Message-ID: <f6306ad9fe30e09ceb06900c856dfab57afe8c85.camel@cybertec.at>
Subject: Re: Importing a Windows database (in en_GB.CP1252) to linux
From: Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
To: Jean-Christophe BOGGIO <postgresql@thefreecat.org>,
 "pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org"
	 <pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org>
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2025 16:07:30 +0100
In-Reply-To: <5d7b5d51-a7c7-4cf2-943c-49b93441b8fa@thefreecat.org>
References: <5d7b5d51-a7c7-4cf2-943c-49b93441b8fa@thefreecat.org>
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On Mon, 2025-12-01 at 14:37 +0100, Jean-Christophe BOGGIO wrote:
> I have a (custom) backup created on a Windows machine in en_GB.CP1252 enc=
oding.
> And of course, some characters can't be imported because they don't exist=
 in UTF-8.

Hm?  Which character can be encoded in WINDOWS-1252, but not in UTF-8?
I don't think that can be the problem.

> So I created a new cluster on PG18 port 5433 initialized in WIN1252 encod=
ing:
>=20
> $ \l imlocal=20
> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=
=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0List of databases=20
> =C2=A0=C2=A0Name =C2=A0=C2=A0| Owner | Encoding | Locale Provider | Colla=
te | Ctype | Locale | ICU Rules | Access privileges =C2=A0
> ---------+-------+----------+-----------------+---------+-------+--------=
+-----------+-------------------=20
> =C2=A0imlocal | cat =C2=A0=C2=A0| WIN1252 =C2=A0| libc =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0| C =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=
=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0| C =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0| =E2=88=85 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0| =
=E2=88=85 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0| =E2=88=85=20
> =C2=A0(1 row)
>=20
> =C2=A0=C2=A0I am now trying to import the data in that database but I kee=
p getting this error:
>=20
> $ pg_restore -p 5433 -t csakafl -d imlocal imlocal20251127.backup=20
> =C2=A0pg_restore: error: COPY failed for table "csakafl": ERROR: =C2=A0in=
valid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8": 0x92=20
> =C2=A0CONTEXT: =C2=A0COPY csakafl, line 298
>=20
> =C2=A0So pg_restore still thinks I want to use UTF8.

That looks like pg_restore sets a wrong client_encoding, which is weird.

What do you get for

  pg_restore -p 5433 -t csakafl -s -f - imlocal20251127.backup | grep clien=
t_encoding

If the dump was taken from a WINDOWS-1252 encoded database, that line shoul=
d
read

  SET client_encoding =3D 'WIN1252';

and everything should work fine.  But apparently, the client_encoding is se=
t to
UTF-8 in your case.

How did that happen?  How exactly did you take that dump?
Did you do anything (like an encoding conversion) with the dump after you t=
ook it?

Yours,
Laurenz Albe