pg_dumpall(1)
NAME
pg_dumpall - extract a PostgreSQL database cluster into a script file
SYNOPSIS
pg_dumpall [ option... ]
DESCRIPTION
pg_dumpall is a utility for writing out (``dumping'') all PostgreSQL
databases of a cluster into one script file. The script file contains
SQL commands that can be used as input to psql(1) to restore the data-
bases. It does this by calling pg_dump(1) for each database in a clus-
ter. pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all data-
bases. (pg_dump does not save these objects.) This currently includes
information about database users and groups, and access permissions
that apply to databases as a whole.
Since pg_dumpall reads tables from all databases you will most likely
have to connect as a database superuser in order to produce a complete
dump. Also you will need superuser privileges to execute the saved
script in order to be allowed to add users and groups, and to create
databases.
The SQL script will be written to the standard output. Shell operators
should be used to redirect it into a file.
pg_dumpall needs to connect several times to the PostgreSQL server
(once per database). If you use password authentication it is likely to
ask for a password each time. It is convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file
in such cases. See the documentation for more information.
OPTIONS
The following command-line options control the content and format of
the output.
-a
--data-only
Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions).
-c
--clean
Include SQL commands to clean (drop) databases before recreating
them. DROP commands for roles and tablespaces are added as well.
-d
--inserts
Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than COPY). This will make
restoration very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that
can be loaded into non-PostgreSQL databases. Note that the
restore may fail altogether if you have rearranged column order.
The -D option is safer, though even slower.
-D
--column-inserts
--attribute-inserts
Dump data as INSERT commands with explicit column names (INSERT
INTO table (column, ...) VALUES ...). This will make restoration
very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be
loaded into non-PostgreSQL databases.
-g
--globals-only
Dump only global objects (users and groups), no databases.
-i
--ignore-version
Ignore version mismatch between pg_dumpall and the database
server.
pg_dumpall can handle databases from previous releases of Post-
greSQL, but very old versions are not supported anymore (cur-
rently prior to 7.0). Use this option if you need to override
the version check (and if pg_dumpall then fails, don't say you
weren't warned).
-o
--oids Dump object identifiers (OIDs) as part of the data for every ta-
ble. Use this option if your application references the OID col-
umns in some way (e.g., in a foreign key constraint). Other-
wise, this option should not be used.
-O
--no-owner
Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the
original database. By default, pg_dumpall issues ALTER OWNER or
SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created
schema elements. These statements will fail when the script is
run unless it is started by a superuser (or the same user that
owns all of the objects in the script). To make a script that
can be restored by any user, but will give that user ownership
of all the objects, specify -O.
-s
--schema-only
Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.
-S username
--superuser=username
Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
This is only relevant if --disable-triggers is used. (Usually,
it's better to leave this out, and instead start the resulting
script as superuser.)
-v
--verbose
Specifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dumpall to output
start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to
standard error. It will also enable verbose output in pg_dump.
-x
--no-privileges
--no-acl
Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
-X disable-dollar-quoting
--disable-dollar-quoting
This option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bod-
ies, and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syn-
tax.
-X disable-triggers
--disable-triggers
This option is only relevant when creating a data-only dump. It
instructs pg_dumpall to include commands to temporarily disable
triggers on the target tables while the data is reloaded. Use
this if you have referential integrity checks or other triggers
on the tables that you do not want to invoke during data reload.
Presently, the commands emitted for --disable-triggers must be
done as superuser. So, you should also specify a superuser name
with -S, or preferably be careful to start the resulting script
as a superuser.
-X use-set-session-authorization
--use-set-session-authorization
Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead
of ALTER OWNER commands to determine object ownership. This
makes the dump more standards compatible, but depending on the
history of the objects in the dump, may not restore properly.
The following command-line options control the database connection
parameters.
-h host
Specifies the host name of the machine on which the database
server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used
as the directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is
taken from the PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix
domain socket connection is attempted.
-p port
Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file exten-
sion on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults
to the PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a compiled-in
default.
-U username
Connect as the given user.
-W Force a password prompt. This should happen automatically if the
server requires password authentication.
ENVIRONMENT
PGHOST
PGPORT
PGUSER Default connection parameters
NOTES
Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic messages
will refer to pg_dump.
Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so the opti-
mizer has useful statistics. You can also run vacuumdb -a -z to analyze
all databases.
EXAMPLES
To dump all databases:
$ pg_dumpall > db.out
To reload this database use, for example:
$ psql -f db.out postgres
(It is not important to which database you connect here since the
script file created by pg_dumpall will contain the appropriate commands
to create and connect to the saved databases.)
SEE ALSO
pg_dump(1). Check there for details on possible error conditions. Also
see supported environment variables (the documentation).
Application 2005-11-05 PG_DUMPALL(1)
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