High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails

Working with pg_dump and pg_restore

Row data from PostgreSQL tables can be dumped to a file using the pg_dump client program.

The same dump file can be restored using pg_restore. pg_dump supports a couple of options, including dumping into a text file as INSERT statements. This technique is useful when copying rows to another database, where having the rows in an intermediate file is helpful to review or possibly modify the statements. What other options are there?^[325]

Dumps can be output in script or archive file formats.

When using this technique, you’re performing bulk inserts. The usual caveats apply for bulk loads. Consider disabling Autovacuum for the table receiving new rows. Consider the impact that replication will have when that’s ...