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`mongoexport`¶

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Synopsis
Considerations
Required Access
Read Preference
Options
Examples

macOS Sierra and Go 1.6 Incompatibility

Users running on macOS Sierra require the 3.2.10 or newer version of mongoexport.

Synopsis¶

mongoexport is a utility that produces a JSON or CSV export of data stored in a MongoDB instance.

See the mongoimport document for more information regarding the mongoimport utility, which provides the inverse “importing” capability.

Run mongoexport from the system command line, not the mongo shell.

Considerations¶

Warning

Avoid using mongoimport and mongoexport for full instance production backups. They do not reliably preserve all rich BSON data types, because JSON can only represent a subset of the types supported by BSON. Use mongodump and mongorestore as described in MongoDB Backup Methods for this kind of functionality.

mongoexport must be run directly from the system command line.

To preserve type information, mongoexport and mongoimport uses the strict mode representation for certain types.

For example, the following insert operation in the mongo shell uses the shell mode representation for the BSON types data_date and data_numberlong:

use test
db.traffic.insert( { _id: 1, volume: NumberLong('2980000'), date: new Date() } )

The argument to data_numberlong must be quoted to avoid potential loss of accuracy.

Use mongoexport to export the data:

mongoexport --db test --collection traffic --out traffic.json

The exported data is in strict mode representation to preserve type information:

{ "_id" : 1, "volume" : { "$numberLong" : "2980000" }, "date" : { "$date" : "2014-03-13T13:47:42.483-0400" } }

See MongoDB Extended JSON for a complete list of these types and the representations used.

Required Access¶

mongoexport requires read access on the target database.

Ensure that the connecting user posseses, at a minimum, the read role on the target database.

When connecting to a mongod or mongos that enforces Authentication, ensure you use the required security parameters based on the configured authentication mechanism.

Read Preference¶

mongoexport defaults to primary read preference when connected to a mongos or a replica set.

You can override the default read preference using the --readPreference option.

Important

Using a non-primary read preference on a mongos may produce inconsistencies in data, including duplicates or missing documents.

Options¶

Changed in version 3.0.0: mongoexport removed the --dbpath as well as related --directoryperdb and --journal options. To use mongoexport, you must run mongoexport against a running mongod or mongos instance as appropriate.

Changed in version 3.0.0: mongoexport removed the --csv option. Use the --type=csv option to specify CSV format for the output.

mongoexport¶

--help¶: Returns information on the options and use of mongoexport.

--verbose, -v¶: Increases the amount of internal reporting returned on standard output or in log files. Increase the verbosity with the -v form by including the option multiple times, (e.g. -vvvvv.)

--quiet¶

Runs mongoexport in a quiet mode that attempts to limit the amount of output.

This option suppresses:

output from database commands
replication activity
connection accepted events
connection closed events

--version¶: Returns the mongoexport release number.

--uri <connectionString>¶

New in version 3.4.6.

Specify a resolvable URI connection string to connect to the MongoDB deployment.

--uri "mongodb://[username:password@]host1[:port1][,host2[:port2],...[,hostN[:portN]]][/[database][?options]]"

For more information on the components of the connection string, see the Connection String URI Format documentation.

Important

The following command-line options cannot be used in conjunction with --uri option:

--host
--port
--db
--username
--password (if the URI connection string also includes the password)
--authenticationDatabase
--authenticationMechanism

Instead, specify these options as part of your --uri connection string.

--host <hostname><:port>, -h <hostname><:port>¶

Default: localhost:27017

Specifies a resolvable hostname for the mongod to which to connect. By default, the mongoexport attempts to connect to a MongoDB instance running on the localhost on port number 27017.

To connect to a replica set, specify the replSetName and a seed list of set members, as in the following:

--host <replSetName>/<hostname1><:port>,<hostname2><:port>,<...>

When specifying the replica set list format, mongoexport always connects to the primary.

You can also connect to any single member of the replica set by specifying the host and port of only that member:

--host <hostname1><:port>

Changed in version 3.0.0: If you use IPv6 and use the <address>:<port> format, you must enclose the portion of an address and port combination in brackets (e.g. [<address>]).

