Re: Server Backup: pg_dump vs pg_dumpall

Hi --

> I'm writing a backup script. Right now, I only have one database on my postgresql server. I'm
> deciding if I should use pg_dump or pg_dumpall when backing up the server. As far as I can tell,
> pg_dumpall cannot compress the dumps automatically and it only dumps data in the standard SQL
> text file format. This means that I would not be able to use pg_restore to selectively restore the
> database, correct?
>
> What is *NOT* included in a pg_dump that IS in pg_dumpall (Other than all the databases)?
> Things like user-defined functions and datatypes? Roles? Views?

The pg_dumpall gets users and groups that are not dumped in the single database versions; I used
to use pg_dump on each of several databases on a given server and then pg_dumpall with suitable
parameters to get only those bits and nothing else. User defined stuff, views etc. are all in a given
database so they will be in the pg_dump.

HTH,

Greg Williamson