NAME¶
createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database
SYNOPSIS¶
createdb [connection-option...]
[option...] [dbname [description]]
DESCRIPTION¶
createdb creates a new PostgreSQL database.
Normally, the database user who executes this command becomes the
owner of the new database. However, a different owner can be specified via
the -O option, if the executing user has appropriate privileges.
createdb is a wrapper around the SQL command CREATE
DATABASE. There is no effective difference between creating databases
via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server.
OPTIONS¶
createdb accepts the following command-line arguments:
dbname
Specifies the name of the database to be created. The
name must be unique among all PostgreSQL databases in this cluster. The
default is to create a database with the same name as the current system
user.
description
Specifies a comment to be associated with the newly
created database.
-D tablespace
--tablespace=tablespace
Specifies the default tablespace for the database. (This
name is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
-e
--echo
Echo the commands that createdb generates and sends to
the server.
-E encoding
--encoding=encoding
Specifies the character encoding scheme to be used in
this database. The character sets supported by the PostgreSQL server are
described in Section 24.3.1.
-l locale
--locale=locale
Specifies the locale to be used in this database. This is
equivalent to specifying --lc-collate, --lc-ctype, and
--icu-locale to the same value. Some locales are only valid for ICU and
must be set with --icu-locale.
--lc-collate=locale
Specifies the LC_COLLATE setting to be used in this
database.
--lc-ctype=locale
Specifies the LC_CTYPE setting to be used in this
database.
--icu-locale=locale
Specifies the ICU locale ID to be used in this database,
if the ICU locale provider is selected.
--icu-rules=rules
Specifies additional collation rules to customize the
behavior of the default collation of this database. This is supported for ICU
only.
--locale-provider={libc|icu}
Specifies the locale provider for the database's default
collation.
-O owner
--owner=owner
Specifies the database user who will own the new
database. (This name is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
-S strategy
--strategy=strategy
Specifies the database creation strategy. See CREATE
DATABASE STRATEGY for more details.
-T template
--template=template
Specifies the template database from which to build this
database. (This name is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
-V
--version
Print the createdb version and exit.
-?
--help
Show help about createdb command line arguments, and
exit.
The options -D, -l, -E, -O, and
-T correspond to options of the underlying SQL command CREATE
DATABASE; see there for more information about them.
createdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for
connection parameters:
-h host
--host=host
Specifies the host name of the machine on which the
server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
directory for the Unix domain socket.
-p port
--port=port
Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix domain socket
file extension on which the server is listening for connections.
-U username
--username=username
User name to connect as.
-w
--no-password
Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires
password authentication and a password is not available by other means such as
a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in
batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a password.
-W
--password
Force createdb to prompt for a password before connecting
to a database.
This option is never essential, since createdb will automatically
prompt for a password if the server demands password authentication.
However, createdb will waste a connection attempt finding out that the
server wants a password. In some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid
the extra connection attempt.
--maintenance-db=dbname
Specifies the name of the database to connect to when
creating the new database. If not specified, the postgres database will be
used; if that does not exist (or if it is the name of the new database being
created), template1 will be used. This can be a connection string. If so,
connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line
options.
ENVIRONMENT¶
PGDATABASE
If set, the name of the database to create, unless
overridden on the command line.
PGHOST
PGPORT
PGUSER
Default connection parameters. PGUSER also
determines the name of the database to create, if it is not specified on the
command line or by PGDATABASE.
PG_COLOR
Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages.
Possible values are always, auto and never.
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15).
DIAGNOSTICS¶
In case of difficulty, see CREATE DATABASE
(CREATE_DATABASE(7)) and psql(1) for discussions of potential
problems and error messages. The database server must be running at the
targeted host. Also, any default connection settings and environment
variables used by the libpq front-end library will apply.
EXAMPLES¶
To create the database demo using the default database server:
To create the database demo using the server on host eden, port
5000, using the template0 template database, here is the command-line
command and the underlying SQL command:
$ createdb -p 5000 -h eden -T template0 -e demo
CREATE DATABASE demo TEMPLATE template0;