Note

You cannot specify both --host and --uri.

--port <port>¶

Default: 27017

Specifies the TCP port on which the MongoDB instance listens for client connections.

Note

You cannot specify both --port and --uri.

--ipv6¶

Removed in version 3.0.

Enables IPv6 support and allows mongoexport to connect to the MongoDB instance using an IPv6 network. Prior to MongoDB 3.0, you had to specify --ipv6 to use IPv6. In MongoDB 3.0 and later, IPv6 is always enabled.

--ssl¶

New in version 2.6.

Enables connection to a mongod or mongos that has TLS/SSL support enabled.

For more information about TLS/SSL and MongoDB, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL and TLS/SSL Configuration for Clients .

--sslCAFile <filename>¶

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the .pem file that contains the root certificate chain from the Certificate Authority. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths.

Starting in version 3.4, if --sslCAFile or ssl.CAFile is not specified and you are not using x.509 authentication, the system-wide CA certificate store will be used when connecting to an TLS/SSL-enabled server.

If using x.509 authentication, --sslCAFile or ssl.CAFile must be specified.

Warning

Version 3.2 and earlier: For TLS/SSL connections (--ssl) to mongod and mongos, if the mongoexport runs without the --sslCAFile, mongoexport will not attempt to validate the server certificates. This creates a vulnerability to expired mongod and mongos certificates as well as to foreign processes posing as valid mongod or mongos instances. Ensure that you always specify the CA file to validate the server certificates in cases where intrusion is a possibility.

For more information about TLS/SSL and MongoDB, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL and TLS/SSL Configuration for Clients .

--sslPEMKeyFile <filename>¶

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the .pem file that contains both the TLS/SSL certificate and key. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths.

This option is required when using the --ssl option to connect to a mongod or mongos that has CAFile enabled without allowConnectionsWithoutCertificates.

For more information about TLS/SSL and MongoDB, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL and TLS/SSL Configuration for Clients .

--sslPEMKeyPassword <value>¶

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the password to de-crypt the certificate-key file (i.e. --sslPEMKeyFile). Use the --sslPEMKeyPassword option only if the certificate-key file is encrypted. In all cases, the mongoexport will redact the password from all logging and reporting output.

If the private key in the PEM file is encrypted and you do not specify the --sslPEMKeyPassword option, the mongoexport will prompt for a passphrase. See TLS/SSL Certificate Passphrase.

For more information about TLS/SSL and MongoDB, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL and TLS/SSL Configuration for Clients .

--sslCRLFile <filename>¶

New in version 2.6.

Specifies the .pem file that contains the Certificate Revocation List. Specify the file name of the .pem file using relative or absolute paths.

For more information about TLS/SSL and MongoDB, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL and TLS/SSL Configuration for Clients .

--sslAllowInvalidCertificates¶

New in version 2.6.

Bypasses the validation checks for server certificates and allows the use of invalid certificates. When using the allowInvalidCertificates setting, MongoDB logs as a warning the use of the invalid certificate.

Starting in MongoDB 3.4.16, if you specify --sslAllowInvalidCertificates or ssl.allowInvalidCertificates: true when using x.509 authentication, an invalid certificate is only sufficient to establish a TLS/SSL connection but is insufficient for authentication.

Warning

For TLS/SSL connections to mongod and mongos, avoid using --sslAllowInvalidCertificates if possible and only use --sslAllowInvalidCertificates on systems where intrusion is not possible.

If the mongo shell (and other MongoDB Tools) runs with the --sslAllowInvalidCertificates option, the mongo shell (and other MongoDB Tools) will not attempt to validate the server certificates. This creates a vulnerability to expired mongod and mongos certificates as well as to foreign processes posing as valid mongod or mongos instances.

For more information about TLS/SSL and MongoDB, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL and TLS/SSL Configuration for Clients .

--sslAllowInvalidHostnames¶

New in version 3.0.

Disables the validation of the hostnames in TLS/SSL certificates. Allows mongoexport to connect to MongoDB instances even if the hostname in their certificates do not match the specified hostname.

