createdb

createdb

1

Application

createdb

create a new

PostgreSQL

database

createdb

connection-option

option

dbname

description

Description {#r1-app-createdb-1}
===========

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`](#sql-createdatabase). 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 [???](#multibyte-charset-supported).

`-l locale`; `--locale=locale`

:   Specifies the locale to be used in this database. This is equivalent
    to specifying both `--lc-collate` and `--lc-ctype`.

`--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.

`--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 template`; `--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`](#sql-createdatabase); 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](#libpq-connstring). 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 [???](#libpq-envars)).

Diagnostics
===========

In case of difficulty, see [???](#sql-createdatabase) and
[???](#app-psql) 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:

    $ createdb demo

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;

See Also
========
