pg_dumpall(1) - man - phpman

PG_DUMPALL(1)                      PostgreSQL 14.23 Documentation                      PG_DUMPALL(1)



NAME
       pg_dumpall - extract a PostgreSQL database cluster into a script file

SYNOPSIS
       pg_dumpall [connection-option...] [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 databases. It does this by calling pg_dump(1) for each database in the
       cluster.  pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all databases, that is,
       database roles and tablespaces. (pg_dump does not save these objects.)

       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 roles and create
       databases.

       The SQL script will be written to the standard output. Use the -f/--file option or shell
       operators 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 will ask for a password each time. It is convenient to
       have a ~/.pgpass file in such cases. See Section 34.16 for more information.

           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.
           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.

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

       -c
       --clean
           Emit SQL commands to DROP all the dumped databases, roles, and tablespaces before
           recreating them. This option is useful when the restore is to overwrite an existing
           cluster. If any of the objects do not exist in the destination cluster, ignorable error
           messages will be reported during restore, unless --if-exists is also specified.

       -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.)

       -f filename
       --file=filename
           Send output to the specified file. If this is omitted, the standard output is used.

       -g
       --globals-only
           Dump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no databases.

       -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.

       -r
       --roles-only
           Dump only roles, no databases or tablespaces.

       -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 relevant only if
           --disable-triggers is used. (Usually, it's better to leave this out, and instead start
           the resulting script as superuser.)

       -t
       --tablespaces-only
           Dump only tablespaces, no databases or roles.

       -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. Repeating the option causes additional
           debug-level messages to appear on standard error. The option is also passed down to
           pg_dump.

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

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

       --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.

       --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_dumpall 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.

       --exclude-database=pattern
           Do not dump databases whose name matches pattern. Multiple patterns can be excluded by
           writing multiple --exclude-database 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 databases can also be excluded by writing wildcard characters in the pattern.
           When using wildcards, be careful to quote the pattern if needed to prevent shell wildcard
           expansion.

       --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.

       --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 might fail altogether if you have rearranged column order. The
           --column-inserts option is safer, 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.

       --no-comments
           Do not dump comments.

       --no-publications
           Do not dump publications.

       --no-role-passwords
           Do not dump passwords for roles. When restored, roles will have a null password, and
           password authentication will always fail until the password is set. Since password values
           aren't needed when this option is specified, the role information is read from the
           catalog view pg_roles instead of pg_authid. Therefore, this option also helps if access
           to pg_authid is restricted by some security policy.

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

       --no-subscriptions
           Do not dump subscriptions.

       --no-sync
           By default, pg_dumpall will wait for all files to be written safely to disk. This option
           causes pg_dumpall 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-tablespaces
           Do not output commands to create tablespaces nor select tablespaces for objects. With
           this option, all objects will be created in whichever tablespace is the default during
           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.

       --on-conflict-do-nothing
           Add ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING to INSERT commands. This option is not valid unless --inserts
           or --column-inserts 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_dumpall's, or when the
           output is intended to be loaded into a server of a different major version. By default,
           pg_dumpall 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. If no restrict key
           is specified, pg_dumpall 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.

       --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.

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

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

       -d connstr
       --dbname=connstr
           Specifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a connection string; these will
           override any conflicting command line options.

           The option is called --dbname for consistency with other client applications, but because
           pg_dumpall needs to connect to many databases, the database name in the connection string
           will be ignored. Use the -l option to specify the name of the database used for the
           initial connection, which will dump global objects and discover what other databases
           should be dumped.

       -h host
       --host=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.

       -l dbname
       --database=dbname
           Specifies the name of the database to connect to for dumping global objects and
           discovering what other databases should be dumped. If not specified, the postgres
           database will be used, and if that does not exist, template1 will be used.

       -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_dumpall to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

           This option is never essential, since pg_dumpall will automatically prompt for a password
           if the server demands password authentication. However, pg_dumpall 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.

           Note that the password prompt will occur again for each database to be dumped. Usually,
           it's better to set up a ~/.pgpass file than to rely on manual password entry.

       --role=rolename
           Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump. This option causes pg_dumpall 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_dumpall, 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
       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).

NOTES
       Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic messages will refer to pg_dump.

       The --clean option can be useful even when your intention is to restore the dump script into
       a fresh cluster. Use of --clean authorizes the script to drop and re-create the built-in
       postgres and template1 databases, ensuring that those databases will retain the same
       properties (for instance, locale and encoding) that they had in the source cluster. Without
       the option, those databases will retain their existing database-level properties, as well as
       any pre-existing contents.

       Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so the optimizer has useful
       statistics. You can also run vacuumdb -a -z to analyze all databases.

       The dump script should not be expected to run completely without errors. In particular,
       because the script will issue CREATE ROLE for every role existing in the source cluster, it
       is certain to get a “role already exists” error for the bootstrap superuser, unless the
       destination cluster was initialized with a different bootstrap superuser name. This error is
       harmless and should be ignored. Use of the --clean option is likely to produce additional
       harmless error messages about non-existent objects, although you can minimize those by adding
       --if-exists.

       pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace directories to exist before the restore; otherwise,
       database creation will fail for databases in non-default locations.

       It is generally recommended to use the -X (--no-psqlrc) option when restoring a database from
       a pg_dumpall script to ensure a clean restore process and prevent potential conflicts with
       non-default psql configurations. Additionally, because the pg_dumpall script may include psql
       meta-commands, it may be incompatible with clients other than psql.

EXAMPLES
       To dump all databases:

           $ pg_dumpall > db.out

       To restore database(s) from this file, you can use:

           $ psql -X -f db.out -d postgres

       It is not important which database you connect to here since the script file created by
       pg_dumpall will contain the appropriate commands to create and connect to the saved
       databases. An exception is that if you specified --clean, you must connect to the postgres
       database initially; the script will attempt to drop other databases immediately, and that
       will fail for the database you are connected to.

SEE ALSO
       Check pg_dump(1) for details on possible error conditions.



PostgreSQL 14.23                                2026                                   PG_DUMPALL(1)