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 (CREATE_DATABASE(7)). 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 22.3.1, “Supported
           Character Sets”, in the documentation.

       -l locale, --locale=locale
           Specifies the locale to be used in this database. This is equivalent to specifying
           both --lc-collate and --lc-ctype.

       --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.

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

       -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 (CREATE_DATABASE(7)); 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.

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.

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables
       supported by libpq (see Section 31.14, “Environment Variables”, in the documentation).

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 LATIN1
       encoding scheme with a look at the underlying command:

           $ createdb -p 5000 -h eden -E LATIN1 -e demo
           CREATE DATABASE demo ENCODING 'LATIN1';

SEE ALSO

       dropdb(1), CREATE DATABASE (CREATE_DATABASE(7))