PG_RESTORE(1)

📦 version 16.15, in opensuse-leap 16.0

✨ NAME ✨

pg_restore — restore a PostgreSQL database from an archive file created by pg_dump.

Bestie, this is the PG_RESTORE(1) page from the PostgreSQL 16.15 docs, and it's literally the glow-up tool for getting your database back from a pg_dump(1) archive. 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pg_restore [connection-option...] [option...] [filename]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so pg_restore is the utility that restores a PostgreSQL database from an archive made by pg_dump(1) in one of the non-plain-text formats. It issues all the commands needed to reconstruct the database exactly how it was at the time it was saved. The archive files also let pg_restore be picky about what gets restored — or even reorder the items before restoring them. And yes, archive files are designed to be portable across architectures. 🌈

pg_restore can operate in two modes, bestie:

  • If you specify a database name, pg_restore connects to that database and restores archive contents directly into it.
  • Otherwise, it creates a script containing the SQL commands needed to rebuild the database and writes that script to a file or standard output. This script output is equivalent to the plain text output format of pg_dump. Some of the options controlling the output are therefore analogous to pg_dump options.

Obviously, pg_restore cannot restore information that is not present in the archive file. For instance, if the archive was made using the “dump data as INSERT commands” option, pg_restore will not be able to load the data using COPY statements. 😭

⚠️ Warning — Restoring a dump causes the destination to execute arbitrary code of the source superusers' choice. Partial dumps and partial restores do not limit that. If the source superusers are not trusted, the dumped SQL statements must be inspected before restoring. Non-plain-text dumps can be inspected by using pg_restore's --file option. Note that the client running the dump and restore need not trust the source or destination superusers. 💀

💅 OPTIONS 💅

pg_restore accepts the following command line arguments.

  • filename — Specifies the location of the archive file (or directory, for a directory-format archive) to be restored. If not specified, standard input is used. 🎀
  • -a, --data-only — Restore only the data, not the schema (data definitions). Table data, large objects, and sequence values are restored, if present in the archive.

This option is similar to, but for historical reasons not identical to, specifying --section=data.

  • -c, --clean — Before restoring database objects, issue commands to DROP all the objects that will be restored. This option is useful for overwriting an existing database. If any of the objects do not exist in the destination database, ignorable error messages will be reported, unless --if-exists is also specified.
  • -C, --create — Create the database before restoring into it. If --clean is also specified, drop and recreate the target database before connecting to it.

With --create, pg_restore also restores 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 restored, unless --no-acl is specified.

When this option is used, the database named with -d is used only to issue the initial DROP DATABASE and CREATE DATABASE commands. All data is restored into the database name that appears in the archive. 👑

  • -d dbname, --dbname=dbname — Connect to database dbname and restore directly into the database. The dbname can be a connection string. If so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options.
  • -e, --exit-on-error — Exit if an error is encountered while sending SQL commands to the database. The default is to continue and to display a count of errors at the end of the restoration.
  • -f filename, --file=filename — Specify output file for generated script, or for the listing when used with -l. Use - for stdout.
  • -F format, --format=format — Specify format of the archive. It is not necessary to specify the format, since pg_restore will determine the format automatically. If specified, it can be one of the following:
    • c, custom — The archive is in the custom format of pg_dump.
    • d, directory — The archive is a directory archive.
    • t, tar — The archive is a tar archive.
  • -I index, --index=index — Restore definition of named index only. Multiple indexes may be specified with multiple -I switches.
  • -j number-of-jobs, --jobs=number-of-jobs — Run the most time-consuming steps of pg_restore — those that load data, create indexes, or create constraints — concurrently, using up to number-of-jobs concurrent sessions. This option can dramatically reduce the time to restore a large database to a server running on a multiprocessor machine. This option is ignored when emitting a script rather than connecting directly to a database server.

Each job is one process or one thread, depending on the operating system, and uses a separate connection to the server.

The optimal value for this option depends on the hardware setup of the server, of the client, and of the network. Factors include the number of CPU cores and the disk setup. A good place to start is the number of CPU cores on the server, but values larger than that can also lead to faster restore times in many cases. Of course, values that are too high will lead to decreased performance because of thrashing. 😵‍💫

Only the custom and directory archive formats are supported with this option. The input must be a regular file or directory (not, for example, a pipe or standard input). Also, multiple jobs cannot be used together with the option --single-transaction.

  • -l, --list — List the table of contents of the archive. The output of this operation can be used as input to the -L option. Note that if filtering switches such as -n or -t are used with -l, they will restrict the items listed.
  • -L list-file, --use-list=list-file — Restore only those archive elements that are listed in list-file, and restore them in the order they appear in the file. Note that if filtering switches such as -n or -t are used with -L, they will further restrict the items restored.

list-file is normally created by editing the output of a previous -l operation. Lines can be moved or removed, and can also be commented out by placing a semicolon (;) at the start of the line. See below for examples. 🦋

  • -n schema, --schema=schema — Restore only objects that are in the named schema. Multiple schemas may be specified with multiple -n switches. This can be combined with the -t option to restore just a specific table.
  • -N schema, --exclude-schema=schema — Do not restore objects that are in the named schema. Multiple schemas to be excluded may be specified with multiple -N switches.

When both -n and -N are given for the same schema name, the -N switch wins and the schema is excluded.

  • -O, --no-owner — Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the original database. By default, pg_restore issues ALTER OWNER or SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created schema elements. These statements will fail unless the initial connection to the database is made by a superuser (or the same user that owns all of the objects in the script). With -O, any user name can be used for the initial connection, and this user will own all the created objects.
  • -P function-name(argtype [, ...]), --function=function-name(argtype [, ...]) — Restore the named function only. Be careful to spell the function name and arguments exactly as they appear in the dump file's table of contents. Multiple functions may be specified with multiple -P switches.
  • -R, --no-reconnect — This option is obsolete but still accepted for backwards compatibility.
  • -s, --schema-only — Restore only the schema (data definitions), not data, to the extent that schema entries are present in the archive.

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.) 🫶

  • -S username, --superuser=username — Specify the superuser user name to use when disabling triggers. This is relevant only if --disable-triggers is used.
  • -t table, --table=table — Restore definition and/or data of only the named table. For this purpose, “table” includes views, materialized views, sequences, and foreign tables. Multiple tables can be selected by writing multiple -t switches. This option can be combined with the -n option to specify table(s) in a particular schema.
🫶 Note — When -t is specified, pg_restore makes no attempt to restore any other database objects that the selected table(s) might depend upon. Therefore, there is no guarantee that a specific-table restore into a clean database will succeed.
🫶 Note — This flag does not behave identically to the -t flag of pg_dump. There is not currently any provision for wild-card matching in pg_restore, nor can you include a schema name within its -t. And, while pg_dump's -t flag will also dump subsidiary objects (such as indexes) of the selected table(s), pg_restore's -t flag does not include such subsidiary objects.
🫶 Note — In versions prior to PostgreSQL 9.6, this flag matched only tables, not any other type of relation.
  • -T trigger, --trigger=trigger — Restore named trigger only. Multiple triggers may be specified with multiple -T switches.
  • -v, --verbose — Specifies verbose mode. This will cause pg_restore to output detailed object comments and start/stop times to the output file, and progress messages to standard error. Repeating the option causes additional debug-level messages to appear on standard error.
  • -V, --version — Print the pg_restore version and exit.
  • -x, --no-privileges, --no-acl — Prevent restoration of access privileges (grant/revoke commands).
  • -1, --single-transaction — runs the whole restore as one single transaction, like, it literally wraps all the emitted commands in BEGIN/COMMIT. The whole point is all-or-nothing: either every command lands or nothing changes at all. Heads up tho, this option implies --exit-on-error. 💅
  • --disable-triggers — only matters when you're doing a data-only restore. It tells pg_restore to run commands that temporarily turn off triggers on the target tables while the data is being restored. Use it when you've got referential integrity checks or other triggers on those tables and you really don't want them firing off mid-restore. 🙈

Okay so rn the commands emitted for --disable-triggers have to be done as a superuser. So you should also pass a superuser name with -S, or (preferably) just run pg_restore as a PostgreSQL superuser.

  • --enable-row-security — relevant only when you're restoring the contents of a table that has row security. By default pg_restore sets row_security to off, so that all the data actually makes it into the table. If the user doesn't have enough privileges to bypass row security, you get an error thrown at you. This parameter tells pg_restore to set row_security to on instead, so the user can attempt to restore the table contents with row security enabled. It might still fail if the user doesn't have the right to insert the rows from the dump into the table, no cap.

Note that this option currently also requires the dump to be in INSERT format, because COPY FROM doesn't support row security. 😭

  • --if-exists — uses DROP ... IF EXISTS commands to drop objects when you're in --clean mode. This suppresses those "does not exist" errors that would otherwise show up and ruin the vibe. Not valid unless --clean is also specified.
  • --no-comments — don't output commands to restore comments, even if the archive's got them. simple as that. ✨
  • --no-data-for-failed-tables — by default, table data gets restored even if the creation command for the table failed (like, say, because it already exists). With this option, data for that kind of table gets skipped. Super useful if the target database already has the table contents you want. Example: auxiliary tables for PostgreSQL extensions like PostGIS might already be loaded in the target database, and specifying this option stops duplicate or obsolete data from getting loaded into them. 🎀

This option is effective only when restoring directly into a database — not when producing SQL script output.

  • --no-publications — don't output commands to restore publications, even if the archive contains them.
  • --no-security-labels — don't output commands to restore security labels, even if the archive contains them.
  • --no-subscriptions — don't output commands to restore subscriptions, even if the archive contains them.
  • --no-table-access-method — don't output commands selecting table access methods. With this, all objects get created with whatever access method is the default during restore.
  • --no-tablespaces — don't output commands to select tablespaces. With this, all objects get created in whichever tablespace is the default during restore.
  • --restrict-key=restrict_key — uses the string you provide as the psql \restrict key in the dump output. This can only be specified for SQL script output, i.e. when the --file option is used. If you don't specify a restrict key, pg_restore will generate a random one as needed. Keys may contain only alphanumeric characters. 🔑
This option is primarily intended for testing purposes and other scenarios that require repeatable output (e.g., comparing dump files). It is not recommended for general use, because a malicious server with advance knowledge of the key may be able to inject arbitrary code that will be executed on the machine that runs psql with the dump output. 💀
  • --section=sectionname — only restore the named section. The section name can be pre-data, data, or post-data. You can specify this option more than once to select multiple sections. Default is to restore all sections.

The data section contains actual table data as well as large-object definitions. post-data items are definitions of indexes, triggers, rules and constraints other than validated check constraints. pre-data items are all the other data definition items. 🌈

  • --strict-names — requires that each schema (-n/--schema) and table (-t/--table) qualifier matches at least one schema/table in the backup file. no matches, no mercy.
  • --use-set-session-authorization — outputs 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, it might not restore properly. ⚠️
  • -?, --help — shows help about pg_restore command line arguments, and exits. our favorite.

pg_restore also accepts the following command line arguments for connection parameters:

  • -h host, --host=host — specifies the host name of the machine the server is running on. If the value begins with a slash, it's used as the directory for the Unix domain socket. The default comes from the PGHOST environment variable if it's set, otherwise a Unix domain socket connection is attempted. 🦋
  • -p port, --port=port — specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension the server is listening on for connections. Defaults to the PGPORT environment variable if set, or a compiled-in default.
  • -U username, --username=username — user name to connect as. that's it, that's the whole thing.
  • -w, --no-password — never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password authentication and a password isn't available some other way (like a .pgpass file), the connection attempt just fails. Handy in batch jobs and scripts where there's no human around to type a password. 🤖
  • -W, --password — forces pg_restore to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

This option is never essential, since pg_restore will automatically prompt for a password if the server demands password authentication. But pg_restore would waste a connection attempt finding out the server wants a password, and sometimes it's worth typing -W to skip that extra attempt. 💅

