Rory Campbell-Lange <rory(at)campbell-lange(dot)net> writes:
> I saved a db with some bytea columns to text using
> pg_dump -a -d <db> > out.sql
You should not need a binary dump for bytea. However, in versions
before 7.3.5 there is a potential for problems if the data goes through
any kind of locale or encoding translation --- see
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2003-11/msg00140.php
I'm not sure if that's what happened to you, or if there's any easy way
to reverse the conversion on your file if that is what happened, but
it's an avenue to pursue.
regards, tom lane