pg_dump — extract a PostgreSQL database into a script file or other archive file
pg_dump [connection-option...] [option...] [dbname]
pg_dump is a utility for backing up a PostgreSQL database. It makes consistent backups even if the database is being used concurrently. pg_dump does not block other users accessing the database (readers or writers).
pg_dump only dumps a single database. To back up an entire cluster, or to back up global objects that are common to all databases in a cluster (such as roles and tablespaces), use pg_dumpall.
Dumps can be output in script or archive file formats. Script dumps are plain-text files containing the SQL commands required to reconstruct the database to the state it was in at the time it was saved. To restore from such a script, feed it to psql. Script files can be used to reconstruct the database even on other machines and other architectures; with some modifications, even on other SQL database products.
The alternative archive file formats must be used with pg_restore to rebuild the database. They allow pg_restore to be selective about what is restored, or even to reorder the items prior to being restored. The archive file formats are designed to be portable across architectures.
   When used with one of the archive file formats and combined with
   pg_restore,
   pg_dump provides a flexible archival and
   transfer mechanism. pg_dump can be used to
   backup an entire database, then pg_restore
   can be used to examine the archive and/or select which parts of the
   database are to be restored. The most flexible output file formats are
   the “custom” format (-Fc) and the
   “directory” format (-Fd). They allow
   for selection and reordering of all archived items, support parallel
   restoration, and are compressed by default. The “directory”
   format is the only format that supports parallel dumps.
  
While running pg_dump, one should examine the output for any warnings (printed on standard error), especially in light of the limitations listed below.
The following command-line options control the content and format of the output.
dbname
        Specifies the name of the database to be dumped.  If this is
        not specified, the environment variable
        PGDATABASE is used.  If that is not set, the
        user name specified for the connection is used.
       
-a--data-onlyDump only the data, not the schema (data definitions). Table data, large objects, and sequence values are dumped.
        This option is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical
        to, specifying --section=data.
       
-b--blobs
        Include large objects in the dump.  This is the default behavior
        except when --schema, --table, or
        --schema-only is specified.  The -b
        switch is therefore only useful to add large objects to dumps
        where a specific schema or table has been requested.  Note that
        blobs are considered data and therefore will be included when
        --data-only is used, but not
        when --schema-only is.
       
-B--no-blobsExclude large objects in the dump.
        When both -b and -B are given, the behavior
        is to output large objects, when data is being dumped, see the
        -b documentation.
       
-c--clean
        Output commands to clean (drop)
        database objects prior to outputting the commands for creating them.
        (Unless --if-exists is also specified,
        restore might generate some harmless error messages, if any objects
        were not present in the destination database.)
       
        This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format.  For
        the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
        call pg_restore.
       
-C--create
        Begin the output with a command to create the
        database itself and reconnect to the created database.  (With a
        script of this form, it doesn't matter which database in the
        destination installation you connect to before running the script.)
        If --clean is also specified, the script drops and
        recreates the target database before reconnecting to it.
       
        With --create, the output also includes the
        database's comment if any, and any configuration variable settings
        that are specific to this database, that is,
        any ALTER DATABASE ... SET ...
        and ALTER ROLE ... IN DATABASE ... SET ...
        commands that mention this database.
        Access privileges for the database itself are also dumped,
        unless --no-acl is specified.
       
        This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format.  For
        the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
        call pg_restore.
       
-E encoding--encoding=encoding
        Create the dump in the specified character set encoding. By default,
        the dump is created in the database encoding.  (Another way to get the
        same result is to set the PGCLIENTENCODING environment
        variable to the desired dump encoding.)
       
-f file--file=file
        Send output to the specified file. This parameter can be omitted for
        file based output formats, in which case the standard output is used.
        It must be given for the directory output format however, where it
        specifies the target directory instead of a file. In this case the
        directory is created by pg_dump and must not exist
        before.
       
-F format--format=format
        Selects the format of the output.
        format can be one of the following:
       
pplainOutput a plain-text SQL script file (the default).
ccustomOutput a custom-format archive suitable for input into pg_restore. Together with the directory output format, this is the most flexible output format in that it allows manual selection and reordering of archived items during restore. This format is also compressed by default.
ddirectoryOutput a directory-format archive suitable for input into pg_restore. This will create a directory with one file for each table and blob being dumped, plus a so-called Table of Contents file describing the dumped objects in a machine-readable format that pg_restore can read. A directory format archive can be manipulated with standard Unix tools; for example, files in an uncompressed archive can be compressed with the gzip tool. This format is compressed by default and also supports parallel dumps.
ttar
           Output a tar-format archive suitable for input
           into pg_restore. The tar format is
           compatible with the directory format: extracting a tar-format
           archive produces a valid directory-format archive.
           However, the tar format does not support compression. Also, when
           using tar format the relative order of table data items cannot be
           changed during restore.
          
