PG_RESTORE(1)           PostgreSQL 9.4.5 Documentation           PG_RESTORE(1)



NAME
       pg_restore - restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive file created
       by pg_dump

SYNOPSIS
       pg_restore [connection-option...] [option...] [filename]

DESCRIPTION
       pg_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 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.

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

       -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 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 namespace
       --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.

       -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 named table only. Multiple tables
           may be specified with multiple -t switches. This can be combined
           with the -n option to specify a schema.

       -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.

       --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-security-labels
           Do not output commands to restore security labels, 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.

       --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.

ENVIRONMENT
       PGHOST
       PGOPTIONS
       PGPORT
       PGUSER
           Default connection parameters

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
       environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.14,
       "Environment Variables", in the documentation). However, it does not
       read PGDATABASE when a database name is not supplied.

DIAGNOSTICS
       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(1). Also, any default connection
       settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library
       will apply.

NOTES
       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.

       o   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.

       o   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(1) 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 23.1.3, "Updating Planner
       Statistics", in the documentation and Section 23.1.6, "The Autovacuum
       Daemon", in the documentation for more information.

EXAMPLES
       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

SEE ALSO
       pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)



PostgreSQL 9.4.5                     2015                        PG_RESTORE(1)
