<!--
doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_dumpall.sgml
PostgreSQL documentation
-->
<refentry id="app-pg-dumpall">
<indexterm zone="app-pg-dumpall">
<primary>pg_dumpall</primary>
</indexterm>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle><application>pg_dumpall</application></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo>Application</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>pg_dumpall</refname>
<refpurpose>extract a <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> database cluster using a specified dump format</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>pg_dumpall</command>
<arg rep="repeat"><replaceable>connection-option</replaceable></arg>
<arg rep="repeat"><replaceable>option</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1 id="app-pg-dumpall-description">
<title>Description</title>
<para>
<application>pg_dumpall</application> is a utility for writing out
(<quote>dumping</quote>) all <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> databases
of a cluster into an archive. The archive contains
<acronym>SQL</acronym> commands that can be used as input to <xref
linkend="app-psql"/> to restore the databases. It does this by
calling <xref linkend="app-pgdump"/> for each database in the cluster.
<application>pg_dumpall</application> also dumps global objects
that are common to all databases, namely database roles, tablespaces,
and privilege grants for configuration parameters.
(<application>pg_dump</application> does not save these objects.)
</para>
<para>
Since <application>pg_dumpall</application> 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 roles and create databases.
</para>
<para>
Plain text SQL scripts will be written to the standard output. Use the
<option>-f</option>/<option>--file</option> option or shell operators to
redirect it into a file.
</para>
<para>
Archives in other formats will be placed in a directory named using the
<option>-f</option>/<option>--file</option>, which is required in this case.
</para>
<para>
<application>pg_dumpall</application> needs to connect several
times to the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> server (once per
database). If you use password authentication it will ask for
a password each time. It is convenient to have a
<filename>~/.pgpass</filename> file in such cases. See <xref
linkend="libpq-pgpass"/> for more information.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Options</title>
<para>
The following command-line options control the content and
format of the output.
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-a</option></term>
<term><option>--data-only</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions) or statistics.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-c</option></term>
<term><option>--clean</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Emit SQL commands to <command>DROP</command> all the dumped
databases, roles, and tablespaces before recreating them.
This option is useful when the restore is to overwrite an existing
cluster. If any of the objects do not exist in the destination
cluster, ignorable error messages will be reported during
restore, unless <option>--if-exists</option> is also specified.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-E <replaceable class="parameter">encoding</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--encoding=<replaceable class="parameter">encoding</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
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 <envar>PGCLIENTENCODING</envar> environment
variable to the desired dump encoding.)
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-f <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--file=<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Send output to the specified file. If this is omitted, the
standard output is used.
Note: This option can only be omitted when <option>--format</option> is plain
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-F <replaceable class="parameter">format</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--format=<replaceable class="parameter">format</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specify the format of dump files. In plain format, all the dump data is
sent in a single text stream. This is the default.
In all other modes, <application>pg_dumpall</application> first creates two files:
<filename>global.dat</filename> and <filename>map.dat</filename>, in the directory
specified by <option>--file</option>.
The first file contains global data, such as roles and tablespaces. The second
contains a mapping between database oids and names. These files are used by
<application>pg_restore</application>. Data for individual databases is placed in
<filename>databases</filename> subdirectory, named using the database's <type>oid</type>.
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>d</literal></term>
<term><literal>directory</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Output directory-format archives for each database,
suitable for input into pg_restore. The directory
will have database <type>oid</type> as its name.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>p</literal></term>
<term><literal>plain</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Output a plain-text SQL script file (the default).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>c</literal></term>
<term><literal>custom</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Output a custom-format archive for each database,
suitable for input into pg_restore. The archive
will be named <filename>dboid.dmp</filename> where <type>dboid</type> is the
<type>oid</type> of the database.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>t</literal></term>
<term><literal>tar</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Output a tar-format archive for each database,
suitable for input into pg_restore. The archive
will be named <filename>dboid.tar</filename> where <type>dboid</type> is the
<type>oid</type> of the database.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
Note: see <xref linkend="app-pgdump"/> for details
of how the various non plain text archives work.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-g</option></term>
<term><option>--globals-only</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no databases.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-O</option></term>
<term><option>--no-owner</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not output commands to set
ownership of objects to match the original database.
