---
title: Migrating Data from an Upgraded Postgres
teaser:
tags: web,postgresql
author: Josh Clayton
published_on: 2012-10-16
---

I recently upgraded Postgres on my development machine from 9.1.4 to 9.2.1.

Things didn't go smoothly, however, because I forgot to migrate all my data.
Since I seem to forget how to do this every time I upgrade between minor
versions of Postgres (and I'm sure other developers do as well), I'm documenting
the process and sharing my solution to reference later.

Note: these steps assume installation with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).

1. Initialize a new database, adding a `.new` suffix to the directory that
   Homebrew recommends.

    initdb /usr/local/var/postgres.new -E utf8

1. Run the upgrade script, providing the correct paths for the various flags.

    pg_upgrade \
      -b /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.1.4/bin \
      -B /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.2.1/bin \
      -d /usr/local/var/postgres \
      -D /usr/local/var/postgres.new

1. Put the data in the correct place.

    rm -rf /usr/local/var/postgres
    mv /usr/local/var/postgres.new /usr/local/var/postgres

If you've set up `launchd` to run Postgres automatically, everything should be
up and running! Otherwise, check out the documentation with `brew info postgres`
to read how to have OS X manage postgres for you.