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 a cluster. pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all databases. (pg_dump does not save these objects.) This currently includes information about database users and groups, tablespaces, and properties such as access permissions that apply to databases as a whole.
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 users and groups, and to 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 33.15 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        Include SQL commands to clean (drop) databases before
        recreating them.  DROP commands for roles and
        tablespaces are added as well.
       
-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--oidsDump object identifiers (OIDs) as part of the data for every table. Use this option if your application references the OID columns in some way (e.g., in a foreign key constraint). Otherwise, this option should not be used.
-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. It will also enable verbose output in 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 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.
       
--if-exists        Use conditional commands (i.e., add an IF EXISTS
        clause) to clean databases and other 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.  Note that
        the restore might fail altogether if you have rearranged column order.
        The --column-inserts option is safer, though even
        slower.
       
--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 values vary depending on the server
        version you are dumping from, but an integer number of milliseconds
        is accepted by all versions since 7.3.  This option is ignored when
        dumping from a pre-7.3 server.
       
--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-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-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.
--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.
       
--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, database name in the connection
        string will be ignored. Use -l option to specify
        the name of the database used to dump global objects and to 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
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 33.14).
Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump internally, some diagnostic messages will refer to pg_dump.
   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.
  
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 reload 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.)
Check pg_dump for details on possible error conditions.