NAME

       pg_amcheck - checks for corruption in one or more PostgreSQL databases

SYNOPSIS

       pg_amcheck [option...] [dbname]

DESCRIPTION

       pg_amcheck supports running amcheck's corruption checking functions against one or more
       databases, with options to select which schemas, tables and indexes to check, which kinds
       of checking to perform, and whether to perform the checks in parallel, and if so, the
       number of parallel connections to establish and use.

       Only table relations and btree indexes are currently supported. Other relation types are
       silently skipped.

       If dbname is specified, it should be the name of a single database to check, and no other
       database selection options should be present. Otherwise, if any database selection options
       are present, all matching databases will be checked. If no such options are present, the
       default database will be checked. Database selection options include --all, --database and
       --exclude-database. They also include --relation, --exclude-relation, --table,
       --exclude-table, --index, and --exclude-index, but only when such options are used with a
       three-part pattern (e.g.  mydb*.myschema*.myrel*). Finally, they include --schema and
       --exclude-schema when such options are used with a two-part pattern (e.g.
       mydb*.myschema*).

       dbname can also be a connection string.

OPTIONS

       The following command-line options control what is checked:

       -a
       --all
           Check all databases, except for any excluded via --exclude-database.

       -d pattern
       --database=pattern
           Check databases matching the specified pattern, except for any excluded by
           --exclude-database. This option can be specified more than once.

       -D pattern
       --exclude-database=pattern
           Exclude databases matching the given pattern. This option can be specified more than
           once.

       -i pattern
       --index=pattern
           Check indexes matching the specified pattern, unless they are otherwise excluded. This
           option can be specified more than once.

           This is similar to the --relation option, except that it applies only to indexes, not
           tables.

       -I pattern
       --exclude-index=pattern
           Exclude indexes matching the specified pattern. This option can be specified more than
           once.

           This is similar to the --exclude-relation option, except that it applies only to
           indexes, not tables.

       -r pattern
       --relation=pattern
           Check relations matching the specified pattern, unless they are otherwise excluded.
           This option can be specified more than once.

           Patterns may be unqualified, e.g.  myrel*, or they may be schema-qualified, e.g.
           myschema*.myrel* or database-qualified and schema-qualified, e.g.
           mydb*.myscheam*.myrel*. A database-qualified pattern will add matching databases to
           the list of databases to be checked.

       -R pattern
       --exclude-relation=pattern
           Exclude relations matching the specified pattern. This option can be specified more
           than once.

           As with --relation, the pattern may be unqualified, schema-qualified, or database- and
           schema-qualified.

       -s pattern
       --schema=pattern
           Check tables and indexes in schemas matching the specified pattern, unless they are
           otherwise excluded. This option can be specified more than once.

           To select only tables in schemas matching a particular pattern, consider using
           something like --table=SCHEMAPAT.* --no-dependent-indexes. To select only indexes,
           consider using something like --index=SCHEMAPAT.*.

           A schema pattern may be database-qualified. For example, you may write
           --schema=mydb*.myschema* to select schemas matching myschema* in databases matching
           mydb*.

       -S pattern
       --exclude-schema=pattern
           Exclude tables and indexes in schemas matching the specified pattern. This option can
           be specified more than once.

           As with --schema, the pattern may be database-qualified.

       -t pattern
       --table=pattern
           Check tables matching the specified pattern, unless they are otherwise excluded. This
           option can be specified more than once.

           This is similar to the --relation option, except that it applies only to tables, not
           indexes.

       -T pattern
       --exclude-table=pattern
           Exclude tables matching the specified pattern. This option can be specified more than
           once.

           This is similar to the --exclude-relation option, except that it applies only to
           tables, not indexes.

       --no-dependent-indexes
           By default, if a table is checked, any btree indexes of that table will also be
           checked, even if they are not explicitly selected by an option such as --index or
           --relation. This option suppresses that behavior.

       --no-dependent-toast
           By default, if a table is checked, its toast table, if any, will also be checked, even
           if it is not explicitly selected by an option such as --table or --relation. This
           option suppresses that behavior.

       --no-strict-names
           By default, if an argument to --database, --table, --index, or --relation matches no
           objects, it is a fatal error. This option downgrades that error to a warning.

