fluree export

Export ledger data as Turtle, N-Triples, N-Quads, TriG, or JSON-LD.

Usage

fluree export [LEDGER] [OPTIONS]

Arguments

Argument	Description
`[LEDGER]`	Ledger name (defaults to active ledger)

Options

Option	Description
`--format <FORMAT>`	Output format: `turtle` (or `ttl`), `ntriples` (or `nt`), `jsonld`, `trig`, or `nquads` (default: `turtle`)
`--all-graphs`	Export default + all named graphs including system graphs (dataset export). Requires `--format trig` or `--format nquads`.
`--graph <IRI>`	Export a specific named graph by IRI. Mutually exclusive with `--all-graphs`.
`--context <JSON>`	JSON-LD context for prefix declarations. Overrides the ledger's default context.
`--context-file <FILE>`	Read context from a JSON file. Overrides the ledger's default context.
`--at <TIME>`	Export data as of a specific point in time. Accepts a transaction number (`5`), ISO-8601 datetime (`2024-01-15T10:30:00Z`), or commit CID prefix (`abc123def456`). If omitted, exports at the latest committed time (including data committed but not yet persisted to index).

Formats

turtle / jsonld (data snapshot)

Exports a point-in-time snapshot of all triples in the ledger. Output goes to stdout.

ledger (native pack)

Exports the full native ledger — all commits, transaction blobs, indexes, and dictionaries — as a .flpack file. This format preserves the complete history and can be imported into a new Fluree instance via fluree create <name> --from <file>.flpack.

The .flpack format uses the fluree-pack-v1 binary wire protocol (the same format used by fluree clone and fluree pull for network transfers).

All formats (Turtle, N-Triples, N-Quads, TriG, JSON-LD) read directly from the binary SPOT index with a novelty overlay, so export always includes the latest committed transactions — even those not yet persisted to index. Memory usage stays constant regardless of dataset size. JSON-LD streams one subject at a time, so memory is O(largest subject), not O(dataset).

Prefixes / Context

Turtle, TriG, and JSON-LD output use prefix compaction to produce compact, readable output. The prefix map is resolved in this order:

--context or --context-file (explicit override)
The ledger's default context (set via fluree context set)
No prefixes (falls back to full IRIs)

The context format is a JSON object mapping prefixes to namespace IRIs:

{"ex": "http://example.org/", "schema": "http://schema.org/"}

Prerequisites

All export formats require a binary index. Ledgers that have only been created and inserted into (without an index build) cannot be exported. Run the server to trigger index building first.

Examples

# Export as Turtle (default) — uses ledger's default context for prefixes
fluree export > backup.ttl

# Export as Turtle with custom prefixes
fluree export --context '{"ex": "http://example.org/"}' > backup.ttl

# Export as Turtle with prefixes from a file
fluree export --context-file prefixes.json > backup.ttl

# Export as N-Triples (no prefixes, one triple per line)
fluree export --format ntriples > backup.nt

# Export as JSON-LD
fluree export --format jsonld > backup.jsonld

# Export all graphs as TriG
fluree export --all-graphs --format trig > backup.trig

# Export all graphs as N-Quads
fluree export --all-graphs --format nquads > backup.nq

# Export a specific named graph
fluree export --graph "http://example.org/g1" --format turtle > g1.ttl

# Export data as of a specific transaction number
fluree export --at 5 > snapshot-at-t5.ttl

# Export data as of an ISO-8601 datetime
fluree export --at "2024-06-15T12:00:00Z" > snapshot.ttl

# Export data as of a specific commit
fluree export --at abc123def456 > at-commit.ttl

# Export specific ledger
fluree export production > prod-backup.ttl

# Pipe to other tools
fluree export | grep "example.org"

Output

Turtle (default)

@prefix ex: <http://example.org/> .

ex:alice
    a ex:Person ;
    ex:name "Alice" .
ex:bob
    a ex:Person ;
    ex:name "Bob" .

N-Triples

<http://example.org/alice> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://example.org/Person> .
<http://example.org/alice> <http://example.org/name> "Alice" .

TriG (all graphs)

@prefix ex: <http://example.org/> .

ex:alice
    ex:name "Alice" .

GRAPH ex:g1 {
ex:bob
    ex:name "Bob" .
}

N-Quads (all graphs)

<http://example.org/alice> <http://example.org/name> "Alice" .
<http://example.org/bob> <http://example.org/name> "Bob" <http://example.org/g1> .

JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "ex": "http://example.org/"
  },
  "@graph": [
    {"@id": "ex:alice", "@type": "ex:Person", "ex:name": "Alice"},
    {"@id": "ex:bob", "@type": "ex:Person", "ex:name": "Bob", "ex:age": {"@value": 25, "@type": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#long"}}
  ]
}

JSON-LD output uses prefix compaction from the context. Value encoding rules:

Plain strings (xsd:string) → JSON string (no @type)
Booleans → native JSON true/false
Integers/longs → {"@value": 42, "@type": "xsd:long"} (explicit datatype)
Decimals → {"@value": "3.14", "@type": "xsd:decimal"}
Doubles → {"@value": 3.14, "@type": "xsd:double"}
Language-tagged strings → {"@value": "Bonjour", "@language": "fr"}
References → {"@id": "ex:other"}
Single-cardinality properties are unwrapped (not in [])
Multi-cardinality properties use arrays

API Usage

The export feature is available at the API level for upstream applications:

use fluree_db_api::export::ExportFormat;

// Turtle with default context
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::Turtle)
    .write_to(&mut writer)
    .await?;

// N-Quads with all graphs
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::NQuads)
    .all_graphs()
    .write_to(&mut writer)
    .await?;

// Turtle with custom prefixes
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::Turtle)
    .context(&json!({"ex": "http://example.org/"}))
    .write_to(&mut writer)
    .await?;

// JSON-LD with prefix compaction
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::JsonLd)
    .context(&json!({"ex": "http://example.org/"}))
    .write_to(&mut writer)
    .await?;

// Export a specific named graph
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::Turtle)
    .graph("http://example.org/g1")
    .write_to(&mut writer)
    .await?;

// Time-travel: export as of transaction t=5
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::Turtle)
    .as_of(TimeSpec::at_t(5))
    .write_to(&mut writer)
    .await?;

// Time-travel: export as of an ISO-8601 datetime
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::Turtle)
    .as_of(TimeSpec::at_time("2024-06-15T12:00:00Z"))
    .write_to(&mut writer)
    .await?;

// Convenience: write directly to stdout
let stats = fluree.export("mydb")
    .format(ExportFormat::Turtle)
    .to_stdout()
    .await?;