Check if PostgreSQL dump is valid

Question

Suppose a dump is provided from pgdumpall

pg_dumpall > outfile.bkp

How to verify if the outfile is a vaild database file for restoration. Just as a precautionary step before restoring it like

psql -f outfile.bkp postgres

For example: In MySQL we can head first few lines of the backup files produced from mysqldump for having SQL like syntax.

• user1822: If pg_dumpall did not result in an error you can be certain the file is valid.
• mysqlrockstar: What if it is provided by application team and System DBA has to restore it

Answer 1

The command you show generates a text backup file. You can use "head" or "less" on it to verify that it looks like a PostgreSQL text backup file, same as mysql. I'd also run "tail", just to make sure it didn't get truncated. It should end with a sign-off like:

--
-- PostgreSQL database dump complete
--
--
-- PostgreSQL database cluster dump complete
--

Of course to be really sure, you would just set up a dummy database server, and restore it.