CREATE TABLESPACE

CREATE TABLESPACE

7

SQL - Language Statements

CREATE TABLESPACE

define a new tablespace

CREATE TABLESPACE

tablespace\_name

\[ OWNER {

new\_owner

\| CURRENT\_ROLE \| CURRENT\_USER \| SESSION\_USER } \] LOCATION \'

directory

\' \[ WITH (

tablespace\_option

=

value

\[, \... \] ) \]

Description
===========

`CREATE TABLESPACE` registers a new cluster-wide tablespace. The
tablespace name must be distinct from the name of any existing
tablespace in the database cluster.

A tablespace allows superusers to define an alternative location on the
file system where the data files containing database objects (such as
tables and indexes) can reside.

A user with appropriate privileges can pass tablespace\_name to
`CREATE DATABASE`, `CREATE TABLE`, `CREATE INDEX` or `ADD CONSTRAINT` to
have the data files for these objects stored within the specified
tablespace.

> **Warning**
>
> A tablespace cannot be used independently of the cluster in which it
> is defined; see [???](#manage-ag-tablespaces).

Parameters
==========

tablespace\_name

:   The name of a tablespace to be created. The name cannot begin with
    `pg_`, as such names are reserved for system tablespaces.

user\_name

:   The name of the user who will own the tablespace. If omitted,
    defaults to the user executing the command. Only superusers can
    create tablespaces, but they can assign ownership of tablespaces to
    non-superusers.

directory

:   The directory that will be used for the tablespace. The directory
    must exist (`CREATE TABLESPACE` will not create it), should be
    empty, and must be owned by the PostgreSQL system user. The
    directory must be specified by an absolute path name.

tablespace\_option

:   A tablespace parameter to be set or reset. Currently, the only
    available parameters are `seq_page_cost`, `random_page_cost`,
    `effective_io_concurrency` and `maintenance_io_concurrency`. Setting
    these values for a particular tablespace will override the
    planner\'s usual estimate of the cost of reading pages from tables
    in that tablespace, and the executor\'s prefetching behavior, as
    established by the configuration parameters of the same name (see
    [???](#guc-seq-page-cost), [???](#guc-random-page-cost),
    [???](#guc-effective-io-concurrency),
    [???](#guc-maintenance-io-concurrency)). This may be useful if one
    tablespace is located on a disk which is faster or slower than the
    remainder of the I/O subsystem.

Notes
=====

Tablespaces are only supported on systems that support symbolic links.

`CREATE TABLESPACE` cannot be executed inside a transaction block.

Examples
========

To create a tablespace `dbspace` at file system location `/data/dbs`,
first create the directory using operating system facilities and set the
correct ownership:

    mkdir /data/dbs
    chown postgres:postgres /data/dbs

Then issue the tablespace creation command inside PostgreSQL:

    CREATE TABLESPACE dbspace LOCATION '/data/dbs';

To create a tablespace owned by a different database user, use a command
like this:

    CREATE TABLESPACE indexspace OWNER genevieve LOCATION '/data/indexes';

Compatibility
=============

`CREATE TABLESPACE` is a PostgreSQL extension.

See Also
========
