PG_DUMPALL(1)                                    PostgreSQL Client Applications                                    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 databases. It does this by  calling
       pg_dump(1)  for  each  database  in  a  cluster.   pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all databases.
       (pg_dump does not save these objects.)  This currently includes information about database users and groups, tablespaces,
       and properties such as 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 authentica-
       tion it will ask for a password each time. It is convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file in such cases. See in the documenta-
       tion 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.

       -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.

       -i

       --ignore-version
              A deprecated option that is now ignored.

       -o

       --oids Dump object identifiers (OIDs) as part of the data for every table. Use this option if your application references
              the OID columns in some way (e.g., in a foreign key constraint).  Otherwise, 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.

       --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  state-
              ment_timeout.  (Allowed values vary depending on the server version you are dumping from, but an integer number of
              milliseconds is accepted by all versions since 7.3. This option is ignored when dumping from a pre-7.3 server.)

       --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.

       -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 only relevant 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  mes-
              sages 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).

       --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.

       --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.

       --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 stan-
              dard string syntax.

       --disable-triggers
              This option is only relevant when creating a data-only dump.  It instructs pg_dumpall to include commands to  tem-
              porarily  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.

       --use-set-session-authorization
              Output  SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead of ALTER OWNER commands to determine object owner-
              ship. This makes the dump more standards compatible, but depending on the history of  the  objects  in  the  dump,
              might not restore properly.

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

       -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 to dump global objects and discover 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 connec-
              tions.  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  privi-
              leges  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

       This  utility,  like  most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see in the
       documentation).

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 optimizer has useful statistics. You can also run  vacu-
       umdb -a -z to analyze all databases.

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

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



Application                                                2011-09-22                                              PG_DUMPALL(1)