Index for Section DATABASE

Alphabetical listing for C

Bottom of page

CREATE
NAME
  CREATE DATABASE - create a new database

SYNOPSIS
  CREATE DATABASE name
      [ [ WITH ] [ OWNER [=] dbowner ]
	     [ LOCATION [=] 'dbpath' ]
	     [ TEMPLATE [=] template ]
	     [ ENCODING [=] encoding ] ]

  INPUTS

  name The name of a database to create.

  dbowner
       Name of the database user who will own the new database, or DEFAULT to
       use the default (namely, the user executing the command).

  dbpath
       An alternate file-system location in which to store the new database,
       specified as a string literal; or DEFAULT to use the default location.

  template
       Name of template from which to create the new database, or DEFAULT to
       use the default template (template1).

  encoding
       Multibyte encoding method to use in the new database. Specify a string
       literal name (e.g., 'SQL_ASCII'), or an integer encoding number, or
       DEFAULT to use the default encoding.

  OUTPUTS

  CREATE DATABASE
       Message returned if the command completes successfully.

  ERROR: user 'username' is not allowed to create/drop databases
       You must have the special CREATEDB privilege to create databases.  See
       CREATE USER [create_user(5)].

  ERROR: createdb: database "name" already exists
       This occurs if a database with the name specified already exists.

  ERROR: database path may not contain single quotes
       The database location dbpath cannot contain single quotes. This is
       required so that the shell commands that create the database directory
       can execute safely.

  ERROR: CREATE DATABASE: may not be called in a transaction block
       If you have an explicit transaction block in progress you cannot call
       CREATE DATABASE. You must finish the transaction first.

  ERROR: Unable to create database directory 'path'.

  ERROR: Could not initialize database directory.
       These are most likely related to insufficient permissions on the data
       directory, a full disk, or other file system problems. The user under
       which the database server is running must have access to the location.

DESCRIPTION
  CREATE DATABASE creates a new PostgreSQL database.

  Normally, the creator becomes the owner of the new database.	Superusers
  can create databases owned by other users using the OWNER clause. They can
  even create databases owned by users with no special privileges. Non-
  superusers with CREATEDB privilege can only create databases owned by
  themselves.

  An alternate location can be specified in order to, for example, store the
  database on a different disk.	 The path must have been prepared with the
  initlocation [initlocation(1)] command.

  If the path name does not contain a slash, it is interpreted as an
  environment variable name, which must be known to the server process. This
  way the database administrator can exercise control over locations in which
  databases can be created.  (A customary choice is, e.g., PGDATA2.) If the
  server is compiled with ALLOW_ABSOLUTE_DBPATHS (not so by default),
  absolute path names, as identified by a leading slash (e.g.,
  /usr/local/pgsql/data), are allowed as well.

  By default, the new database will be created by cloning the standard system
  database template1. A different template can be specified by writing
  TEMPLATE = name. In particular, by writing TEMPLATE = template0, you can
  create a virgin database containing only the standard objects predefined by
  your version of PostgreSQL. This is useful if you wish to avoid copying any
  installation-local objects that may have been added to template1.

  The optional encoding parameter allows selection of the database encoding,
  if your server was compiled with multibyte encoding support. When not
  specified, it defaults to the encoding used by the selected template
  database.

  Optional parameters can be written in any order, not only the order
  illustrated above.

  NOTES

  CREATE DATABASE is a PostgreSQL language extension.

  Use DROP DATABASE [drop_database(5)] to remove a database.

  The program createdb [createdb(1)] is a shell script wrapper around this
  command, provided for convenience.

  There are security and data integrity issues involved with using alternate
  database locations specified with absolute path names, and by default only
  an environment variable known to the backend may be specified for an
  alternate location.  See the Administrator's Guide for more information.

  Although it is possible to copy a database other than template1 by
  specifying its name as the template, this is not (yet) intended as a
  general-purpose COPY DATABASE facility.  We recommend that databases used
  as templates be treated as read-only.	 See the Administrator's Guide for
  more information.

USAGE
  To create a new database:

  olly=> create database lusiadas;

  To create a new database in an alternate area ~/private_db:

  $ mkdir private_db
  $ initlocation ~/private_db
      The location will be initialized with username "olly".
  This user will own all the files and must also own the server process.
  Creating directory /home/olly/private_db
  Creating directory /home/olly/private_db/base

  initlocation is complete.

  $ psql olly
  Welcome to psql, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.

  Type:	 \copyright for distribution terms
	 \h for help with SQL commands
	 \? for help on internal slash commands
	 \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
	 \q to quit

  olly=> CREATE DATABASE elsewhere WITH LOCATION = '/home/olly/private_db';
  CREATE DATABASE

COMPATIBILITY
  SQL92

  There is no CREATE DATABASE statement in SQL92.  Databases are equivalent
  to catalogs, whose creation is implementation-defined.

Index for Section DATABASE

Alphabetical listing for C

Top of page