INITDB(1)		PostgreSQL 9.2.24 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.

       --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.

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

       -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:

       -s, --show
	   Print the internal settings, then exit.

       -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 time zone, using full time zone names, which the
	   created database cluster should use.

       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 9.2.24		  2017-11-06			     INITDB(1)