CREATE ROLE

CREATE ROLE

7

SQL - Language Statements

CREATE ROLE

define a new database role

CREATE ROLE

name

\[ \[ WITH \]

option

\[ \... \] \]

where

option

can be:

SUPERUSER \| NOSUPERUSER \| CREATEDB \| NOCREATEDB \| CREATEROLE \|
NOCREATEROLE \| INHERIT \| NOINHERIT \| LOGIN \| NOLOGIN \| REPLICATION
\| NOREPLICATION \| BYPASSRLS \| NOBYPASSRLS \| CONNECTION LIMIT

connlimit

\| \[ ENCRYPTED \] PASSWORD \'

password

\' \| PASSWORD NULL \| VALID UNTIL \'

timestamp

\' \| IN ROLE

role\_name

\[, \...\] \| IN GROUP

role\_name

\[, \...\] \| ROLE

role\_name

\[, \...\] \| ADMIN

role\_name

\[, \...\] \| USER

role\_name

\[, \...\] \| SYSID

uid

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

`CREATE ROLE` adds a new role to a PostgreSQL database cluster. A role
is an entity that can own database objects and have database privileges;
a role can be considered a "user", a "group", or both depending on how
it is used. Refer to [???](#user-manag) and
[???](#client-authentication) for information about managing users and
authentication. You must have `CREATEROLE` privilege or be a database
superuser to use this command.

Note that roles are defined at the database cluster level, and so are
valid in all databases in the cluster.

Parameters
==========

name

:   The name of the new role.

`SUPERUSER`; `NOSUPERUSER`

:   These clauses determine whether the new role is a "superuser", who
    can override all access restrictions within the database. Superuser
    status is dangerous and should be used only when really needed. You
    must yourself be a superuser to create a new superuser. If not
    specified, `NOSUPERUSER` is the default.

`CREATEDB`; `NOCREATEDB`

:   These clauses define a role\'s ability to create databases. If
    `CREATEDB` is specified, the role being defined will be allowed to
    create new databases. Specifying `NOCREATEDB` will deny a role the
    ability to create databases. If not specified, `NOCREATEDB` is the
    default.

`CREATEROLE`; `NOCREATEROLE`

:   These clauses determine whether a role will be permitted to create
    new roles (that is, execute `CREATE ROLE`). A role with `CREATEROLE`
    privilege can also alter and drop other roles. If not specified,
    `NOCREATEROLE` is the default.

`INHERIT`; `NOINHERIT`

:   These clauses determine whether a role "inherits" the privileges of
    roles it is a member of. A role with the `INHERIT` attribute can
    automatically use whatever database privileges have been granted to
    all roles it is directly or indirectly a member of. Without
    `INHERIT`, membership in another role only grants the ability to
    `SET ROLE` to that other role; the privileges of the other role are
    only available after having done so. If not specified, `INHERIT` is
    the default.

`LOGIN`; `NOLOGIN`

:   These clauses determine whether a role is allowed to log in; that
    is, whether the role can be given as the initial session
    authorization name during client connection. A role having the
    `LOGIN` attribute can be thought of as a user. Roles without this
    attribute are useful for managing database privileges, but are not
    users in the usual sense of the word. If not specified, `NOLOGIN` is
    the default, except when `CREATE ROLE` is invoked through its
    alternative spelling [`CREATE USER`](#sql-createuser).

`REPLICATION`; `NOREPLICATION`

:   These clauses determine whether a role is a replication role. A role
    must have this attribute (or be a superuser) in order to be able to
    connect to the server in replication mode (physical or logical
    replication) and in order to be able to create or drop replication
    slots. A role having the `REPLICATION` attribute is a very highly
    privileged role, and should only be used on roles actually used for
    replication. If not specified, `NOREPLICATION` is the default. You
    must be a superuser to create a new role having the `REPLICATION`
    attribute.

`BYPASSRLS`; `NOBYPASSRLS`

:   These clauses determine whether a role bypasses every row-level
    security (RLS) policy. `NOBYPASSRLS` is the default. You must be a
    superuser to create a new role having the `BYPASSRLS` attribute.

    Note that pg\_dump will set `row_security` to `OFF` by default, to
    ensure all contents of a table are dumped out. If the user running
    pg\_dump does not have appropriate permissions, an error will be
    returned. However, superusers and the owner of the table being
    dumped always bypass RLS.

`CONNECTION LIMIT` connlimit

:   If role can log in, this specifies how many concurrent connections
    the role can make. -1 (the default) means no limit. Note that only
    normal connections are counted towards this limit. Neither prepared
    transactions nor background worker connections are counted towards
    this limit.

\[ `ENCRYPTED` \] `PASSWORD` \'password\'; `PASSWORD NULL`

:   Sets the role\'s password. (A password is only of use for roles
    having the `LOGIN` attribute, but you can nonetheless define one for
    roles without it.) If you do not plan to use password authentication
    you can omit this option. If no password is specified, the password
    will be set to null and password authentication will always fail for
    that user. A null password can optionally be written explicitly as
    `PASSWORD NULL`.

    > **Note**
    >
    > Specifying an empty string will also set the password to null, but
    > that was not the case before PostgreSQL version 10. In earlier
    > versions, an empty string could be used, or not, depending on the
    > authentication method and the exact version, and libpq would
    > refuse to use it in any case. To avoid the ambiguity, specifying
    > an empty string should be avoided.

