Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Subject: BUG #19706: Documentation: Missing step in the instructions for
 restoring sample dvdrental DB from dvdrental.zip
To: pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
From: PG Bug reporting form <noreply@postgresql.org>
Cc: RobS.postgresql9@MailScreen.com
Reply-To: RobS.postgresql9@MailScreen.com, pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:21:01 +0000
Message-ID: <19706-434738bedb25cd02@postgresql.org>
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
Archived-At: 
 <https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/19706-434738bedb25cd02%40postgresql.org>
Precedence: bulk

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference:      19706
Logged by:          Robert Simpson
Email address:      RobS.postgresql9@MailScreen.com
PostgreSQL version: 18.6
Operating system:   macOS
Description:       =20

The instructions at
https://neon.com/postgresql/getting-started/install-postgresql-macos has a
link to this page:
"https://neon.com/postgresql/getting-started/postgresql-sample-database"
which redirects to
"https://neon.com/postgresql/getting-started/sample-database" and also
points to the file containing the sample database at
"https://neon.com/postgresqltutorial/dvdrental.zip". The "sample-database"
page says "The database file is in zipformat ( dvdrental.zip) so you need to
extract it to dvdrental.tar ..." which is correct - after downloading and
extracting the .zip file, there is only one file, the dvdrental.tar file, in
that dvdrental.zip archive file.

However, the instructions on the "getting-started" page mentioned above says
"Fifth, download the sample database and unzip it. You=E2=80=99ll get a dir=
ectory
with many files." where there is only that one dvdrental.tar file there. You
_can_ extract the .tar file (tar -xf) and get a directory with "many" files.
After that, if you continue with the instructions, "Eighth, select the
directory as the Format (1), the directory that contains sample database as
the Filename (2), and postgres as the Role name (3), and click the Restore
button." and restore the dvdrental database using the directory containing
the individual files, or even if you restore the database from the .tar file
and Refresh the database in the navigation tree, there are no tables in the
database.

I _was_ able to restore the schema with "psql -U postgres -d dvdrental -f
restore.sql" but then the tables are not populated with any data.

The instructions skip from the "Fifth" step to the "Seventh" step. Is there
a "Sixth" step missing there? I thought that would be the step to extract
the "many" files from the .tar file (so the part mentioning "many" files
should have been part of that step rather than the "Fifth" step), but that
didn't work for me - as mentioned, there were no tables after restoring the
database using either method.