Ubuntu Manpage: dropdb - remove a PostgreSQL database

Provided by: postgresql-client-12_12.22-0ubuntu0.20.04.4_amd64

NAME

       dropdb - remove a PostgreSQL database

SYNOPSIS


       dropdb [connection-option...] [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 database.

       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.

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

--if-exists
Do not throw an error if the database does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.

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

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.

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

ENVIRONMENT

       PGHOST
       PGPORT
       PGUSER
           Default connection parameters

       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 33.14).

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;