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Suppose a dump is provided from pgdumpall
pg_dumpall > outfile.bkp
How to verify if the outfile is a vaild database file for restoration. Just as a precautionary step before restoring it like
psql -f outfile.bkp postgres
For example: In MySQL we can head first few lines of the backup files produced from mysqldump for having SQL like syntax.
The command you show generates a text backup file. You can use "head" or "less" on it to verify that it looks like a PostgreSQL text backup file, same as mysql. I'd also run "tail", just to make sure it didn't get truncated. It should end with a sign-off like:
--
-- PostgreSQL database dump complete
--
--
-- PostgreSQL database cluster dump complete
--
Of course to be really sure, you would just set up a dummy database server, and restore it.
pg_dumpalldid not result in an error you can be certain the file is valid.