Navigation
This version of the documentation is archived and no longer supported.

mongoimport

On this page

Synopsis

The mongoimport tool imports content from an Extended JSON, CSV, or TSV export created by mongoexport, or potentially, another third-party export tool. See the Import and Export MongoDB Data document for a more in depth usage overview, and the mongoexport document for more information regarding mongoexport, which provides the inverse “exporting” capability.

Considerations

Do not use mongoimport and mongoexport for full instance, production backups because they will not reliably capture data type information. Use mongodump and mongorestore as described in MongoDB Backup Methods for this kind of functionality.

mongoimport is single-threaded and inserts one document at a time into MongoDB. Custom import tools for data ingestion may have better performance for specific workloads.

Options

mongoimport
--help

Returns information on the options and use of mongoimport.

--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 the mongoimport 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 mongoimport release number.

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

Default: localhost:27017

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

To connect to a replica set, specify the replica set name and a seed list of set members. Use the following form:

copy 
<replSetName>/<hostname1><:port>,<hostname2><:port>,<...>

You can always connect directly to a single MongoDB instance by specifying the host and port number directly.

--port <port>

Default: 27017

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

--ipv6

Enables IPv6 support and allows the mongoimport to connect to the MongoDB instance using an IPv6 network. All MongoDB programs and processes disable IPv6 support by default.

--ssl

New in version 2.6.

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

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--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.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

Warning

If the mongo shell or any other tool that connects to mongos or mongod is run without --sslCAFile, it will not attempt to validate server certificates. This results in 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 against which server certificates should be validated in cases where intrusion is a possibility.

--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 weakCertificateValidation.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--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 mongoimport 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 mongoimport will prompt for a passphrase. See SSL Certificate Passphrase.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--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.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--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.

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--sslFIPSMode

New in version 2.6.

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

The default distribution of MongoDB does not contain support for TLS/SSL. For more information on MongoDB and TLS/SSL, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

--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.

--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.

If you do not specify an argument for --password, mongoimport will prompt interactively for a password on the console.

--authenticationDatabase <dbname>

New in version 2.4.

Specifies the database that holds the user’s credentials.

--authenticationMechanism <name>

Default: MONGODB-CR

New in version 2.4.

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

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

Value Description
MONGODB-CR MongoDB challenge/response authentication.
MONGODB-X509 MongoDB TLS/SSL certificate authentication.
PLAIN 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.
GSSAPI External authentication using Kerberos. This mechanism is available only in MongoDB Enterprise.
--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.

--dbpath <path>

Specifies the directory of the MongoDB data files. The --dbpath option lets the mongoimport attach directly to the local data files without going through a running mongod. When run with --dbpath, the mongoimport locks access to the data files. No mongod can access the files while the mongoimport process runs.

--directoryperdb

When used in conjunction with the corresponding option in mongod, allows the mongoimport to access data from MongoDB instances that use an on-disk format where every database has a distinct directory. This option is only relevant when specifying the --dbpath option.

--journal

Enables the durability journal to ensure data files remain valid and recoverable. This option applies only when you specify the . The mongoimport enables journaling by default on 64-bit builds of versions after 2.0.

--db <database>, -d <database>

Specifies the name of the database on which to run the mongoimport.

--collection <collection>, -c <collection>

Specifies the collection to import.

New in version 2.6: If you do not specify --collection, mongoimport takes the collection name from the input filename. MongoDB omits the extension of the file from the collection name, if the input file has an extension.

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

Specify a comma separated list of field names when importing csv or tsv files that do not have field names in the first (i.e. header) line of the file.

--fieldFile <filename>

As an alternative to --fields, the --fieldFile option allows you to specify a file that holds a list of field names if your csv or tsv file does not include field names in the first line of the file (i.e. header). Place one field per line.

--ignoreBlanks

Ignores empty fields in csv and tsv exports. If not specified, mongoimport creates fields without values in imported documents.

--type <json|csv|tsv>

Specifies the file type to import. The default format is JSON, but it’s possible to import csv and tsv files.

The csv parser accepts that data that complies with RFC RFC 4180. As a result, backslashes are not a valid escape character. If you use double-quotes to enclose fields in the CSV data, you must escape internal double-quote marks by prepending another double-quote.

--file <filename>

Specifies the location and name of a file containing the data to import. If you do not specify a file, mongoimport reads data from standard input (e.g. “stdin”).

--drop

Modifies the import process so that the target instance drops the collection before importing the data from the input.

--headerline

If using --type csv or --type tsv, uses the first line as field names. Otherwise, mongoimport will import the first line as a distinct document.

--upsert

Modifies the import process to update existing objects in the database if they match an imported object, while inserting all other objects.

If you do not specify a field or fields using the --upsertFields mongoimport will upsert on the basis of the _id field.

--upsertFields <field1[,field2]>

Specifies a list of fields for the query portion of the upsert. Use this option if the _id fields in the existing documents don’t match the field in the document, but another field or field combination can uniquely identify documents as a basis for performing upsert operations.

To ensure adequate performance, indexes should exist for this field or fields.

--stopOnError

New in version 2.2.

Forces mongoimport to halt the import operation at the first error rather than continuing the operation despite errors.

--jsonArray

Accepts the import of data expressed with multiple MongoDB documents within a single JSON array. Limited to imports of 16 MB or smaller.

Use --jsonArray in conjunction with mongoexport --jsonArray.

Use

In this example, mongoimport imports the csv formatted data in the /opt/backups/contacts.csv into the collection contacts in the users database on the MongoDB instance running on the localhost port numbered 27017. mongoimport determines the name of files using the first line in the CSV file, because of the --headerline:

copy 
mongoimport --db users --collection contacts --type csv --headerline --file /opt/backups/contacts.csv

Since mongoimport uses the input file name, without the extension, as the collection name if -c or --collection is unspecified. The following example is equivalent:

copy 
mongoimport --db users --type csv --headerline --file /opt/backups/contacts.csv

In the following example, mongoimport imports the data in the JSON formatted file contacts.json into the collection contacts on the MongoDB instance running on the localhost port number 27017.

copy 
mongoimport --db users --collection contacts --file contacts.json

In the next example, mongoimport takes data passed to it on standard input (i.e. with a | pipe.) and imports it into the MongoDB datafiles located at /srv/mongodb/. if the import process encounters an error, the mongoimport will halt because of the --stopOnError option.

copy 
mongoimport --db sales --collection contacts --stopOnError --dbpath /srv/mongodb/

In the final example, mongoimport imports data from the file /opt/backups/mdb1-examplenet.json into the collection contacts within the database marketing on a remote MongoDB database. This mongoimport accesses the mongod instance running on the host mongodb1.example.net over port 37017, which requires the username user and the password pass.

copy 
mongoimport --host mongodb1.example.net --port 37017 --username user --password pass --collection contacts --db marketing --file /opt/backups/mdb1-examplenet.json

Type Fidelity

Warning

mongoimport and mongoexport do not reliably preserve all rich BSON data types because JSON can only represent a subset of the types supported by BSON. As a result, data exported or imported with these tools may lose some measure of fidelity. See the Extended JSON reference for more information.

JSON can only represent a subset of the types supported by BSON. To preserve type information, mongoimport accepts strict mode representation for certain types.

For example, to preserve type information for BSON types data_date and data_numberlong during mongoimport, the data should be in strict mode representation, as in the following:

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

For the data_numberlong type, mongoimport converts into a float during the import.

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

←   mongooplog mongoexport  →

© MongoDB, Inc 2008-present. MongoDB, Mongo, and the leaf logo are registered trademarks of MongoDB, Inc.