createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database

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 wrapper around the SQL command CREATEDATABASE. There is no effective difference between
       creating databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server.

Diagnostics

       In case of difficulty, see CREATE DATABASE (CREATE_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.

Environment

PGDATABASE
           If set, the name of the database to create, unless overridden on the command line.

       PGHOSTPGPORTPGUSER
           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.

       PG_COLOR
           Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never.

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by
       libpq (see Section 32.15).

Examples

       To create the database demo using the default database server:

           $ createdbdemo

       To create the database demo using the server on host eden, port 5000, using the template0 template
       database, here is the command-line command and the underlying SQL command:

           $ createdb-p5000-heden-Ttemplate0-edemo
           CREATE DATABASE demo TEMPLATE template0;

Name

       createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database

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 cluster. The default is to create a database with the same name as the current
system user.

description
Specifies a comment to be associated with the newly created database.

-Dtablespace--tablespace=tablespace
Specifies the default tablespace for the database. (This name is processed as a double-quoted
identifier.)

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

-Eencoding--encoding=encoding
Specifies the character encoding scheme to be used in this database. The character sets supported by
the PostgreSQL server are described in Section 23.3.1.

-llocale--locale=locale
Specifies the locale to be used in this database. This is equivalent to specifying --lc-collate,
--lc-ctype, and --icu-locale to the same value. Some locales are only valid for ICU and must be set
with --icu-locale.

--lc-collate=locale
Specifies the LC_COLLATE setting to be used in this database.

--lc-ctype=locale
Specifies the LC_CTYPE setting to be used in this database.

--builtin-locale=locale
Specifies the locale name when the builtin provider is used. Locale support is described in
Section 23.1.

--icu-locale=locale
Specifies the ICU locale ID to be used in this database, if the ICU locale provider is selected.

--icu-rules=rules
Specifies additional collation rules to customize the behavior of the default collation of this
database. This is supported for ICU only.

--locale-provider={builtin|libc|icu}
Specifies the locale provider for the database's default collation.

-Oowner--owner=owner
Specifies the database user who will own the new database. (This name is processed as a double-quoted
identifier.)

-Sstrategy--strategy=strategy
Specifies the database creation strategy. See CREATE DATABASE STRATEGY for more details.

-Ttemplate--template=template
Specifies the template database from which to build this database. (This name is processed as a
double-quoted identifier.)

-V--version
Print the createdb version and exit.

-?--help
Show help about createdb command line arguments, and exit.

The options -D, -l, -E, -O, and -T correspond to options of the underlying SQL command CREATEDATABASE;
see there for more information about them.

createdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for connection parameters:

-hhost--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.

-pport--port=port
Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is
listening for connections.

-Uusername--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 createdb to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.

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

--maintenance-db=dbname
Specifies the name of the database to connect to when creating the new database. If not specified,
the postgres database will be used; if that does not exist (or if it is the name of the new database
being created), template1 will be used. This can be a connection string. If so, connection string
parameters will override any conflicting command line options.

Synopsis

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