By default, <application>pg_dumpall</application> issues
<command>ALTER OWNER</command> or
<command>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</command>
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 <option>-O</option>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-r</option></term>
<term><option>--roles-only</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump only roles, no databases or tablespaces.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-s</option></term>
<term><option>--schema-only</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-S <replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--superuser=<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers.
This is relevant only if <option>--disable-triggers</option> is used.
(Usually, it's better to leave this out, and instead start the
resulting script as superuser.)
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-t</option></term>
<term><option>--tablespaces-only</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump only tablespaces, no databases or roles.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-v</option></term>
<term><option>--verbose</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies verbose mode. This will cause
<application>pg_dumpall</application> to output start/stop
times to the dump file, and progress messages to standard error.
Repeating the option causes additional debug-level messages
to appear on standard error.
The option is also passed down to <application>pg_dump</application>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-V</option></term>
<term><option>--version</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Print the <application>pg_dumpall</application> version and exit.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-x</option></term>
<term><option>--no-privileges</option></term>
<term><option>--no-acl</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Prevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--binary-upgrade</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--column-inserts</option></term>
<term><option>--attribute-inserts</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump data as <command>INSERT</command> commands with explicit
column names (<literal>INSERT INTO
<replaceable>table</replaceable>
(<replaceable>column</replaceable>, ...) VALUES
...</literal>). This will make restoration very slow; it is mainly
useful for making dumps that can be loaded into
non-<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> databases.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--disable-dollar-quoting</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This option disables the use of dollar quoting for function bodies,
and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syntax.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--disable-triggers</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This option is relevant only when creating a dump with data and without schema.
It instructs <application>pg_dumpall</application> to include commands
to temporarily disable triggers on the target tables while
the data is restored. Use this if you have referential
integrity checks or other triggers on the tables that you
do not want to invoke during data restore.
</para>
<para>
Presently, the commands emitted for <option>--disable-triggers</option>
must be done as superuser. So, you should also specify
a superuser name with <option>-S</option>, or preferably be careful to
start the resulting script as a superuser.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--exclude-database=<replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump databases whose name matches
<replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>.
Multiple patterns can be excluded by writing multiple
<option>--exclude-database</option> switches. The
<replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> parameter is
interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by
<application>psql</application>'s <literal>\d</literal>
commands (see <xref linkend="app-psql-patterns"/>),
so multiple databases can also be excluded by writing wildcard
characters in the pattern. When using wildcards, be careful to
quote the pattern if needed to prevent shell wildcard expansion.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--extra-float-digits=<replaceable class="parameter">ndigits</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--filter=<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specify a filename from which to read patterns for databases excluded
from the dump. The patterns are interpreted according to the same rules
as <option>--exclude-database</option>.
To read from <literal>STDIN</literal>, use <filename>-</filename> as the
filename. The <option>--filter</option> option can be specified in
conjunction with <option>--exclude-database</option> for excluding
databases, and can also be specified more than once for multiple filter
files.
</para>
<para>
The file lists one database pattern per row, with the following format:
<synopsis>
exclude database <replaceable class="parameter">PATTERN</replaceable>
</synopsis>
</para>
<para>
Lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are considered comments and
ignored. Comments can be placed after an object pattern row as well.
Blank lines are also ignored. See <xref linkend="app-psql-patterns"/>
for how to perform quoting in patterns.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--if-exists</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>DROP ... IF EXISTS</literal> commands to drop objects
in <option>--clean</option> mode. This suppresses <quote>does not
exist</quote> errors that might otherwise be reported. This
option is not valid unless <option>--clean</option> is also
specified.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--inserts</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump data as <command>INSERT</command> commands (rather
than <command>COPY</command>). This will make restoration very slow;
it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be loaded into
non-<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> databases. Note that
the restore might fail altogether if you have rearranged column order.
