Hot logical backups of one database

Logical backup makes a copy of the data in the database by dumping the content of each table as well as object definitions for that same database (such as schemas, tables, indexes, views, privileges, triggers, constraints, and so on).

How to do it...

The command to do this is simple. The following is an example using a database called pgbench:

pg_dump -F c pgbench > dumpfile

Or, you can use the following command:

pg_dump -F c -f dumpfile pgbench

You can also do this through pgAdmin 4, as shown in the following screenshot:

How it works...

The pg_dump utility produces a single output file. This output file can use the split command to separate the file into multiple pieces, if required.

The pg_dump archive file, also known as custom format, is lightly compressed by default. Compression can be removed or made more aggressive.

Note

Even though, by default, pg_dump writes an SQL script directly to standard output, it is recommended to use the archive file instead,...