Installation

Install DBdock globally, use with npx, or add it as a library dependency.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+

DBdock requires Node.js 18 or later.

PostgreSQL client tools

pg_dump, pg_restore, and psql must be on your PATH.

Install PostgreSQL client tools

macOS

brew install postgresql

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

Fedora / RHEL

sudo dnf install postgresql

Windows

Download the installer from the PostgreSQL downloads page. Select only the “Command Line Tools” component if you don’t need the full server.

Verify the tools are available:

pg_dump --version
pg_restore --version
psql --version

Install DBdock

npx (no install)

Always uses the latest published version. Best for one-off tasks.

npx dbdock --help

Global install

Best for daily use — dbdock is available from any directory.

npm install -g dbdock
# or
pnpm add -g dbdock
# or
yarn global add dbdock

Verify:

dbdock --version

Project dependency

Use DBdock programmatically in a Node.js app.

npm install dbdock

See the SDK overview to get started.

Permission errors

If npm install -g fails with EACCES:

Fix: configure npm's global prefix

The recommended fix is to point npm at a directory you own:

mkdir -p ~/.npm-global
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
echo 'export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
npm install -g dbdock

Workaround: sudo

Only if you understand the implications:

sudo npm install -g dbdock

Next steps

Quickstart

Run your first backup in 5 minutes.

Concepts

Understand how DBdock thinks about backups.