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 [ options... ]
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 re-generate all user-defined types, functions, tables, indexes, aggregates, and operators, as well as
the data in the tables.
The archive files contain information for pg_restore to rebuild the database, but 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 database. Otherwise, a
script containing the SQL commands necessary to rebuild the database is created (and written to a file or standard output), similar to the
ones created by the pg_dump plain text format. Some of the options controlling the script 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 INSERTs'' option, pg_restore will not be able to load the data using COPY statements.
OPTIONS
pg_restore accepts the following command line arguments. (Long option forms are only available on some platforms.)
archive-name
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, no schema (definitions).
-c
--clean
Clean (drop) database objects before recreating them.
-C
--create
Create the database before restoring into it. (When this switch appears, the database named with -d is used only to issue the ini-
tial 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. Large objects can only be restored by using a direct database
connection.
-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 automatically.
If specified, it can be one of the following:
t 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 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 elements. This format is also compressed by default.
-i
--ignore-version
Ignore database version checks.
-I index
--index=index
Restore definition for named index only.
-l
--list List the contents of the archive. The output of this command 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.
-N
--orig-order
Restore items in the original dump order. By default pg_dump will dump items in an order convenient to pg_dump, then save the ar-
chive in a modified OID order. This option overrides the OID ordering.
-o
--oid-order
Restore items in the OID order. By default pg_dump will dump items in an order convenient to pg_dump, then save the archive in a
modified OID order. This option enforces strict OID ordering.
-O
--no-owner
Prevent any attempt to restore original object ownership. Objects will be owned by the user name used to attach to the database.
-P function-name(argtype [, ...])
--function=function-name(argtype [, ...])
Specify a procedure or function to be restored.
-r
--rearrange
Restore items in modified OID order. By default pg_dump will dump items in an order convenient to pg_dump, then save the archive in
a modified OID order. Most objects will be restored in OID order, but some things (e.g., rules and indexes) will be restored at the
end of the process irrespective of their OIDs. This option is the default.
-R
--no-reconnect
While restoring an archive, pg_restore typically has to reconnect to the database several times with different user names to set the
correct ownership of the created objects. If this is undesirable (e.g., because manual interaction (passwords) would be necessary
for each reconnection), this option prevents pg_restore from issuing any reconnection requests. (A connection request while in plain
text mode, not connected to a database, is made by putting out a psql(1) connect command.) However, this option is a rather blunt
instrument because it makes pg_restore lose all object ownership information, unless you use the -X use-set-session-authorization
option.
-s
--schema-only
Restore the schema (definitions), no data. Sequence values will be reset.
-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 schema/data for table only.
-T trigger
--trigger=trigger
Restore definition of trigger only.
-v
--verbose
Specifies verbose mode.
-x
--no-privileges
--no-acl
Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
-X use-set-session-authorization
--use-set-session-authorization
Normally, if restoring an archive requires altering the current database user (e.g., to set correct object ownerships), a new con-
nection to the database must be opened, which might require manual interaction (e.g., passwords). If you use the -X use-set-session-
authorization option, then pg_restore will instead use the SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION [set_session_authorization(7)] command. This
has the same effect, but it requires that the user restoring the archive is a database superuser. This option effectively overrides
the -R option.
-X disable-triggers
--disable-triggers
This option is only relevant when performing a data-only restore. It instructs pg_restore to execute commands to temporarily dis-
able 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 specify --use-set-session-authorization and run pg_restore as a PostgreSQL superuser.
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 host begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for
the Unix domain socket.
-p port
--port=port
Specifies the Internet TCP/IP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. The
port number defaults to 5432, or the value of the PGPORT environment variable (if set).
-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.
DIAGNOSTICS
Connection to database 'template1' failed.
connectDBStart() -- connect() failed: No such file or directory
Is the postmaster running locally
and accepting connections on Unix socket '/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432'?
pg_restore could not attach to the PostgreSQL server process on the specified host and port. If you see this message, ensure that the
server is running on the proper host and that you have specified the proper port. If your site uses an authentication system, ensure that
you have obtained the required authentication credentials.
Note: 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.
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
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, pg_restore emits queries to disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data then
emits queries 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 limitations of pg_dump.
EXAMPLES
To dump a database:
$ pg_dump mydb > db.out
To reload this database:
$ psql -d database -f db.out
To dump a database called mydb that contains large objects to a tar file:
$ pg_dump -Ft -b mydb > db.tar
To reload this database (with large objects) to an existing database called newdb:
$ pg_restore -d newdb db.tar
To reorder database items, it is first necessary to dump the table of contents of the archive:
$ pg_restore -l archive.file > archive.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: birds
; 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
Semi-colons are comment delimiters, 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 archive.list archive.file
HISTORY
The pg_restore utility first appeared in PostgreSQL 7.1.
SEE ALSO
pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1), PostgreSQL Administrator's Guide
Application 2001-03-06 PG_RESTORE(1)