-j njobs--jobs=njobs
        Run the dump in parallel by dumping njobs
        tables simultaneously. This option reduces the time of the dump but it also
        increases the load on the database server. You can only use this option with the
        directory output format because this is the only output format where multiple processes
        can write their data at the same time.
       
pg_dump will open njobs
        + 1 connections to the database, so make sure your max_connections
        setting is high enough to accommodate all connections.
       
        Requesting exclusive locks on database objects while running a parallel dump could
        cause the dump to fail. The reason is that the pg_dump master process
        requests shared locks on the objects that the worker processes are going to dump later
        in order to
        make sure that nobody deletes them and makes them go away while the dump is running.
        If another client then requests an exclusive lock on a table, that lock will not be
        granted but will be queued waiting for the shared lock of the master process to be
        released. Consequently any other access to the table will not be granted either and
        will queue after the exclusive lock request. This includes the worker process trying
        to dump the table. Without any precautions this would be a classic deadlock situation.
        To detect this conflict, the pg_dump worker process requests another
        shared lock using the NOWAIT option. If the worker process is not granted
        this shared lock, somebody else must have requested an exclusive lock in the meantime
        and there is no way to continue with the dump, so pg_dump has no choice
        but to abort the dump.
       
        For a consistent backup, the database server needs to support
        synchronized snapshots, a feature that was introduced in
        PostgreSQL 9.2 for primary servers and 10
        for standbys. With this feature, database clients can ensure they see
        the same data set even though they use different connections.
        pg_dump -j uses multiple database connections; it
        connects to the database once with the master process and once again
        for each worker job. Without the synchronized snapshot feature, the
        different worker jobs wouldn't be guaranteed to see the same data in
        each connection, which could lead to an inconsistent backup.
       
        If you want to run a parallel dump of a pre-9.2 server, you need to make sure that the
        database content doesn't change from between the time the master connects to the
        database until the last worker job has connected to the database. The easiest way to
        do this is to halt any data modifying processes (DDL and DML) accessing the database
        before starting the backup. You also need to specify the
        --no-synchronized-snapshots parameter when running
        pg_dump -j against a pre-9.2 PostgreSQL
        server.
       
-n pattern--schema=pattern
        Dump only schemas matching pattern; this selects both the
        schema itself, and all its contained objects.  When this option is
        not specified, all non-system schemas in the target database will be
        dumped.  Multiple schemas can be
        selected by writing multiple -n switches.  The
        pattern parameter is
        interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by
        psql's \d commands (see Patterns),
        so multiple schemas can also be selected by writing wildcard characters
        in the pattern.  When using wildcards, be careful to quote the pattern
        if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards;  see
        Examples.
       
         When -n is specified, pg_dump
         makes no attempt to dump any other database objects that the selected
         schema(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee
         that the results of a specific-schema dump can be successfully
         restored by themselves into a clean database.
        
         Non-schema objects such as blobs are not dumped when -n is
         specified.  You can add blobs back to the dump with the
         --blobs switch.
        
-N pattern--exclude-schema=pattern
        Do not dump any schemas matching pattern.  The pattern is
        interpreted according to the same rules as for -n.
        -N can be given more than once to exclude schemas
        matching any of several patterns.
       
        When both -n and -N are given, the behavior
        is to dump just the schemas that match at least one -n
        switch but no -N switches.  If -N appears
        without -n, then schemas matching -N are
        excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.
       
-O--no-owner
        Do not output commands to set
        ownership of objects to match the original database.
        By default, pg_dump issues
        ALTER OWNER or
        SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
        statements to set ownership of created database objects.
        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.
       
        This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format.  For
        the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
        call pg_restore.
       
-R--no-reconnectThis option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards compatibility.
-s--schema-onlyDump only the object definitions (schema), not data.
        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.)
       
