INITDB(1)               PostgreSQL 9.4.5 Documentation               INITDB(1)



NAME
       initdb - create a new PostgreSQL database cluster

SYNOPSIS
       initdb [option...] [--pgdata | -D] directory

DESCRIPTION
       initdb creates a new PostgreSQL database cluster. A database cluster is
       a collection of databases that are managed by a single server instance.

       Creating a database cluster consists of creating the directories in
       which the database data will live, generating the shared catalog tables
       (tables that belong to the whole cluster rather than to any particular
       database), and creating the template1 and postgres databases. When you
       later create a new database, everything in the template1 database is
       copied. (Therefore, anything installed in template1 is automatically
       copied into each database created later.) The postgres database is a
       default database meant for use by users, utilities and third party
       applications.

       Although initdb will attempt to create the specified data directory, it
       might not have permission if the parent directory of the desired data
       directory is root-owned. To initialize in such a setup, create an empty
       data directory as root, then use chown to assign ownership of that
       directory to the database user account, then su to become the database
       user to run initdb.

       initdb must be run as the user that will own the server process,
       because the server needs to have access to the files and directories
       that initdb creates. Since the server cannot be run as root, you must
       not run initdb as root either. (It will in fact refuse to do so.)

       initdb initializes the database cluster's default locale and character
       set encoding. The character set encoding, collation order (LC_COLLATE)
       and character set classes (LC_CTYPE, e.g. upper, lower, digit) can be
       set separately for a database when it is created.  initdb determines
       those settings for the template1 database, which will serve as the
       default for all other databases.

       To alter the default collation order or character set classes, use the
       --lc-collate and --lc-ctype options. Collation orders other than C or
       POSIX also have a performance penalty. For these reasons it is
       important to choose the right locale when running initdb.

       The remaining locale categories can be changed later when the server is
       started. You can also use --locale to set the default for all locale
       categories, including collation order and character set classes. All
       server locale values (lc_*) can be displayed via SHOW ALL. More details
       can be found in Section 22.1, "Locale Support", in the documentation.

       To alter the default encoding, use the --encoding. More details can be
       found in Section 22.3, "Character Set Support", in the documentation.

OPTIONS
       -A authmethod
       --auth=authmethod
           This option specifies the authentication method for local users
           used in pg_hba.conf (host and local lines). Do not use trust unless
           you trust all local users on your system.  trust is the default for
           ease of installation.

       --auth-host=authmethod
           This option specifies the authentication method for local users via
           TCP/IP connections used in pg_hba.conf (host lines).

       --auth-local=authmethod
           This option specifies the authentication method for local users via
           Unix-domain socket connections used in pg_hba.conf (local lines).

       -D directory
       --pgdata=directory
           This option specifies the directory where the database cluster
           should be stored. This is the only information required by initdb,
           but you can avoid writing it by setting the PGDATA environment
           variable, which can be convenient since the database server
           (postgres) can find the database directory later by the same
           variable.

       -E encoding
       --encoding=encoding
           Selects the encoding of the template database. This will also be
           the default encoding of any database you create later, unless you
           override it there. The default is derived from the locale, or
           SQL_ASCII if that does not work. The character sets supported by
           the PostgreSQL server are described in Section 22.3.1, "Supported
           Character Sets", in the documentation.

       -k
       --data-checksums
           Use checksums on data pages to help detect corruption by the I/O
           system that would otherwise be silent. Enabling checksums may incur
           a noticeable performance penalty. This option can only be set
           during initialization, and cannot be changed later. If set,
           checksums are calculated for all objects, in all databases.

       --locale=locale
           Sets the default locale for the database cluster. If this option is
           not specified, the locale is inherited from the environment that
           initdb runs in. Locale support is described in Section 22.1,
           "Locale Support", in the documentation.

       --lc-collate=locale
       --lc-ctype=locale
       --lc-messages=locale
       --lc-monetary=locale
       --lc-numeric=locale
       --lc-time=locale
           Like --locale, but only sets the locale in the specified category.

       --no-locale
           Equivalent to --locale=C.

       -N
       --nosync
           By default, initdb will wait for all files to be written safely to
           disk. This option causes initdb to return without waiting, which is
           faster, but means that a subsequent operating system crash can
           leave the data directory corrupt. Generally, this option is useful
           for testing, but should not be used when creating a production
           installation.

       --pwfile=filename
           Makes initdb read the database superuser's password from a file.
           The first line of the file is taken as the password.

       -S
       --sync-only
           Safely write all database files to disk and exit. This does not
           perform any of the normal initdb operations.

       -T CFG
       --text-search-config=CFG
           Sets the default text search configuration. See
           default_text_search_config for further information.

       -U username
       --username=username
           Selects the user name of the database superuser. This defaults to
           the name of the effective user running initdb. It is really not
           important what the superuser's name is, but one might choose to
           keep the customary name postgres, even if the operating system
           user's name is different.

       -W
       --pwprompt
           Makes initdb prompt for a password to give the database superuser.
           If you don't plan on using password authentication, this is not
           important. Otherwise you won't be able to use password
           authentication until you have a password set up.

       -X directory
       --xlogdir=directory
           This option specifies the directory where the transaction log
           should be stored.

       Other, less commonly used, options are also available:

       -d
       --debug
           Print debugging output from the bootstrap backend and a few other
           messages of lesser interest for the general public. The bootstrap
           backend is the program initdb uses to create the catalog tables.
           This option generates a tremendous amount of extremely boring
           output.

       -L directory
           Specifies where initdb should find its input files to initialize
           the database cluster. This is normally not necessary. You will be
           told if you need to specify their location explicitly.

       -n
       --noclean
           By default, when initdb determines that an error prevented it from
           completely creating the database cluster, it removes any files it
           might have created before discovering that it cannot finish the
           job. This option inhibits tidying-up and is thus useful for
           debugging.

       Other options:

       -V
       --version
           Print the initdb version and exit.

       -?
       --help
           Show help about initdb command line arguments, and exit.

ENVIRONMENT
       PGDATA
           Specifies the directory where the database cluster is to be stored;
           can be overridden using the -D option.

       TZ
           Specifies the default time zone of the created database cluster.
           The value should be a full time zone name (see Section 8.5.3, "Time
           Zones", in the documentation).

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
       environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.14,
       "Environment Variables", in the documentation).

NOTES
       initdb can also be invoked via pg_ctl initdb.

SEE ALSO
       pg_ctl(1), postgres(1)



PostgreSQL 9.4.5                     2015                            INITDB(1)
