pg_basebackup

Physical PostgreSQL backup

medium risk

interactive breakdown — edit the command and press Explain

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⚠ Risks & cautions

Target must be empty; load on the primary is significant.

What it does

Takes a base backup of a running cluster.

Common flags

Flag	Meaning
`-D`	Target directory
`-Fp`	Plain format
`-X stream`	-X stream⚠ Include WAL

Examples

pg_basebackup -h primary -D /backup -X stream -PBase backup · explain & risk-check →

Related

Open the full explainer →More in Databases

Reference text is hand-written and may be incomplete — check man pg_basebackup for your version. Test destructive commands on a non-production system first.