<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Creating a Database</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REV="MADE" HREF="mailto:pgsql-docs@postgresql.org"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Managing Databases" HREF="managing-databases.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Managing Databases" HREF="managing-databases.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Template Databases" HREF="manage-ag-templatedbs.html"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="stylesheet.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><META NAME="creation" CONTENT="2007-02-02T03:57:22"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="5" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="managing-databases.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="managing-databases.html" >Fast Backward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 18. Managing Databases</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="managing-databases.html" >Fast Forward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="manage-ag-templatedbs.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="MANAGE-AG-CREATEDB" >18.2. Creating a Database</A ></H1 ><P > In order to create a database, the <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > server must be up and running (see <A HREF="postmaster-start.html" >Section 16.3</A >). </P ><P > Databases are created with the SQL command <A HREF="sql-createdatabase.html" >CREATE DATABASE</A >:<A NAME="AEN19675" ></A > </P><PRE CLASS="SYNOPSIS" >CREATE DATABASE <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT >;</PRE ><P> where <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT > follows the usual rules for <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >SQL</ACRONYM > identifiers. The current user automatically becomes the owner of the new database. It is the privilege of the owner of a database to remove it later on (which also removes all the objects in it, even if they have a different owner). </P ><P > The creation of databases is a restricted operation. See <A HREF="user-attributes.html" >Section 17.2</A > for how to grant permission. </P ><P > Since you need to be connected to the database server in order to execute the <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >CREATE DATABASE</TT > command, the question remains how the <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >first</I ></SPAN > database at any given site can be created. The first database is always created by the <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >initdb</TT > command when the data storage area is initialized. (See <A HREF="creating-cluster.html" >Section 16.2</A >.) This database is called <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >template1</TT >.<A NAME="AEN19689" ></A > So to create the first <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"real"</SPAN > database you can connect to <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >template1</TT >. </P ><P > The name <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >template1</TT > is no accident: when a new database is created, the template database is essentially cloned. This means that any changes you make in <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >template1</TT > are propagated to all subsequently created databases. This implies that you should not use the template database for real work, but when used judiciously this feature can be convenient. More details appear in <A HREF="manage-ag-templatedbs.html" >Section 18.3</A >. </P ><P > As a convenience, there is a program that you can execute from the shell to create new databases, <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >createdb</TT >.<A NAME="AEN19699" ></A > </P><PRE CLASS="SYNOPSIS" >createdb <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >dbname</I ></TT ></PRE ><P> <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >createdb</TT > does no magic. It connects to the <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >template1</TT > database and issues the <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >CREATE DATABASE</TT > command, exactly as described above. The <A HREF="app-createdb.html" ><SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >createdb</SPAN ></A > reference page contains the invocation details. Note that <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >createdb</TT > without any arguments will create a database with the current user name, which may or may not be what you want. </P ><DIV CLASS="NOTE" ><BLOCKQUOTE CLASS="NOTE" ><P ><B >Note: </B > <A HREF="client-authentication.html" >Chapter 19</A > contains information about how to restrict who can connect to a given database. </P ></BLOCKQUOTE ></DIV ><P > Sometimes you want to create a database for someone else. That user should become the owner of the new database, so he can configure and manage it himself. To achieve that, use one of the following commands: </P><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >CREATE DATABASE <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >dbname</I ></TT > OWNER <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >username</I ></TT >;</PRE ><P> from the SQL environment, or </P><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >createdb -O <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >username</I ></TT > <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >dbname</I ></TT ></PRE ><P> You must be a superuser to be allowed to create a database for someone else. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="managing-databases.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="manage-ag-templatedbs.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Managing Databases</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="managing-databases.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Template Databases</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >