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Migrate your database

You can migrate databases between different versions of Kùzu without manually writing DDL and COPY statements. To perform a migration, you would first export the database from an existing Kùzu version using the command EXPORT DATABASE. Then, you would import this database into another Kùzu version using IMPORT DATABASE.

Export database

The EXPORT DATABASE command exports all the contents of a Kùzu database to the specified directory. The command generates the following files under the /path/to/export directory, which are needed to be able to import this database to a new Kùzu version:

  • schema.cypher: Contains the definitions of all node and edge tables.
  • macro.cypher: Includes the definitions of all macro functions.
  • copy.cypher: Contains COPY FROM statements for reimporting data.
  • Data files: These files contain the actual database data (in CSV or Parquet format).

The parameters for EXPORT DATABASE are the same as those used when running COPY TO statements. The example below shows how to export a database using default configurations.

EXPORT DATABASE '/path/to/export'

The default behaviour is to export the data tables to Parquet format. This is done to reduce scope of formatting errors and to improve performance. You can use the format parameter to output to other formats, for e.g. CSV. The format parameter can either be csv or parquet.

Here’s an example of how to export a database using the CSV format for data files.

EXPORT DATABASE '/path/to/export' (format="csv", header=true);

Import database

The IMPORT DATABASE command imports the contents of the database from a specific directory to which a Kùzu database was exported to using EXPORT DATABASE command. Under the hood, this command uses the Cypher and data files that were created by the EXPORT DATABASE command to recreate the necessary databases and tables in the new Kùzu version you are migrating to.

The query below imports the database from a directory named /path/to/export to the current database directory that your session points to:

IMPORT DATABASE '/path/to/export';