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TLDR: pg_dump (tldr-pages)

Extract a PostgreSQL database into a script file or other archive file.

  • Dump database into an SQL-script file
    pg_dump {{db_name}} > {{output_file.sql}}
  • Same as above, customize username
    pg_dump {{-U|--username}} {{username}} {{db_name}} > {{output_file.sql}}
  • Same as above, customize host and port
    pg_dump {{-h|--host}} {{host}} {{-p|--port}} {{port}} {{db_name}} > {{output_file.sql}}
  • Dump a database into a custom-format archive file
    pg_dump {{-F|--format}} {{c|custom}} {{db_name}} > {{output_file.dump}}
  • Dump only database data into an SQL-script file
    pg_dump {{-a|--data-only}} {{db_name}} > {{path/to/output_file.sql}}
  • Dump only schema (data definitions) into an SQL-script file
    pg_dump {{-s|--schema-only}} {{db_name}} > {{path/to/output_file.sql}}
PG_DUMP(1)                         PostgreSQL 14.23 Documentation                         PG_DUMP(1)



NAME
       pg_dump - extract a PostgreSQL database into a script file or other archive file

SYNOPSIS
       pg_dump [connection-option...] [option...] [dbname]

DESCRIPTION
       pg_dump is a utility for backing up a PostgreSQL database. It makes consistent backups even
       if the database is being used concurrently.  pg_dump does not block other users accessing the
       database (readers or writers).

       pg_dump only dumps a single database. To back up an entire cluster, or to back up global
       objects that are common to all databases in a cluster (such as roles and tablespaces), use
       pg_dumpall(1).

       Dumps can be output in script or archive file formats. Script dumps are plain-text files
       containing the SQL commands required to reconstruct the database to the state it was in at
       the time it was saved. To restore from such a script, feed it to psql(1). Script files can be
       used to reconstruct the database even on other machines and other architectures; with some
       modifications, even on other SQL database products.

       The alternative archive file formats must be used with pg_restore(1) to rebuild the database.
       They allow pg_restore to be selective about what is restored, or even to reorder the items
       prior to being restored. The archive file formats are designed to be portable across
       architectures.

       When used with one of the archive file formats and combined with pg_restore, pg_dump provides
       a flexible archival and transfer mechanism.  pg_dump can be used to backup an entire
       database, then pg_restore can be used to examine the archive and/or select which parts of the
       database are to be restored. The most flexible output file formats are the “custom” format
       (-Fc) and the “directory” format (-Fd). They allow for selection and reordering of all
       archived items, support parallel restoration, and are compressed by default. The “directory”
       format is the only format that supports parallel dumps.

       While running pg_dump, one should examine the output for any warnings (printed on standard
       error), especially in light of the limitations listed below.

           Warning
           Restoring a dump causes the destination to execute arbitrary code of the source
           superusers' choice. Partial dumps and partial restores do not limit that. If the source
           superusers are not trusted, the dumped SQL statements must be inspected before restoring.
           Non-plain-text dumps can be inspected by using pg_restore's --file option. Note that the
           client running the dump and restore need not trust the source or destination superusers.

OPTIONS
       The following command-line options control the content and format of the output.

       dbname
           Specifies the name of the database to be dumped. If this is not specified, the
           environment variable PGDATABASE is used. If that is not set, the user name specified for
           the connection is used.

       -a
       --data-only
           Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions). Table data, large objects, and
           sequence values are dumped.

           This option is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical to, specifying
           --section=data.

       -b
       --blobs
           Include large objects in the dump. This is the default behavior except when --schema,
           --table, or --schema-only is specified. The -b switch is therefore only useful to add
           large objects to dumps where a specific schema or table has been requested. Note that
           blobs are considered data and therefore will be included when --data-only is used, but
           not when --schema-only is.

       -B
       --no-blobs
           Exclude large objects in the dump.

           When both -b and -B are given, the behavior is to output large objects, when data is
           being dumped, see the -b documentation.

       -c
       --clean
           Output commands to DROP all the dumped database objects prior to outputting the commands
           for creating them. This option is useful when the restore is to overwrite an existing
           database. If any of the objects do not exist in the destination database, ignorable error
           messages will be reported during restore, unless --if-exists is also specified.

