355 databases, ensuring that those databases will retain the same
356 properties (for instance, locale and encoding) that they had in the
357 source cluster. Without the option, those databases will retain their
358 existing database-level properties, as well as any pre-existing
359 contents.
360 Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so the
362 optimizer has useful statistics. You can also run vacuumdb -a -z to
363 analyze all databases.
364 The dump script should not be expected to run completely without
366 errors. In particular, because the script will issue CREATE ROLE for
367 every role existing in the source cluster, it is certain to get a “role
368 already exists” error for the bootstrap superuser, unless the
369 destination cluster was initialized with a different bootstrap
370 superuser name. This error is harmless and should be ignored. Use of
371 the --clean option is likely to produce additional harmless error
372 messages about non-existent objects, although you can minimize those by
373 adding --if-exists.
374 pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace directories to exist before
376 the restore; otherwise, database creation will fail for databases in
377 non-default locations.
378
380 To dump all databases:
381 $ pg_dumpall > db.out
383 To restore database(s) from this file, you can use:
385 $ psql -f db.out postgres
387 It is not important to which database you connect here since the script
389 file created by pg_dumpall will contain the appropriate commands to
390 create and connect to the saved databases. An exception is that if you
391 specified --clean, you must connect to the postgres database initially;
392 the script will attempt to drop other databases immediately, and that
393 will fail for the database you are connected to.
394
396 Check pg_dump(1) for details on possible error conditions.
397PostgreSQL 15.4 2023 PG_DUMPALL(1)