pg_restore 1 Application pg_restore Restore a Postgres database from an archive file created by pg_dump 2000-10-11 pg_restore [ archive-file ] [ -h host ] [ -p port ] [ -t table ] [ -a ] [ -c ] [-C] [-d name] [-f archive-file] [-F format] [ -i index ] [ -l ] [ -N ] [ -o ] [ -O ] [ -P function-name ] [ -r ] [ -R ] [ -s ] [ -S ] { -T trigger ] [ -u ] [-U contents-file ] [ -v ] [ -x ] 2000-10-11 pg_restore accepts the following command line arguments: archive-name Specifies the location of the archive file to be restored. If not specified, and no '-f' option is specified, then STDIN is used. -a Restore only the data, no schema (definitions). -c Clean (drop) schema prior to create. -C Include SQL to create the schema. -d dbname Connect to database dbname and restore directly into the database. BLOBs can only be restored by using a direct database connection. -f Specify output file for generated script. Default is STDOUT. -F 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 from 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 index Restore definition for named index only. -l List the contents of the archive. The output of this command can be used with the '-U, --use-list' option to restrict and reorder the items that are restored. -N Restore items in the original dump 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 overrides the OID ordering. -o 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 Prevent any attempt to restore original object ownership. Objects will be owned by the username used to attach to the database. -P procedure-name Specify a procedure or function to be restored. -r 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 (eg. RULES & INDEXES) will be restored at the end of the process irrespective of their OIDs. This option is the default. -R Prohibit pg_restore from issuing any \connect statements or reconnecting to the database if directly connected. -s Restore the schema (definitions), no data. Sequence values will be reset. -S username Specify the superuser username to use when disabling triggers and/or setting ownership of schema elements. By default, pg_restore will use the current username if it is a superuser. -t table Restore schema/data for table only. -T trigger Restore definition of trigger only. -u Use password authentication. Prompts for username and password. -U 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. -v Specifies verbose mode. -x Prevent restoration of ACLs (grant/revoke commands). pg_restore also accepts the following command line arguments for connection parameters: -h host Specifies the hostname of the machine on which the postmaster is running. If host begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the unix domain socket. -p port Specifies the Internet TCP/IP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the postmaster is listening for connections. The port number defaults to 5432, or the value of the PGPORT environment variable (if set). 2000-10-11 pg_restore will create a script file, write to stdout, or restore a database directly. 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 postmaster process on the specified host and port. If you see this message, ensure that the postmaster 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. Connection to database 'dbname' failed. FATAL 1: SetUserId: user 'username' is not in 'pg_shadow' You do not have a valid entry in the relation pg_shadow and and will not be allowed to access Postgres. Contact your Postgres administrator. 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. 2000-10-11 pg_restore is a utility for restoring a Postgres database dumped by pg_dump from any one of the non-plain-text output formats. The archive files, new with this relase, contain enough 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 should also be portable across architectures. pg_dump will produce the queries necessary to re-generate all user-defined types, functions, tables, indices, aggregates, and operators. In addition, all the data is copied out (in text format for scripts) so that it can be readily copied in again. pg_restore reads the archive file and outputs the appropriate SQL in the required order based on the command parameters. Obviously, it can not restore information that is not present in the dump file; so if the dump is made using the 'dump data as inserts' option, pg_restore will not be able to load the data using COPY statements. The most flexible output file format is the new '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 load, but it is otherwise quite flexible. To reorder the items, it is first necessary to dump the contents of the archive: $ pg_restore acrhive.file --list > archive.lis This file consists of a header and one line for each item, eg. ; ; 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 Where 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/or 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 acrhive.file --use=archive.lis 2000-10-11 See the pg_dump section for details on limitation of pg_dump. The limitations of pg_restore are detailed below. When restoring data to a 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. pg_restore will not restore BLOBs for a single table. If an archive contains BLOBs, then all BLOBs will be restored. 2000-10-11 To create a custom archive for a database of the same name as the user: $ pg_dump -Fc > db.out To reload this database: $ pg_restore db.out | psql -e database To dump a database called mydb that contains BLOBs to a TAR file: $ pg_dump -Ft mydb --blobs > db.tar To reload this database (with BLOBs) to an existing db called newdb: $ pg_restore db.tar --db=newdb