CREATEDB(1)                                      PostgreSQL Client Applications                                      CREATEDB(1)



NAME
       createdb - create a new PostgreSQL database


SYNOPSIS
       createdb [ 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.

       -e

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

       -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.

       -E encoding

       --encoding encoding
              Specifies  the  character  encoding  scheme to be used in this database. The character sets supported by the Post-
              greSQL server are described in in the documentation.

       -O owner

       --owner owner
              Specifies the database user who will own the new database.

       -T template

       --template template
              Specifies the template database from which to build this database.

       The options -D, -E, -l, -O, and -T correspond to options of the underlying  SQL  command  CREATE  DATABASE  [create_data-
       base(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 connec-
              tions.

       -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.

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  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)]



Application                                                2011-09-22                                                CREATEDB(1)