For more information about TLS/SSL and MongoDB, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL and TLS/SSL Configuration for Clients .

--sslFIPSMode¶: New in version 2.6.

Directs the mongoexport to use the FIPS mode of the installed OpenSSL library. Your system must have a FIPS compliant OpenSSL library to use the --sslFIPSMode option.

Note

FIPS-compatible TLS/SSL is available only in MongoDB Enterprise. See Configure MongoDB for FIPS for more information.

--username <username>, -u <username>¶: Specifies a username with which to authenticate to a MongoDB database that uses authentication. Use in conjunction with the --password and --authenticationDatabase options.

Note

You cannot specify both --username and --uri.

--password <password>, -p <password>¶: Specifies a password with which to authenticate to a MongoDB database that uses authentication. Use in conjunction with the --username and --authenticationDatabase options.

Changed in version 3.0.2: To prompt the user for the password, pass the --username option without --password or specify an empty string as the --password value, as in --password "" .

Note

You cannot specify both --password and --uri.

--authenticationDatabase <dbname>¶

Specifies the authentication database where the specified --username has been created. See Authentication Database.

Note

You cannot specify both --authenticationDatabase and --uri.

If you do not specify an authentication database, mongoexport assumes that the database specified to export holds the user’s credentials.

--authenticationMechanism <name>¶

Default: SCRAM-SHA-1

Changed in version 2.6: Added support for the PLAIN and MONGODB-X509 authentication mechanisms.

Changed in version 3.0: Added support for the SCRAM-SHA-1 authentication mechanism. Changed default mechanism to SCRAM-SHA-1.

Specifies the authentication mechanism the mongoexport instance uses to authenticate to the mongod or mongos.

Value	Description
SCRAM-SHA-1	RFC 5802 standard Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism using the SHA1 hash function.
MONGODB-CR	MongoDB challenge/response authentication.
MONGODB-X509	MongoDB TLS/SSL certificate authentication.
GSSAPI (Kerberos)	External authentication using Kerberos. This mechanism is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.
PLAIN (LDAP SASL)	External authentication using LDAP. You can also use `PLAIN` for authenticating in-database users. `PLAIN` transmits passwords in plain text. This mechanism is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.

Note

You cannot specify both --authenticationMechanism and --uri.

--gssapiServiceName¶

New in version 2.6.

Specify the name of the service using GSSAPI/Kerberos. Only required if the service does not use the default name of mongodb.

This option is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.

--gssapiHostName¶

New in version 2.6.

Specify the hostname of a service using GSSAPI/Kerberos. Only required if the hostname of a machine does not match the hostname resolved by DNS.

This option is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.

--db <database>, -d <database>¶: Specifies the name of the database on which to run the mongoexport.

Note

You cannot specify both --db and --uri.

--collection <collection>, -c <collection>¶: Specifies the collection to export.

--fields <field1[,field2]>, -f <field1[,field2]>¶

Specifies a field or fields to include in the export. Use a comma separated list of fields to specify multiple fields.

If any of your field names include white space, use quotation marks to enclose the field list. For example, if you wished to export two fields, phone and user number, you would specify --fields "phone,user number".

For csv output formats, mongoexport includes only the specified field(s), and the specified field(s) can be a field within a sub-document.

For JSON output formats, mongoexport includes only the specified field(s) and the _id field, and if the specified field(s) is a field within a sub-document, the mongoexport includes the sub-document with all its fields, not just the specified field within the document.

See: Export Data in CSV Format using --fields option for sample usage.

--fieldFile <filename>¶

An alternative to --fields. The --fieldFile option allows you to specify in a file the field or fields to include in the export and is only valid with the --type option with value csv. The file must have only one field per line, and the line(s) must end with the LF character (0x0A).

mongoexport includes only the specified field(s). The specified field(s) can be a field within a sub-document.

See Use a File to Specify the Fields to Export in CSV Format for sample usage.

--query <JSON>, -q <JSON>¶

Provides a query as a JSON document (enclosed in quotes) to return matching documents in the export. Specify JSON in strict format.

