Export Postgresql Database from Docker Container

When running postgresql from docker container, we cannot directly using postgres command in the terminal, we need to use the bash inside the docker container instead.

To see what is the container ID and name

docker ps

After we know the container ID / Name, we can access the bash of the container so we can use the postgresql command.

docker exec -it <container name> bash

Personally, I usually name it with postgres

docker exec -it postgres bash

We will get into the bash container

Then we can use postgres command to export the database

pg_dump -U <username> -d <database_name> -F c > backup.dump

After the exporting database success, the backup.dump file is still in the container. We need to move it to our system

Exit from the container bash using exit, then copy the file inside the container

docker cp postgres:output.dump ./output.dump