# Back up an app with PostgreSQL

Your application (Node, Python, Ruby, PHP, Go…) runs on a Linux server, with PostgreSQL on the same machine, installed from your distribution’s packages or in a Docker container. This page says what NeverWiped backs up, what to check, and how to bring back one database, the app or the whole server.

## What the agent finds {#found}

- **Your app’s folder.** A folder in `/opt` is backed up as an application when it holds a project file: `package.json`, `composer.json`, `Gemfile`, `go.mod`, `manage.py`, a `.env`, a `.git` folder or a Compose file. Apps in `/srv`, `/var/www`, `/home` or `/root` are backed up with those folders ([what is backed up](https://neverwiped.com/docs/on-your-server#tree)).
- **PostgreSQL on the server.** When `pg_dumpall`, the local socket and the `postgres` user are there, every database is exported with `pg_dumpall`, run as `postgres`: each database consistent on its own, plus the roles ([a database](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#database)).
- **PostgreSQL in a container.** A running container of a PostgreSQL, PostGIS or TimescaleDB image is exported with `docker exec`, as the user of `POSTGRES_USER` ([databases in Docker](https://neverwiped.com/docs/commands#docker-databases)).
- **The configuration:** `/etc` and the cron tables. Debian and Ubuntu keep PostgreSQL’s settings in `/etc/postgresql`; other distributions may keep them in the data folder, which is not copied: add those files with `--include`.

The database files themselves are not copied: the dump is what you restore. Excluded by default: `**/node_modules`, `**/.cache`, `/var/cache` ([what is backed up](https://neverwiped.com/docs/on-your-server#tree)).

## Check the plan before you accept it {#check}

- **PostgreSQL is listed under the databases.** If it is not, it is not backed up. It must run on this server, with its socket in the usual place.
- **A database on another machine** (a managed database, a separate database server) is not exported. Run the agent on that server too, if it is yours.
- **Room for the dump.** During a backup the dump is written on the server’s disk, in `/var/lib/neverwiped/dumps`, then deleted. The estimate shows the size of the database files, not of the dump ([size and exclusions](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#size)).
- **Build output and caches.** `--preset build` leaves out what a build recreates; uploaded files and anything only your app has stay in.

The plan is made at install. When you add a database server or an app folder, run `neverwiped install --yes` again with the same options: it keeps the same server and repository.

## Bringing things back {#restore}

- **One database damaged, the others fine** (a wrong `DELETE`, a failed migration): take that database out of the dump, rename the damaged one aside, and import it alone. The commands are in [a database](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#database).
- **Every database, or a new server:** re-import the whole file, roles included, with `psql` ([a database](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#database)).
- **A file of the app** (an upload, a config file): [one file](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#one-file) or [a folder](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#folder).
- **The whole server:** install PostgreSQL and your runtime first, then follow [a whole server](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#whole-server).

Before a migration, run `neverwiped backup now`: the dump is then as recent as it can be.

## What it does not do here {#fits}

- **No point-in-time recovery.** You go back to the time of a backup, every night or once a week depending on your [plan](https://neverwiped.com/pricing), not to the second before the accident. If you need that, add PostgreSQL’s own continuous archiving of its write-ahead log; NeverWiped does not do it.
- **Each database is consistent on its own,** not all of them at the same instant. Apps that keep related data in two databases should know it.
- **A replica is not a backup, and neither is this a replica.** A restore takes the time of a re-import; it does not keep the app running if the server fails.
- **Root on the server, and one copy:** see the [known limits](https://neverwiped.com/security#limits).

## Start {#start}

On the server, as root:

```sh
curl -fsSL https://neverwiped.com/install.sh | sh
```

Then follow [getting started](https://neverwiped.com/docs/getting-started#install). Other servers: [all use cases](https://neverwiped.com/use-cases).

Last reviewed: 6 November 2026.