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- <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>initdb</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1" /><link rel="prev" href="reference-server.html" title="PostgreSQL Server Applications" /><link rel="next" href="pgarchivecleanup.html" title="pg_archivecleanup" /></head><body><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">initdb</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="reference-server.html" title="PostgreSQL Server Applications">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="reference-server.html" title="PostgreSQL Server Applications">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">PostgreSQL Server Applications</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 12.4 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="pgarchivecleanup.html" title="pg_archivecleanup">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="refentry" id="APP-INITDB"><div class="titlepage"></div><a id="id-1.9.5.3.1" class="indexterm"></a><div class="refnamediv"><h2><span class="refentrytitle">initdb</span></h2><p>initdb — create a new <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> database cluster</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p id="id-1.9.5.3.4.1"><code class="command">initdb</code> [<em class="replaceable"><code>option</code></em>...] [ <code class="option">--pgdata</code> | <code class="option">-D</code> ]<em class="replaceable"><code> directory</code></em> </p></div></div><div class="refsect1" id="R1-APP-INITDB-1"><h2>
- Description
- </h2><p>
- <code class="command">initdb</code> creates a new
- <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> database cluster. A database
- cluster is a collection of databases that are managed by a single
- server instance.
- </p><p>
- 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 <code class="literal">template1</code>
- and <code class="literal">postgres</code> databases. When you later create a
- new database, everything in the <code class="literal">template1</code> database is
- copied. (Therefore, anything installed in <code class="literal">template1</code>
- is automatically copied into each database created later.)
- The <code class="literal">postgres</code> database is a default database meant
- for use by users, utilities and third party applications.
- </p><p>
- Although <code class="command">initdb</code> 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
- <code class="command">chown</code> to assign ownership of that directory to the
- database user account, then <code class="command">su</code> to become the
- database user to run <code class="command">initdb</code>.
- </p><p>
- <code class="command">initdb</code> 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 <code class="command">initdb</code> creates.
- Since the server cannot be run as root, you must not run
- <code class="command">initdb</code> as root either. (It will in fact refuse
- to do so.)
- </p><p>
- For security reasons the new cluster created by <code class="command">initdb</code>
- will only be accessible by the cluster owner by default. The
- <code class="option">--allow-group-access</code> option allows any user in the same
- group as the cluster owner to read files in the cluster. This is useful
- for performing backups as a non-privileged user.
- </p><p>
- <code class="command">initdb</code> initializes the database cluster's default
- locale and character set encoding. The character set encoding,
- collation order (<code class="literal">LC_COLLATE</code>) and character set classes
- (<code class="literal">LC_CTYPE</code>, e.g. upper, lower, digit) can be set separately
- for a database when it is created. <code class="command">initdb</code> determines
- those settings for the <code class="literal">template1</code> database, which will
- serve as the default for all other databases.
- </p><p>
- To alter the default collation order or character set classes, use the
- <code class="option">--lc-collate</code> and <code class="option">--lc-ctype</code> options.
- Collation orders other than <code class="literal">C</code> or <code class="literal">POSIX</code> also have
- a performance penalty. For these reasons it is important to choose the
- right locale when running <code class="command">initdb</code>.
- </p><p>
- The remaining locale categories can be changed later when the server
- is started. You can also use <code class="option">--locale</code> to set the
- default for all locale categories, including collation order and
- character set classes. All server locale values (<code class="literal">lc_*</code>) can
- be displayed via <code class="command">SHOW ALL</code>.
- More details can be found in <a class="xref" href="locale.html" title="23.1. Locale Support">Section 23.1</a>.
- </p><p>
- To alter the default encoding, use the <code class="option">--encoding</code>.
- More details can be found in <a class="xref" href="multibyte.html" title="23.3. Character Set Support">Section 23.3</a>.
- </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.5.3.6"><h2>Options</h2><p>
- </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-A <em class="replaceable"><code>authmethod</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--auth=<em class="replaceable"><code>authmethod</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- This option specifies the default authentication method for local
- users used in <code class="filename">pg_hba.conf</code> (<code class="literal">host</code>
- and <code class="literal">local</code> lines). <code class="command">initdb</code> will
- prepopulate <code class="filename">pg_hba.conf</code> entries using the
- specified authentication method for non-replication as well as
- replication connections.
- </p><p>
- Do not use <code class="literal">trust</code> unless you trust all local users on your
- system. <code class="literal">trust</code> is the default for ease of installation.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--auth-host=<em class="replaceable"><code>authmethod</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- This option specifies the authentication method for local users via
- TCP/IP connections used in <code class="filename">pg_hba.conf</code>
- (<code class="literal">host</code> lines).
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--auth-local=<em class="replaceable"><code>authmethod</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- This option specifies the authentication method for local users via
- Unix-domain socket connections used in <code class="filename">pg_hba.conf</code>
- (<code class="literal">local</code> lines).
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-D <em class="replaceable"><code>directory</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--pgdata=<em class="replaceable"><code>directory</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- This option specifies the directory where the database cluster
- should be stored. This is the only information required by
- <code class="command">initdb</code>, but you can avoid writing it by
- setting the <code class="envar">PGDATA</code> environment variable, which
- can be convenient since the database server
- (<code class="command">postgres</code>) can find the database
- directory later by the same variable.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-E <em class="replaceable"><code>encoding</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--encoding=<em class="replaceable"><code>encoding</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- 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
- <code class="literal">SQL_ASCII</code> if that does not work. The character sets supported by
- the <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> server are described
- in <a class="xref" href="multibyte.html#MULTIBYTE-CHARSET-SUPPORTED" title="23.3.1. Supported Character Sets">Section 23.3.1</a>.
