createdb(1)

1CREATEDB(1)             PostgreSQL 9.2.24 Documentation            CREATEDB(1)
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NAME

6       createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database
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SYNOPSIS

9       createdb [connection-option...] [option...] [dbname [description]]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       createdb creates a new PostgreSQL database.
13
14       Normally, the database user who executes this command becomes the owner
15       of the new database. However, a different owner can be specified via
16       the -O option, if the executing user has appropriate privileges.
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18       createdb is a wrapper around the SQL command CREATE DATABASE
19       (CREATE_DATABASE(7)). There is no effective difference between creating
20       databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the
21       server.
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OPTIONS

24       createdb accepts the following command-line arguments:
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26       dbname
27           Specifies the name of the database to be created. The name must be
28           unique among all PostgreSQL databases in this cluster. The default
29           is to create a database with the same name as the current system
30           user.
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32       description
33           Specifies a comment to be associated with the newly created
34           database.
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36       -D tablespace, --tablespace=tablespace
37           Specifies the default tablespace for the database. (This name is
38           processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
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40       -e, --echo
41           Echo the commands that createdb generates and sends to the server.
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43       -E encoding, --encoding=encoding
44           Specifies the character encoding scheme to be used in this
45           database. The character sets supported by the PostgreSQL server are
46           described in Section 22.3.1, “Supported Character Sets”, in the
47           documentation.
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49       -l locale, --locale=locale
50           Specifies the locale to be used in this database. This is
51           equivalent to specifying both --lc-collate and --lc-ctype.
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53       --lc-collate=locale
54           Specifies the LC_COLLATE setting to be used in this database.
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56       --lc-ctype=locale
57           Specifies the LC_CTYPE setting to be used in this database.
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59       -O owner, --owner=owner
60           Specifies the database user who will own the new database. (This
61           name is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
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63       -T template, --template=template
64           Specifies the template database from which to build this database.
65           (This name is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
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67       -V, --version
68           Print the createdb version and exit.
69
70       -?, --help
71           Show help about createdb command line arguments, and exit.
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73       The options -D, -l, -E, -O, and -T correspond to options of the
74       underlying SQL command CREATE DATABASE (CREATE_DATABASE(7)); see there
75       for more information about them.
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77       createdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for
78       connection parameters:
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80       -h host, --host=host
81           Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
82           running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
83           directory for the Unix domain socket.
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85       -p port, --port=port
86           Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix domain socket file
87           extension on which the server is listening for connections.
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89       -U username, --username=username
90           User name to connect as.
91
92       -w, --no-password
93           Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
94           authentication and a password is not available by other means such
95           as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option
96           can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to
97           enter a password.
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99       -W, --password
100           Force createdb to prompt for a password before connecting to a
101           database.
102
103           This option is never essential, since createdb will automatically
104           prompt for a password if the server demands password
105           authentication. However, createdb will waste a connection attempt
106           finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is
107           worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.
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109       --maintenance-db=dbname
110           Specifies the name of the database to connect to when creating the
111           new database. If not specified, the postgres database will be used;
112           if that does not exist (or if it is the name of the new database
113           being created), template1 will be used.
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ENVIRONMENT

116       PGDATABASE
117           If set, the name of the database to create, unless overridden on
118           the command line.
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120       PGHOST, PGPORT, PGUSER
121           Default connection parameters.  PGUSER also determines the name of
122           the database to create, if it is not specified on the command line
123           or by PGDATABASE.
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125       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
126       environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.14,
127       “Environment Variables”, in the documentation).
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DIAGNOSTICS

130       In case of difficulty, see CREATE DATABASE (CREATE_DATABASE(7)) and
131       psql(1) for discussions of potential problems and error messages. The
132       database server must be running at the targeted host. Also, any default
133       connection settings and environment variables used by the libpq
134       front-end library will apply.
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EXAMPLES

137       To create the database demo using the default database server:
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139           $ createdb demo
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141       To create the database demo using the server on host eden, port 5000,
142       using the LATIN1 encoding scheme with a look at the underlying command:
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144           $ createdb -p 5000 -h eden -E LATIN1 -e demo
145           CREATE DATABASE demo ENCODING 'LATIN1';
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