           This option is ignored when emitting an archive (non-text) output file. For the archive
           formats, you can specify the option when you call pg_restore.

       -C
       --create
           Begin the output with a command to create the database itself and reconnect to the
           created database. (With a script of this form, it doesn't matter which database in the
           destination installation you connect to before running the script.) If --clean is also
           specified, the script drops and recreates the target database before reconnecting to it.

           With --create, the output also includes the database's comment if any, and any
           configuration variable settings that are specific to this database, that is, any ALTER
           DATABASE ... SET ...  and ALTER ROLE ... IN DATABASE ... SET ...  commands that mention
           this database. Access privileges for the database itself are also dumped, unless --no-acl
           is specified.

           This option is ignored when emitting an archive (non-text) output file. For the archive
           formats, you can specify the option when you call pg_restore.

       -e pattern
       --extension=pattern
           Dump only extensions matching pattern. When this option is not specified, all non-system
           extensions in the target database will be dumped. Multiple extensions can be selected by
           writing multiple -e switches. The pattern parameter is interpreted as a pattern according
           to the same rules used by psql's \d commands (see Patterns), so multiple extensions can
           also be selected by writing wildcard characters in the pattern. When using wildcards, be
           careful to quote the pattern if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards.

           Any configuration relation registered by pg_extension_config_dump is included in the dump
           if its extension is specified by --extension.

               Note
               When -e is specified, pg_dump makes no attempt to dump any other database objects
               that the selected extension(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee
               that the results of a specific-extension dump can be successfully restored by
               themselves into a clean database.

       -E encoding
       --encoding=encoding
           Create the dump in the specified character set encoding. By default, the dump is created
           in the database encoding. (Another way to get the same result is to set the
           PGCLIENTENCODING environment variable to the desired dump encoding.) The supported
           encodings are described in Section 24.3.1.

       -f file
       --file=file
           Send output to the specified file. This parameter can be omitted for file based output
           formats, in which case the standard output is used. It must be given for the directory
           output format however, where it specifies the target directory instead of a file. In this
           case the directory is created by pg_dump and must not exist before.

       -F format
       --format=format
           Selects the format of the output.  format can be one of the following:

           p
           plain
               Output a plain-text SQL script file (the default).

           c
           custom
               Output a custom-format archive suitable for input into pg_restore. Together with the
               directory output format, this is the most flexible output format in that it allows
               manual selection and reordering of archived items during restore. This format is also
               compressed by default.

           d
           directory
               Output a directory-format archive suitable for input into pg_restore. This will
               create a directory with one file for each table and blob being dumped, plus a
               so-called Table of Contents file describing the dumped objects in a machine-readable
               format that pg_restore can read. A directory format archive can be manipulated with
               standard Unix tools; for example, files in an uncompressed archive can be compressed
               with the gzip tool. This format is compressed by default and also supports parallel
               dumps.

           t
           tar
               Output a tar-format archive suitable for input into pg_restore. The tar format is
               compatible with the directory format: extracting a tar-format archive produces a
               valid directory-format archive. However, the tar format does not support compression.
               Also, when using tar format the relative order of table data items cannot be changed
               during restore.

       -j njobs
       --jobs=njobs
           Run the dump in parallel by dumping njobs tables simultaneously. This option may reduce
           the time needed to perform the dump but it also increases the load on the database
           server. You can only use this option with the directory output format because this is the
           only output format where multiple processes can write their data at the same time.

           pg_dump will open njobs + 1 connections to the database, so make sure your
           max_connections setting is high enough to accommodate all connections.

           Requesting exclusive locks on database objects while running a parallel dump could cause
           the dump to fail. The reason is that the pg_dump leader process requests shared locks
           (ACCESS SHARE) on the objects that the worker processes are going to dump later in order
           to make sure that nobody deletes them and makes them go away while the dump is running.
           If another client then requests an exclusive lock on a table, that lock will not be
           granted but will be queued waiting for the shared lock of the leader process to be
           released. Consequently any other access to the table will not be granted either and will
           queue after the exclusive lock request. This includes the worker process trying to dump
           the table. Without any precautions this would be a classic deadlock situation. To detect
           this conflict, the pg_dump worker process requests another shared lock using the NOWAIT
           option. If the worker process is not granted this shared lock, somebody else must have
           requested an exclusive lock in the meantime and there is no way to continue with the
           dump, so pg_dump has no choice but to abort the dump.

