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.

       --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 option is recommended when dumping a database
           from a server whose PostgreSQL major version is different from pg_dumpall's, or when
           the output is intended to be loaded into a server of a different major version. By
           default, pg_dumpall quotes only identifiers that are reserved words in its own major
           version. This sometimes results in compatibility issues when dealing with servers of
           other versions that may have slightly different sets of reserved words. Using
           --quote-all-identifiers prevents such issues, at the price of a harder-to-read dump
           script.

       --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.