Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to

Partial database exports (Simple)

Backups are not limited to the whole running instance. Each database can be dumped individually with the pg_dump utility.

Getting ready

Please refer to the Getting a basic export (Simple) recipe on preparing a sample database.

How to do it...

This time, we will need to execute the following commands on the command line:

1. First, type the following command to obtain global objects such as users, groups, and passwords:

   $> pg_dumpall -g -f globals.sql
   

2. Next, this command will create a sample database:

   $> pg_dump -f sample_backup.sql sample
   

How it works...

This took a bit more effort, but not much. Because the pg_dump utility can only back up one database at a time, we don't get global objects such as users and groups. Thus ...