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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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