           For a consistent backup, the database server needs to support synchronized snapshots, a
           feature that was introduced in PostgreSQL 9.2 for primary servers and 10 for standbys.
           With this feature, database clients can ensure they see the same data set even though
           they use different connections.  pg_dump -j uses multiple database connections; it
           connects to the database once with the leader process and once again for each worker job.
           Without the synchronized snapshot feature, the different worker jobs wouldn't be
           guaranteed to see the same data in each connection, which could lead to an inconsistent
           backup.

           If you want to run a parallel dump of a pre-9.2 server, you need to make sure that the
           database content doesn't change from between the time the leader connects to the database
           until the last worker job has connected to the database. The easiest way to do this is to
           halt any data modifying processes (DDL and DML) accessing the database before starting
           the backup. You also need to specify the --no-synchronized-snapshots parameter when
           running pg_dump -j against a pre-9.2 PostgreSQL server.

       -n pattern
       --schema=pattern
           Dump only schemas matching pattern; this selects both the schema itself, and all its
           contained objects. When this option is not specified, all non-system schemas in the
           target database will be dumped. Multiple schemas can be selected by writing multiple -n
           switches. The pattern parameter is interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules
           used by psql's \d commands (see Patterns below), so multiple schemas can also be selected
           by writing wildcard characters in the pattern. When using wildcards, be careful to quote
           the pattern if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards; see Examples
           below.

               Note
               When -n is specified, pg_dump makes no attempt to dump any other database objects
               that the selected schema(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee that
               the results of a specific-schema dump can be successfully restored by themselves into
               a clean database.

               Note
               Non-schema objects such as blobs are not dumped when -n is specified. You can add
               blobs back to the dump with the --blobs switch.

       -N pattern
       --exclude-schema=pattern
           Do not dump any schemas matching pattern. The pattern is interpreted according to the
           same rules as for -n.  -N can be given more than once to exclude schemas matching any of
           several patterns.

           When both -n and -N are given, the behavior is to dump just the schemas that match at
           least one -n switch but no -N switches. If -N appears without -n, then schemas matching
           -N are excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.

       -O
       --no-owner
           Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the original database. By
           default, pg_dump issues ALTER OWNER or SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set
           ownership of created database objects. 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.

           This option is ignored when emitting an archive (non-text) output file. For the archive
           formats, you can specify the option when you call pg_restore.

       -R
       --no-reconnect
           This option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards compatibility.

       -s
       --schema-only
           Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.

           This option is the inverse of --data-only. It is similar to, but for historical reasons
           not identical to, specifying --section=pre-data --section=post-data.

           (Do not confuse this with the --schema option, which uses the word “schema” in a
           different meaning.)

           To exclude table data for only a subset of tables in the database, see
           --exclude-table-data.

       -S username
       --superuser=username
           Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers. This is relevant only if
           --disable-triggers is used. (Usually, it's better to leave this out, and instead start
           the resulting script as superuser.)

       -t pattern
       --table=pattern
           Dump only tables with names matching pattern. Multiple tables can be selected by writing
           multiple -t switches. The pattern parameter is interpreted as a pattern according to the
           same rules used by psql's \d commands (see Patterns below), so multiple tables can also
           be selected by writing wildcard characters in the pattern. When using wildcards, be
           careful to quote the pattern if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards;
           see Examples below.

           As well as tables, this option can be used to dump the definition of matching views,
           materialized views, foreign tables, and sequences. It will not dump the contents of views
           or materialized views, and the contents of foreign tables will only be dumped if the
           corresponding foreign server is specified with --include-foreign-data.

           The -n and -N switches have no effect when -t is used, because tables selected by -t will
           be dumped regardless of those switches, and non-table objects will not be dumped.

               Note
               When -t is specified, pg_dump makes no attempt to dump any other database objects
               that the selected table(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee that
               the results of a specific-table dump can be successfully restored by themselves into
               a clean database.

       -T pattern
       --exclude-table=pattern
           Do not dump any tables matching pattern. The pattern is interpreted according to the same
           rules as for -t.  -T can be given more than once to exclude tables matching any of
           several patterns.

