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initdb
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initdb

initdb — create a newPostgreSQL database cluster

Synopsis

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

Description

initdb creates a newPostgreSQL 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 thetemplate1 andpostgres databases. When you later create a new database, everything in thetemplate1 database is copied. (Therefore, anything installed intemplate1 is automatically copied into each database created later.) Thepostgres database is a default database meant for use by users, utilities and third party applications.

Althoughinitdb 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 usechown to assign ownership of that directory to the database user account, thensu to become the database user to runinitdb.

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 thatinitdb creates. Since the server cannot be run as root, you must not runinitdb 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 thetemplate1 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 thanC orPOSIX also have a performance penalty. For these reasons it is important to choose the right locale when runninginitdb.

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 viaSHOW ALL. More details can be found inSection 23.1.

To alter the default encoding, use the--encoding. More details can be found inSection 23.3.

Options

-Aauthmethod --auth=authmethod: This option specifies the authentication method for local users used inpg_hba.conf (host andlocal lines). Do not usetrust 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 inpg_hba.conf (host lines).
--auth-local=authmethod: This option specifies the authentication method for local users via Unix-domain socket connections used inpg_hba.conf (local lines).
-Ddirectory --pgdata=directory: This option specifies the directory where the database cluster should be stored. This is the only information required byinitdb, but you can avoid writing it by setting thePGDATA environment variable, which can be convenient since the database server (postgres) can find the database directory later by the same variable.
-Eencoding --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, orSQL_ASCII if that does not work. The character sets supported by thePostgreSQL server are described inSection 23.3.1.
-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 thatinitdb runs in. Locale support is described inSection 23.1.
--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 causesinitdb 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: Makesinitdb 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 normalinitdb operations.
-TCFG --text-search-config=CFG: Sets the default text search configuration. Seedefault_text_search_config for further information.
-Uusername --username=username: Selects the user name of the database superuser. This defaults to the name of the effective user runninginitdb. It is really not important what the superuser's name is, but one might choose to keep the customary namepostgres, even if the operating system user's name is different.
-W --pwprompt: Makesinitdb 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.
-Xdirectory --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 programinitdb uses to create the catalog tables. This option generates a tremendous amount of extremely boring output.
-Ldirectory: Specifies whereinitdb 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, wheninitdb 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 theinitdb version and exit.
-? --help: Show help aboutinitdb 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 (seeSection 8.5.3).

This utility, like most otherPostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported bylibpq (seeSection 32.14).

Notes

initdb can also be invoked viapg_ctl initdb.