dropdb — remove a PostgreSQL database
dropdb
[connection-option
...] [option
...] dbname
dropdb destroys an existing PostgreSQL database. The user who executes this command must be a database superuser or the owner of the database.
dropdb is a wrapper around the SQL command DROP DATABASE. There is no effective difference between dropping databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server.
dropdb accepts the following command-line arguments:
dbname
Specifies the name of the database to be removed.
-e
--echo
Echo the commands that dropdb generates and sends to the server.
-i
--interactive
Issues a verification prompt before doing anything destructive.
-V
--version
Print the dropdb version and exit.
--if-exists
Do not throw an error if the database does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.
-?
--help
Show help about dropdb command line arguments, and exit.
dropdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for connection parameters:
-h host
--host=host
Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix domain socket.
-p port
--port=port
Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections.
-U username
--username=username
User name to connect as.
-w
--no-password
Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires
password authentication and a password is not available by
other means such as a .pgpass
file, the
connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in
batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a
password.
-W
--password
Force dropdb to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.
This option is never essential, since
dropdb will automatically prompt
for a password if the server demands password authentication.
However, dropdb will waste a
connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password.
In some cases it is worth typing -W
to avoid the extra
connection attempt.
--maintenance-db=dbname
Specifies the name of the database to connect to in order to drop the
target database. If not specified, the postgres
database will be used; if that does not exist (or is the database
being dropped), template1
will be used.
PGHOST
PGPORT
PGUSER
Default connection parameters
This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 33.14).
In case of difficulty, see DROP DATABASE and psql for discussions of potential problems and error messages. The database server must be running at the targeted host. Also, any default connection settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library will apply.
To destroy the database demo
on the default
database server:
$
dropdb demo
To destroy the database demo
using the
server on host eden
, port 5000, with verification and a peek
at the underlying command:
$
dropdb -p 5000 -h eden -i -e demo
Database "demo" will be permanently deleted. Are you sure? (y/n)
y
DROP DATABASE demo;