On this page

• 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

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 possesses, 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.

Options

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.

copy

--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:

copy

--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:

copy

--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