1CREATEDB(1) PostgreSQL Client Applications CREATEDB(1)
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6 createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database
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10 createdb [ option... ] [ dbname ] [ description ]
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13 createdb creates a new PostgreSQL database.
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15 Normally, the database user who executes this command becomes the owner
16 of the new database. However a different owner can be specified via
17 the -O option, if the executing user has appropriate privileges.
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19 createdb is a wrapper around the SQL command CREATE DATABASE [cre‐
20 ate_database(7)]. There is no effective difference between creating
21 databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the
22 server.
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25 createdb accepts the following command-line arguments:
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27 dbname Specifies the name of the database to be created. The name must
28 be unique among all PostgreSQL databases in this cluster. The
29 default is to create a database with the same name as the cur‐
30 rent system 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
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38 --tablespace tablespace
39 Specifies the default tablespace for the database.
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41 -e
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43 --echo Echo the commands that createdb generates and sends to the
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46 -E encoding
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48 --encoding encoding
49 Specifies the character encoding scheme to be used in this data‐
50 base. The character sets supported by the PostgreSQL server are
51 described in in the documentation.
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53 -O owner
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55 --owner owner
56 Specifies the database user who will own the new database.
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58 -q
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60 --quiet
61 Do not display a response.
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63 -T template
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65 --template template
66 Specifies the template database from which to build this data‐
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69 The options -D, -E, -O, and -T correspond to options of the underlying
70 SQL command CREATE DATABASE [create_database(7)]; see there for more
71 information about them.
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73 createdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for connec‐
74 tion parameters:
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76 -h host
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78 --host host
79 Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
80 running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
81 directory for the Unix domain socket.
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83 -p port
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85 --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
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91 --username username
92 User name to connect as
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94 -W
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96 --password
97 Force password prompt.
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100 PGDATABASE
101 If set, the name of the database to create, unless overridden on
102 the command line.
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104 PGHOST
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106 PGPORT
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108 PGUSER Default connection parameters. PGUSER also determines the name
109 of the database to create, if it is not specified on the command
110 line or by PGDATABASE.
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112 This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the envi‐
113 ronment variables supported by libpq (see in the documentation).
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116 In case of difficulty, see CREATE DATABASE [create_database(7)] and
117 psql(1) for discussions of potential problems and error messages. The
118 database server must be running at the targeted host. Also, any default
119 connection settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-
120 end library will apply.
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123 To create the database demo using the default database server:
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125 $ createdb demo
126 CREATE DATABASE
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128 The response is the same as you would have gotten from running the CRE‐
129 ATE DATABASE SQL command.
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131 To create the database demo using the server on host eden, port 5000,
132 using the LATIN1 encoding scheme with a look at the underlying command:
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134 $ createdb -p 5000 -h eden -E LATIN1 -e demo
135 CREATE DATABASE "demo" WITH ENCODING = 'LATIN1'
136 CREATE DATABASE
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140 dropdb(1), CREATE DATABASE [create_database(7)]
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144Application 2008-06-08 CREATEDB(1)