pfc-export-questdb — Export QuestDB tables to PFC cold storage

Stream rows from a QuestDB table directly into a compressed .pfc archive with block-level timestamp index — ready for time-range queries via DuckDB or pfc-gateway without loading the full archive.

Note: QuestDB has no schema concept — tables are referenced by name only.

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The problem

QuestDB tables for trades, sensor_data, or metrics grow continuously. Older partitions are rarely touched but still consume storage and slow down query planning. PFC gives you a portable cold-storage tier that remains fully queryable by timestamp.

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What PFC gives you

	gzip archive	S3 + Athena	PFC-JSONL
Storage vs. raw JSONL	~12%	~12%	~9%
Query one hour from 30 days	Decompress all	$5/TB scan	Decompress ~1/720
Time-range index	❌	❌	✅ built-in
Works offline / no cloud API	✅	❌	✅

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Requirements

The pfc_jsonl binary must be installed:

# Linux x64:
curl -L https://github.com/ImpossibleForge/pfc-jsonl/releases/latest/download/pfc_jsonl-linux-x64 \
     -o /usr/local/bin/pfc_jsonl && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/pfc_jsonl

# macOS (Apple Silicon):
curl -L https://github.com/ImpossibleForge/pfc-jsonl/releases/latest/download/pfc_jsonl-macos-arm64 \
     -o /usr/local/bin/pfc_jsonl && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/pfc_jsonl

License note: pfc_jsonl is free for personal and open-source use. Commercial use requires a written license — see pfc-jsonl.

pip install psycopg2-binary

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Install

pip install pfc-export-questdb

Or run directly:

python3 pfc_export_questdb.py --help

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Usage

Export a full table

pfc-export-questdb \
  --host quest.example.com \
  --table trades \
  --output trades_archive.pfc

Export a time range

pfc-export-questdb \
  --host quest.example.com \
  --table sensor_data \
  --ts-column timestamp \
  --from-ts "2026-01-01T00:00:00" \
  --to-ts   "2026-02-01T00:00:00" \
  --output  sensors_jan2026.pfc \
  --verbose

Auto-generated output filename

# Produces: sensor_data_20260101T000000_20260201T000000.pfc
pfc-export-questdb \
  --host quest.example.com \
  --table sensor_data \
  --ts-column timestamp \
  --from-ts "2026-01-01T00:00:00" \
  --to-ts   "2026-02-01T00:00:00"

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Options

Option	Default	Description
--host	required	QuestDB hostname or IP
--port	8812	PostgreSQL wire protocol port
--user	admin	Username
--password	quest	Password
--dbname	qdb	Database name
--table	required	Table name to export
--ts-column	—	Timestamp column for filtering and ORDER BY
--from-ts	—	Start of time range (ISO 8601, inclusive)
--to-ts	—	End of time range (ISO 8601, exclusive)
--output	auto	Output .pfc file
--batch-size	10000	Rows per fetch batch
--verbose / -v	—	Show row progress and size stats
--pfc-binary	auto-detect	Path to pfc_jsonl binary

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Query the archive

Once exported, query with DuckDB:

INSTALL pfc FROM community;
LOAD pfc;
LOAD json;

SELECT line->>'$.level', line->>'$.value'
FROM read_pfc_jsonl(
    'sensors_jan2026.pfc',
    ts_from = epoch(TIMESTAMPTZ '2026-01-15T08:00:00+00'),
    ts_to   = epoch(TIMESTAMPTZ '2026-01-15T09:00:00+00')
);

Or via pfc-gateway HTTP REST API:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8765/query \
  -H "X-API-Key: secret" \
  -d '{"file": "sensors_jan2026.pfc", "from_ts": "2026-01-15T08:00", "to_ts": "2026-01-15T09:00"}'

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How it works

QuestDB table
    │
    ▼  psycopg2 (PostgreSQL wire protocol, port 8812)
    │  fetchmany(10,000) batching — memory-safe
    │  No schema prefix (QuestDB has no schema concept)
    │
    ▼  JSONL temp file
    │  timestamp alias added: ts-column → "timestamp" field
    │  (ensures pfc_jsonl block index works regardless of column name)
    │
    ▼  pfc_jsonl compress
    │
    ▼  output.pfc  +  output.pfc.bidx  +  output.pfc.idx

Note for programmatic use: pfc_jsonl writes compression progress lines (e.g. [PFC-JSONL] Compressing block 1/4...) to stdout alongside the output. When parsing stdout programmatically, only process lines that start with {.

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Test results

pfc-export-questdb v0.1.0 — Test Suite
14/14 PASS | 0 FAIL | 11.9s

✅ Full table export (50k rows) — Roundtrip row count: 50,000 / 50,000
✅ Time-range export
✅ Auto output filename
✅ Stress export 50k rows — ~17,400 rows/s
✅ Wrong host → clear error
✅ Wrong port → clear error
✅ Wrong credentials → clear error
✅ Table not found → clear error
✅ pfc_jsonl binary missing → clear error
✅ Empty result set → 0 rows gracefully (exit 0)
✅ QuestDB down → clean error, no crash
✅ --version, --help

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Part of the PFC Ecosystem

→ View all PFC tools & integrations

Direct integration	Why
pfc-archiver-questdb	Same DB, different mode — archiver runs as a continuous daemon; exporter is one-shot CLI
pfc-export-cratedb	Same tool for CrateDB
pfc-migrate	Complement — migrates existing gzip/zstd file archives to .pfc

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Disclaimer

pfc-export-questdb is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with QuestDB or its maintainers.

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License

pfc-export-questdb (this repository) is released under the MIT License — see LICENSE.

The PFC-JSONL binary (pfc_jsonl) is proprietary software — free for personal and open-source use. Commercial use requires a license: info@impossibleforge.com