        To exclude table data for only a subset of tables in the database,
        see --exclude-table-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 pattern--table=pattern
        Dump only tables with names matching
        pattern.
        For this purpose, “table” includes views, materialized views,
        sequences, and foreign tables.  Multiple tables
        can be selected by writing multiple -t switches.  The
        pattern parameter is
        interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by
        psql's \d commands (see Patterns),
        so multiple tables can also be selected by writing wildcard characters
        in the pattern.  When using wildcards, be careful to quote the pattern
        if needed to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcards;  see
        Examples.
       
        The -n and -N switches have no effect when
        -t is used, because tables selected by -t will
        be dumped regardless of those switches, and non-table objects will not
        be dumped.
       
         When -t is specified, pg_dump
         makes no attempt to dump any other database objects that the selected
         table(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee
         that the results of a specific-table dump can be successfully
         restored by themselves into a clean database.
        
         The behavior of the -t switch is not entirely upward
         compatible with pre-8.2 PostgreSQL
         versions.  Formerly, writing -t tab would dump all
         tables named tab, but now it just dumps whichever one
         is visible in your default search path.  To get the old behavior
         you can write -t '*.tab'.  Also, you must write something
         like -t sch.tab to select a table in a particular schema,
         rather than the old locution of -n sch -t tab.
        
-T pattern--exclude-table=pattern
        Do not dump any tables matching pattern.  The pattern is
        interpreted according to the same rules as for -t.
        -T can be given more than once to exclude tables
        matching any of several patterns.
       
        When both -t and -T are given, the behavior
        is to dump just the tables that match at least one -t
        switch but no -T switches.  If -T appears
        without -t, then tables matching -T are
        excluded from what is otherwise a normal dump.
       
-v--verboseSpecifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dump to output detailed object comments and start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to standard error.
-V--versionPrint the pg_dump version and exit.
-x--no-privileges--no-aclPrevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
-Z 0..9--compress=0..9Specify the compression level to use. Zero means no compression. For the custom archive format, this specifies compression of individual table-data segments, and the default is to compress at a moderate level. For plain text output, setting a nonzero compression level causes the entire output file to be compressed, as though it had been fed through gzip; but the default is not to compress. The tar archive format currently does not support compression at all.
--binary-upgradeThis 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
        ).  This will make restoration very slow; it is mainly
        useful for making dumps that can be loaded into
        non-PostgreSQL databases.
        Any error during reloading will cause only rows that are part of the
        problematic table
        (column, ...) VALUES
        ...INSERT to be lost, rather than the
        entire table contents.
       
--disable-dollar-quotingThis option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bodies, and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syntax.
--disable-triggersThis option is relevant only when creating a data-only dump. It instructs pg_dump 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.
       
        This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format.  For
        the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
        call pg_restore.
       
--enable-row-securityThis option is relevant only when dumping the contents of a table which has row security. By default, pg_dump will set row_security to off, to ensure that all data is dumped from the table. If the user does not have sufficient privileges to bypass row security, then an error is thrown. This parameter instructs pg_dump to set row_security to on instead, allowing the user to dump the parts of the contents of the table that they have access to.
        Note that if you use this option currently, you probably also want
        the dump be in INSERT format, as the
        COPY FROM during restore does not support row security.
       
--exclude-table-data=pattern
        Do not dump data for any tables matching pattern. The pattern is
        interpreted according to the same rules as for -t.
        --exclude-table-data can be given more than once to
        exclude tables matching any of several patterns. This option is
        useful when you need the definition of a particular table even
        though you do not need the data in it.
       
        To exclude data for all tables in the database, see --schema-only.
       
--extra-float-digits=ndigits
        Use the specified value of extra_float_digits when dumping
        floating-point data, instead of the maximum available precision.
        Routine dumps made for backup purposes should not use this option.
       
--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.
       
--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.
        Any error during reloading will cause only rows that are part of the
        problematic INSERT to be lost, rather than the
        entire table contents.  Note that the restore might fail altogether if
        you have rearranged column order.  The
        --column-inserts option is safe against column order
        changes, though even slower.
       
--load-via-partition-root
        When dumping data for a table partition, make
        the COPY or INSERT statements
        target the root of the partitioning hierarchy that contains it, rather
        than the partition itself.  This causes the appropriate partition to
        be re-determined for each row when the data is loaded.  This may be
        useful when reloading data on a server where rows do not always fall
        into the same partitions as they did on the original server.  That
        could happen, for example, if the partitioning column is of type text
        and the two systems have different definitions of the collation used
        to sort the partitioning column.
       
