Unable to run `pg_dump` when following migrating between projects documentation

Improve documentation

Link

https://supabase.io/docs/guides/database#migrating-between-projects

Describe the problem

I’m trying to add restoration support for Supabase in https://snaplet.dev, but whilst trying to dump the database I get the following error:

$ pg_dump -h db.PROJECT_REF.supabase.co -U postgres --clean --schema-only M> supabase_schema.sql

pg_dump: error: query failed: ERROR:  permission denied for table migrations
pg_dump: error: query was: LOCK TABLE storage.migrations IN ACCESS SHARE MODE

I can exclude the storage schema, but it would be nice to have a completely functioning restoration.

[princefishthrower]

@relferreira - but then once the dump is finished, it’s very important to then switch back:

ALTER ROLE postgres NOSUPERUSER

@TomasHubelbauer adding -N auth -N realtime didn’t solve the original issue that @peterp reported for me, i.e.:

pg_dump: error: query failed: ERROR:  permission denied for table migrations
pg_dump: error: query was: LOCK TABLE supabase_functions.migrations IN ACCESS SHARE MODE

In this case I also had to add -N supabase_functions (though probably not ideal for when you want to fully inspect a dump) I raised another issue here that is related: https://github.com/supabase/supabase/issues/7865 it’s unclear to me why SUPERUSER is needed at all, I don’t remember that being a part of the dump workflow when I’ve worked with Postgres previously…

[TomasHubelbauer]

For anyone who’s looking to just dump/backup all their Supabase database data to have a local backup and do not care about the auth and realtime schema contents:

pg_dump -d postgresql://postgres@db.{project}.supabase.co:5432/postgres -N auth -N realtime > dump.sql

You’ll be asked for the password you set during the setup of your Supabase project. If you don’t have pg_dump, do not want to install full Postgres locally and are a macOS user, look into https://postgresapp.com/ (https://github.com/PostgresApp/PostgresApp) - you can skip the database initialization step and just add the CLI tools to your command line.