CREATEDB(1) PostgreSQL Client Applications CREATEDB(1)
NAME
createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database
SYNOPSIS
createdb [ options... ] [ dbname ] [ description ]
DESCRIPTION
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 shell script wrapper around the SQL command CREATE DATABASE [create_database(7)] via the PostgreSQL interactive terminal
psql(1). Thus, there is nothing special about creating databases via this or other methods. This means that the psql program must be found
by the script and that a database server must be running at the targeted port. Also, any default settings and environment variables avail-
able to psql and the libpq front-end library will apply.
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 installation. The
default is to create a database with the same name as the current system user.
description
This optionally specifies a comment to be associated with the newly created database.
-D location
--location location
Specifies the alternative location for the database. See also initlocation(1).
-e
--echo Echo the queries that createdb generates and sends to the server.
-E encoding
--encoding encoding
Specifies the character encoding scheme to be used in this database.
-O owner
--owner owner
Specifies the database user who will own the new database.
-q
--quiet
Do not display a response.
-T template
--template template
Specifies the template database from which to build this database.
The options -D, -E, -O, and -T correspond to options of the underlying SQL command CREATE DATABASE [create_database(7)]; 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 host begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for
the Unix domain socket.
-p port
--port port
Specifies the Internet TCP/IP 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
--password
Force password prompt.
DIAGNOSTICS
CREATE DATABASE
The database was successfully created.
createdb: Database creation failed.
(Says it all.)
createdb: Comment creation failed. (Database was created.)
The comment/description for the database could not be created. The database itself will have been created already. You can use the
SQL command COMMENT ON DATABASE to create the comment later on.
If there is an error condition, the backend error message will be displayed. See CREATE DATABASE [create_database(7)] and psql(1) for pos-
sibilities.
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.
EXAMPLES
To create the database demo using the default database server:
$ createdb demo
CREATE DATABASE
The response is the same as you would have gotten from running the CREATE DATABASE SQL command.
To create the database demo using the server on host eden, port 5000, using the LATIN1 encoding scheme with a look at the underlying query:
$ createdb -p 5000 -h eden -E LATIN1 -e demo
CREATE DATABASE "demo" WITH ENCODING = 'LATIN1'
CREATE DATABASE
SEE ALSO
dropdb(1), CREATE DATABASE [create_database(7)]
Application 2002-11-22 CREATEDB(1)