pg_dumpall — extract a PostgreSQL database cluster into a script file
pg_dumpall [connection-option...] [option...]
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 to restore the databases. It does this by calling pg_dump for each database in the cluster. pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all databases, namely database roles, tablespaces, and privilege grants for configuration parameters. (pg_dump does not save these objects.)
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 roles and 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 34.16 for more information.
  
The following command-line options control the content and format of the output.
-a--data-onlyDump only the data, not the schema (data definitions).
-c--clean
        Emit SQL commands to DROP 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 --if-exists is also specified.
       
-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 filename--file=filenameSend output to the specified file. If this is omitted, the standard output is used.
-g--globals-onlyDump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no databases.
-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-onlyDump only roles, no databases or tablespaces.
-s--schema-onlyDump 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-onlyDump only tablespaces, no databases or roles.
-v--verboseSpecifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_dumpall 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 pg_dump.
-V--versionPrint the pg_dumpall version and exit.
-x--no-privileges--no-aclPrevent dumping of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
--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.
       table
        (column, ...) VALUES
        ...
--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_dumpall 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.
        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.
       
--exclude-database=pattern
        Do not dump databases whose name matches
        pattern.
        Multiple patterns can be excluded by writing multiple
        --exclude-database switches.  The
        pattern parameter is
        interpreted as a pattern according to the same rules used by
        psql's \d
        commands (see Patterns below),
        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.
       
--extra-float-digits=ndigitsUse 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 DROP ... IF EXISTS commands to drop objects
        in --clean mode.  This suppresses “does not
        exist” errors that might otherwise be reported.  This
        option is not valid unless --clean is also
        specified.
       
--inserts
        Dump data as INSERT commands (rather
        than COPY).  This will make restoration very slow;
        it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be loaded into
        non-PostgreSQL databases.  Note that
        the restore might fail altogether if you have rearranged column order.
        The --column-inserts option is safer, though even
        slower.
       
--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 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.
       
--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.
       
--no-commentsDo not dump comments.
--no-publicationsDo not dump publications.
--no-role-passwords
        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 pg_roles instead
        of pg_authid.  Therefore, this option also
        helps if access to pg_authid is restricted by
        some security policy.
       
--no-security-labelsDo not dump security labels.
--no-subscriptionsDo not dump subscriptions.
--no-sync
        By default, pg_dumpall will wait for all files
        to be written safely to disk.  This option causes
        pg_dumpall 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-table-access-methodDo 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.
--no-tablespacesDo 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-toast-compressionDo not output commands to set TOAST compression methods. With this option, all columns will be restored with the default compression setting.
--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.
--on-conflict-do-nothing
        Add ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING to
        INSERT commands.
        This option is not valid unless --inserts or
        --column-inserts 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_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.
       
--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 restoring will cause only
        rows that are part of the problematic INSERT to be
        lost, rather than the entire table contents.
       
--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.
       
-?--helpShow help about pg_dumpall command line arguments, and exit.
The following command-line options control the database connection parameters.
-d connstr--dbname=connstrSpecifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a connection string; these will override any conflicting command line options.
        The option is called --dbname for consistency with other
        client applications, but because pg_dumpall
        needs to connect to many databases, the database name in the
        connection string will be ignored.  Use the -l
        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.
       
-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 for dumping global
         objects and discovering 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=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_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.
       
PGHOSTPGOPTIONSPGPORTPGUSERDefault connection parameters
PG_COLOR
      Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values
      are always, auto and
      never.
     
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15).
Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic messages will refer to pg_dump.
   The --clean option can be useful even when your
   intention is to restore the dump script into a fresh cluster.  Use of
   --clean authorizes the script to drop and re-create the
   built-in postgres and template1
   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.
  
   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.
  
   The dump script should not be expected to run completely without errors.
   In particular, because the script will issue CREATE ROLE
   for every role existing in the source cluster, it is certain to get a
   “role already exists” 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 --clean option is likely to produce additional
   harmless error messages about non-existent objects, although you can
   minimize those by adding --if-exists.
  
pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace directories to exist before the restore; otherwise, database creation will fail for databases in non-default locations.
To dump all databases:
$pg_dumpall > db.out
To restore 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.  An exception is that if you specified --clean,
   you must connect to the postgres database initially;
   the script will attempt to drop other databases immediately, and that
   will fail for the database you are connected to.
  
Check pg_dump for details on possible error conditions.