Ubuntu Manpage: createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database

Provided by: postgresql-client-17_17.2-1_amd64

NAME

       createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database

SYNOPSIS

       createdb [connection-option...] [option...] [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 wrapper around the SQL command CREATE DATABASE. There is no effective
       difference between creating databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing
       the server.

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.

-D tablespace
--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.

-E encoding
--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.

-l locale
--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.

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

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

-T template
--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
CREATE DATABASE; 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 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 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
--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.

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.

       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).

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.

EXAMPLES

       To create the database demo using the default database server:

           $ createdb demo

       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 -p 5000 -h eden -T template0 -e demo
           CREATE DATABASE demo TEMPLATE template0;