~ubuntu-branches/debian/sid/postgresql-9.3/sid

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\&.

.PP

Although

\fBinitdb\fR

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

\fBchown\fR

to assign ownership of that directory to the database user account, then

\fBsu\fR

to become the database user to run

\fBinitdb\fR\&.

.PP

\fBinitdb\fR

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

\fBinitdb\fR

creates\&. Since the server cannot be run as root, you must not run

\fBinitdb\fR

as root either\&. (It will in fact refuse to do so\&.)

.PP

\fBinitdb\fR

initializes the database cluster\*(Aqs 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\&.

\fBinitdb\fR

determines those settings for the

template1

database, which will serve as the default for all other databases\&.

.PP

To alter the default collation order or character set classes, use the

\fB\-\-lc\-collate\fR

and

\fB\-\-lc\-ctype\fR

options\&. Collation orders other than

POSIX

also have a performance penalty\&. For these reasons it is important to choose the right locale when running

\fBinitdb\fR\&.

.PP

The remaining locale categories can be changed later when the server is started\&. You can also use

\fB\-\-locale\fR

to set the default for all locale categories, including collation order and character set classes\&. All server locale values (lc_*) can be displayed via

\fBSHOW ALL\fR\&. More details can be found in

Section 22.1, \(lqLocale Support\(rq, in the documentation\&.

.PP

To alter the default encoding, use the

\fB\-\-encoding\fR\&. More details can be found in

100

Section 22.3, \(lqCharacter Set Support\(rq, in the documentation\&.

101

.SH "OPTIONS"

102

.PP

103

.PP

104

\fB\-A \fR\fB\fIauthmethod\fR\fR, \fB\-\-auth=\fR\fB\fIauthmethod\fR\fR

105

.RS 4

106

This option specifies the authentication method for local users used in

107

pg_hba\&.conf

108

(host

109

and

110

local

111

lines)\&. Do not use

112

trust

113

unless you trust all local users on your system\&.

114

trust

115

is the default for ease of installation\&.

116

.RE

117

.PP

118

\fB\-\-auth\-host=\fR\fB\fIauthmethod\fR\fR

119

.RS 4

120

This option specifies the authentication method for local users via TCP/IP connections used in

121

pg_hba\&.conf

122

(host

123

lines)\&.

124

.RE

125

.PP

126

\fB\-\-auth\-local=\fR\fB\fIauthmethod\fR\fR

127

.RS 4

128

This option specifies the authentication method for local users via Unix\-domain socket connections used in

129

pg_hba\&.conf

130

(local

131

lines)\&.

132

.RE

133

.PP

134

\fB\-D \fR\fB\fIdirectory\fR\fR, \fB\-\-pgdata=\fR\fB\fIdirectory\fR\fR

135

.RS 4

136

This option specifies the directory where the database cluster should be stored\&. This is the only information required by

137

\fBinitdb\fR, but you can avoid writing it by setting the

138

\fBPGDATA\fR

139

environment variable, which can be convenient since the database server (\fBpostgres\fR) can find the database directory later by the same variable\&.

140

.RE

141

.PP

142

\fB\-E \fR\fB\fIencoding\fR\fR, \fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fB\fIencoding\fR\fR

143

.RS 4

144

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

145

SQL_ASCII

146

if that does not work\&. The character sets supported by the

147

PostgreSQL

148

server are described in

149

Section 22.3.1, \(lqSupported Character Sets\(rq, in the documentation\&.

150

.RE

151

.PP

152

\fB\-k\fR, \fB\-\-data\-checksums\fR

153

.RS 4

154

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\&.

155

.RE

156

.PP

157

\fB\-\-locale=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR

158

.RS 4

159

Sets the default locale for the database cluster\&. If this option is not specified, the locale is inherited from the environment that

160

\fBinitdb\fR

161

runs in\&. Locale support is described in

162

Section 22.1, \(lqLocale Support\(rq, in the documentation\&.

163

.RE

164

.PP

165

\fB\-\-lc\-collate=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR, \fB\-\-lc\-ctype=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR, \fB\-\-lc\-messages=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR, \fB\-\-lc\-monetary=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR, \fB\-\-lc\-numeric=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR, \fB\-\-lc\-time=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR

166

.RS 4

167

168

\fB\-\-locale\fR, but only sets the locale in the specified category\&.

