pg_restore — restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive file created by pg_dump
pg_restore
[connection-option
...] [option
...] [filename
]
pg_restore is a utility for restoring a PostgreSQL database from an archive created by pg_dump in one of the non-plain-text formats. It will issue the commands necessary to reconstruct the database to the state it was in at the time it was saved. The archive files 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, pg_restore connects to that database and restores archive contents 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. This script output is equivalent to the plain text output format of pg_dump. Some of the options controlling the 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
INSERT
commands” option,
pg_restore will not be able to load the data
using COPY
statements.
pg_restore accepts the following command line arguments.
filename
Specifies the location of the archive file (or directory, for a directory-format archive) to be restored. If not specified, the standard input is used.
-a
--data-only
Restore only the data, not the schema (data definitions). Table data, large objects, and sequence values are restored, if present in the archive.
This option is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical
to, specifying --section=data
.
-c
--clean
Clean (drop) database objects before recreating them.
(Unless --if-exists
is used,
this might generate some harmless error messages, if any objects
were not present in the destination database.)
-C
--create
Create the database before restoring into it.
If --clean
is also specified, drop and
recreate the target database before connecting to it.
When this option is used, the database named with -d
is used only to issue the initial DROP DATABASE
and
CREATE DATABASE
commands. 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.
-e
--exit-on-error
Exit if an error is encountered while sending SQL commands to the database. The default is to continue and to display a count of errors at the end of the restoration.
-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:
c
custom
The archive is in the custom format of pg_dump.
d
directory
The archive is a directory archive.
t
tar
The archive is a tar
archive.
-I index
--index=index
Restore definition of named index only. Multiple indexes
may be specified with multiple -I
switches.
-j number-of-jobs
--jobs=number-of-jobs
Run the most time-consuming parts of pg_restore — those which load data, create indexes, or create constraints — using multiple concurrent jobs. This option can dramatically reduce the time to restore a large database to a server running on a multiprocessor machine.
Each job is one process or one thread, depending on the operating system, and uses a separate connection to the server.
The optimal value for this option depends on the hardware setup of the server, of the client, and of the network. Factors include the number of CPU cores and the disk setup. A good place to start is the number of CPU cores on the server, but values larger than that can also lead to faster restore times in many cases. Of course, values that are too high will lead to decreased performance because of thrashing.
Only the custom and directory archive formats are supported
with this option.
The input must be a regular file or directory (not, for example, a
pipe). This option is ignored when emitting a script rather
than connecting directly to a database server. Also, multiple
jobs cannot be used together with the
option --single-transaction
.
-l
--list
List the table of contents of the archive. The output of this operation
can be used as input to the -L
option. Note that
if filtering switches such as -n
or -t
are
used with -l
, they will restrict the items listed.
-L list-file
--use-list=list-file
Restore only those archive elements that are listed in list-file
, and restore them in the
order they appear in the file. Note that
if filtering switches such as -n
or -t
are
used with -L
, they will further restrict the items restored.
list-file
is normally created by
editing the output of a previous -l
operation.
Lines can be moved or removed, and can also
be commented out by placing a semicolon (;
) at the
start of the line. See below for examples.
-n schema
--schema=schema
Restore only objects that are in the named schema. Multiple schemas
may be specified with multiple -n
switches. This can be
combined with the -t
option to restore just a
specific table.
-N schema
--exclude-schema=schema
Do not restore objects that are in the named schema. Multiple schemas
to be excluded may be specified with multiple -N
switches.
When both -n
and -N
are given for the same
schema name, the -N
switch wins and the schema is excluded.
-O
--no-owner
Do not output commands to set
ownership of objects to match the original database.
By default, pg_restore issues
ALTER OWNER
or
SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
statements to set ownership of created schema elements.
These statements will fail unless the initial connection to the
database is made by a superuser
(or the same user that owns all of the objects in the script).
With -O
, any user name can be used for the
initial connection, and this user will own all the created objects.
-P function-name(argtype [, ...])
--function=function-name(argtype [, ...])
Restore the named function only. Be careful to spell the function
name and arguments exactly as they appear in the dump file's table
of contents. Multiple functions may be specified with multiple
-P
switches.
-R
--no-reconnect
This option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards compatibility.
-s
--schema-only
Restore only the schema (data definitions), not data, to the extent that schema entries are present in the archive.
This option is the inverse of --data-only
.
It is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical to,
specifying
--section=pre-data --section=post-data
.
(Do not confuse this with the --schema
option, which
uses the word “schema” in a different meaning.)
-S username
--superuser=username
Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
This is relevant only if --disable-triggers
is used.
-t table
--table=table
Restore definition and/or data of only the named table.
For this purpose, “table” includes views, materialized views,
sequences, and foreign tables. Multiple tables
can be selected by writing multiple -t
switches.
This option can be combined with the -n
option to
specify table(s) in a particular schema.
When -t
is specified, pg_restore
makes no attempt to restore any other database objects that the
selected table(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no
guarantee that a specific-table restore into a clean database will
succeed.
This flag does not behave identically to the -t
flag of pg_dump. There is not currently
any provision for wild-card matching in pg_restore,
nor can you include a schema name within its -t
.
In versions prior to PostgreSQL 9.6, this flag matched only tables, not any other type of relation.
-T trigger
--trigger=trigger
Restore named trigger only. Multiple triggers may be specified with
multiple -T
switches.
-v
--verbose
Specifies verbose mode.
