How to duplicate schemas in PostgreSQL

Question

I have a database with schema public and schema_A. I need to create a new schema schema_b with the same structure than schema_a

Answer 1

I will share a solution for my problem which was the same with a small addition. I needed to clone a schema, create a new database user and assign ownership of all objects in the new schema to that user.

For the following example let's assume that the reference schema is called ref_schema and the target schema new_schema. The reference schema and all the objects within are owned by a user called ref_user.

1. dump the reference schema with pg_dump:

pg_dump -n ref_schema -f dump.sql database_name

2. create a new database user with the name new_user:

CREATE USER new_user

3. rename the schema ref_schema to new_schema:

ALTER SCHEMA ref_schema RENAME TO new_schema

4. change ownership of all objects in the renamed schema to the new user

REASSIGN OWNED BY ref_user TO new_user

5. restore the original reference schema from the dump

psql -f dump.sql database_name

I hope someone finds this helpful.