`bsondump`

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Synopsis

Compatibility
Installation
Options
Examples

Synopsis

The bsondump converts BSON files into human-readable formats, including JSON. For example, bsondump is useful for reading the output files generated by mongodump.

Important

bsondump is a diagnostic tool for inspecting BSON files, not a tool for data ingestion or other application use.

bsondump uses Extended JSON v2.0 (Canonical mode) to format its data.

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

Versioning

Starting with MongoDB 4.4, bsondump is now released separately from the MongoDB Server and uses its own versioning, with an initial version of 100.0.0. Previously, bsondump was released alongside the MongoDB Server and used matching versioning.

For documentation on the MongoDB 4.2 or earlier versions of bsondump, reference the MongoDB Server Documentation for that version of the tool:

Note

Quick links to older documentation

This documentation is for version 100.9.0 of bsondump.

Compatibility

MongoDB Server Compatibility

bsondump version 100.9.0 supports the following versions of the MongoDB Server:

MongoDB 7.0
MongoDB 6.0
MongoDB 5.0
MongoDB 4.4
MongoDB 4.2

While bsondump may work on earlier versions of MongoDB server, any such compatibility is not guaranteed.

Platform Support

bsondump version 100.9.0 is supported on the following platforms:

	x86_64	ARM64	PPC64LE	s390x
Amazon Linux 2023	✓	✓
Amazon 2	✓
Amazon 2013.03+	✓
Debian 10	✓
Debian 9	✓
Debian 8	✓
RHEL / CentOS 9	✓	✓
RHEL / CentOS 8	✓		✓
RHEL / CentOS 7	✓		✓	✓
RHEL / CentOS 6	✓
SUSE 15	✓
SUSE 12	✓
Ubuntu 20.04	✓	✓
Ubuntu 18.04	✓	✓
Ubuntu 16.04	✓	✓	✓
Windows 8 and later	✓
Windows Server 2012 and later	✓
macOS 11 and later	✓	✓
macOS 10.12 - 10.15	✓

Installation

The bsondump tool is part of the MongoDB Database Tools package:

➤ Follow the Database Tools Installation Guide to install bsondump.

Options

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

--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 bsondump 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 bsondump release number.

--objcheck: Validates each BSON object before outputting it in JSON format. By default, bsondump enables --objcheck. For objects with a high degree of sub-document nesting, --objcheck can have a small impact on performance.

--type=<json|debug>: Changes the operation of bsondump from outputting "JSON" (the default) to a debugging format.

--pretty: Outputs documents in a pretty-printed format JSON.

--bsonFile

Specifies the path to a BSON file to dump to JSON. --bsonFile is an alternative to the positional <bsonFilename> option.

By default, bsondump reads from standard input.

<bsonFilename>: The final argument to bsondump is a document containing BSON. This data is typically generated by bsondump or by MongoDB in a rollback operation.

--outFile=<file>

Specifies the path of the file to which bsondump should write its output JSON data.

By default, bsondump writes to standard output.

Examples

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

By default, bsondump outputs data to standard output. To create corresponding JSON files, you can use the --outFile option:

bsondump --outFile=collection.json collection.bson

Use the following command (at the system shell) to produce debugging output for a BSON file:

bsondump --type=debug collection.bson

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