-V
--version
Print the pg_restore version and exit.
-x
--no-privileges
--no-acl
Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
-1
--single-transaction
Execute the restore as a single transaction (that is, wrap the
emitted commands in BEGIN
/COMMIT
). This
ensures that either all the commands complete successfully, or no
changes are applied. This option implies
--exit-on-error
.
--disable-triggers
This option is relevant only when performing a data-only restore. It instructs pg_restore to execute 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, run pg_restore as a
PostgreSQL superuser.
--enable-row-security
This option is relevant only when restoring the contents of a table which has row security. By default, pg_restore will set row_security to off, to ensure that all data is restored in to the table. If the user does not have sufficient privileges to bypass row security, then an error is thrown. This parameter instructs pg_restore to set row_security to on instead, allowing the user to attempt to restore the contents of the table with row security enabled. This might still fail if the user does not have the right to insert the rows from the dump into the table.
Note that this option currently also requires the dump be in INSERT
format, as COPY FROM
does not support row security.
--if-exists
Use conditional commands (i.e. add an IF EXISTS
clause) when cleaning database objects. This option is not valid
unless --clean
is also specified.
--no-data-for-failed-tables
By default, table data is restored even if the creation command for the table failed (e.g., because it already exists). With this option, data for such a table is skipped. This behavior is useful if the target database already contains the desired table contents. For example, auxiliary tables for PostgreSQL extensions such as PostGIS might already be loaded in the target database; specifying this option prevents duplicate or obsolete data from being loaded into them.
This option is effective only when restoring directly into a database, not when producing SQL script output.
--no-publications
Do not output commands to restore publications, even if the archive contains them.
--no-security-labels
Do not output commands to restore security labels, even if the archive contains them.
--no-subscriptions
Do not output commands to restore subscriptions, even if the archive contains them.
--no-tablespaces
Do not output commands to select tablespaces. With this option, all objects will be created in whichever tablespace is the default during restore.
--section=sectionname
Only restore the named section. The section name can be
pre-data
, data
, or post-data
.
This option can be specified more than once to select multiple
sections. The default is to restore all sections.
The data section contains actual table data as well as large-object definitions. Post-data items consist of definitions of indexes, triggers, rules and constraints other than validated check constraints. Pre-data items consist of all other data definition items.
--strict-names
Require that each schema
(-n
/--schema
) and table
(-t
/--table
) qualifier match at
least one schema/table in the backup file.
--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, might not restore
properly.
-?
--help
Show help about pg_restore command line arguments, and exit.
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 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
--port=port
Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file
extension on which the server is listening for connections.
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_restore to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.
This option is never essential, since
pg_restore will automatically prompt
for a password if the server demands password authentication.
However, pg_restore 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.
--role=rolename
Specifies a role name to be used to perform the restore.
This option causes pg_restore to issue a
SET ROLE
rolename
command after connecting to the database. It is useful when the
authenticated user (specified by -U
) lacks privileges
needed by pg_restore, 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
restores to be performed without violating the policy.
PGHOST
PGOPTIONS
PGPORT
PGUSER
Default connection parameters
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities,
also uses the environment variables supported by libpq
(see Section 33.14). However, it does not read
PGDATABASE
when a database name is not supplied.
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. Also, any default connection
settings and environment variables used by the
libpq front-end library will apply.
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.
When restoring data to a pre-existing table and the option
--disable-triggers
is used,
pg_restore emits commands
to disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data, then emits commands to
re-enable them after the data has been inserted. If the restore is stopped in the
middle, the system catalogs might be left in the wrong state.
pg_restore cannot restore large objects
selectively; for instance, only those for a specific table. If
an archive contains large objects, then all large objects will be
restored, or none of them if they are excluded via -L
,
-t
, or other options.
See also the pg_dump documentation for details on limitations of pg_dump.
Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE
on each
restored table so the optimizer has useful statistics; see
Section 24.1.3 and
Section 24.1.6 for more information.
Assume we have dumped a database called mydb
into a
custom-format dump file:
$
pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
To drop the database and recreate it from the dump:
$
dropdb mydb
$
pg_restore -C -d postgres db.dump
The database named in the -d
switch can be any database existing
in the cluster; pg_restore only uses it to issue the
CREATE DATABASE
command for mydb
. With
-C
, data is always restored into the database name that appears
in the dump file.
To reload the dump into a new database called newdb
:
$
createdb -T template0 newdb
$
pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
Notice we don't use -C
, and instead connect directly to the
database to be restored into. Also note that we clone the new database
from template0
not template1
, to ensure it is
initially empty.
To reorder database items, it is first necessary to dump the table of contents of the archive:
$
pg_restore -l db.dump > db.list
The listing file consists of a header and one line for each item, e.g.:
; ; Archive created at Mon Sep 14 13:55:39 2009 ; dbname: DBDEMOS ; TOC Entries: 81 ; Compression: 9 ; Dump Version: 1.10-0 ; Format: CUSTOM ; Integer: 4 bytes ; Offset: 8 bytes ; Dumped from database version: 8.3.5 ; Dumped by pg_dump version: 8.3.8 ; ; ; Selected TOC Entries: ; 3; 2615 2200 SCHEMA - public pasha 1861; 0 0 COMMENT - SCHEMA public pasha 1862; 0 0 ACL - public pasha 317; 1247 17715 TYPE public composite pasha 319; 1247 25899 DOMAIN public domain0 pasha
Semicolons start a comment, 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 db.list db.dump