    The password is always stored encrypted in the system catalogs. The
    `ENCRYPTED` keyword has no effect, but is accepted for backwards
    compatibility. The method of encryption is determined by the
    configuration parameter [???](#guc-password-encryption). If the
    presented password string is already in MD5-encrypted or
    SCRAM-encrypted format, then it is stored as-is regardless of
    `password_encryption` (since the system cannot decrypt the specified
    encrypted password string, to encrypt it in a different format).
    This allows reloading of encrypted passwords during dump/restore.

`VALID UNTIL` \'timestamp\'

:   The `VALID UNTIL` clause sets a date and time after which the
    role\'s password is no longer valid. If this clause is omitted the
    password will be valid for all time.

`IN ROLE` role\_name

:   The `IN ROLE` clause lists one or more existing roles to which the
    new role will be immediately added as a new member. (Note that there
    is no option to add the new role as an administrator; use a separate
    `GRANT` command to do that.)

`IN GROUP` role\_name

:   `IN GROUP` is an obsolete spelling of `IN ROLE`.

`ROLE` role\_name

:   The `ROLE` clause lists one or more existing roles which are
    automatically added as members of the new role. (This in effect
    makes the new role a "group".)

`ADMIN` role\_name

:   The `ADMIN` clause is like `ROLE`, but the named roles are added to
    the new role `WITH ADMIN
            OPTION`, giving them the right to grant membership in this
    role to others.

`USER` role\_name

:   The `USER` clause is an obsolete spelling of the `ROLE` clause.

`SYSID` uid

:   The `SYSID` clause is ignored, but is accepted for backwards
    compatibility.

Notes
=====

Use [`ALTER ROLE`](#sql-alterrole) to change the attributes of a role,
and [`DROP ROLE`](#sql-droprole) to remove a role. All the attributes
specified by `CREATE ROLE` can be modified by later `ALTER ROLE`
commands.

The preferred way to add and remove members of roles that are being used
as groups is to use [`GRANT`](#sql-grant) and [`REVOKE`](#sql-revoke).

The `VALID UNTIL` clause defines an expiration time for a password only,
not for the role per se. In particular, the expiration time is not
enforced when logging in using a non-password-based authentication
method.

The `INHERIT` attribute governs inheritance of grantable privileges
(that is, access privileges for database objects and role memberships).
It does not apply to the special role attributes set by `CREATE ROLE`
and `ALTER ROLE`. For example, being a member of a role with `CREATEDB`
privilege does not immediately grant the ability to create databases,
even if `INHERIT` is set; it would be necessary to become that role via
[`SET ROLE`](#sql-set-role) before creating a database.

The `INHERIT` attribute is the default for reasons of backwards
compatibility: in prior releases of PostgreSQL, users always had access
to all privileges of groups they were members of. However, `NOINHERIT`
provides a closer match to the semantics specified in the SQL standard.

Be careful with the `CREATEROLE` privilege. There is no concept of
inheritance for the privileges of a `CREATEROLE`-role. That means that
even if a role does not have a certain privilege but is allowed to
create other roles, it can easily create another role with different
privileges than its own (except for creating roles with superuser
privileges). For example, if the role "user" has the `CREATEROLE`
privilege but not the `CREATEDB` privilege, nonetheless it can create a
new role with the `CREATEDB` privilege. Therefore, regard roles that
have the `CREATEROLE` privilege as almost-superuser-roles.

PostgreSQL includes a program [???](#app-createuser) that has the same
functionality as `CREATE ROLE` (in fact, it calls this command) but can
be run from the command shell.

The `CONNECTION LIMIT` option is only enforced approximately; if two new
sessions start at about the same time when just one connection "slot"
remains for the role, it is possible that both will fail. Also, the
limit is never enforced for superusers.

Caution must be exercised when specifying an unencrypted password with
this command. The password will be transmitted to the server in
cleartext, and it might also be logged in the client\'s command history
or the server log. The command [???](#app-createuser), however,
transmits the password encrypted. Also, [???](#app-psql) contains a
command `\password` that can be used to safely change the password
later.

Examples
========

Create a role that can log in, but don\'t give it a password:

    CREATE ROLE jonathan LOGIN;

Create a role with a password:

    CREATE USER davide WITH PASSWORD 'jw8s0F4';

(`CREATE USER` is the same as `CREATE ROLE` except that it implies
`LOGIN`.)

Create a role with a password that is valid until the end of 2004. After
one second has ticked in 2005, the password is no longer valid.

    CREATE ROLE miriam WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'jw8s0F4' VALID UNTIL '2005-01-01';

Create a role that can create databases and manage roles:

    CREATE ROLE admin WITH CREATEDB CREATEROLE;

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

The `CREATE ROLE` statement is in the SQL standard, but the standard
only requires the syntax CREATE ROLE name \[ WITH ADMIN role\_name \]
Multiple initial administrators, and all the other options of
`CREATE ROLE`, are PostgreSQL extensions.

The SQL standard defines the concepts of users and roles, but it regards
them as distinct concepts and leaves all commands defining users to be
specified by each database implementation. In PostgreSQL we have chosen
to unify users and roles into a single kind of entity. Roles therefore
have many more optional attributes than they do in the standard.

The behavior specified by the SQL standard is most closely approximated
by giving users the `NOINHERIT` attribute, while roles are given the
`INHERIT` attribute.

See Also
========
