PostgreSQL is a robust and powerful open source database. It has more advanced features than any other open source database and scales well with huge datasets and high traffic loads.
By default, PostgreSQL listens on TCP port 5432.
Dump all databases
pg_dumpall --clean > databases.sql
Dump a database with compression (-Fc)
pg_dump -Fc --file=database.sql --clean database
Dump a database, plain text, one schema only (-n)
pg_dump -Fp --file=filename.sql -n schema --clean database
Dump a single table
Specify the schema with the table name (if applicable) with
pg_dump [-d database] -t schema.table
Dump a table definition (no data)
pg_dump -s [-d database] -t schema.table
Restore a database from a dump file
pg_restore -Fc database.sql
Restore a single table from a dump file
pg_restore -v -e -Ft -d database -t tablename dumpfile.tar
note: in this case, the dump file is in tar format, the database to restore to is after the -d switch and the table to restore is after the -t switch.
Copy data from a file into a table (from the psql client)
COPY table-name FROM '/path/to/filename' DELIMITER 'delimiter';
note: the file must be readable by postgresql (chmod 755), the default delimiter is tab.
Copy data from a table to a file (from the psql client)
COPY table-name TO '/path/to/filename' DELIMITER 'delimiter';
note: the directory and file must be writable by postgresql, the default delimiter is tab.
Start the PostgreSQL interactive terminal
psql
Psql - show a list of databases
\l
Lowercase L, not the number 1 Psql - show all users
select * from pg_user; Psql - show all tables (including system tables)
select * from pg_tables; Psql - show tables in the current context (database/schema)
\d Psql - show description of tablename
\d tablename Psql - show description of tablename, along with constraints, rules, and triggers
\d+ tablename Psql - change current database
\c database; Psql - show all schemas in the current database
\dn Psql - Grant permissions on a schema to a user
GRANT ALL ON myschema TO user; Psql - quit psql
\q Psql - show help
\? Psql - copy a table to a tab delimeted file
COPY table TO 'table.txt'; Psql - load a table from a tab delimeted file
COPY table FROM 'table.txt'; Psql - show permissions on database objects
\z [object]
r -- SELECT ("read")
w -- UPDATE ("write")
a -- INSERT ("append")
d -- DELETE
R -- RULE
x -- REFERENCES (foreign keys)
t -- TRIGGER
X -- EXECUTE
U -- USAGE
C -- CREATE
T -- TEMPORARY
arwdRxt -- ALL PRIVILEGES (for tables)
* -- grant option for preceding privilege
/yyyy -- user who granted this privilege
Psql - getting or setting sequence values
Get current value of a sequence:
SELECT currval('this_id_seq');
Set current value of a sequence to 1000:
SELECT setval('this_id_seq', 1000);
Run the vacuum utility (for version less than 9.0)
vacuumdb --verbose --analyze --all
Note: vacuum reclaims space from deleted records and updates indexes. It should be set up in cron. Newer versions of postgresql may run vacuum automatically.
Increase perfomance with shared memory
One effective performance tuning tip for Postgresql is to increase the shared memory buffers. This might require adding RAM to the server. Many Linux distros default to 32MB of shared memory, controlled by two kernel parameters:
/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
/proc/sys/kernel/shmall
These values can be changed at run time, but it is better to set them at boot using the /etc/sysctl.conf file. This increases shared memory to 1GB:
# increase shared buffers for postgres at boot
kernel.shmmax=1073741824
kernel.shmall=2097152
Then, tell PostgreSQL to use 768MB of the 1GB available in the /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf file:
shared_buffers = 98304 # min 16, at least max_connections*2, 8KB each
Restart PostgreSQL for the change to take effect.