169

.RE

170

.PP

171

\fB\-\-no\-locale\fR

172

.RS 4

173

Equivalent to

174

\fB\-\-locale=C\fR\&.

175

.RE

176

.PP

177

\fB\-N\fR, \fB\-\-nosync\fR

178

.RS 4

179

By default,

180

\fBinitdb\fR

181

will wait for all files to be written safely to disk\&. This option causes

182

\fBinitdb\fR

183

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\&.

184

.RE

185

.PP

186

\fB\-\-pwfile=\fR\fB\fIfilename\fR\fR

187

.RS 4

188

Makes

189

\fBinitdb\fR

190

read the database superuser\*(Aqs password from a file\&. The first line of the file is taken as the password\&.

191

.RE

192

.PP

193

\fB\-S\fR, \fB\-\-sync\-only\fR

194

.RS 4

195

Safely write all database files to disk and exit\&. This does not perform any of the normal

196

initdb

197

operations\&.

198

.RE

199

.PP

200

\fB\-T \fR\fB\fICFG\fR\fR, \fB\-\-text\-search\-config=\fR\fB\fICFG\fR\fR

201

.RS 4

202

Sets the default text search configuration\&. See

203

default_text_search_config

204

for further information\&.

205

.RE

206

.PP

207

\fB\-U \fR\fB\fIusername\fR\fR, \fB\-\-username=\fR\fB\fIusername\fR\fR

208

.RS 4

209

Selects the user name of the database superuser\&. This defaults to the name of the effective user running

210

\fBinitdb\fR\&. It is really not important what the superuser\*(Aqs name is, but one might choose to keep the customary name

211

postgres, even if the operating system user\*(Aqs name is different\&.

212

.RE

213

.PP

214

\fB\-W\fR, \fB\-\-pwprompt\fR

215

.RS 4

216

Makes

217

\fBinitdb\fR

218

prompt for a password to give the database superuser\&. If you don\*(Aqt plan on using password authentication, this is not important\&. Otherwise you won\*(Aqt be able to use password authentication until you have a password set up\&.

219

.RE

220

.PP

221

\fB\-X \fR\fB\fIdirectory\fR\fR, \fB\-\-xlogdir=\fR\fB\fIdirectory\fR\fR

222

.RS 4

223

This option specifies the directory where the transaction log should be stored\&.

224

.RE

225

.PP

226

Other, less commonly used, options are also available:

227

.PP

228

\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR

229

.RS 4

230

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

231

\fBinitdb\fR

232

uses to create the catalog tables\&. This option generates a tremendous amount of extremely boring output\&.

233

.RE

234

.PP

235

\fB\-L \fR\fB\fIdirectory\fR\fR

236

.RS 4

237

Specifies where

238

\fBinitdb\fR

239

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\&.

240

.RE

241

.PP

242

\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-noclean\fR

243

.RS 4

244

By default, when

245

\fBinitdb\fR

246

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\&.

247

.RE

248

.PP

249

Other options:

250

.PP

251

\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR

252

.RS 4

253

Print the

254

initdb

255

version and exit\&.

256

.RE

257

.PP

258

\fB\-?\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR

259

.RS 4

260

Show help about

261

initdb

262

command line arguments, and exit\&.

263

.RE

264

.SH "ENVIRONMENT"

265

.PP

266

\fBPGDATA\fR

267

.RS 4

268

Specifies the directory where the database cluster is to be stored; can be overridden using the

269

\fB\-D\fR

270

option\&.

271

.RE

272

.PP

273

This utility, like most other

274

PostgreSQL

275

utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by

276

libpq

277

(see

278

Section 31.14, \(lqEnvironment Variables\(rq, in the documentation)\&.

279

.SH "NOTES"

280

.PP

281

282

\fBinitdb\fR

283

can also be invoked via

284

\fBpg_ctl initdb\fR\&.

285

.SH "SEE ALSO"

286

\fBpg_ctl\fR(1), \fBpostgres\fR(1)

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