I have a backup of a small database last used in 2016, with the backup saved as an .out file and .sql file in version 9.3. I no longer have PostgreSQL installed. I want to access the database again, and see that version 9.3 is not supported. Can I download version 12 and restore the file, or should I install version 9.3?
Regards,
Killian DriscoIl
pg_restore does its best to be backwards compatible to try and load old dump files. So I would just try it and see with PG12.
However, there is a chance, depending on what was in that old version, that it may not restore without error. In that case, you could bring up a 9.3 cluster and restore the dump there. Then use the pg_dump binary from PG12 to create a new dump. The newer pg_dump binaries running on old servers try and convert things as needed.
