<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >dropdb</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="PostgreSQL Client Applications" HREF="reference-client.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="createuser" HREF="app-createuser.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="droplang" HREF="app-droplang.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="REFENTRY" ><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="app-createuser.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="app-createuser.html" >Fast Backward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="app-droplang.html" >Fast Forward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="app-droplang.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="APP-DROPDB" ></A ><SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >dropdb</SPAN ></H1 ><DIV CLASS="REFNAMEDIV" ><A NAME="AEN46818" ></A ><H2 >Name</H2 >dropdb -- remove a <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > database</DIV ><A NAME="AEN46822" ></A ><DIV CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV" ><A NAME="AEN46824" ></A ><H2 >Synopsis</H2 ><P ><TT CLASS="COMMAND" >dropdb</TT > [<TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >option</I ></TT >...] <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >dbname</I ></TT > </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN46831" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 ><P > <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >dropdb</SPAN > destroys an existing <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > database. The user who executes this command must be a database superuser or the owner of the database. </P ><P > <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >dropdb</SPAN > is a wrapper around the <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >SQL</ACRONYM > command <A HREF="sql-dropdatabase.html" ><I >DROP DATABASE</I ></A >. There is no effective difference between dropping databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN46840" ></A ><H2 >Options</H2 ><P > <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >dropdb</SPAN > accepts the following command-line arguments: <P ></P ></P><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >dbname</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Specifies the name of the database to be removed. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="OPTION" >-e</TT ><BR><TT CLASS="OPTION" >--echo</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Echo the commands that <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >dropdb</SPAN > generates and sends to the server. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="OPTION" >-i</TT ><BR><TT CLASS="OPTION" >--interactive</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Issues a verification prompt before doing anything destructive. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="OPTION" >-q</TT ><BR><TT CLASS="OPTION" >--quiet</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Do not display a response. </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ><P> </P ><P > <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >dropdb</SPAN > also accepts the following command-line arguments for connection parameters: <P ></P ></P><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="OPTION" >-h <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >host</I ></TT ></TT ><BR><TT CLASS="OPTION" >--host <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >host</I ></TT ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > 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 ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="OPTION" >-p <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >port</I ></TT ></TT ><BR><TT CLASS="OPTION" >--port <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >port</I ></TT ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="OPTION" >-U <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >username</I ></TT ></TT ><BR><TT CLASS="OPTION" >--username <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >username</I ></TT ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > User name to connect as </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="OPTION" >-W</TT ><BR><TT CLASS="OPTION" >--password</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Force password prompt. </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ><P> </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN46909" ></A ><H2 >Environment</H2 ><P ></P ><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="ENVAR" >PGHOST</TT ><BR><TT CLASS="ENVAR" >PGPORT</TT ><BR><TT CLASS="ENVAR" >PGUSER</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Default connection parameters </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN46921" ></A ><H2 >Diagnostics</H2 ><P > In case of difficulty, see <A HREF="sql-dropdatabase.html" ><I >DROP DATABASE</I ></A > and <A HREF="app-psql.html" ><SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >psql</SPAN ></A > 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 <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >libpq</SPAN > front-end library will apply. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN46927" ></A ><H2 >Examples</H2 ><P > To destroy the database <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >demo</TT > on the default database server: </P><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" ><SAMP CLASS="PROMPT" >$ </SAMP ><KBD CLASS="USERINPUT" >dropdb demo</KBD > <SAMP CLASS="COMPUTEROUTPUT" >DROP DATABASE</SAMP ></PRE ><P> </P ><P > To destroy the database <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >demo</TT > using the server on host <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >eden</TT >, port 5000, with verification and a peek at the underlying command: </P><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" ><SAMP CLASS="PROMPT" >$ </SAMP ><KBD CLASS="USERINPUT" >dropdb -p 5000 -h eden -i -e demo</KBD > <SAMP CLASS="COMPUTEROUTPUT" >Database "demo" will be permanently deleted. Are you sure? (y/n) </SAMP ><KBD CLASS="USERINPUT" >y</KBD > <SAMP CLASS="COMPUTEROUTPUT" >DROP DATABASE "demo" DROP DATABASE</SAMP ></PRE ><P> </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN46944" ></A ><H2 >See Also</H2 ><A HREF="app-createdb.html" ><SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >createdb</SPAN ></A >, <A HREF="sql-dropdatabase.html" ><I >DROP DATABASE</I ></A ></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="app-createuser.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="app-droplang.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >createuser</SPAN ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="reference-client.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >droplang</SPAN ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >