How to Create a Dump File from PostgreSQL

To Generate a Dump file use the pg_dump tool to create a dump file from a database/tables from a PostgreSQL database, pg_dump dumps a database as a text file or to other formats.

Usage:

 pg_dump [OPTION]... [DBNAME]

General options:

 -f, --file=FILENAME      output file name
 -F, --format=c|t|p       output file format (custom, tar, plain text)
 -i, --ignore-version     proceed even when server version mismatches
                          pg_dump version
 -v, --verbose            verbose mode
 -Z, --compress=0-9       compression level for compressed formats
 --help                   show this help, then exit
 --version                output version information, then exit

Options controlling the output content:

 -a, --data-only          dump only the data, not the schema
 -c, --clean              clean (drop) schema prior to create
 -C, --create             include commands to create database in dump
 -d, --inserts            dump data as INSERT, rather than COPY, commands
 -D, --column-inserts     dump data as INSERT commands with column names
 -E, --encoding=ENCODING  dump the data in encoding ENCODING
 -n, --schema=SCHEMA      dump the named schema only
 -o, --oids               include OIDs in dump
 -O, --no-owner           skip restoration of object ownership
                          in plain text format
 -s, --schema-only        dump only the schema, no data

 -S, --superuser=NAME     specify the superuser user name to use in
                          plain text format
 -t, --table=TABLE        dump the named table only
 -x, --no-privileges      do not dump privileges (grant/revoke)
 -X disable-dollar-quoting, --disable-dollar-quoting
                          disable dollar quoting, use SQL standard quoting
 -X disable-triggers, --disable-triggers
                          disable triggers during data-only restore
 -X use-set-session-authorization, --use-set-session-authorization
                          use SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead of
                          OWNER TO commands

Connection options:

 -h, --host=HOSTNAME      database server host or socket directory
 -p, --port=PORT          database server port number
 -U, --username=NAME      connect as specified database user
 -W, --password           force password prompt (should happen automatically)

If no database name is supplied, then the PGDATABASE environment
Example:

pg_dump --username=postgres mertech --table=CHPROD --file=chprod.sql --inserts

To load the dump file use the psql program:

Usage:

 psql [OPTIONS]... [DBNAME [USERNAME]]

General options:

 -d DBNAME       specify database name to connect to (default: "Marcello")
 -c COMMAND      run only single command (SQL or internal) and exit
 -f FILENAME     execute commands from file, then exit
 -l              list available databases, then exit
 -v NAME=VALUE   set psql variable NAME to VALUE
 -X              do not read startup file (~/.psqlrc)
 --help          show this help, then exit
 --version       output version information, then exit

Input and output options:

 -a              echo all input from script
 -e              echo commands sent to server
 -E              display queries that internal commands generate
 -q              run quietly (no messages, only query output)
 -o FILENAME     send query results to file (or |pipe)
 -n              disable enhanced command line editing (readline)
 -s              single-step mode (confirm each query)
 -S              single-line mode (end of line terminates SQL command)
 -L FILENAME     send session log to file

Output format options:

 -A              unaligned table output mode (-P format=unaligned)
 -H              HTML table output mode (-P format=html)
 -t              print rows only (-P tuples_only)
 -T TEXT         set HTML table tag attributes (width, border) (-P tableattr=)
 -x              turn on expanded table output (-P expanded)
 -P VAR[=ARG]    set printing option VAR to ARG (see pset command)
 -F STRING       set field separator (default: "|") (-P fieldsep=)
 -R STRING       set record separator (default: newline) (-P recordsep=)

Connection options:

 -h HOSTNAME     database server host or socket directory (default: "local socket")

 -p PORT         database server port (default: "5432")
 -U NAME         database user name (default: "Marcello")
 -W              prompt for password (should happen automatically)

Example:

psql -d mytable postgres -f insert.sql