Export Filename Templates

Naming exported files automatically so a folder of backups stays legible.

Every export panel has a Customize… button in its lower left that opens the Export File Name template editor. A template is text containing tokens, each replaced with a value from the export when the file is written. Templates are remembered per export format.

A Complete Example #

Template

[#nickname#]-[#database#]-[#table#]-[#yyyy-mm-dd#]-[#hhmm tz#]

Exporting the film table of the sakila database from a saved connection named "Production", as SQL, on September 11, 2026 at 2:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time gives:

File name

Production-sakila-film-2026-09-11-1430PDT.sql

Tokens #

Token	Replaced with
`[#nickname#]`	The saved connection's name. Tells you which server a file came from.
`[#host#]`	The server's host.
`[#sshhost#]`	The SSH host, for tunneled connections.
`[#database#]`	The database being exported.
`[#schema#]`	The schema.
`[#table#]`	The table, when exporting a single table.
`[#yyyy-mm-dd#]`	The date, as `2026-09-11`.
`[#yyyymmdd#]`	The date, as `20260911`.
`[#year#]`, `[#year2#]`, `[#month#]`, `[#day#]`	Date components: four-digit year, two-digit year, month, day. For example `2026`, `26`, `09`, `11`.
`[#hh:mm tz#]`, `[#hh:mm utc#]`	The time with a colon, in local time or UTC. For example `14:30-07:00` and `21:30+0000`.
`[#hhmm tz#]`, `[#hhmm utc#]`	The time without a colon, in local time or UTC. For example `1430PDT` and `2130+0000`. Colons cause trouble in filenames on other systems, so prefer these.
`[#extension#]`	The format's file extension. Querious always adds the extension to the end of the name for you, so you don't need this token.

Tokens are case-insensitive. A token that has no value for the export, such as [#table#] when exporting a whole database, becomes nothing.

Examples #

These examples assume a saved connection named "Production" on the host db.example.com, exporting the film table of the sakila database as SQL on September 11, 2026 at 2:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

Template	File name
`[#database#]_[#table#]_[#yyyymmdd#]_[#hhmm tz#]`	`sakila_film_20260911_1430PDT.sql`
`[#nickname#]-[#database#]-[#yyyy-mm-dd#]-[#hhmm tz#]`	`Production-sakila-2026-09-11-1430PDT.sql`
`[#host#] [#database#] [#table#]`	`db.example.com sakila film.sql`
`backup-[#year#][#month#][#day#]-[#hhmm utc#]`	`backup-20260911-2130+0000.sql`
`[#database#]-[#table#]`, when exporting a whole database	`sakila-.sql`

The first template is the default. Because Querious adds the extension itself, a compressed export is named with both, such as .sql.gz.

Recipes #

To name backups so they sort by age

Click Customize… in the export panel.
Start with what identifies the export and end with the timestamp: [#nickname#]-[#database#]-[#yyyy-mm-dd#]-[#hhmm tz#]
Sorting the folder by name now sorts it by date.