PaGoDump for PostgreSQL

PaGoDump is a GUI Windows utility for backing up a PostgreSQL database built with Microolap PostgresDAC. It makes consistent backups even if the database is being used concurrently. PaGoDump does not block other users accessing the database (readers or writers), also it works with databases with any names (unicode) and dump them to any files (unicode again).

Dumps can be output in script or archive file formats. Script dumps are plain-text files containing the SQL commands required to reconstruct the database to the state it was in at the time it was saved. To restore from such a script, feed it to psql. Script files can be used to reconstruct the database even on other machines and other architectures; with some modifications even on other SQL database products.

The alternative archive file formats must be used with pg_restore to rebuild the database. They allow pg_restore to be selective about what is restored, or even to reorder the items prior to being restored. The archive file formats are designed to be portable across architectures.

When used with one of the archive file formats and combined with pg_restore, PaGoDump provides a flexible archival and transfer mechanism. PaGoDump can be used to backup an entire database, then pg_restore can be used to examine the archive and/or select which parts of the database are to be restored. The most flexible output file format is the "COMPRESS" format. It allows for selection and reordering of all archived items, and is compressed by default. The TAR format is not compressed and it is not possible to reorder data when loading, but it is otherwise quite flexible; moreover, it can be manipulated with standard Unix tools such as tar.