pg_filedump is a utility to format PostgreSQL heap/index/control files into a human-readable form. You can format/dump the files several ways, as listed in the Invocation section, as well as dumping straight binary. The type of file (heap/index) can usually be determined automatically by the content of the blocks within the file. However, to format a pg_control file you must use the -c option. The default is to format the entire file using the block size listed in block 0 and display block relative addresses. These defaults can be modified using run-time options. Some options may seem strange but they're there for a reason. For example, block size. It's there because if the header of block 0 is corrupt, you need a method of forcing a block size.