Extracts a database into a single script file or other archive file.
pg_dump [<connection_option> ...] [<dump_option> ...] <dbname>
pg_dump
is a standard PostgreSQL utility for backing up a database, and is also supported in Greenplum Database. It creates a single (non-parallel) dump file. For routine backups of Greenplum Database, it is better to use the Greenplum Database backup utility, gpcrondump, for the best performance.
Use pg_dump
if you are migrating your data to another database vendor's system, or to another Greenplum Database system with a different segment configuration (for example, if the system you are migrating to has greater or fewer segment instances). To restore, you must use the corresponding pg_restore utility (if the dump file is in archive format), or you can use a client program such as psql (if the dump file is in plain text format).
Since pg_dump
is compatible with regular PostgreSQL, it can be used to migrate data into Greenplum Database. The pg_dump
utility in Greenplum Database is very similar to the PostgreSQL pg_dump
utility, with the following exceptions and limitations:
pg_dump
to backup a Greenplum Database database, keep in mind that the dump operation can take a long time (several hours) for very large databases. Also, you must make sure you have sufficient disk space to create the dump file.--gp-syntax
command-line option to include the DISTRIBUTED BY
clause in CREATE TABLE
statements. This ensures that Greenplum Database table data is distributed with the correct distribution key columns upon restore.pg_dump
makes consistent backups even if the database is being used concurrently. pg_dump
does not block other users accessing the database (readers or writers).
When used with one of the archive file formats and combined with pg_restore
, pg_dump
provides a flexible archival and transfer mechanism. pg_dump
can be used to backup an entire database, then pg_restore
can be used to examine the archive and/or select which parts of the database are to be restored. The most flexible output file format is the custom format (-Fc
). It allows for selection and reordering of all archived items, and is compressed by default. The tar format (-Ft
) is not compressed and it is not possible to reorder data when loading, but it is otherwise quite flexible. It can be manipulated with standard UNIX tools such as tar
.
Note: The --ignore-version
option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
PGDATABASE
is used. If that is not set, the user name specified for the connection is used.
Dump Options
--schema
,
--table
, or
--schema-only
is specified, so the
-b
switch is only useful to add large objects to selective dumps.
DROP
commands are added to the DDL dump output files so that when you use those files to do a restore, the
DROP
commands are run prior to the
CREATE
commands. This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For the archive formats, you may specify the option when you call
pg_restore.
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-based databases. Also, since this option generates a separate command for each row, an error in reloading a row causes only that row to be lost rather than the entire table contents. Note that the restore may fail altogether if you have rearranged column order. The
-D
option is safe against column order changes, though even slower.
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-based databases. Also, since this option generates a separate command for each row, an error in reloading a row causes only that row to be lost rather than the entire table contents.
PGCLIENTENCODING
environment variable to the desired dump encoding.)
Selects the format of the output. format can be one of the following:
p | plain — Output a plain-text SQL script file (the default).
c | custom — Output a custom archive suitable for input into pg_restore. This is the most flexible format in that it allows reordering of loading data as well as object definitions. This format is also compressed by default.
Note: This option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
Ignore version mismatch between pg_dump
and the database server. pg_dump
can dump from servers running previous releases of Greenplum Database (or PostgreSQL), but very old versions may not be supported anymore. Use this option if you need to override the version check.
Dump only schemas matching the schema pattern; this selects both the schema itself, and all its contained objects. When this option is not specified, all non-system schemas in the target database will be dumped. Multiple schemas can be selected by writing multiple -n
switches. Also, the schema parameter is interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by psql
's\d
commands, so multiple schemas can also be selected by writing wildcard characters in the pattern. When using wildcards, be careful to quote the pattern if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards.
Note: When -n is specified, pg_dump
makes no attempt to dump any other database objects that the selected schema(s) may depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the results of a specific-schema dump can be successfully restored by themselves into a clean database.
Note: Non-schema objects such as blobs are not dumped when -n
is specified. You can add blobs back to the dump with the --blobs
switch.
-n
.
-N
can be given more than once to exclude schemas matching any of several patterns. When both
-n
and
-N
are given, the behavior is to dump just the schemas that match at least one
-n
switch but no
-N
switches. If
-N
appears without
-n
, then schemas matching
-N
are excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.
pg_dump
issues
ALTER OWNER
or
SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
statements to set ownership of created database objects. 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
. This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For the archive formats, you may specify the option when you call
pg_restore.