           When both -t and -T are given, the behavior is to dump just the tables that match at
           least one -t switch but no -T switches. If -T appears without -t, then tables matching -T
           are excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.

       -v
       --verbose
           Specifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dump to output detailed object comments and
           start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to standard error. Repeating the
           option causes additional debug-level messages to appear on standard error.

       -V
       --version
           Print the pg_dump version and exit.

       -x
       --no-privileges
       --no-acl
           Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).

       -Z 0..9
       --compress=0..9
           Specify the compression level to use. Zero means no compression. For the custom and
           directory archive formats, this specifies compression of individual table-data segments,
           and the default is to compress at a moderate level. For plain text output, setting a
           nonzero compression level causes the entire output file to be compressed, as though it
           had been fed through gzip; but the default is not to compress. The tar archive format
           currently does not support compression at all.

       --binary-upgrade
           This option is for use by in-place upgrade utilities. Its use for other purposes is not
           recommended or supported. The behavior of the option may change in future releases
           without notice.

       --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. Any error during restoring will cause
           only rows that are part of the problematic INSERT to be lost, rather than the entire
           table contents.

       --disable-dollar-quoting
           This option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bodies, and forces them to be
           quoted using SQL standard string syntax.

       --disable-triggers
           This option is relevant only when creating a data-only dump. It instructs pg_dump to
           include commands to temporarily disable triggers on the target tables while the data is
           restored. Use this if you have referential integrity checks or other triggers on the
           tables that you do not want to invoke during data restore.

           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.

           This option is ignored when emitting an archive (non-text) output file. For the archive
           formats, you can specify the option when you call pg_restore.

       --enable-row-security
           This option is relevant only when dumping the contents of a table which has row security.
           By default, pg_dump will set row_security to off, to ensure that all data is dumped from
           the table. If the user does not have sufficient privileges to bypass row security, then
           an error is thrown. This parameter instructs pg_dump to set row_security to on instead,
           allowing the user to dump the parts of the contents of the table that they have access
           to.

           Note that if you use this option currently, you probably also want the dump be in INSERT
           format, as the COPY FROM during restore does not support row security.

       --exclude-table-data=pattern
           Do not dump data for any tables matching pattern. The pattern is interpreted according to
           the same rules as for -t.  --exclude-table-data can be given more than once to exclude
           tables matching any of several patterns. This option is useful when you need the
           definition of a particular table even though you do not need the data in it.

           To exclude data for all tables in the database, see --schema-only.

       --extra-float-digits=ndigits
           Use the specified value of extra_float_digits when dumping floating-point data, instead
           of the maximum available precision. Routine dumps made for backup purposes should not use
           this option.

       --if-exists
           Use DROP ... IF EXISTS commands to drop objects in --clean mode. This suppresses “does
           not exist” errors that might otherwise be reported. This option is not valid unless
           --clean is also specified.

       --include-foreign-data=foreignserver
           Dump the data for any foreign table with a foreign server matching foreignserver pattern.
           Multiple foreign servers can be selected by writing multiple --include-foreign-data
           switches. Also, the foreignserver parameter is interpreted as a pattern according to the
           same rules used by psql's \d commands (see Patterns below), so multiple foreign servers
           can also be selected by writing wildcard characters in the pattern. When using wildcards,
           be careful to quote the pattern if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the
           wildcards; see Examples below. The only exception is that an empty pattern is disallowed.

               Note
               Using wildcards in --include-foreign-data may result in access to unexpected foreign
               servers. Also, to use this option securely, make sure that the named server must have
               a trusted owner.

               Note
               When --include-foreign-data is specified, pg_dump does not check that the foreign
               table is writable. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the results of a foreign
               table dump can be successfully restored.

       --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. Any
           error during restoring will cause only rows that are part of the problematic INSERT to be
           lost, rather than the entire table contents. Note that the restore might fail altogether
           if you have rearranged column order. The --column-inserts option is safe against column
           order changes, though even slower.

