export()

Dumps the database contents to a file.

Method Syntax

db.export(target)

Arguments

ArgumentDescription
resource The table name or a record ID to select. Will also accept a tuple of record name and ID.

Example usage

The .export() method can be used to save the contents of a database to a file.

use surrealdb::engine::any::connect;
use surrealdb::opt::auth::Root;
use surrealdb::opt::Resource;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> surrealdb::Result<()> {
let db = connect("http://localhost:8000").await?;
db.signin(Root {
username: "root".to_string(),
password: "secret".to_string(),
})
.await?;
db.use_ns("main").use_db("main").await?;

// Create a `person` record
db.create(Resource::from("person")).await?;

db.export("backup.surql").await?;
Ok(())
}

If an empty tuple is passed in for the file name, the .export() method will instead return an async stream of bytes.

use futures::StreamExt;
use surrealdb::engine::any::connect;
use surrealdb::opt::auth::Root;
use surrealdb::opt::Resource;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> surrealdb::Result<()> {
let db = connect("http://localhost:8000").await?;
db.signin(Root {
username: "root".to_string(),
password: "secret".to_string(),
})
.await?;
db.use_ns("main").use_db("main").await?;

// Create a `person` record
db.create(Resource::from("person")).await?;

let mut stream = db.export(()).await?;

while let Some(Ok(line)) = stream.next().await {
let content = String::from_utf8(line).unwrap();
println!("{content}");
}
Ok(())
}

The output for the above sample should look like the following.

-- ------------------------------

-- OPTION

-- ------------------------------


OPTION IMPORT;


-- ------------------------------

-- TABLE: person

-- ------------------------------


DEFINE TABLE person TYPE ANY SCHEMALESS PERMISSIONS NONE;


-- ------------------------------

-- TABLE DATA: person

-- ------------------------------


INSERT [ { id: person:bgq0b0rblnozrufizdjm } ];

Export configuration

The Export struct has a method called .with_config() that gives access to the configuration parameters for the export. These can be chained one after another inside a single line of code. The majority of these functions take a single bool:

.tables() takes a Vec of strings in addition to a boolean.

  • .tables(): a list of tables to export, as opposed to all of the tables in the database.

Example of export configuration:

use surrealdb::engine::any::connect;
use surrealdb::opt::auth::Root;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> surrealdb::Result<()> {
let db = connect("http://localhost:8000").await?;
db.signin(Root {
username: "root".to_string(),
password: "secret".to_string(),
})
.await?;
db.use_ns("ns").use_db("db").await?;

db.query(
"
DEFINE FUNCTION fn::get_cats() { RETURN SELECT * FROM cat };
DEFINE TABLE person SCHEMAFULL;
DEFINE FIELD name ON person TYPE string;
DEFINE FIELD age ON person TYPE int;
CREATE person SET name = 'Aeon', age = 20;
CREATE cat SET name = 'Cat of Aeon';
",
)
.await?;

// Cat-related implementation is still experimental
// so don't export the cat table or get_cats() function
db.export("backup.surql")
.with_config()
.tables(vec!["person"])
.functions(false)
.await?;
Ok(())
}

See also