CREATE DATABASE — create a new database
CREATE DATABASEname
[ [ WITH ] [ OWNER [=]dbowner
] [ TEMPLATE [=]template
] [ ENCODING [=]encoding
] [ TABLESPACE [=]tablespace
] [ CONNECTION LIMIT [=]connlimit
] ]
CREATE DATABASE
creates a new
PostgreSQL database.
To create a database, you must be a superuser or have the special
CREATEDB
privilege.
See CREATE USER.
Normally, the creator becomes the owner of the new database.
Superusers can create databases owned by other users, by 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.
By default, the new database will be created by cloning the standard
system database template1
. A different template can be
specified by writing TEMPLATE
. In particular,
by writing name
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
.
name
The name of a database to create.
dbowner
The name of the database user who will own the new database,
or DEFAULT
to use the default (namely, the
user executing the command).
template
The name of the template from which to create the new database,
or DEFAULT
to use the default template
(template1
).
encoding
Character set encoding to use in the new database. Specify
a string constant (e.g., 'SQL_ASCII'
),
or an integer encoding number, or DEFAULT
to use the default encoding (namely, the encoding of the
template database). The character sets supported by the
PostgreSQL server are described in
Section 21.2.1, “Supported Character Sets”.
tablespace
The name of the tablespace that will be associated with the
new database, or DEFAULT
to use the
template database's tablespace. This
tablespace will be the default tablespace used for objects
created in this database. See
CREATE TABLESPACE
for more information.
connlimit
How many concurrent connections can be made to this database. -1 (the default) means no limit.
Optional parameters can be written in any order, not only the order illustrated above.
CREATE DATABASE
cannot be executed inside a transaction
block.
Errors along the line of “could not initialize database directory” are most likely related to insufficient permissions on the data directory, a full disk, or other file system problems.
Use DROP DATABASE to remove a database.
The program createdb is a wrapper program around this command, provided for convenience.
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.
The principal limitation is that no other sessions can be connected to
the template database while it is being copied. CREATE
DATABASE
will fail if any other connection exists when it starts;
otherwise, new connections to the template database are locked out
until CREATE DATABASE
completes.
See Section 19.3, “Template Databases” for more information.
The CONNECTION LIMIT
option is only enforced approximately;
if two new sessions start at about the same time when just one
connection “slot” remains for the database, it is possible that
both will fail. Also, the limit is not enforced against superusers.
To create a new database:
CREATE DATABASE lusiadas;
To create a database sales
owned by user salesapp
with a default tablespace of salesspace
:
CREATE DATABASE sales OWNER salesapp TABLESPACE salesspace;
To create a database music
which supports the ISO-8859-1
character set:
CREATE DATABASE music ENCODING 'LATIN1';