# Why pg\_dump Is Useful for PostgreSQL Data Migration and Troubleshooting

DevFeed: [Why pg\_dump Is Useful for PostgreSQL Data Migration and Troubleshooting](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/why-pg-dump-is-amazing-33618.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://rhaas.blogspot.com/2024/11/why-pgdump-is-amazing.html>)

Author: Robert Haas (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2024-11-01T15:56:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Robert Haas](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/robert-haas.md>)

Topics: [PostgreSQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/postgresql.md>), [postgresql clusters](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/postgresql-clusters.md>), [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cpu.md>), [floating-point](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/floating-point.md>)

Tags: [backup](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backup.md>), [backups](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backups.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpu.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [floating-point](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/floating-point.md>), [pg-dump](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pg-dump.md>), [postgresql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgresql.md>), [sql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sql.md>), [version](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/version.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains why pg_dump is useful beyond full-cluster backups. Its human-readable SQL output can support database migration, major-version changes, CPU architecture changes, and troubleshooting, although it may require manual modification and can incur performance costs or fail in some cases.

## Source excerpt

I wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago entitled Is pg_dump a Backup Tool?. In that post, I argued in the affirmative, but also said that it's probably shouldn't be your primary backup mechanism. For that, you probably shouldn't directly use anything that is included in PostgreSQL itself, but rather a well-maintained third-party backup tool such as barman or pgbackrest. But today, I want to talk a little more about why I believe that pg_dump is both amazingly useful for solving all kinds of PostgreSQL-related problems and also just a great piece of technology. Read more "