The <option>--column-inserts</option> option is safer, though even
slower.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--load-via-partition-root</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
When dumping data for a table partition, make
the <command>COPY</command> or <command>INSERT</command> 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 restoring 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--lock-wait-timeout=<replaceable class="parameter">timeout</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
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
<replaceable class="parameter">timeout</replaceable>. The timeout may be
specified in any of the formats accepted by <command>SET
statement_timeout</command>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-comments</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump <command>COMMENT</command> commands.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-data</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump data.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-policies</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump row security policies.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-publications</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump publications.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-role-passwords</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump passwords for roles. When restored, roles will have a
null password, and password authentication will always fail until the
password is set. Since password values aren't needed when this option
is specified, the role information is read from the catalog
view <structname>pg_roles</structname> instead
of <structname>pg_authid</structname>. Therefore, this option also
helps if access to <structname>pg_authid</structname> is restricted by
some security policy.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-schema</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump schema (data definitions).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-security-labels</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump security labels.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-statistics</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump statistics. This is the default.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-subscriptions</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not dump subscriptions.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-sync</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
By default, <command>pg_dumpall</command> will wait for all files
to be written safely to disk. This option causes
<command>pg_dumpall</command> 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-table-access-method</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not output commands to select table access methods.
With this option, all objects will be created with whichever
table access method is the default during restore.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-tablespaces</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-toast-compression</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do not output commands to set <acronym>TOAST</acronym> compression
methods.
With this option, all columns will be restored with the default
compression setting.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-unlogged-table-data</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--on-conflict-do-nothing</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Add <literal>ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING</literal> to
<command>INSERT</command> commands.
This option is not valid unless <option>--inserts</option> or
<option>--column-inserts</option> is also specified.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--quote-all-identifiers</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Force quoting of all identifiers. This option is recommended when
dumping a database from a server whose <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
major version is different from <application>pg_dumpall</application>'s, or when
the output is intended to be loaded into a server of a different
major version. By default, <application>pg_dumpall</application> 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 <option>--quote-all-identifiers</option> prevents
such issues, at the price of a harder-to-read dump script.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--rows-per-insert=<replaceable class="parameter">nrows</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump data as <command>INSERT</command> commands (rather than
<command>COPY</command>). Controls the maximum number of rows per
<command>INSERT</command> command. The value specified must be a
number greater than zero. Any error during restoring will cause only
rows that are part of the problematic <command>INSERT</command> to be
lost, rather than the entire table contents.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--statistics-only</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump only the statistics, not the schema (data definitions) or data.
Statistics for tables, materialized views, and indexes are dumped.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--sequence-data</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Include sequence data in the dump. This is the default behavior except
when <option>--no-data</option>, <option>--schema-only</option>, or
<option>--statistics-only</option> is specified.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--use-set-session-authorization</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Output SQL-standard <command>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</command> commands
instead of <command>ALTER OWNER</command> 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--with-data</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump data. This is the default.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--with-schema</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump schema (data definitions). This is the default.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--with-statistics</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Dump statistics.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-?</option></term>
<term><option>--help</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Show help about <application>pg_dumpall</application> command line
arguments, and exit.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
<para>
The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-d <replaceable class="parameter">connstr</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--dbname=<replaceable class="parameter">connstr</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a <link
linkend="libpq-connstring">connection string</link>; these
will override any conflicting command line options.
</para>
<para>
The option is called <literal>--dbname</literal> for consistency with other
client applications, but because <application>pg_dumpall</application>
needs to connect to many databases, the database name in the
connection string will be ignored. Use the <literal>-l</literal>
option to specify the name of the database used for the initial
connection, which will dump global objects and discover what other
databases should be dumped.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-h <replaceable>host</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--host=<replaceable>host</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
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 <envar>PGHOST</envar> environment variable,
if set, else a Unix domain socket connection is attempted.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-l <replaceable>dbname</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--database=<replaceable>dbname</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies the name of the database to connect to for dumping global
objects and discovering what other databases should be dumped. If
not specified, the <literal>postgres</literal> database will be used,
and if that does not exist, <literal>template1</literal> will be used.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-p <replaceable>port</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--port=<replaceable>port</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file
extension on which the server is listening for connections.
Defaults to the <envar>PGPORT</envar> environment variable, if
set, or a compiled-in default.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-U <replaceable>username</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--username=<replaceable>username</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
User name to connect as.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-w</option></term>
<term><option>--no-password</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires
password authentication and a password is not available by
other means such as a <filename>.pgpass</filename> 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-W</option></term>
<term><option>--password</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Force <application>pg_dumpall</application> to prompt for a
password before connecting to a database.
