If you do an SQL dump, it will end with "-- PostgreSQL database dump complete". If you use -Fc, you can make an SQL file from the dump using pg_restore like th

If you do an SQL dump, it will end with "-- PostgreSQL database dump complete". If you use -Fc, you can make an SQL file from the dump using pg_restore like this: pg_restore -f db.sql db.dmp Or straight to stdout like this: pg_restore -f - db.dmp | grep "database dump complete" Although I guess if it's corrupted pg_restore won't work. It is really fast, but might not be practical if your database is too big.