Re: Can I use pg_dump to save a sequence for a table that is not also being saved?

Hi Adrian,

Thanks for the kind replies, but it seems my email was not very clear...

I was hoping, possibly foolishly, that specifying the wildcard in
"--table=public.*id_seq" would dump the matched sequences, irrespective of
whether the associated table data was being dumped. Is there a way to get
just the sequences?

It is very possible that I am barking up the wrong tree with pg_dump, and
what I need is some queries using the information_schema.

Thanks, Shaheed

On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 at 14:55, Adrian Klaver <adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com>
wrote:

> On 3/17/26 7:37 AM, Adrian Klaver wrote:
> > On 3/17/26 6:58 AM, Shaheed Haque wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I observe when using pg_dump like this:
> >>
> >> pg_dump -h localhost -p 5432 -U dbcoreuser -Ft -f abc.tar --no-
> >> privileges --data-only \
> >>
> >> --exclude-table="public.(jobs|queues|results) \
> >> --table=public.django_migrations \
> >> --table=public.paiyroll_input \
> >>
> >> --table=public.*_id_seq \
> >>
> >> --verbose foo
> >>
> >>
> >> that the dumped data contains the content of the two tables, and the
> >> two sequences. (FWIW, the above command is actually submitted via a
> >> Python subprocess call, so quoting should not be an issue). The
> >> verbose output confirms this:
> >>
> >> pg_dump: processing data for table "public.django_migrations"
> >> pg_dump: processing data for table "public.paiyroll_input"
> >> pg_dump: executing SEQUENCE SET django_migrations_id_seq
> >> pg_dump: executing SEQUENCE SET paiyroll_input_id_seq
> >>
> >>
> >> Note that the instance "foo" contains many other tables, whose
> >> sequences I was expecting to be included. To confirm this, if I drop
> >> the second "--table", the verbose log shows only:
> >>
> >> pg_dump: processing data for table "public.django_migrations"
> >> pg_dump: executing SEQUENCE SET django_migrations_id_seq
> >>
> >>
> >> My conclusion is that - despite what I understood from the pg_dump
> >> docs - the use of "--table=public.*id_seq" does not include all the
> >> sequences in fo, only those named by another --table.
> >>
> >> Did I misunderstand, or formulate the command incorrectly?
> >
> > My bet is this due to a dependency of paiyroll_input_id_seq on
> > public.paiyroll_input.
> >
> > Provide the output, in psql, of:
> >
> > \d public.paiyroll_input
>
> To demonstrate:
>
> CREATE TABLE seq_test (
> line_id integer GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
> bool_fld boolean,
> str_fld varchar
> );
>
>
>
> \d seq_test
> Table "public.seq_test"
> Column | Type | Collation | Nullable |
> Default
>
> ----------+-------------------+-----------+----------+------------------------------
> line_id | integer | | not null | generated always
> as identity
> bool_fld | boolean | | |
> str_fld | character varying | | |
> Indexes:
> "seq_test_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (line_id)
>
> SELECT pg_get_serial_sequence('public.seq_test', 'line_id');
> pg_get_serial_sequence
> -----------------------------
> public.seq_test_line_id_seq
>
>
> pg_dump -d plant_grower_db -U db_admin -p 5482 -t seq_test --data-only
>
> --
> -- PostgreSQL database dump
> --
>
> [...]
>
> COPY public.seq_test (line_id, bool_fld, str_fld) FROM stdin;
> \.
>
>
> --
> -- Name: seq_test_line_id_seq; Type: SEQUENCE SET; Schema: public;
> Owner: db_admin
> --
>
> SELECT pg_catalog.setval('public.seq_test_line_id_seq', 1, false);
>
> [...]
>
> --
> -- PostgreSQL database dump complete
> --
>
>
> pg_dump -d plant_grower_db -U db_admin -p 5482 -t seq_test_line_id_seq
> --data-only
>
> --
> -- PostgreSQL database dump
> --
>
> [...]
>
> -- No sequence data.
>
> [...]
>
>
> --
> -- PostgreSQL database dump complete
> --
>
>
> >
> >>
> >> Thanks, Shaheed
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Adrian Klaver
> adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com
>