PG_DUMPALL(1)           PostgreSQL 9.4.5 Documentation           PG_DUMPALL(1)



NAME
       pg_dumpall - extract a PostgreSQL database cluster into a script file

SYNOPSIS
       pg_dumpall [connection-option...] [option...]

DESCRIPTION
       pg_dumpall is a utility for writing out ("dumping") all PostgreSQL
       databases of a cluster into one script file. The script file contains
       SQL commands that can be used as input to psql(1) to restore the
       databases. It does this by calling pg_dump(1) for each database in a
       cluster.  pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all
       databases. (pg_dump does not save these objects.) This currently
       includes information about database users and groups, tablespaces, and
       properties such as access permissions that apply to databases as a
       whole.

       Since pg_dumpall reads tables from all databases you will most likely
       have to connect as a database superuser in order to produce a complete
       dump. Also you will need superuser privileges to execute the saved
       script in order to be allowed to add users and groups, and to create
       databases.

       The SQL script will be written to the standard output. Use the
       [-f|file] option or shell operators to redirect it into a file.

       pg_dumpall needs to connect several times to the PostgreSQL server
       (once per database). If you use password authentication it will ask for
       a password each time. It is convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file in such
       cases. See Section 31.15, "The Password File", in the documentation for
       more information.

OPTIONS
       The following command-line options control the content and format of
       the output.

       -a
       --data-only
           Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions).

       -c
       --clean
           Include SQL commands to clean (drop) databases before recreating
           them.  DROP commands for roles and tablespaces are added as well.

       -f filename
       --file=filename
           Send output to the specified file. If this is omitted, the standard
           output is used.

       -g
       --globals-only
           Dump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no databases.

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

       -o
       --oids
           Dump object identifiers (OIDs) as part of the data for every table.
           Use this option if your application references the OID columns in
           some way (e.g., in a foreign key constraint). Otherwise, this
           option should not be used.

       -O
       --no-owner
           Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the
           original database. By default, pg_dumpall issues ALTER OWNER or SET
           SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created schema
           elements. 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.

       -r
       --roles-only
           Dump only roles, no databases or tablespaces.

       -s
       --schema-only
           Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.

       -S username
       --superuser=username
           Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
           This is relevant only if --disable-triggers is used. (Usually, it's
           better to leave this out, and instead start the resulting script as
           superuser.)

       -t
       --tablespaces-only
           Dump only tablespaces, no databases or roles.

       -v
       --verbose
           Specifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dumpall to output
           start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to
           standard error. It will also enable verbose output in pg_dump.

       -V
       --version
           Print the pg_dumpall version and exit.

       -x
       --no-privileges
       --no-acl
           Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).

       --binary-upgrade
           This option is for use by in-place upgrade utilities. Its use for
           other purposes is not recommended or supported. The behavior of the
           option may change in future releases without notice.

       --column-inserts
       --attribute-inserts
           Dump data as 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 databases.

       --disable-dollar-quoting
           This option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bodies,
           and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syntax.

       --disable-triggers
           This option is relevant only when creating a data-only dump. It
           instructs pg_dumpall to include 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 be careful to start the resulting script as a
           superuser.

       --if-exists
           Use conditional commands (i.e. add an IF EXISTS clause) to clean
           databases and other objects. This option is not valid unless
           --clean is also specified.

       --inserts
           Dump data as 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 databases. Note that the restore
           might fail altogether if you have rearranged column order. The
           --column-inserts option is safer, though even slower.

       --lock-wait-timeout=timeout
           Do not wait forever to acquire shared table locks at the beginning
           of the dump. Instead, fail if unable to lock a table within the
           specified timeout. The timeout may be specified in any of the
           formats accepted by SET statement_timeout. Allowed values vary
           depending on the server version you are dumping from, but an
           integer number of milliseconds is accepted by all versions since
           7.3. This option is ignored when dumping from a pre-7.3 server.

       --no-security-labels
           Do not dump security labels.

       --no-tablespaces
           Do not output commands to create tablespaces nor select tablespaces
           for objects. With this option, all objects will be created in
           whichever tablespace is the default during restore.

       --no-unlogged-table-data
           Do not dump the contents of unlogged tables. This option has no
           effect on whether or not the table definitions (schema) are dumped;
           it only suppresses dumping the table data.

       --quote-all-identifiers
           Force quoting of all identifiers. This may be useful when dumping a
           database for migration to a future version that may have introduced
           additional keywords.

       --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_dumpall command line arguments, and exit.

       The following command-line options control the database connection
       parameters.

       -d connstr
       --dbname=connstr
           Specifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a connection
           string. See Section 31.1.1, "Connection Strings", in the
           documentation for more information.

           The option is called --dbname for consistency with other client
           applications, but because pg_dumpall needs to connect to many
           databases, database name in the connection string will be ignored.
           Use -l option to specify the name of the database used to dump
           global objects and to discover what other databases should be
           dumped.

       -h host
       --host=host
           Specifies the host name of the machine on which the database 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.

       -l dbname
       --database=dbname
           Specifies the name of the database to connect to to dump global
           objects and discover what other databases should be dumped. If not
           specified, the postgres database will be used, and if that does not
           exist, template1 will be used.

       -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_dumpall to prompt for a password before connecting to a
           database.

           This option is never essential, since pg_dumpall will automatically
           prompt for a password if the server demands password
           authentication. However, pg_dumpall 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.

           Note that the password prompt will occur again for each database to
           be dumped. Usually, it's better to set up a ~/.pgpass file than to
           rely on manual password entry.

       --role=rolename
           Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump. This option
           causes pg_dumpall 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_dumpall, 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 dumps to be made 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).

NOTES
       Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic messages
       will refer to pg_dump.

       Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so the
       optimizer has useful statistics. You can also run vacuumdb -a -z to
       analyze all databases.

       pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace directories to exist before
       the restore; otherwise, database creation will fail for databases in
       non-default locations.

EXAMPLES
       To dump all databases:

           $ pg_dumpall > db.out

       To reload database(s) from this file, you can use:

           $ psql -f db.out postgres

       (It is not important to which database you connect here since the
       script file created by pg_dumpall will contain the appropriate commands
       to create and connect to the saved databases.)

SEE ALSO
       Check pg_dump(1) for details on possible error conditions.



PostgreSQL 9.4.5                     2015                        PG_DUMPALL(1)
