1PG_RESTORE(1) PostgreSQL 15.4 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 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 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 -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 -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 -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 -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 c
100 custom
101 The archive is in the custom format of pg_dump.
102 d
104 directory
105 The archive is a directory archive.
106 t
108 tar
109 The archive is a tar archive.
110 -I index
112 --index=index
113 Restore definition of named index only. Multiple indexes may be
114 specified with multiple -I switches.
115 -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 Each job is one process or one thread, depending on the operating
127 system, and uses a separate connection to the server.
128 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 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 -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 -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 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 -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 -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 When both -n and -N are given for the same schema name, the -N
173 switch wins and the schema is excluded.
174 -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 -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 -R
194 --no-reconnect
195 This option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards
196 compatibility.
197 -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 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 (Do not confuse this with the --schema option, which uses the word
208 “schema” in a different meaning.)
209 -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 -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 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 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 Note
238 In versions prior to PostgreSQL 9.6, this flag matched only
239 tables, not any other type of relation.
240 -T trigger
242 --trigger=trigger
243 Restore named trigger only. Multiple triggers may be specified with
244 multiple -T switches.
245 -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 -V
254 --version
255 Print the pg_restore version and exit.
256 -x
258 --no-privileges
259 --no-acl
260 Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
261 -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 --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 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 --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 Note that this option currently also requires the dump be in INSERT
292 format, as COPY FROM does not support row security.
293 --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 --no-comments
300 Do not output commands to restore comments, even if the archive
301 contains them.
302 --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 This option is effective only when restoring directly into a
314 database, not when producing SQL script output.
315 --no-publications
317 Do not output commands to restore publications, even if the archive
318 contains them.
319 --no-security-labels
321 Do not output commands to restore security labels, even if the
322 archive contains them.
323 --no-subscriptions
325 Do not output commands to restore subscriptions, even if the
326 archive contains them.
327 --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 --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 --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 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 --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 --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 -?
360 --help
361 Show help about pg_restore command line arguments, and exit.
362 pg_restore also accepts the following command line arguments for
364 connection parameters:
365 -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 -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 -U username
381 --username=username
382 User name to connect as.
383 -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 -W
393 --password
394 Force pg_restore to prompt for a password before connecting to a
395 database.
396 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 --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
414 PGHOST
415 PGOPTIONS
416 PGPORT
417 PGUSER
418 Default connection parameters
419 PG_COLOR
421 Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible
422 values are always, auto and never.
423 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
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
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 CREATE DATABASE foo WITH TEMPLATE template0;
444 The limitations of pg_restore are detailed below.
446 • 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 • 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 See also the pg_dump(1) documentation for details on limitations of
460 pg_dump.
461 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
467 Assume we have dumped a database called mydb into a custom-format dump
468 file:
469 $ pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
471 To drop the database and recreate it from the dump:
473 $ dropdb mydb
475 $ pg_restore -C -d postgres db.dump
476 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 To restore the dump into a new database called newdb:
483 $ createdb -T template0 newdb
485 $ pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
486 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 To reorder database items, it is first necessary to dump the table of
492 contents of the archive:
493 $ pg_restore -l db.dump > db.list
495 The listing file consists of a header and one line for each item, e.g.:
497 ;
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 Semicolons start a comment, and the numbers at the start of lines refer
520 to the internal archive ID assigned to each item.
521 Lines in the file can be commented out, deleted, and reordered. For
523 example:
524 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 could be used as input to pg_restore and would only restore items 10
532 and 6, in that order:
533 $ pg_restore -L db.list db.dump
535
537 pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)
538PostgreSQL 15.4 2023 PG_RESTORE(1)