PG_RESTORE(1) PostgreSQL Client Applications PG_RESTORE(1)NAMEpg_restore - restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive file cre‐
ated by pg_dump
SYNOPSISpg_restore [ option... ] [ filename ]
DESCRIPTIONpg_restore is a utility for restoring a PostgreSQL database from an ar‐
chive 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,
pg_restore connects to that database and restores archive contents
directly into the database. Otherwise, a script containing the SQL com‐
mands necessary to rebuild the database is created and written to a
file or standard output. This 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.
OPTIONSpg_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 definitions).
-c
--clean
Clean (drop) database objects before recreating them.
-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 data‐
base.
-e
--exit-on-error
Exit if an error is encountered while sending SQL commands to
the database. The default is to continue and to display a count
of errors at the end of the restoration.
-f filename
--file=filename
Specify output file for generated script, or for the listing
when used with -l. Default is the standard output.
-F format
--format=format
Specify format of the archive. It is not necessary to specify
the format, since pg_restore will determine the format automati‐
cally. If specified, it can be one of the following:
t
tar The archive is a tar archive.
c
custom The archive is in the custom format of pg_dump.
-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 as input to the -L option. Note that if filtering
switches such as -n or -t are used with -l, they will restrict
the items listed.
-L list-file
--use-list=list-file
Restore only those archive elements that are listed in list-
file, and restore them in the order they appear in the file.
Note that if filtering switches such as -n or -t are used with
-L, they will further restrict the items restored.
list-file is normally created by editing the output of a previ‐
ous -l operation. Lines can be moved or removed, and can also
be commented out by placing a semicolon (;) 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 statements to set ownership of created
schema elements. These statements will fail unless the initial
connection 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 connection, and this user
will own all the created objects.
-P function-name(argtype [, ...])
--function=function-name(argtype [, ...])
Restore the named function only. Be careful to spell the func‐
tion 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 backwards compat‐
ibility.
-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 different 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 com‐
mands).
--disable-triggers
This option is only relevant when performing a data-only
restore. It instructs pg_restore to execute commands to tempo‐
rarily 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 dur‐
ing 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 compatible, but depending on the
history of the objects in the dump, might 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 if the target database already contains the desired table
contents. For example, auxiliary tables for PostgreSQL exten‐
sions such as PostGIS might 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 con‐
nection 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 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 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
--username=username
User name to connect as.
-W
--password
Force pg_restore to prompt for a password before connecting to a
database.
This option is never essential, since pg_restore will automati‐
cally prompt for a password if the server demands password
authentication. However, pg_restore 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.
-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 successfully, 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 envi‐
ronment 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 environment variables used by the libpq front-end library
will apply.
NOTES
If your installation has any local additions to the template1 database,
be careful to load the output of pg_restore into a truly empty data‐
base; otherwise you are likely to get errors due to duplicate defini‐
tions 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.
· 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 then emits 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.
· 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 limitations 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 tem‐
plate0 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
; 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 reordered. 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
SEE ALSOpg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)Application 2013-02-04 PG_RESTORE(1)
