NAME

       initdb - create a new Postgres-XC Coordinator or Datanode database cluster

SYNOPSIS

       initdb [option...] [--pgdata | -D | [--nodename nodename]] directory

DESCRIPTION

       initdb creates a new Postgres-XC Coordinator or Datanode database cluster. A database
       cluster is a collection of databases that are managed by a single server instance.

       Creating a database cluster consists of creating the directories in which the database
       data will live, generating the shared catalog tables (tables that belong to the whole
       cluster rather than to any particular database), and creating the template1 and postgres
       databases. When you later create a new database, everything in the template1 database is
       copied. (Therefore, anything installed in template1 is automatically copied into each
       database created later.) The postgres database is a default database meant for use by
       users, utilities and third party applications.

       Although initdb will attempt to create the specified data directory, it might not have
       permission if the parent directory of the desired data directory is root-owned. To
       initialize in such a setup, create an empty data directory as root, then use chown to
       assign ownership of that directory to the database user account, then su to become the
       database user to run initdb.

       initdb must be run as the user that will own the server process, because the server needs
       to have access to the files and directories that initdb creates. Since the server cannot
       be run as root, you must not run initdb as root either. (It will in fact refuse to do so.)

       initdb initializes the database cluster's default locale and character set encoding. The
       character set encoding, collation order (LC_COLLATE) and character set classes (LC_CTYPE,
       e.g. upper, lower, digit) can be set separately for a database when it is created.  initdb
       determines those settings for the template1 database, which will serve as the default for
       all other databases.

       To alter the default collation order or character set classes, use the --lc-collate and
       --lc-ctype options. Collation orders other than C or POSIX also have a performance
       penalty. For these reasons it is important to choose the right locale when running initdb.

       The remaining locale categories can be changed later when the server is started. You can
       also use --locale to set the default for all locale categories, including collation order
       and character set classes. All server locale values (lc_*) can be displayed via SHOW ALL.
       More details can be found in Section 21.1, “Locale Support”, in the documentation.

       To alter the default encoding, use the --encoding. More details can be found in Section
       21.3, “Character Set Support”, in the documentation.

           Note
           The following description applies only to Postgres-XC

       initdb will be performed locally. This has to be performed for each Coordinators and
       Datanodes manually.

OPTIONS

       -A authmethod, --auth=authmethod
           This option specifies the authentication method for local users used in pg_hba.conf
           (host and local lines). Do not use trust unless you trust all local users on your
           system.  trust is the default for ease of installation.

       --auth-host=authmethod
           This option specifies the authentication method for local users via TCP/IP connections
           used in pg_hba.conf (host lines).

       --auth-local=authmethod
           This option specifies the authentication method for local users via Unix-domain socket
           connections used in pg_hba.conf (local lines).

       -D directory, --pgdata=directory
           This option specifies the directory where the database cluster should be stored. This
           is the only information required by initdb, but you can avoid writing it by setting
           the PGDATA environment variable, which can be convenient since the database server
           (postgres) can find the database directory later by the same variable.

       --nodename=nodename
           Set the name of Postgres-XC node initialized. This option is mandatory when setting a
           node. It permits one to define the node itself in cluster node catalog pgxc_node. The
           node name specified is also added in postgresql.conf as value of pgxc_node_name.

       -E encoding, --encoding=encoding
           Selects the encoding of the template database. This will also be the default encoding
           of any database you create later, unless you override it there. The default is derived
           from the locale, or SQL_ASCII if that does not work. The character sets supported by
           the Postgrs-XC server are described in Section 21.3.1, “Supported Character Sets”, in
           the documentation.

       --locale=locale
           Sets the default locale for the database cluster. If this option is not specified, the
           locale is inherited from the environment that initdb runs in. Locale support is
           described in Section 21.1, “Locale Support”, in the documentation.

       --lc-collate=locale, --lc-ctype=locale, --lc-messages=locale, --lc-monetary=locale,
       --lc-numeric=locale, --lc-time=locale
           Like --locale, but only sets the locale in the specified category.

       --no-locale
           Equivalent to --locale=C.

       --pwfile=filename
           Makes initdb read the database superuser's password from a file. The first line of the
           file is taken as the password.

       -T CFG, --text-search-config=CFG
           Sets the default text search configuration. See default_text_search_config for further
           information.

       -U username, --username=username
           Selects the user name of the database superuser. This defaults to the name of the
           effective user running initdb. It is really not important what the superuser's name
           is, but one might choose to keep the customary name postgres, even if the operating
           system user's name is different.

       -W, --pwprompt
           Makes initdb prompt for a password to give the database superuser. If you don't plan
           on using password authentication, this is not important. Otherwise you won't be able
           to use password authentication until you have a password set up.

       -X directory, --xlogdir=directory
           This option specifies the directory where the transaction log should be stored.

       Other, less commonly used, options are also available:

       -d, --debug
           Print debugging output from the bootstrap backend and a few other messages of lesser
           interest for the general public. The bootstrap backend is the program initdb uses to
           create the catalog tables. This option generates a tremendous amount of extremely
           boring output.

       -L directory
           Specifies where initdb should find its input files to initialize the database cluster.
           This is normally not necessary. You will be told if you need to specify their location
           explicitly.

       -n, --noclean
           By default, when initdb determines that an error prevented it from completely creating
           the database cluster, it removes any files it might have created before discovering
           that it cannot finish the job. This option inhibits tidying-up and is thus useful for
           debugging.

       Other options:

       -V, --version
           Print the initdb version and exit.

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

ENVIRONMENT

       PGDATA
           Specifies the directory where the database cluster is to be stored; can be overridden
           using the -D option.

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables
       supported by libpq (see Section 32.14, “Environment Variables”, in the documentation).

NOTES

       initdb can also be invoked via pg_ctl initdb.

SEE ALSO

       pg_ctl(1), postgres(1)