       --load-via-partition-root
           When dumping data for a table partition, make the COPY or INSERT statements target the
           root of the partitioning hierarchy that contains it, rather than the partition itself.
           This causes the appropriate partition to be re-determined for each row when the data is
           loaded. This may be useful when restoring data on a server where rows do not always fall
           into the same partitions as they did on the original server. That could happen, for
           example, if the partitioning column is of type text and the two systems have different
           definitions of the collation used to sort the partitioning column.

       --lock-wait-timeout=timeout
           Do not wait forever to acquire shared table locks at the beginning of the dump. Instead
           fail if unable to lock a table within the specified timeout. The timeout may be specified
           in any of the formats accepted by SET statement_timeout. (Allowed formats vary depending
           on the server version you are dumping from, but an integer number of milliseconds is
           accepted by all versions.)

       --no-comments
           Do not dump comments.

       --no-publications
           Do not dump publications.

       --no-security-labels
           Do not dump security labels.

       --no-subscriptions
           Do not dump subscriptions.

       --no-sync
           By default, pg_dump will wait for all files to be written safely to disk. This option
           causes pg_dump to return without waiting, which is faster, but means that a subsequent
           operating system crash can leave the dump corrupt. Generally, this option is useful for
           testing but should not be used when dumping data from production installation.

       --no-synchronized-snapshots
           This option allows running pg_dump -j against a pre-9.2 server, see the documentation of
           the -j parameter for more details.

       --no-tablespaces
           Do not output commands to select tablespaces. With this option, all objects will be
           created in whichever tablespace is the default during restore.

           This option is ignored when emitting an archive (non-text) output file. For the archive
           formats, you can specify the option when you call pg_restore.

       --no-toast-compression
           Do not output commands to set TOAST compression methods. With this option, all columns
           will be restored with the default compression setting.

       --no-unlogged-table-data
           Do not dump the contents of unlogged tables. This option has no effect on whether or not
           the table definitions (schema) are dumped; it only suppresses dumping the table data.
           Data in unlogged tables is always excluded when dumping from a standby server.

       --on-conflict-do-nothing
           Add ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING to INSERT commands. This option is not valid unless --inserts,
           --column-inserts or --rows-per-insert is also specified.

       --quote-all-identifiers
           Force quoting of all identifiers. This option is recommended when dumping a database from
           a server whose PostgreSQL major version is different from pg_dump's, or when the output
           is intended to be loaded into a server of a different major version. By default, pg_dump
           quotes only identifiers that are reserved words in its own major version. This sometimes
           results in compatibility issues when dealing with servers of other versions that may have
           slightly different sets of reserved words. Using --quote-all-identifiers prevents such
           issues, at the price of a harder-to-read dump script.

       --restrict-key=restrict_key
           Use the provided string as the psql \restrict key in the dump output. This can only be
           specified for plain-text dumps, i.e., when --format is set to plain or the --format
           option is omitted. If no restrict key is specified, pg_dump will generate a random one as
           needed. Keys may contain only alphanumeric characters.

           This option is primarily intended for testing purposes and other scenarios that require
           repeatable output (e.g., comparing dump files). It is not recommended for general use, as
           a malicious server with advance knowledge of the key may be able to inject arbitrary code
           that will be executed on the machine that runs psql with the dump output.

       --rows-per-insert=nrows
           Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than COPY). Controls the maximum number of rows per
           INSERT command. The value specified must be a number greater than zero. Any error during
           restoring will cause only rows that are part of the problematic INSERT to be lost, rather
           than the entire table contents.

       --section=sectionname
           Only dump the named section. The section name can be pre-data, data, or post-data. This
           option can be specified more than once to select multiple sections. The default is to
           dump all sections.

           The data section contains actual table data, large-object contents, and sequence values.
           Post-data items include definitions of indexes, triggers, rules, and constraints other
           than validated check constraints. Pre-data items include all other data definition items.

       --serializable-deferrable
           Use a serializable transaction for the dump, to ensure that the snapshot used is
           consistent with later database states; but do this by waiting for a point in the
           transaction stream at which no anomalies can be present, so that there isn't a risk of
           the dump failing or causing other transactions to roll back with a serialization_failure.
           See Chapter 13 for more information about transaction isolation and concurrency control.

           This option is not beneficial for a dump which is intended only for disaster recovery. It
           could be useful for a dump used to load a copy of the database for reporting or other
           read-only load sharing while the original database continues to be updated. Without it
           the dump may reflect a state which is not consistent with any serial execution of the
           transactions eventually committed. For example, if batch processing techniques are used,
           a batch may show as closed in the dump without all of the items which are in the batch
           appearing.

