<xref linkend="wal"/>)
   has on backup and recovery options. While individual databases in the cluster
   are isolated when considered from the user's perspective, they are closely bound
   from the database administrator's point-of-view.
  </para>

  <para>
   Databases are created with the <command>CREATE DATABASE</command> command
   (see <xref linkend="manage-ag-createdb"/>) and destroyed with the
   <command>DROP DATABASE</command> command
   (see <xref linkend="manage-ag-dropdb"/>).
   To determine the set of existing databases, examine the
   <structname>pg_database</structname> system catalog, for example
<synopsis>
SELECT datname FROM pg_database;
</synopsis>
   The <xref linkend="app-psql"/> program's <literal>\l</literal> meta-command
   and <option>-l</option> command-line option are also useful for listing the
   existing databases.
  </para>

  <note>
   <para>
    The <acronym>SQL</acronym> standard calls databases <quote>catalogs</quote>, but there
    is no difference in practice.
   </para>
  </note>
 </sect1>

 <sect1 id="manage-ag-createdb">
  <title>Creating a Database</title>

  <indexterm><primary>CREATE DATABASE</primary></indexterm>

  <para>
   In order to create a database, the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
   server must be up and running (see <xref
   linkend="server-start"/>).
  </para>

  <para>
   Databases are created with the SQL command
   <xref linkend="sql-createdatabase"/>:
<synopsis>
CREATE DATABASE <replaceable>name</replaceable>;
</synopsis>
   where <replaceable>name</replaceable> follows the usual rules for
   <acronym>SQL</acronym> identifiers.  The current role automatically
   becomes the owner of the new database. It is the privilege of the
   owner of a database to remove it later (which also removes all
   the objects in it, even if they have a different owner).
  </para>

  <para>
   The creation of databases is a restricted operation. See <xref
   linkend="role-attributes"/> for how to grant permission.
  </para>

  <para>
   Since you need to be connected to the database server in order to
   execute the <command>CREATE DATABASE</command> command, the
   question remains how the <emphasis>first</emphasis> database at any given
   site can be created. The first database is always created by the
   <command>initdb</command> command when the data storage area is
   initialized. (See <xref linkend="creating-cluster"/>.)  This
   database is called
   <literal>postgres</literal>.<indexterm><primary>postgres</primary></indexterm> So to
   create the first <quote>ordinary</quote> database you can connect to
   <literal>postgres</literal>.
  </para>

  <para>
   Two additional databases,
   <literal>template1</literal><indexterm><primary>template1</primary></indexterm>
   and
   <literal>template0</literal>,<indexterm><primary>template0</primary></indexterm>
   are also created during database cluster initialization.  Whenever a
   new database is created within the
   cluster, <literal>template1</literal> is essentially cloned.
   This means that any changes you make in <literal>template1</literal> are
   propagated to all subsequently created databases. Because of this,
   avoid creating objects in <literal>template1</literal> unless you want them
   propagated to every newly created database.
   <literal>template0</literal> is meant as a pristine copy of the original
   contents of <literal>template1</literal>.  It can be cloned instead
   of <literal>template1</literal> when it is important to make a database
   without any such site-local additions.  More details
   appear in <xref linkend="manage-ag-templatedbs"/>.
  </para>

  <para>
   As a convenience, there is a program you can
   execute from the shell to create new databases,
   <command>createdb</command>.<indexterm><primary>createdb</primary></indexterm>

<synopsis>
createdb <replaceable class="parameter">dbname</replaceable>
</synopsis>

   <command>createdb</command> does no magic. It connects to the <literal>postgres</literal>