You must enclose the query document in single quotes ('{ ... }') to ensure that it does not interact with your shell environment.

For example, given a collection named records in the database test with the following documents:

{ "_id" : ObjectId("51f0188846a64a1ed98fde7c"), "a" : 1, "date" : ISODate("1960-05-01T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("520e61b0c6646578e3661b59"), "a" : 1, "b" : 2, "date" : ISODate("1970-05-01T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("520e642bb7fa4ea22d6b1871"), "a" : 2, "b" : 3, "c" : 5, "date" : ISODate("2010-05-01T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("520e6431b7fa4ea22d6b1872"), "a" : 3, "b" : 3, "c" : 6, "date" : ISODate("2015-05-02T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("520e6445b7fa4ea22d6b1873"), "a" : 5, "b" : 6, "c" : 8, "date" : ISODate("2018-03-01T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5cd0de910dbce4346295ae28"), "a" : 15, "b" : 5, "date" : ISODate("2015-03-01T00:00:00Z") }

The following mongoexport uses the -q option to export only the documents with the field a greater than or equal to ($gte) to 3 and the field date less than ISODate("2016-01-01T00:00:00Z") (using the strict format for dates { “$date”: “YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.mmm<offset>”}):

mongoexport -d test -c records -q '{ a: { $gte: 3 }, date: { $lt: { "$date": "2016-01-01T00:00:00.000Z" } } }' --out exportdir/myRecords.json

The resulting file contains the following documents:

{"_id":{"$oid":"520e6431b7fa4ea22d6b1872"},"a":3.0,"b":3.0,"c":6.0,"date":{"$date":"2015-05-02T00:00:00Z"}}
{"_id":{"$oid":"5cd0de910dbce4346295ae28"},"a":15.0,"b":5.0,"date":{"$date":"2015-03-01T00:00:00Z"}}

You can sort the results with the --sort option to mongoexport.

--type <string>¶

Default: json

New in version 3.0.

Specifies the file type to export. Specify csv for CSV format or json for JSON format.

If you specify csv, then you must also use either the --fields or the --fieldFile option to declare the fields to export from the collection.

--out <file>, -o <file>¶: Specifies a file to write the export to. If you do not specify a file name, the mongoexport writes data to standard output (e.g. stdout).

--jsonArray¶: Modifies the output of mongoexport to write the entire contents of the export as a single JSON array. By default mongoexport writes data using one JSON document for every MongoDB document.

--pretty¶: New in version 3.0.0.

Outputs documents in a pretty-printed format JSON.

--noHeaderLine¶

New in version 3.4.

By default, mongoexport includes the exported field names as the first line in a CSV output. --noHeaderLine directs mongoexport to export the data without the list of field names. --noHeaderLine is only valid with the --type option with value csv.

See Exclude Field Names from CSV Output for sample usage.

--slaveOk, -k¶

Deprecated since version 3.2.

Sets the Read Preference to nearest, allowing mongoexport to read data from secondary replica set members.

--readPreference replaces --slaveOk in MongoDB 3.2. You cannot specify --slaveOk when --readPreference is specified.

Warning

Using a read preference other than primary with a connection to a mongos may produce inconsistencies, duplicates, or result in missed documents.

--readPreference <string>¶

Specify the read preference for mongoexport.

See Read Preference Modes.

mongoexport defaults to primary read preference when connected to a mongos or a replica set.

Otherwise, mongoexport defaults to nearest.

Warning

Using a read preference other than primary with a connection to a mongos may produce inconsistencies, duplicates, or result in missed documents.

--forceTableScan¶

Forces mongoexport to scan the data store directly instead of traversing the _id field index. Use --forceTableScan to skip the index. Typically there are two cases where this behavior is preferable to the default:

If you have key sizes over 800 bytes that would not be present in the _id index.
Your database uses a custom _id field.

When you run with --forceTableScan, mongoexport may return a document more than once if a write operation interleaves with the operation to cause the document to move.

Warning

Use --forceTableScan with extreme caution and consideration.

