<!--
doc/src/sgml/ref/createdb.sgml
PostgreSQL documentation
-->

<refentry id="app-createdb">
 <indexterm zone="app-createdb">
  <primary>createdb</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <refmeta>
  <refentrytitle><application>createdb</application></refentrytitle>
  <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  <refmiscinfo>Application</refmiscinfo>
 </refmeta>

 <refnamediv>
  <refname>createdb</refname>
  <refpurpose>create a new <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> database</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>

 <refsynopsisdiv>
  <cmdsynopsis>
   <command>createdb</command>
   <arg rep="repeat"><replaceable>connection-option</replaceable></arg>
   <arg rep="repeat"><replaceable>option</replaceable></arg>
   <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>dbname</replaceable>
   <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>description</replaceable></arg></arg>
  </cmdsynopsis>
 </refsynopsisdiv>


 <refsect1 id="r1-app-createdb-1">
  <title>Description</title>
  <para>
   <application>createdb</application> creates a new <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
   database.
  </para>

  <para>
   Normally, the database user who executes this command becomes the owner of
   the new database.
   However, a different owner can be specified via the <option>-O</option>
   option, if the executing user has appropriate privileges.
  </para>

  <para>
   <application>createdb</application> is a wrapper around the
   <acronym>SQL</acronym> command <link linkend="sql-createdatabase"><command>CREATE DATABASE</command></link>.
   There is no effective difference between creating databases via
   this utility and via other methods for accessing the server.
  </para>

 </refsect1>


 <refsect1>
  <title>Options</title>

  <para>
   <application>createdb</application> accepts the following command-line arguments:

    <variablelist>
     <varlistentry>
      <term><replaceable class="parameter">dbname</replaceable></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the name of the database to be created.  The name must be
        unique among all <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> databases in this cluster.
        The default is to create a database with the same name as the
        current system user.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><replaceable class="parameter">description</replaceable></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies a comment to be associated with the newly created
        database.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-D <replaceable class="parameter">tablespace</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--tablespace=<replaceable class="parameter">tablespace</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the default tablespace for the database. (This name
        is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-e</option></term>
      <term><option>--echo</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Echo the commands that <application>createdb</application> generates
        and sends to the server.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-E <replaceable class="parameter">encoding</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--encoding=<replaceable class="parameter">encoding</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the character encoding scheme to be used in this
        database. The character sets supported by the
        <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> server are described in
        <xref linkend="multibyte-charset-supported"/>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-l <replaceable class="parameter">locale</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--locale=<replaceable class="parameter">locale</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the locale to be used in this database.  This is equivalent
        to specifying <option>--lc-collate</option>,
        <option>--lc-ctype</option>, and <option>--icu-locale</option> to the
        same value. Some locales are only valid for ICU and must be set with
        <option>--icu-locale</option>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--lc-collate=<replaceable class="parameter">locale</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the LC_COLLATE setting to be used in this database.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--lc-ctype=<replaceable class="parameter">locale</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the LC_CTYPE setting to be used in this database.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--builtin-locale=<replaceable class="parameter">locale</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the locale name when the builtin provider is used. Locale support
        is described in <xref linkend="locale"/>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--icu-locale=<replaceable class="parameter">locale</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the ICU locale ID to be used in this database, if the
        ICU locale provider is selected.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--icu-rules=<replaceable class="parameter">rules</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies additional collation rules to customize the behavior of the
        default collation of this database.  This is supported for ICU only.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--locale-provider={<literal>builtin</literal>|<literal>libc</literal>|<literal>icu</literal>}</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the locale provider for the database's default collation.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-O <replaceable class="parameter">owner</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--owner=<replaceable class="parameter">owner</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the database user who will own the new database.
        (This name is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-S <replaceable class="parameter">strategy</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--strategy=<replaceable class="parameter">strategy</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the database creation strategy.  See
        <xref linkend="create-database-strategy" /> for more details.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-T <replaceable class="parameter">template</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--template=<replaceable class="parameter">template</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the template database from which to build this
        database.  (This name is processed as a double-quoted identifier.)
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
       <term><option>-V</option></term>
       <term><option>--version</option></term>
       <listitem>
       <para>
       Print the <application>createdb</application> version and exit.
       </para>
       </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-?</option></term>
      <term><option>--help</option></term>
      <listitem>
      <para>
      Show help about <application>createdb</application> command line
      arguments, and exit.
      </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>
   </para>

