References
Utility
Backup

Reference: Backup Statement

The BACKUP statement creates an online backup of the running database.

The following command writes a backup to the ‘/var/backups/cedardb/2026-11-09’ directory on the server.

BACKUP ALL TO '/var/backups/cedardb/2026-11-09';

Syntax 

BACKUP ALL TO '<destination path>';
  • <destination path> is the directory on the server to which the backup is written. It must be empty.

Only superusers can run BACKUP.

Behavior

  • The backup is online, other sessions can keep using the database while the backup runs.
  • The BACKUP statement only returns after the backup has been completely written. Only one backup can run at a time.
  • If the backup fails, CedarDB removes the incomplete destination directory.
  • A backup takes about as much space as the database itself. CedarDB refuses to perform a backup if the destination filesystem does not have sufficient free space.
While a backup is running, CedarDB defers truncating its write-ahead log and deleting obsolete data files. On a database with heavy writes, this temporarily increases the disk usage of the database itself.

Restoring a backup

A backup is a complete database directory. To restore it, start CedarDB on the backup directory:

./cedardb '/var/backups/cedardb/2026-11-09'

The backup includes write-ahead log records that CedarDB replays when it first opens the backup. Restore a backup with the same CedarDB version that created it, as compatibility of backups across versions is not guaranteed.

To move to a newer version, restore with the original version first, then upgrade as usual.

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