</para>
<para>
This option is never essential, since
<application>pg_dumpall</application> will automatically prompt
for a password if the server demands password authentication.
However, <application>pg_dumpall</application> will waste a
connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password.
In some cases it is worth typing <option>-W</option> to avoid the extra
connection attempt.
</para>
<para>
Note that the password prompt will occur again for each database
to be dumped. Usually, it's better to set up a
<filename>~/.pgpass</filename> file than to rely on manual password entry.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--role=<replaceable class="parameter">rolename</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump.
This option causes <application>pg_dumpall</application> to issue a
<command>SET ROLE</command> <replaceable class="parameter">rolename</replaceable>
command after connecting to the database. It is useful when the
authenticated user (specified by <option>-U</option>) lacks privileges
needed by <application>pg_dumpall</application>, 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Environment</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><envar>PGHOST</envar></term>
<term><envar>PGOPTIONS</envar></term>
<term><envar>PGPORT</envar></term>
<term><envar>PGUSER</envar></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Default connection parameters
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><envar>PG_COLOR</envar></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values
are <literal>always</literal>, <literal>auto</literal> and
<literal>never</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
This utility, like most other <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> utilities,
also uses the environment variables supported by <application>libpq</application>
(see <xref linkend="libpq-envars"/>).
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Notes</title>
<para>
Since <application>pg_dumpall</application> calls
<application>pg_dump</application> internally, some diagnostic
messages will refer to <application>pg_dump</application>.
</para>
<para>
The <option>--clean</option> option can be useful even when your
intention is to restore the dump script into a fresh cluster. Use of
<option>--clean</option> authorizes the script to drop and re-create the
built-in <literal>postgres</literal> and <literal>template1</literal>
databases, ensuring that those databases will retain the same properties
(for instance, locale and encoding) that they had in the source cluster.
Without the option, those databases will retain their existing
database-level properties, as well as any pre-existing contents.
</para>
<para>
If <option>--with-statistics</option> is specified,
<command>pg_dumpall</command> will include most optimizer statistics in the
resulting dump file. However, some statistics may not be included, such as
those created explicitly with <xref linkend="sql-createstatistics"/> or
custom statistics added by an extension. Therefore, it may be useful to
run <command>ANALYZE</command> on each database after restoring from a dump
file to ensure optimal performance. You can also run <command>vacuumdb -a
-z</command> to analyze all databases.
</para>
<para>
The dump script should not be expected to run completely without errors.
In particular, because the script will issue <command>CREATE ROLE</command>
for every role existing in the source cluster, it is certain to get a
<quote>role already exists</quote> error for the bootstrap superuser,
unless the destination cluster was initialized with a different bootstrap
superuser name. This error is harmless and should be ignored. Use of
the <option>--clean</option> option is likely to produce additional
harmless error messages about non-existent objects, although you can
minimize those by adding <option>--if-exists</option>.
</para>
<para>
<application>pg_dumpall</application> requires all needed
tablespace directories to exist before the restore; otherwise,
database creation will fail for databases in non-default
locations.
</para>
<para>
It is generally recommended to use the <option>-X</option>
(<option>--no-psqlrc</option>) option when restoring a database from a
<application>pg_dumpall</application> script to ensure a clean restore
process and prevent potential conflicts with non-default
<application>psql</application> configurations. Additionally, because
the <application>pg_dumpall</application> script may
include <application>psql</application> meta-commands, it may be
incompatible with clients other than <application>psql</application>.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="app-pg-dumpall-ex">
<title>Examples</title>
<para>
To dump all databases:
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>pg_dumpall &gt; db.out</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
<para>
To restore database(s) from this file, you can use:
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>psql -X -f db.out -d postgres</userinput>
</screen>
It is not important which database you connect to here since the
script file created by <application>pg_dumpall</application> will
contain the appropriate commands to create and connect to the saved
databases. An exception is that if you specified <option>--clean</option>,
you must connect to the <literal>postgres</literal> database initially;
the script will attempt to drop other databases immediately, and that
will fail for the database you are connected to.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
Check <xref linkend="app-pgdump"/> for details on possible
error conditions.
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>