pynonymizer 
pynonymizer
pynonymizer is a tool for anonymizing sensitive production database dumps, allowing you to create realistic test datasets while maintaining GDPR/Data Protection compliance. It replaces personally identifiable information (PII) in your database with random, yet realistic data, using the Faker library and other functions.
Key features:
- Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MSSQL databases
- Accepts various input formats (SQL, compressed files)
- Generates anonymized output in multiple formats
- Flexible data generation strategies for different use cases
- Easy to use command-line interface and Python library
With pynonymizer, you can safely share production database copies with developers and testers, enabling better staging environments, integration tests, and database migration simulations, without compromising user privacy.
How does it work?
pynonymizer replaces personally identifiable data in your database with realistic pseudorandom data, from the Faker library or from other functions.
There are a wide variety of data types available which should suit the column in question, for example:
unique_emailcompanyfile_path[...]
Pynonymizer's main data replacement mechanism fake_update is a random selection from a small pool of data (--seed-rows controls the available Faker data). This process is chosen for compatibility and speed of operation, but does not guarantee uniqueness.
This may or may not suit your exact use-case. For a full list of data generation strategies, see the docs on strategyfiles
Examples
You can see strategyfile examples for existing databases, in the the examples folder.
Process outline
- Restore from dumpfile to temporary database.
- Anonymize temporary database with strategy.
- Dump resulting data to file.
- Drop temporary database.
If this workflow doesnt work for you, see process control to see if it can be adjusted to suit your needs.
mysql
mysql/mysqldumpMust be in $PATH- Local or remote mysql >= 5.5
- Supported Inputs:
- Plain SQL over stdout
- Plain SQL file
.sql - GZip-compressed SQL file
.gz
- Supported Outputs:
- Plain SQL over stdout
- Plain SQL file
.sql - GZip-compressed SQL file
.gz - LZMA-compressed SQL file
.xz
mssql
- Requires extra dependencies: install package
pynonymizer[mssql] - MSSQL >= 2008
- For
RESTORE_DB/DUMP_DBoperations, the database server must be running locally with pynonymizer. This is because MSSQLRESTOREandBACKUPinstructions are received by the database, so piping a local backup to a remote server is not possible. - The anonymize process can be performed on remote servers, but you are responsible for creating/managing the target database.
- Supported Inputs:
- Local backup file
- Supported Outputs:
- Local backup file
postgres
psql/pg_dumpMust be in $PATH- Local or remote postgres server
- Supported Inputs:
- Plain SQL over stdout
- Plain SQL file
.sql - GZip-compressed SQL file
.gz
- Supported Outputs:
- Plain SQL over stdout
- Plain SQL file
.sql - GZip-compressed SQL file
.gz - LZMA-compressed SQL file
.xz
Getting Started
Usage
CLI
- Write a strategyfile for your database
- Check out the help for a description of options
pynonymizer --help - Start Anonymizing!
Docker
pynonymizer is available as a docker image so that you dont have to install the client tools for your database.
See https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/rwnxt/pynonymizer
# As pynonymizer depends on strategyfiles, you'll need to create a file mount so the file can be read.
docker run --mount type=bind,source=./strategyfile.yml,target=/tmp/strategyfile.yml rwnxt/pynonymizer -s /tmp/strategyfile.yml --db-host [...]
Package
Pynonymizer can also be invoked programmatically / from other python code. See the module entrypoint pynonymizer or pynonymizer/pynonymize.py
import pynonymizer
pynonymizer.run(input_path="./backup.sql", strategyfile_path="./strategy.yml" [...] )
1 maintainer
Metadata
1 maintainer
Release files for pynonymizer 2.5.0
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pynonymizer-2.5.0.tar.gz | 30.5 kB | Details |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pynonymizer-2.5.0-py3-none-any.whl | Python 3 | none | any | Details |
Total release size: 69.5 kB
Release files / pynonymizer-2.5.0.tar.gz
| Download URL | pynonymizer-2.5.0.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 30.5 kB |
| Tags | Source |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
fa6a68a4c3f898ee15446aeb86948bf7bbe27f5987b314e9b41de37cd5bbd519
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
09e89d1ed8e2a3ea849bddb96daff0b6108010d8a9cb9b2ff212f231d7258e24
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
No |
| Uploaded via |
twine/6.0.1 CPython/3.12.8
|
Release files / pynonymizer-2.5.0-py3-none-any.whl
| Download URL | pynonymizer-2.5.0-py3-none-any.whl |
|---|---|
| Size | 39.1 kB |
| Tags | Python 3 |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
31372212e6d6e9e273cb8f90c6bb87be4c20ea94121e507ca7e7bb0c43ff6c04
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
133eecd8b213a28945ad7e502f62047718a5b2e1bc1d873db995497717d683c4
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
No |
| Uploaded via |
twine/6.0.1 CPython/3.12.8
|
