pgslim 0.1.1

A simple tool to reduce PostgreSQL dump size by nullifying large bytea/text columns.

pgslim 🐘

A simple Python CLI tool to reduce the size of a PostgreSQL dump by nullifying large bytea or text columns.

This is particularly useful when you've accidentally stored large files (like images, PDFs, or JSON responses) in your database and want to create a smaller dump for local development or staging.

Installation

You can install pgslim directly from PyPI (once uploaded):

pip install pgslim

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/nguyenhuy158/pgslim
cd pgslim
pip install .

Usage

Provide the input SQL file, the table name, and the column you want to nullify.

pgslim dump_old.sql farmlink_disbursement_bank_transaction attachment

This will create a new file named dump_old_slim.sql.

Arguments

Positional	Description
input	Input SQL dump file (plain text format)
table	Name of the table (e.g., users)
column	Name of the column to nullify (e.g., attachment)

Optional Flag	Description
-o, --output	Output SQL dump file (defaults to <input>_slim.sql)

How it works

The tool parses the COPY blocks in a PostgreSQL plain-text dump. It identifies the target table and the index of the specified column. For every row in that COPY block, it replaces the column value with \N (PostgreSQL's representation of NULL).

License

MIT