       The following command-line options control checking of tables:

       --exclude-toast-pointers
           By default, whenever a toast pointer is encountered in a table, a lookup is performed
           to ensure that it references apparently-valid entries in the toast table. These checks
           can be quite slow, and this option can be used to skip them.

       --on-error-stop
           After reporting all corruptions on the first page of a table where corruption is
           found, stop processing that table relation and move on to the next table or index.

           Note that index checking always stops after the first corrupt page. This option only
           has meaning relative to table relations.

       --skip=option
           If all-frozen is given, table corruption checks will skip over pages in all tables
           that are marked as all frozen.

           If all-visible is given, table corruption checks will skip over pages in all tables
           that are marked as all visible.

           By default, no pages are skipped. This can be specified as none, but since this is the
           default, it need not be mentioned.

       --startblock=block
           Start checking at the specified block number. An error will occur if the table
           relation being checked has fewer than this number of blocks. This option does not
           apply to indexes, and is probably only useful when checking a single table relation.
           See --endblock for further caveats.

       --endblock=block
           End checking at the specified block number. An error will occur if the table relation
           being checked has fewer than this number of blocks. This option does not apply to
           indexes, and is probably only useful when checking a single table relation. If both a
           regular table and a toast table are checked, this option will apply to both, but
           higher-numbered toast blocks may still be accessed while validating toast pointers,
           unless that is suppressed using --exclude-toast-pointers.

       The following command-line options control checking of B-tree indexes:

       --heapallindexed
           For each index checked, verify the presence of all heap tuples as index tuples in the
           index using amcheck's heapallindexed option.

       --parent-check
           For each btree index checked, use amcheck's bt_index_parent_check function, which
           performs additional checks of parent/child relationships during index checking.

           The default is to use amcheck's bt_index_check function, but note that use of the
           --rootdescend option implicitly selects bt_index_parent_check.

       --rootdescend
           For each index checked, re-find tuples on the leaf level by performing a new search
           from the root page for each tuple using amcheck's rootdescend option.

           Use of this option implicitly also selects the --parent-check option.

           This form of verification was originally written to help in the development of btree
           index features. It may be of limited use or even of no use in helping detect the kinds
           of corruption that occur in practice. It may also cause corruption checking to take
           considerably longer and consume considerably more resources on the server.

           Warning
           The extra checks performed against B-tree indexes when the --parent-check option or
           the --rootdescend option is specified require relatively strong relation-level locks.
           These checks are the only checks that will block concurrent data modification from
           INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE commands.

       The following command-line options control the connection to the server:

       -h hostname
       --host=hostname
           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.

       -p port
       --port=port
           Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server
           is listening for connections.

       -U
       --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_amcheck to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

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

       --maintenance-db=dbname
           Specifies a database or connection string to be used to discover the list of databases
           to be checked. If neither --all nor any option including a database pattern is used,
           no such connection is required and this option does nothing. Otherwise, any connection
           string parameters other than the database name which are included in the value for
           this option will also be used when connecting to the databases being checked. If this
           option is omitted, the default is postgres or, if that fails, template1.

       Other options are also available:

       -e
       --echo
           Echo to stdout all SQL sent to the server.

       -j num
       --jobs=num
           Use num concurrent connections to the server, or one per object to be checked,
           whichever is less.

           The default is to use a single connection.

       -P
       --progress
           Show progress information. Progress information includes the number of relations for
           which checking has been completed, and the total size of those relations. It also
           includes the total number of relations that will eventually be checked, and the
           estimated size of those relations.

       -v
       --verbose
           Print more messages. In particular, this will print a message for each relation being
           checked, and will increase the level of detail shown for server errors.

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

       --install-missing
       --install-missing=schema
           Install any missing extensions that are required to check the database(s). If not yet
           installed, each extension's objects will be installed into the given schema, or if not
           specified into schema pg_catalog.

           At present, the only required extension is amcheck.

       -?
       --help
           Show help about pg_amcheck command line arguments, and exit.

NOTES

       pg_amcheck is designed to work with PostgreSQL 14.0 and later.

SEE ALSO

       amcheck