           This option will make no difference if there are no read-write transactions active when
           pg_dump is started. If read-write transactions are active, the start of the dump may be
           delayed for an indeterminate length of time. Once running, performance with or without
           the switch is the same.

       --snapshot=snapshotname
           Use the specified synchronized snapshot when making a dump of the database (see
           Table 9.90 for more details).

           This option is useful when needing to synchronize the dump with a logical replication
           slot (see Chapter 49) or with a concurrent session.

           In the case of a parallel dump, the snapshot name defined by this option is used rather
           than taking a new snapshot.

       --strict-names
           Require that each extension (-e/--extension), schema (-n/--schema) and table (-t/--table)
           qualifier match at least one extension/schema/table in the database to be dumped. Note
           that if none of the extension/schema/table qualifiers find matches, pg_dump will generate
           an error even without --strict-names.

           This option has no effect on -N/--exclude-schema, -T/--exclude-table, or
           --exclude-table-data. An exclude pattern failing to match any objects is not considered
           an error.

       --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, might not restore properly. Also, a dump using
           SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION will certainly require superuser privileges to restore
           correctly, whereas ALTER OWNER requires lesser privileges.

       -?
       --help
           Show help about pg_dump command line arguments, and exit.

       The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.

       -d dbname
       --dbname=dbname
           Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is equivalent to specifying dbname
           as the first non-option argument on the command line. The dbname can be a connection
           string. If so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line
           options.

       -h host
       --host=host
           Specifies the host name of the machine on which the 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
       --port=port
           Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is
           listening for connections. Defaults to the PGPORT environment variable, if set, or a
           compiled-in default.

       -U username
       --username=username
           User name to connect as.

       -w
       --no-password
           Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password authentication and a
           password is not available by other means such as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt
           will fail. This option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present
           to enter a password.

       -W
       --password
           Force pg_dump to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

           This option is never essential, since pg_dump will automatically prompt for a password if
           the server demands password authentication. However, pg_dump will waste a connection
           attempt finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is worth typing -W
           to avoid the extra connection attempt.

       --role=rolename
           Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump. This option causes pg_dump to issue
           a SET ROLE rolename command after connecting to the database. It is useful when the
           authenticated user (specified by -U) lacks privileges needed by pg_dump, but can switch
           to a role with the required rights. Some installations have a policy against logging in
           directly as a superuser, and use of this option allows dumps to be made without violating
           the policy.

ENVIRONMENT
       PGDATABASE
       PGHOST
       PGOPTIONS
       PGPORT
       PGUSER
           Default connection parameters.

       PG_COLOR
           Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto
           and never.

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables
       supported by libpq (see Section 34.15).

DIAGNOSTICS
       pg_dump internally executes SELECT statements. If you have problems running pg_dump, make
       sure you are able to select information from the database using, for example, psql(1). Also,
       any default connection settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library
       will apply.

       The database activity of pg_dump is normally collected by the statistics collector. If this
       is undesirable, you can set parameter track_counts to false via PGOPTIONS or the ALTER USER
       command.

NOTES
       If your database cluster has any local additions to the template1 database, be careful to
       restore the output of pg_dump into a truly empty database; otherwise you are likely to get
       errors due to duplicate definitions of the added objects. To make an empty database without
       any local additions, copy from template0 not template1, for example:

           CREATE DATABASE foo WITH TEMPLATE template0;

       When a data-only dump is chosen and the option --disable-triggers is used, pg_dump emits
       commands to disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data, and then commands to
       re-enable them after the data has been inserted. If the restore is stopped in the middle, the
       system catalogs might be left in the wrong state.

       The dump file produced by pg_dump does not contain the statistics used by the optimizer to
       make query planning decisions. Therefore, it is wise to run ANALYZE after restoring from a
       dump file to ensure optimal performance; see Section 25.1.3 and Section 25.1.6 for more
       information.