It is best not to use parallelism when restoring from an archive made with this option, because pg_restore will not know exactly which partition(s) a given archive data item will load data into. This could result in inefficiency due to lock conflicts between parallel jobs, or perhaps even reload failures due to foreign key constraints being set up before all the relevant data is loaded.
--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 formats vary depending on the server
        version you are dumping from, but an integer number of milliseconds
        is accepted by all versions.)
       
--no-commentsDo not dump comments.
--no-publicationsDo not dump publications.
--no-security-labelsDo not dump security labels.
--no-subscriptionsDo not dump subscriptions.
--no-sync
        By default, pg_dump will wait for all files
        to be written safely to disk.  This option causes
        pg_dump to return without waiting, which is
        faster, but means that a subsequent operating system crash can leave
        the dump corrupt.  Generally, this option is useful for testing
        but should not be used when dumping data from production installation.
       
--no-synchronized-snapshots
        This option allows running pg_dump -j against a pre-9.2
        server, see the documentation of the -j parameter
        for more details.
       
--no-tablespacesDo not output commands to select tablespaces. With this option, all objects will be created in whichever tablespace is the default during restore.
        This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format.  For
        the archive formats, you can specify the option when you
        call pg_restore.
       
--no-unlogged-table-dataDo 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. Data in unlogged tables is always excluded when dumping from a standby server.
--on-conflict-do-nothing
        Add ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING to
        INSERT commands.
        This option is not valid unless --inserts,
        --column-inserts or
        --rows-per-insert is also specified.
       
--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_dump's, or when
        the output is intended to be loaded into a server of a different
        major version.  By default, pg_dump 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.
       
--rows-per-insert=nrows
        Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than
        COPY).  Controls the maximum number of rows per
        INSERT command. The value specified must be a
        number greater than zero.  Any error during reloading will cause only
        rows that are part of the problematic INSERT to be
        lost, rather than the entire table contents.
       
--section=sectionname
          Only dump 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 dump all sections.
         
The data section contains actual table data, large-object contents, and sequence values. Post-data items include definitions of indexes, triggers, rules, and constraints other than validated check constraints. Pre-data items include all other data definition items.
--serializable-deferrable
        Use a serializable transaction for the dump, to
        ensure that the snapshot used is consistent with later database
        states; but do this by waiting for a point in the transaction stream
        at which no anomalies can be present, so that there isn't a risk of
        the dump failing or causing other transactions to roll back with a
        serialization_failure.  See Chapter 13
        for more information about transaction isolation and concurrency
        control.
       
This option is not beneficial for a dump which is intended only for disaster recovery. It could be useful for a dump used to load a copy of the database for reporting or other read-only load sharing while the original database continues to be updated. Without it the dump may reflect a state which is not consistent with any serial execution of the transactions eventually committed. For example, if batch processing techniques are used, a batch may show as closed in the dump without all of the items which are in the batch appearing.
This option will make no difference if there are no read-write transactions active when pg_dump is started. If read-write transactions are active, the start of the dump may be delayed for an indeterminate length of time. Once running, performance with or without the switch is the same.
--snapshot=snapshotnameUse the specified synchronized snapshot when making a dump of the database (see Table 9.87 for more details).
This option is useful when needing to synchronize the dump with a logical replication slot (see Chapter 48) or with a concurrent session.
In the case of a parallel dump, the snapshot name defined by this option is used rather than taking a new snapshot.
--strict-names
        Require that each schema
        (-n/--schema) and table
        (-t/--table) qualifier match at
        least one schema/table in the database to be dumped.  Note that if
        none of the schema/table qualifiers find
        matches, pg_dump will generate an error
        even without --strict-names.
       
        This option has no effect
        on -N/--exclude-schema,
        -T/--exclude-table,
        or --exclude-table-data.  An exclude pattern failing
        to match any objects is not considered an error.
       
--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.  Also, a dump using SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
        will certainly require superuser privileges to restore correctly,
        whereas ALTER OWNER requires lesser privileges.
       
-?--helpShow help about pg_dump command line arguments, and exit.
The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.
-d dbname--dbname=dbname
       Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is
       equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option
       argument on the command line.
      
       If this parameter contains an = sign or starts
       with a valid URI prefix
       (postgresql://
       or postgres://), it is treated as a
       conninfo string. See Section 33.1 for more information.
      
