Database Snapshots

Database snapshots allow you to save the current state of your database and quickly restore it later. This is invaluable during development when you need to:

• Test data modifications and quickly reset to a known state
• Quickly switch between different test scenarios
• Preserve data before making potentially destructive changes

Development Only

Database snapshots are intended for development and testing environments only. For production backups, use proper database backup solutions.

Requirements

The commands shell out to PostgreSQL’s pg_dump and psql. With Laravel Herd on macOS or Windows, they find Herd’s PostgreSQL on their own. Otherwise put them on your PATH, or set PG_BIN_DIRECTORY to the directory that contains them. db:snapshot:create, db:snapshot:restore and db:snapshot:delete refuse to run in production.

Creating Snapshots

Basic Snapshot Creation

Create a snapshot with a descriptive name:

php artisan db:snapshot:create my-snapshot-name

The snapshot will be saved to the database/snapshots/ directory.

Example Workflow

# Rebuild database with fresh data
php artisan db:rebuild

# Create some test data through the UI

# Save this state
php artisan db:snapshot:create clean-test-data

# Now you can make changes, and restore whenever needed
php artisan db:snapshot:restore clean-test-data

Listing Snapshots

View all available snapshots:

php artisan db:snapshot:list

After the table, it asks whether to restore one of the listed snapshots. A restore started from this prompt skips schema validation.

Restoring Snapshots

Restore a snapshot by name:

php artisan db:snapshot:restore my-snapshot-name

Create an automatic backup before restoring:

php artisan db:snapshot:restore my-snapshot-name --backup

Destructive Operation

Restoring a snapshot will completely replace your current database with the snapshot data. All current data will be lost.

Viewing Snapshot Details

Get detailed information about a specific snapshot:

php artisan db:snapshot:info my-snapshot-name

This displays:

• File path and size
• Creation timestamp
• Schema checksum and migration/seeder counts
• Comparison with current codebase schema

Deleting Snapshots

Delete a single snapshot:

php artisan db:snapshot:delete my-snapshot-name

Delete all snapshots:

php artisan db:snapshot:delete --all

Both the SQL file and any associated metadata will be removed.