- </p></dd><dt id="APP-INITDB-ALLOW-GROUP-ACCESS"><span class="term"><code class="option">-g</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--allow-group-access</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Allows users in the same group as the cluster owner to read all cluster
- files created by <code class="command">initdb</code>. This option is ignored
- on <span class="productname">Windows</span> as it does not support
- <acronym class="acronym">POSIX</acronym>-style group permissions.
- </p></dd><dt id="APP-INITDB-DATA-CHECKSUMS"><span class="term"><code class="option">-k</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--data-checksums</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- 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. If set, checksums
- are calculated for all objects, in all databases. All checksum
- failures will be reported in the
- <a class="xref" href="monitoring-stats.html#PG-STAT-DATABASE-VIEW" title="Table 27.12. pg_stat_database View">pg_stat_database</a> view.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--locale=<em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Sets the default locale for the database cluster. If this
- option is not specified, the locale is inherited from the
- environment that <code class="command">initdb</code> runs in. Locale
- support is described in <a class="xref" href="locale.html" title="23.1. Locale Support">Section 23.1</a>.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--lc-collate=<em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--lc-ctype=<em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--lc-messages=<em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--lc-monetary=<em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--lc-numeric=<em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--lc-time=<em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Like <code class="option">--locale</code>, but only sets the locale in
- the specified category.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-locale</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Equivalent to <code class="option">--locale=C</code>.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-N</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-sync</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- By default, <code class="command">initdb</code> will wait for all files to be
- written safely to disk. This option causes <code class="command">initdb</code>
- 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.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--pwfile=<em class="replaceable"><code>filename</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Makes <code class="command">initdb</code> read the database superuser's password
- from a file. The first line of the file is taken as the password.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-S</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--sync-only</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Safely write all database files to disk and exit. This does not
- perform any of the normal <span class="application">initdb</span> operations.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-T <em class="replaceable"><code>config</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--text-search-config=<em class="replaceable"><code>config</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Sets the default text search configuration.
- See <a class="xref" href="runtime-config-client.html#GUC-DEFAULT-TEXT-SEARCH-CONFIG">default_text_search_config</a> for further information.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-U <em class="replaceable"><code>username</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--username=<em class="replaceable"><code>username</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Selects the user name of the database superuser. This defaults
- to the name of the effective user running
- <code class="command">initdb</code>. It is really not important what the
- superuser's name is, but one might choose to keep the
- customary name <span class="systemitem">postgres</span>, even if the operating
- system user's name is different.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-W</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--pwprompt</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Makes <code class="command">initdb</code> 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.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-X <em class="replaceable"><code>directory</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--waldir=<em class="replaceable"><code>directory</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- This option specifies the directory where the write-ahead log
- should be stored.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--wal-segsize=<em class="replaceable"><code>size</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Set the <em class="firstterm">WAL segment size</em>, in megabytes. This
- is the size of each individual file in the WAL log. The default size
- is 16 megabytes. The value must be a power of 2 between 1 and 1024
- (megabytes). This option can only be set during initialization, and
- cannot be changed later.
- </p><p>
- It may be useful to adjust this size to control the granularity of
- WAL log shipping or archiving. Also, in databases with a high volume
- of WAL, the sheer number of WAL files per directory can become a
- performance and management problem. Increasing the WAL file size
- will reduce the number of WAL files.
- </p></dd></dl></div><p>
- </p><p>
- Other, less commonly used, options are also available:
-
- </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-d</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--debug</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- 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 <code class="command">initdb</code>
- uses to create the catalog tables. This option generates a tremendous
- amount of extremely boring output.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-L <em class="replaceable"><code>directory</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Specifies where <code class="command">initdb</code> 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.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-n</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-clean</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- By default, when <code class="command">initdb</code>
- 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.
- </p></dd></dl></div><p>
- </p><p>
- Other options:
-
- </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-V</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--version</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Print the <span class="application">initdb</span> version and exit.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-?</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--help</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Show help about <span class="application">initdb</span> command line
- arguments, and exit.
- </p></dd></dl></div><p>
- </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.5.3.7"><h2>Environment</h2><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="envar">PGDATA</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Specifies the directory where the database cluster is to be
- stored; can be overridden using the <code class="option">-D</code> option.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="envar">PG_COLOR</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values
- are <code class="literal">always</code>, <code class="literal">auto</code> and
- <code class="literal">never</code>.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="envar">TZ</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- Specifies the default time zone of the created database cluster. The
- value should be a full time zone name
- (see <a class="xref" href="datatype-datetime.html#DATATYPE-TIMEZONES" title="8.5.3. Time Zones">Section 8.5.3</a>).
- </p></dd></dl></div><p>
- This utility, like most other <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> utilities,
- also uses the environment variables supported by <span class="application">libpq</span>
- (see <a class="xref" href="libpq-envars.html" title="33.14. Environment Variables">Section 33.14</a>).
- </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.5.3.8"><h2>Notes</h2><p>
- <code class="command">initdb</code> can also be invoked via
- <code class="command">pg_ctl initdb</code>.
- </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.5.3.9"><h2>See Also</h2><span class="simplelist"><a class="xref" href="app-pg-ctl.html" title="pg_ctl"><span class="refentrytitle"><span class="application">pg_ctl</span></span></a>, <a class="xref" href="app-postgres.html" title="postgres"><span class="refentrytitle"><span class="application">postgres</span></span></a></span></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="reference-server.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="reference-server.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="pgarchivecleanup.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">PostgreSQL Server Applications </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> <span class="application">pg_archivecleanup</span></td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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