Postgres: clear entire database before re-creating / re-populating from bash script

Question

I'd just drop the database and then re-create it. On a UNIX or Linux system, that should do it:

$ dropdb development_db_name
$ createdb development_db_name

That's how I do it, actually.

If you don't actually need a backup of the database dumped onto disk in a plain-text .sql script file format, you could connect pg_dump and pg_restore directly together over a pipe.

To drop and recreate tables, you could use the --clean command-line option for pg_dump to emit SQL commands to clean (drop) database objects prior to (the commands for) creating them. (This will not drop the whole database, just each table/sequence/index/etc. before recreating them.)

The above two would look something like this:

pg_dump -U username --clean | pg_restore -U username

Although the following line is taken from a windows batch script, the command should be quite similar:

psql -U username -h localhost -d postgres -c "DROP DATABASE \"$DATABASE\";"

This command is used to clear the whole database, by actually dropping it. The $DATABASE (in Windows should be %DATABASE%) in the command is a windows style environment variable that evaluates to the database name. You will need to substitute that by your development_db_name.

To dump:

pg_dump -Fc mydb > db.dump

To restore:

pg_restore --verbose --clean --no-acl --no-owner -h localhost -U myuser -d my_db db/latest.dump

If you want to clean your database named "example_db":

1) Login to another db(for example 'postgres'):

psql postgres

2) Remove your database:

DROP DATABASE example_db;

3) Recreate your database:

CREATE DATABASE example_db;

Note: my answer is about really deleting the tables and other database objects; for deleting all data in the tables, i.e. truncating all tables, Endre Both has provided a similarily well-executed (direct execution) statement a month later.

For the cases where you can’t just DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;, DROP OWNED BY current_user; or something, here’s a stand-alone SQL script I wrote, which is transaction-safe (i.e. you can put it between BEGIN; and either ROLLBACK; to just test it out or COMMIT; to actually do the deed) and cleans up “all” database objects… well, all those used in the database our application uses or I could sensibly add, which is:

• triggers on tables
• constraints on tables (FK, PK, CHECK, UNIQUE)
• indicēs
• VIEWs (normal or materialised)
• tables
• sequences
• routines (aggregate functions, functions, procedures)
• all nōn-default (i.e. not public or DB-internal) schemata “we” own: the script is useful when run as “not a database superuser”; a superuser can drop all schemata (the really important ones are still explicitly excluded, though)
• extensions (user-contributed but I normally deliberately leave them in)

Not dropped are (some deliberate; some only because I had no example in our DB):

• the public schema (e.g. for extension-provided stuff in them)
• collations and other locale stuff
• event triggers
• text search stuff, … (see here for other stuff I might have missed)
• roles or other security settings
• composite types
• toast tables
• FDW and foreign tables

This is really useful for the cases when the dump you want to restore is of a different database schema version (e.g. with Debian dbconfig-common, Flyway or Liquibase/DB-Manul) than the database you want to restore it into.

I’ve also got a version which deletes “everything except two tables and what belongs to them” (a sequence, tested manually, sorry, I know, boring) in case someone is interested; the diff is small. Contact me or check this repo if interested.

SQL

-- Copyright © 2019, 2020
--      mirabilos <[email protected]>
--
-- Provided that these terms and disclaimer and all copyright notices
-- are retained or reproduced in an accompanying document, permission
-- is granted to deal in this work without restriction, including un‐
-- limited rights to use, publicly perform, distribute, sell, modify,
-- merge, give away, or sublicence.
--
-- This work is provided “AS IS” and WITHOUT WARRANTY of any kind, to
-- the utmost extent permitted by applicable law, neither express nor
-- implied; without malicious intent or gross negligence. In no event
-- may a licensor, author or contributor be held liable for indirect,
-- direct, other damage, loss, or other issues arising in any way out
-- of dealing in the work, even if advised of the possibility of such
-- damage or existence of a defect, except proven that it results out
-- of said person’s immediate fault when using the work as intended.
-- -
-- Drop everything from the PostgreSQL database.

DO $$
DECLARE
        q TEXT;
        r RECORD;
BEGIN
        -- triggers
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname, pt.tgname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_trigger pt, pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace AND pc.oid=pt.tgrelid
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pt.tgisinternal=false
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP TRIGGER %I ON %I.%I;',
                    r.tgname, r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- constraints #1: foreign key
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname, pcon.conname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_constraint pcon, pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace AND pc.oid=pcon.conrelid
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pcon.contype='f'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('ALTER TABLE ONLY %I.%I DROP CONSTRAINT %I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname, r.conname);
        END LOOP;
        -- constraints #2: the rest
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname, pcon.conname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_constraint pcon, pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace AND pc.oid=pcon.conrelid
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pcon.contype<>'f'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('ALTER TABLE ONLY %I.%I DROP CONSTRAINT %I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname, r.conname);
        END LOOP;
        -- indicēs
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind='i'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP INDEX %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- normal and materialised views
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind IN ('v', 'm')
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP VIEW %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- tables
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind='r'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP TABLE %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- sequences
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind='S'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP SEQUENCE %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- extensions (only if necessary; keep them normally)
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pe.extname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_extension pe, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pe.extnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP EXTENSION %I;', r.extname);
        END LOOP;
        -- aggregate functions first (because they depend on other functions)
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pp.proname, pp.oid
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_proc pp, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns, pg_catalog.pg_aggregate pagg
                WHERE pns.oid=pp.pronamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pagg.aggfnoid=pp.oid
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP AGGREGATE %I.%I(%s);',
                    r.nspname, r.proname,
                    pg_get_function_identity_arguments(r.oid));
        END LOOP;
        -- routines (functions, aggregate functions, procedures, window functions)
        IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM pg_catalog.pg_attribute
                WHERE attrelid='pg_catalog.pg_proc'::regclass
                    AND attname='prokind' -- PostgreSQL 11+
            ) THEN
                q := 'CASE pp.prokind
                        WHEN ''p'' THEN ''PROCEDURE''
                        WHEN ''a'' THEN ''AGGREGATE''
                        ELSE ''FUNCTION''
                    END';
        ELSIF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM pg_catalog.pg_attribute
                WHERE attrelid='pg_catalog.pg_proc'::regclass
                    AND attname='proisagg' -- PostgreSQL ≤10
            ) THEN
                q := 'CASE pp.proisagg
                        WHEN true THEN ''AGGREGATE''
                        ELSE ''FUNCTION''
                    END';
        ELSE
                q := '''FUNCTION''';
        END IF;
        FOR r IN EXECUTE 'SELECT pns.nspname, pp.proname, pp.oid, ' || q || ' AS pt
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_proc pp, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pp.pronamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN (''information_schema'', ''pg_catalog'', ''pg_toast'')
            ' LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP %s %I.%I(%s);', r.pt,
                    r.nspname, r.proname,
                    pg_get_function_identity_arguments(r.oid));
        END LOOP;
        -- nōn-default schemata we own; assume to be run by a not-superuser
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns, pg_catalog.pg_roles pr
                WHERE pr.oid=pns.nspowner
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast', 'public')
                    AND pr.rolname=current_user
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP SCHEMA %I;', r.nspname);
        END LOOP;
        -- voilà
        RAISE NOTICE 'Database cleared!';
END; $$;

Tested, except later additions (extensions contributed by Clément Prévost), on PostgreSQL 9.6 (jessie-backports). Aggregate removal tested on 9.6 and 12.2, procedure removal tested on 12.2 as well. Bugfixes and further improvements welcome!

I've used:

pg_restore -c -d database_name filename.dump