Re: Why does the pg_dumpall command have a database option?

On 6/21/19 6:32 AM, Espresso Beanies wrote:
> Will it still dump all of the databases or just the one it connects to?

It will dump all the databases. It is just that pg_dumpall is a client 
to the server and therefore needs to connect to a database within the 
cluster to do it's work. That is true of all the programs listed here:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/reference-client.html

Programs that do not have to connect can be found here:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/reference-server.html

> 
> On Thu, Jun 20, 2019 at 4:13 PM Adrian Klaver <adrian.klaver@aklaver.com 
> <mailto:adrian.klaver@aklaver.com>> wrote:
> 
>     On 6/20/19 1:03 PM, Espresso Beanies wrote:
>      > I'm trying to see if someone could answer to me why the pg_dumpall
>      > command has a database option when it's designed to dump all the
>      > databases in a PostgreSQL server instance. I'm only asking
>     because when
>      > I create a .pgpass file and try to use the pg_dumpall command,
>     I'm still
>      > required to specify a specific database even though the command
>     itself
>      > should be targeting all databases. Can anyone explain this to me
>     a bit
>      > better?
>      >
>      > Thanks,
> 
>     Because pg_dumpall is a client and needs to connect to a database to
>     kick start the process/fetch global information:
> 
>     https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/app-pg-dumpall.html
> 
>     -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.
> 
> 
>     -- 
>     Adrian Klaver
>     adrian.klaver@aklaver.com <mailto:adrian.klaver@aklaver.com>
> 


-- 
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com