Specify the superuser user name to use when deactivating triggers. This is only relevant if --disable-triggers
is used. It is better to leave this out, and instead start the resulting script as a superuser.
Note: Greenplum Database does not support user-defined triggers.
Dump only tables (or views or sequences) matching the table pattern. Specify the table in the format schema.table
.
Multiple tables can be selected by writing multiple -t
switches. Also, the table parameter is interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by psql
's \d
commands, so multiple tables can also be selected by writing wildcard characters in the pattern. When using wildcards, be careful to quote the pattern if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards. The -n
and -N
switches have no effect when -t
is used, because tables selected by -t
will be dumped regardless of those switches, and non-table objects will not be dumped.
Note: When -t
is specified, pg_dump
makes no attempt to dump any other database objects that the selected table(s) may depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the results of a specific-table dump can be successfully restored by themselves into a clean database.
Also, -t
cannot be used to specify a child table partition. To dump a partitioned table, you must specify the parent table name.
-t
.
-T
can be given more than once to exclude tables matching any of several patterns. When both
-t
and
-T
are given, the behavior is to dump just the tables that match at least one
-t
switch but no
-T
switches. If
-T
appears without
-t
, then tables matching
-T
are excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.
pg_dump
to output detailed object comments and start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to standard error.
GRANT/REVOKE
commands).
This option is only relevant when creating a data-only dump. It instructs pg_dump
to include commands to temporarily disable triggers on the target tables while the data is reloaded. Use this if you have triggers on the tables that you do not want to invoke during data reload. 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. This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For the archive formats, you may specify the option when you call pg_restore.
Note: Greenplum Database does not support user-defined triggers.
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. A dump using
SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
will require superuser privileges to restore correctly, whereas
ALTER OWNER
requires lesser privileges.
--gp-syntax
to dump Greenplum Database syntax in the
CREATE TABLE
statements. This allows the distribution policy (
DISTRIBUTED BY
or
DISTRIBUTED RANDOMLY
clauses) of a Greenplum Database table to be dumped, which is useful for restoring into other Greenplum Database systems. The default is to include Greenplum Database syntax when connected to a Greenplum Database system, and to exclude it when connected to a regular PostgreSQL system.
Dump the function(s) specified in the oids list of object identifiers.
Note: This option is provided solely for use by other administration utilities; its use for any other purpose is not recommended or supported. The behaviour of the option may change in future releases without notice.
Dump the relation(s) specified in the oids list of object identifiers.
Note: This option is provided solely for use by other administration utilities; its use for any other purpose is not recommended or supported. The behaviour of the option may change in future releases without notice.
Connection Options
PGHOST
or defaults to localhost.
PGPORT
or defaults to 5432.
PGUSER
or defaults to the current system role name.
When a data-only dump is chosen and the option --disable-triggers
is used, pg_dump
emits commands to disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data and 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.
Members of tar
archives are limited to a size less than 8 GB. (This is an inherent limitation of the tar
file format.) Therefore this format cannot be used if the textual representation of any one table exceeds that size. The total size of a tar archive and any of the other output formats is not limited, except possibly by the operating system.
The dump file produced by pg_dump
does not contain the statistics used by the optimizer to make query planning decisions. Therefore, it is wise to run ANALYZE
after restoring from a dump file to ensure good performance.
Dump a database called mydb
into a SQL-script file:
pg_dump mydb > db.sql
To reload such a script into a (freshly created) database named newdb
:
psql -d newdb -f db.sql
Dump a Greenplum Database in tar file format and include distribution policy information:
pg_dump -Ft --gp-syntax mydb > db.tar
To dump a database into a custom-format archive file:
pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
To reload an archive file into a (freshly created) database named newdb
:
pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
To dump a single table named mytab
:
pg_dump -t mytab mydb > db.sql
To specify an upper-case or mixed-case name in -t
and related switches, you need to double-quote the name; else it will be folded to lower case. But double quotes are special to the shell, so in turn they must be quoted. Thus, to dump a single table with a mixed-case name, you need something like:
pg_dump -t '"MixedCaseName"' mydb > mytab.sql