input file appears to be a text format dump. Please use psql

Question

I take backup using

pg_dump db_production > postgres_db.dump

and then I copy it to localhost using scp.

Now when I import on my

Answer 1

In order to create a backup using pg_dump that is compatible with pg_restore you must use the --format=custom / -Fc when creating your dump.

From the docs:

Output a custom-format archive suitable for input into pg_restore.

So your pg_dump command might look like:

pg_dump --file /tmp/db.dump --format=custom --host localhost --dbname my-source-database --username my-username --password

And your pg_restore command:

pg_restore --verbose --clean --no-acl --no-owner --host localhost --dbname my-destination-database /tmp/db.dump