How do I do a schema only backup and restore in PostgreSQL?

Question

How do I take a schema level backup in PostgreSQL database and restore on the another database? Is there any single command available for this? For example, can I pg_dump and restore in single line?

Therapy

Answer 1

pg_dump --schema=masters oldDB > masters1.sql
cat masters1.sql | psql newDB

or

in single command you can do by this

pg_dump oldDB --schema masters  | psql -h localhost newDB;

Wellman

Your solution dumps data as well as schema. – Butters

@Butters The commands dumps a single schema as in "public" is a schema (so schema as a namespace in database). Not schema as is in CREATE TABLE kind of things (so not structure). There is this ambiguity in English unfortunately. It's still a valid answer though. The user didn't said which context he means. – Huntlee

Answer 2

Backup schema and restore it on system for postgresql as below:

Dump schema for database

pg_dump -s database_name > db.sql

Dump schema for specific table

pg_dump -s database_name -t table_name > db.sql 

Restore backed up schema using below command

psql -d database_name -h localhost -U postgres < path/db.sql

Shayn

Just a note that this only dumps structure (no data), but for a whole database. This is not for a single schema (namespace within database). – Huntlee

Answer 3

-s or --schema-only to exclude data from dump Documentation

Cagle

Answer 4

What's wrong with the documentation?

Example from the manual:

To dump all schemas whose names start with east or west and end in gsm, excluding any schemas whose names contain the word test:

$ pg_dump -n 'east*gsm' -n 'west*gsm' -N 'test' mydb > db.sql

Ogata

actually i need in single line for both backup and restore – Therapy

Again, this command dumps matching schemas, including the non-blob data contained therein. You need --schema-only to exclude data. – Bixby

What's wrong with documentation for many people: documentation can take a relatively long while to wade through, whereas SE can get an answer quickly. For a quick task like backing up a DB reading the docs is annoying and tedious, especially when those docs are as daunting as postgres' – Tychon