  • --role=rolename — specifies a role name to use for performing the restore. This causes pg_restore to issue a SET ROLE rolename command after connecting to the database. Useful when the authenticated user (specified by -U) lacks the privileges pg_restore needs but can switch to a role that has the required rights. Some installations have a policy against logging in directly as a superuser, and this option lets restores happen without violating that policy. 👑

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

  • PGHOST
  • PGOPTIONS
  • PGPORT
  • PGUSER

Default 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). However — and this is the quirky bit — it does not read PGDATABASE when a database name is not supplied. ✨

💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

When a direct database connection is specified using the -d option, pg_restore internally executes SQL statements. So if you're having problems running pg_restore, make sure you can select information from the database using, for example, psql(1). Also, any default connection settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library will apply. 🔥

🎀 NOTES 🎀

If your installation has any local additions to the template1 database, be careful to load the output of pg_restore into a truly empty database — otherwise you're likely to get errors from duplicate definitions of the added objects. To make an empty database without any local additions, copy from template0 and not template1, like this:

CREATE DATABASE foo WITH TEMPLATE template0;

The limitations of pg_restore are detailed below. 💀

  • When restoring data to a pre-existing table and the option --disable-triggers is used, pg_restore emits commands to disable triggers on user tables before inserting the data, then emits 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. 😭
  • pg_restore cannot restore large objects selectively — for instance, only those for a specific table. If an archive contains large objects, then all large objects will be restored, or none of them if they're excluded via -L, -t, or other options.

See also the pg_dump(1) documentation for details on limitations of pg_dump.

Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each restored table so the optimizer has useful statistics; see Section 25.1.3 and Section 25.1.6 for more information. ⭐

💖 EXAMPLES 💖

okay so imagine we dumped a database called mydb into a custom-format dump file, like this:

$ pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump

✨ Now if you wanna drop the database and recreate it from the dump, you do:

$ dropdb mydb
$ pg_restore -C -d postgres db.dump

bestie, listen: the database named in the -d switch can be any database that already exists in the cluster. pg_restore only uses it to issue the CREATE DATABASE command for mydb. With -C, data is always restored into the database name that appears in the dump file. no cap.

To restore the dump into a new database called newdb, it's giving:

$ createdb -T template0 newdb
$ pg_restore -d newdb db.dump

Notice we don't use -C here, and instead connect directly to the database we're restoring into. Also note that we clone the new database from template0, not template1, to ensure it is initially empty. iconic behavior tbh 🫶

To reorder database items, you first gotta dump the table of contents of the archive:

$ pg_restore -l db.dump > db.list

The listing file consists of a header and one line for each item, like this:

;
; Archive created at Mon Sep 14 13:55:39 2009
;     dbname: DBDEMOS
;     TOC Entries: 81
;     Compression: 9
;     Dump Version: 1.10-0
;     Format: CUSTOM
;     Integer: 4 bytes
;     Offset: 8 bytes
;     Dumped from database version: 8.3.5
;     Dumped by pg_dump version: 8.3.8
;
;
; Selected TOC Entries:
;
3; 2615 2200 SCHEMA - public pasha
1861; 0 0 COMMENT - SCHEMA public pasha
1862; 0 0 ACL - public pasha
317; 1247 17715 TYPE public composite pasha
319; 1247 25899 DOMAIN public domain0 pasha

Semicolons start a comment, and the numbers at the start of lines refer to the internal archive ID assigned to each item. iykyk 💅

Lines in the file can be commented out, deleted, and reordered. For example:

10; 145433 TABLE map_resolutions postgres
;2; 145344 TABLE species postgres
;4; 145359 TABLE nt_header postgres
6; 145402 TABLE species_records postgres
;8; 145416 TABLE ss_old postgres

could be used as input to pg_restore and would only restore items 10 and 6, in that order:

$ pg_restore -L db.list db.dump

periodt. that's the whole vibe 🔥

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

pg_dump(1), pg_dumpall(1), psql(1)

💜 this lil manual moment is from PostgreSQL 16.15, dated 2026, and it's serving PG_RESTORE(1) energy 🎀✨

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