I had a few questions concerning the backup/restore process for pg.

 

1) Is it possible to dump data onto an existing database that contains data (assumning the schema of both are the same). Has anyone done this? I am thinking of this in order to expediate the data load process

 

2) I read that when dumping and restoring data the insert option is safer but slower than copy? Does anyone know from experience how much slower (especially for a database containing millions of records).

 

3) can pg_restore accept a file that is not archived like a zipped file or plain text file (file.gz or file)

 

4) Is the general practise to have one whole dump of a database or several separate dumps (by table etc...)?

 

Thanks a lot

Sally