pg_restore(1)
PG_RESTORE(1) PostgreSQL Client Applications PG_RESTORE(1)
NAME
pg_restore - restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive
file created by pg_dump
SYNOPSIS
pg_restore [ option... ] [ filename ]
DESCRIPTION
pg_restore is a utility for restoring a PostgreSQL database
from an archive created by pg_dump(1) in one of the non-
plain-text formats. It will issue the commands necessary to
reconstruct the database to the state it was in at the time
it was saved. The archive files also allow pg_restore to be
selective about what is restored, or even to reorder the
items prior to being restored. The archive files are
designed to be portable across architectures.
pg_restore can operate in two modes. If a database name is
specified, the archive is restored directly into the data-
base. Otherwise, a script containing the SQL commands neces-
sary to rebuild the database is created and written to a
file or standard output. The script output is equivalent to
the plain text output format of pg_dump. Some of the
options controlling the output are therefore analogous to
pg_dump options.
Obviously, pg_restore cannot restore information that is not
present in the archive file. For instance, if the archive
was made using the ``dump data as INSERT commands'' option,
pg_restore will not be able to load the data using COPY
statements.
OPTIONS
pg_restore accepts the following command line arguments.
filename
Specifies the location of the archive file to be
restored. If not specified, the standard input is
used.
-a
--data-only
Restore only the data, not the schema (data defini-
tions).
-c
--clean
Clean (drop) database objects before recreating them.
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-C
--create
Create the database before restoring into it. (When
this option is used, the database named with -d is used
only to issue the initial CREATE DATABASE command. All
data is restored into the database name that appears in
the archive.)
-d dbname
--dbname=dbname
Connect to database dbname and restore directly into
the database.
-e
--exit-on-error
Exit if an error is encountered while sending SQL com-
mands to the database. The default is to continue and
to display a count of errors at the end of the restora-
tion.
-f filename
--file=filename
Specify output file for generated script, or for the
listing when used with -l. Default is the standard out-
put.
-F format
--format=format
Specify format of the archive. It is not necessary to
specify the format, since pg_restore will determine the
format automatically. If specified, it can be one of
the following:
t
tar The archive is a tar archive. Using this archive
format allows reordering and/or exclusion of
schema elements at the time the database is
restored. It is also possible to limit which data
is reloaded at restore time.
c
custom
The archive is in the custom format of pg_dump.
This is the most flexible format in that it allows
reordering of data load as well as schema
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elements. This format is also compressed by
default.
-i
--ignore-version
Ignore database version checks.
-I index
--index=index
Restore definition of named index only.
-l
--list
List the contents of the archive. The output of this
operation can be used with the -L option to restrict
and reorder the items that are restored.
-L list-file
--use-list=list-file
Restore elements in list-file only, and in the order
they appear in the file. Lines can be moved and may
also be commented out by placing a ; at the start of
the line. (See below for examples.)
-n namespace
--schema=schema
Restore only objects that are in the named schema. This
can be combined with the -t option to restore just a
specific table.
-O
--no-owner
Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to
match the original database. By default, pg_restore
issues ALTER OWNER or SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION state-
ments to set ownership of created schema elements.
These statements will fail unless the initial connec-
tion to the database is made by a superuser (or the
same user that owns all of the objects in the script).
With -O, any user name can be used for the initial con-
nection, and this user will own all the created
objects.
-P function-name(argtype [, ...])
--function=function-name(argtype [, ...])
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Restore the named function only. Be careful to spell
the function name and arguments exactly as they appear
in the dump file's table of contents.
-R
--no-reconnect
This option is obsolete but still accepted for back-
wards compatibility.
-s
--schema-only
Restore only the schema (data definitions), not the
data (table contents). Sequence current values will not
be restored, either. (Do not confuse this with the --
schema option, which uses the word ``schema'' in a dif-
ferent meaning.)
-S username
--superuser=username
Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling
triggers. This is only relevant if --disable-triggers
is used.
-t table
--table=table
Restore definition and/or data of named table only.
-T trigger
--trigger=trigger
Restore named trigger only.
-v
--verbose
Specifies verbose mode.
-x
--no-privileges
--no-acl
Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke
commands).
--disable-triggers
This option is only relevant when performing a data-
only restore. It instructs pg_restore to execute
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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 run pg_restore
as a PostgreSQL superuser.