       Because pg_dump is used to transfer data to newer versions of PostgreSQL, the output of
       pg_dump can be expected to load into PostgreSQL server versions newer than pg_dump's version.
       pg_dump can also dump from PostgreSQL servers older than its own version. (Currently, servers
       back to version 8.0 are supported.) However, pg_dump cannot dump from PostgreSQL servers
       newer than its own major version; it will refuse to even try, rather than risk making an
       invalid dump. Also, it is not guaranteed that pg_dump's output can be loaded into a server of
       an older major version — not even if the dump was taken from a server of that version.
       Loading a dump file into an older server may require manual editing of the dump file to
       remove syntax not understood by the older server. Use of the --quote-all-identifiers option
       is recommended in cross-version cases, as it can prevent problems arising from varying
       reserved-word lists in different PostgreSQL versions.

       When dumping logical replication subscriptions, pg_dump will generate CREATE SUBSCRIPTION
       commands that use the connect = false option, so that restoring the subscription does not
       make remote connections for creating a replication slot or for initial table copy. That way,
       the dump can be restored without requiring network access to the remote servers. It is then
       up to the user to reactivate the subscriptions in a suitable way. If the involved hosts have
       changed, the connection information might have to be changed. It might also be appropriate to
       truncate the target tables before initiating a new full table copy.

       It is generally recommended to use the -X (--no-psqlrc) option when restoring a database from
       a plain-text pg_dump script to ensure a clean restore process and prevent potential conflicts
       with non-default psql configurations.

EXAMPLES
       To dump a database called mydb into an SQL-script file:

           $ pg_dump mydb > db.sql

       To reload such a script into a (freshly created) database named newdb:

           $ psql -X -d newdb -f db.sql

       To dump a database into a custom-format archive file:

           $ pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump

       To dump a database into a directory-format archive:

           $ pg_dump -Fd mydb -f dumpdir

       To dump a database into a directory-format archive in parallel with 5 worker jobs:

           $ pg_dump -Fd mydb -j 5 -f dumpdir

       To reload an archive file into a (freshly created) database named newdb:

           $ pg_restore -d newdb db.dump

       To reload an archive file into the same database it was dumped from, discarding the current
       contents of that database:

           $ pg_restore -d postgres --clean --create db.dump

       To dump a single table named mytab:

           $ pg_dump -t mytab mydb > db.sql

       To dump all tables whose names start with emp in the detroit schema, except for the table
       named employee_log:

           $ pg_dump -t 'detroit.emp*' -T detroit.employee_log mydb > db.sql

       To dump all schemas whose names start with east or west and end in gsm, excluding any schemas
       whose names contain the word test:

           $ pg_dump -n 'east*gsm' -n 'west*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql

       The same, using regular expression notation to consolidate the switches:

           $ pg_dump -n '(east|west)*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql

       To dump all database objects except for tables whose names begin with ts_:

           $ pg_dump -T 'ts_*' mydb > db.sql

       To specify an upper-case or mixed-case name in -t and related switches, you need to
       double-quote the name; else it will be folded to lower case (see Patterns below). But double
       quotes are special to the shell, so in turn they must be quoted. Thus, to dump a single table
       with a mixed-case name, you need something like

           $ pg_dump -t "\"MixedCaseName\"" mydb > mytab.sql

SEE ALSO
       pg_dumpall(1), pg_restore(1), psql(1)



PostgreSQL 14.23                                2026                                      PG_DUMP(1)
pg_dump(1)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS
-a --data-only -b --blobs -B --no-blobs -c --clean -C --create -e pattern -E encoding -f file -F format -j njobs -n pattern -N pattern -O --no-owner -R --no-reconnect -s --schema-only -S username -t pattern -T pattern -v --verbose -V --version -x --no-privileges --no-acl -Z 0..9 --binary-upgrade --column-inserts --attribute-inserts --disable-dollar-quoting --disable-triggers --enable-row-security --if-exists --inserts --load-via-partition-root --no-comments --no-publications --no-security-labels --no-subscriptions --no-sync --no-synchronized-snapshots --no-tablespaces --no-toast-compression --no-unlogged-table-data --on-conflict-do-nothing --quote-all-identifiers --serializable-deferrable --strict-names --use-set-session-authorization --help -d dbname -h host -p port -U username -w --no-password -W --password
ENVIRONMENT DIAGNOSTICS NOTES EXAMPLES SEE ALSO

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