   <para>
    The options <option>-D</option>, <option>-l</option>, <option>-E</option>,
    <option>-O</option>, and
    <option>-T</option> correspond to options of the underlying
    SQL command <link linkend="sql-createdatabase"><command>CREATE DATABASE</command></link>; see there for more information
    about them.
   </para>

   <para>
    <application>createdb</application> also accepts the following
    command-line arguments for connection parameters:

    <variablelist>
     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-h <replaceable class="parameter">host</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--host=<replaceable class="parameter">host</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-p <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--port=<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix domain socket file
        extension on which the server is listening for connections.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-U <replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></option></term>
      <term><option>--username=<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        User name to connect as.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-w</option></term>
      <term><option>--no-password</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Never issue a password prompt.  If the server requires
        password authentication and a password is not available by
        other means such as a <filename>.pgpass</filename> 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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-W</option></term>
      <term><option>--password</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Force <application>createdb</application> to prompt for a
        password before connecting to a database.
       </para>

       <para>
        This option is never essential, since
        <application>createdb</application> will automatically prompt
        for a password if the server demands password authentication.
        However, <application>createdb</application> will waste a
        connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password.
        In some cases it is worth typing <option>-W</option> to avoid the extra
        connection attempt.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--maintenance-db=<replaceable class="parameter">dbname</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         Specifies the name of the database to connect to when creating the
         new database. If not specified, the <literal>postgres</literal>
         database will be used; if that does not exist (or if it is the name
         of the new database being created), <literal>template1</literal> will
         be used.
         This can be a <link linkend="libpq-connstring">connection
         string</link>.  If so, connection string parameters will override any
         conflicting command line options.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
   </para>

 </refsect1>


 <refsect1>
  <title>Environment</title>

  <variablelist>
   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>PGDATABASE</envar></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      If set, the name of the database to create, unless overridden on
      the command line.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>PGHOST</envar></term>
    <term><envar>PGPORT</envar></term>
    <term><envar>PGUSER</envar></term>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      Default connection parameters.  <envar>PGUSER</envar> also
      determines the name of the database to create, if it is not
      specified on the command line or by <envar>PGDATABASE</envar>.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>PG_COLOR</envar></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values
      are <literal>always</literal>, <literal>auto</literal> and
      <literal>never</literal>.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>

  <para>
   This utility, like most other <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> utilities,
   also uses the environment variables supported by <application>libpq</application>
   (see <xref linkend="libpq-envars"/>).
  </para>

 </refsect1>


 <refsect1>
  <title>Diagnostics</title>

  <para>
   In case of difficulty, see <xref linkend="sql-createdatabase"/>
   and <xref linkend="app-psql"/> 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 <application>libpq</application> front-end
   library will apply.
  </para>

 </refsect1>


 <refsect1>
  <title>Examples</title>

   <para>
    To create the database <literal>demo</literal> using the default
    database server:
<screen>
<prompt>$ </prompt><userinput>createdb demo</userinput>
</screen>
   </para>

   <para>
    To create the database <literal>demo</literal> using the
    server on host <literal>eden</literal>, port 5000, using the
    <literal>template0</literal> template database,  here is the
    command-line command and the underlying SQL command:
<screen>
<prompt>$ </prompt><userinput>createdb -p 5000 -h eden -T template0 -e demo</userinput>
<computeroutput>CREATE DATABASE demo TEMPLATE template0;</computeroutput>
</screen></para>
 </refsect1>


 <refsect1>
  <title>See Also</title>

  <simplelist type="inline">
   <member><xref linkend="app-dropdb"/></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-createdatabase"/></member>
  </simplelist>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>