--skip <number>¶: Use --skip to control where mongoexport begins exporting documents. See skip() for information about the underlying operation.

--limit <number>¶: Specifies a maximum number of documents to include in the export. See limit() for information about the underlying operation.

--sort <JSON>¶

Specifies an ordering for exported results. If an index does not exist that can support the sort operation, the results must be less than 32 megabytes.

Use --sort conjunction with --skip and --limit to limit number of exported documents.

mongoexport -d test -c records --sort '{a: 1}' --limit 100 --out export.0.json
mongoexport -d test -c records --sort '{a: 1}' --limit 100 --skip 100 --out export.1.json
mongoexport -d test -c records --sort '{a: 1}' --limit 100 --skip 200 --out export.2.json

See sort() for information about the underlying operation.

Examples¶

Export in CSV Format¶

Changed in version 3.0.0: mongoexport removed the --csv option. Use the --type=csv option to specify CSV format for the output.

Export Data in CSV Format using `--fields` option¶

In the following example, mongoexport exports data from the collection contacts collection in the users database in CSV format to the file /opt/backups/contacts.csv.

The mongod instance that mongoexport connects to is running on the localhost port number 27017.

When you export in CSV format, you must specify the fields in the documents to export. The operation specifies the name and address fields to export.

mongoexport --db users --collection contacts --type=csv --fields name,address --out /opt/backups/contacts.csv

The output would then resemble:

name, address
Sophie Monroe, 123 Example Road
Charles Yu, 345 Sample Street

Use a File to Specify the Fields to Export in CSV Format¶

For CSV exports only, you can also specify the fields in a file containing the line-separated list of fields to export. The file must have only one field per line.

For example, you can specify the name and address fields in a file fields.txt:

name
address

Then, using the --fieldFile option, specify the fields to export with the file:

mongoexport --db users --collection contacts --type=csv --fieldFile fields.txt --out /opt/backups/contacts.csv

Exclude Field Names from CSV Output¶

New in version 3.4.

MongoDB 3.4 added the --noHeaderLine option for excluding the field names in a CSV export. The following example exports the name and address fields in the contacts collection in the users database and uses --noHeaderLine to suppress the output of the field names as the first line:

mongoexport --db users --collection contacts --type csv --fields name,address --noHeaderLine --out /opt/backups/contacts.csv

The CSV output would then resemble:

Sophie Monroe, 123 Example Road
Charles Yu, 345 Sample Street

Export in JSON Format¶

This example creates an export of the contacts collection from the MongoDB instance running on the localhost port number 27017. This writes the export to the contacts.json file in JSON format.

mongoexport --db sales --collection contacts --out contacts.json

Export from Remote Host Running with Authentication¶

The following example exports the contacts collection in the marketing database from a remote MongoDB instance that requires authentication.

Specify the:

--host
--port
--username
--authenticationDatabase
--collection
--db
--out

Tip

Omit the --password option to have mongoexport prompt for the password:

mongoexport --host mongodb1.example.net --port 27017 --username someUser --authenticationDatabase admin --collection contacts --db marketing --out mdb1-examplenet.json

Alternatively, you use the --uri option to specify the host, port, username, authentication database, and db.

Tip

Omit the password in the URI string to have mongoexport prompt for the password:

mongoexport --uri 'mongodb://someUser@mongodb0.example.com:27017/marketing?authsource=admin' --collection contacts --out mdb1-examplenet.json

Export Query Results¶

You can export only the results of a query by supplying a query filter with the --query option, and limit the results to a single database using the “--db” option.

For instance, this command returns all documents in the sales database’s contacts collection that contain a field named dept equal to "ABC" and the field date greater than or equal to ISODate(“2018-01-01”) (using the strict format for dates { “$date”: “YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.mmm<offset>”} )

mongoexport --db sales --collection contacts --query '{"dept": "ABC", date: { $gte: { "$date": "2018-01-01T00:00:00.000Z" } }}'

You must enclose the query document in single quotes ('{ ... }') to ensure that it does not interact with your shell environment.

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