-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=usernameUser 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--passwordForce pg_dump to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.
        This option is never essential, since
        pg_dump will automatically prompt
        for a password if the server demands password authentication.
        However, pg_dump 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 create the dump.
        This option causes pg_dump 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_dump, 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.
       
PGDATABASEPGHOSTPGOPTIONSPGPORTPGUSERDefault connection parameters.
PG_COLOR
      Specifies whether to use color in diagnostics messages.  Possible values
      are always, auto,
      never.
     
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 33.14).
   pg_dump internally executes
   SELECT statements. If you have problems running
   pg_dump, make sure you are able to
   select information from the database using, for example, psql.  Also, any default connection settings and environment
   variables used by the libpq front-end
   library will apply.
  
   The database activity of pg_dump is
   normally collected by the statistics collector.  If this is
   undesirable, you can set parameter track_counts
   to false via PGOPTIONS or the ALTER
   USER command.
  
   If your database cluster has any local additions to the template1 database,
   be careful to restore the output of pg_dump 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;
   When a data-only dump is chosen and the option --disable-triggers
   is used, pg_dump emits commands
   to disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data,
   and then 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.
  
   The dump file produced by pg_dump
   does not contain the statistics used by the optimizer to make
   query planning decisions.  Therefore, it is wise to run
   ANALYZE after restoring from a dump file
   to ensure optimal performance; see Section 24.1.3
   and Section 24.1.6 for more information.
  
   Because pg_dump is used to transfer data
   to newer versions of PostgreSQL, the output of
   pg_dump can be expected to load into
   PostgreSQL server versions newer than
   pg_dump's version.  pg_dump can also
   dump from PostgreSQL servers older than its own version.
   (Currently, servers back to version 8.0 are supported.)
   However, pg_dump cannot dump from
   PostgreSQL servers newer than its own major version;
   it will refuse to even try, rather than risk making an invalid dump.
   Also, it is not guaranteed that pg_dump's output can
   be loaded into a server of an older major version — not even if the
   dump was taken from a server of that version.  Loading a dump file
   into an older server may require manual editing of the dump file
   to remove syntax not understood by the older server.
   Use of the --quote-all-identifiers option is recommended
   in cross-version cases, as it can prevent problems arising from varying
   reserved-word lists in different PostgreSQL versions.
  
   When dumping logical replication subscriptions,
   pg_dump will generate CREATE
   SUBSCRIPTION commands that use the connect = false
   option, so that restoring the subscription does not make remote connections
   for creating a replication slot or for initial table copy.  That way, the
   dump can be restored without requiring network access to the remote
   servers.  It is then up to the user to reactivate the subscriptions in a
   suitable way.  If the involved hosts have changed, the connection
   information might have to be changed.  It might also be appropriate to
   truncate the target tables before initiating a new full table copy.
  
   To dump a database called mydb into a SQL-script file:
$pg_dump mydb > db.sql
   To reload such a script into a (freshly created) database named
   newdb:
$psql -d newdb -f db.sql
To dump a database into a custom-format archive file:
$pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump
To dump a database into a directory-format archive:
$pg_dump -Fd mydb -f dumpdir
To dump a database into a directory-format archive in parallel with 5 worker jobs:
$pg_dump -Fd mydb -j 5 -f dumpdir
   To reload an archive file into a (freshly created) database named
   newdb:
$pg_restore -d newdb db.dump
To reload an archive file into the same database it was dumped from, discarding the current contents of that database:
$pg_restore -d postgres --clean --create db.dump
   To dump a single table named mytab:
$pg_dump -t mytab mydb > db.sql
   To dump all tables whose names start with emp in the
   detroit schema, except for the table named
   employee_log:
$pg_dump -t 'detroit.emp*' -T detroit.employee_log mydb > db.sql
   To dump all schemas whose names start with east or
   west and end in gsm, excluding any schemas whose
   names contain the word test:
$pg_dump -n 'east*gsm' -n 'west*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql
The same, using regular expression notation to consolidate the switches:
$pg_dump -n '(east|west)*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql
   To dump all database objects except for tables whose names begin with
   ts_:
$pg_dump -T 'ts_*' mydb > db.sql
   To specify an upper-case or mixed-case name in -t and related
   switches, you need to double-quote the name; else it will be folded to
   lower case (see Patterns).  But
   double quotes are special to the shell, so in turn they must be quoted.
   Thus, to dump a single table with a mixed-case name, you need something
   like
$pg_dump -t "\"MixedCaseName\"" mydb > mytab.sql