osx man page for dropdb

DROPDB(1)						  PostgreSQL Client Applications						 DROPDB(1)

NAME

       dropdb - remove a PostgreSQL database

SYNOPSIS

       dropdb [ option... ]  dbname

DESCRIPTION

       dropdb destroys an existing PostgreSQL database.  The user who executes this command must be a database superuser or the owner of the data-
       base.

       dropdb is a wrapper around the SQL command DROP DATABASE [drop_database(7)].  There is no effective difference between  dropping  databases
       via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server.

OPTIONS

       dropdb accepts the following command-line arguments:

       dbname Specifies the name of the database to be removed.

       -e

       --echo Echo the commands that dropdb generates and sends to the server.

       -i

       --interactive
	      Issues a verification prompt before doing anything destructive.

       dropdb 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 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 dropdb to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

	      This option is never essential, since dropdb will automatically prompt for a password if the server demands password authentication.
	      However,	dropdb	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.

ENVIRONMENT

       PGHOST

       PGPORT

       PGUSER Default connection parameters

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see in the documentation).

DIAGNOSTICS

       In case of difficulty, see DROP DATABASE [drop_database(7)] and psql(1) 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 destroy the database demo on the default database server:

       $ dropdb demo

       To destroy the database demo using the server on host eden, port 5000, with verification and a peek at the underlying command:

       $ dropdb -p 5000 -h eden -i -e demo
       Database "demo" will be permanently deleted.
       Are you sure? (y/n) y
       DROP DATABASE demo;

SEE ALSO

       createdb(1), DROP DATABASE [drop_database(7)]

Application							    2010-05-14								 DROPDB(1)