--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 compati-
ble, but depending on the history of the objects in the
dump, may not restore properly.
--no-data-for-failed-tables
By default, table data is restored even if the creation
command for the table failed (e.g., because it already
exists). With this option, data for such a table is
skipped. This behavior is useful when the target data-
base may already contain the desired table contents.
For example, auxiliary tables for PostgreSQL extensions
such as PostGIS may already be loaded in the target
database; specifying this option prevents duplicate or
obsolete data from being loaded into them.
This option is effective only when restoring directly
into a database, not when producing SQL script output.
pg_restore also accepts the following command line arguments
for connection parameters:
-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 vari-
able, 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 connec-
tions. Defaults to the PGPORT environment variable, if
set, or a compiled-in default.
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-U username
Connect as the given user
-W Force a password prompt. This should happen automati-
cally if the server requires password authentication.
-1
--single-transaction
Execute the restore as a single transaction (that is,
wrap the emitted commands in BEGIN/COMMIT). This
ensures that either all the commands complete success-
fully, or no changes are applied. This option implies
--exit-on-error.
ENVIRONMENT
PGHOST
PGPORT
PGUSER
Default connection parameters
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also
uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see in
the documentation).
DIAGNOSTICS
When a direct database connection is specified using the -d
option, pg_restore internally executes SQL statements. If
you have problems running pg_restore, make sure you are able
to select information from the database using, for example,
psql(1). Also, any default connection settings and environ-
ment variables used by the libpq front-end library will
apply.
NOTES
If your installation has any local additions to the tem-
plate1 database, be careful to load the output of pg_restore
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;
The limitations of pg_restore are detailed below.
o When restoring data to a pre-existing table and the option
--disable-triggers is used, pg_restore emits commands to
disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data
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then emits commands to re-enable them after the data has
been inserted. If the restore is stopped in the middle,
the system catalogs may be left in the wrong state.
o pg_restore will not restore large objects for a single
table. If an archive contains large objects, then all
large objects will be restored.
See also the pg_dump(1) documentation for details on limita-
tions of pg_dump.
Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each restored
table so the optimizer has useful statistics.
EXAMPLES
Assume we have dumped a database called mydb into a custom-
format dump file:
$ pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
To drop the database and recreate it from the dump:
$ dropdb mydb
$ pg_restore -C -d postgres db.dump
The database named in the -d switch can be any database
existing in the cluster; pg_restore only uses it to issue
the CREATE DATABASE command for mydb. With -C, data is
always restored into the database name that appears in the
dump file.
To reload the dump into a new database called newdb:
$ createdb -T template0 newdb
$ pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
Notice we don't use -C, and instead connect directly to the
database to be restored into. Also note that we clone the
new database from template0 not template1, to ensure it is
initially empty.
To reorder database items, it is first necessary to dump the
table of contents of the archive:
$ pg_restore -l db.dump > db.list
The listing file consists of a header and one line for each
item, e.g.,
;
; Archive created at Fri Jul 28 22:28:36 2000
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; dbname: mydb
; TOC Entries: 74
; Compression: 0
; Dump Version: 1.4-0
; Format: CUSTOM
;
;
; Selected TOC Entries:
;
2; 145344 TABLE species postgres
3; 145344 ACL species
4; 145359 TABLE nt_header postgres
5; 145359 ACL nt_header
6; 145402 TABLE species_records postgres
7; 145402 ACL species_records
8; 145416 TABLE ss_old postgres
9; 145416 ACL ss_old
10; 145433 TABLE map_resolutions postgres
11; 145433 ACL map_resolutions
12; 145443 TABLE hs_old postgres
13; 145443 ACL hs_old
Semicolons start a comment, and the numbers at the start of
lines refer to the internal archive ID assigned to each
item.
Lines in the file can be commented out, deleted, and reor-
dered. For example,
10; 145433 TABLE map_resolutions postgres
;2; 145344 TABLE species postgres
;4; 145359 TABLE nt_header postgres
6; 145402 TABLE species_records postgres
;8; 145416 TABLE ss_old postgres
could be used as input to pg_restore and would only restore
items 10 and 6, in that order:
$ pg_restore -L db.list db.dump
HISTORY
The pg_restore utility first appeared in PostgreSQL 7.1.
SEE ALSO
pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)
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