PG_RESTORE(1) PostgreSQL Client Applications PG_RESTORE(1)NAMEpg_restore - restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive
file created by pg_dump
SYNOPSISpg_restore [ options... ]
DESCRIPTIONpg_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, func-
tions, 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 con-
trolling 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.
OPTIONSpg_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 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 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 stan-
dard output.
-F format
--format=format
Specify format of the archive. It is not necessary
to specify the format, since pg_restore will deter-
mine 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 com-
pressed 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 conve-
nient to pg_dump, then save the archive in a modi-
fied 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 own-
ership. 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 informa-
tion, unless you use the -X use-set-session-autho-
rization 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 dis-
abling triggers. This is only relevant if --dis-
able-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 connection 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 AUTHO-
RIZATION [set_session_authorization(l)] 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 exe-
cute 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-trig-
gers 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 argu-
ments 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 auto-
matically if the server requires password authenti-
cation.
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 pro-
cess on the specified host and port. If you see this mes-
sage, 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 speci-
fied using the -d option, pg_restore internally
executes SQL statements. If you have problems run-
ning 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 tem-
plate1 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 limi-
tations 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 exist-
ing 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 ALSOpg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1), PostgreSQL Administra-
tor's Guide
Application 2001-03-06 PG_RESTORE(1)
