CREATE USER(7)

NAME
CREATE USER - define a new database user account

SYNOPSIS

CREATE USER username [ [ WITH ] option [ ... ] ]
where option can be:

      SYSID uid
    | [ ENCRYPTED | UNENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD 'password'
    | CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
    | CREATEUSER | NOCREATEUSER
    | IN GROUP groupname [, ...]
    | VALID UNTIL 'abstime'

DESCRIPTION

CREATE USER will add a new user to an instance of PostgreSQL. Refer to the Administrator's Guide for information about managing users and authentication. You must be a database superuser to use this command.

  PARAMETERS

username
    The name of the user.

uid The SYSID clause can be used to choose the PostgreSQL user ID of the user that is being created. It is not at all necessary that those match the Unix user IDs, but some people choose to keep the numbers the same. If this is not specified, the highest assigned user ID plus one (with a minimum of 100) will be used as default.

password
    Sets the user's password. If you do not plan to use password authentication you can omit this option, but the user won't be able to connect to a password-authenticated server. The password can be set or changed later, using ALTER USER [alter_user(7)].

ENCRYPTED

UNENCRYPTED
    These keywords control whether the password is stored encrypted in pg_shadow. (If neither is specified, the default behavior is determined by the PASSWORD_ENCRYPTION server parameter.) If the presented string is already in MD5-encrypted format, then it is stored as-is, regardless of whether ENCRYPTED or UNENCRYPTED is specified. This allows reloading of encrypted passwords during dump/restore. See the chapter on client authentication in the Administrator's Guide for details on how to set up authentication mechanisms. Note that older clients may lack support for the MD5 authentication mechanism that is needed to work with passwords that are stored encrypted.

CREATEDB

NOCREATEDB
    These clauses define a user's ability to create databases. If CREATEDB is specified, the user being defined will be allowed to create his own databases. Using NOCREATEDB will deny a user the ability to create databases. If this clause is omitted, NOCREATEDB is used by default.

CREATEUSER

NOCREATEUSER
    These clauses determine whether a user will be permitted to create new users himself. This option will also make the user a superuser who can override all access restrictions. Omitting this clause will set the user's value of this attribute to be NOCREATEUSER.

groupname
    A name of a group into which to insert the user as a new member. Multiple group names may be listed.

abstime
    The VALID UNTIL clause sets an absolute time after which the user's password is no longer valid. If this clause is omitted the login will be valid for all time.

DIAGNOSTICS

CREATE USER
    Message returned if the command completes successfully.

NOTES

Use ALTER USER [alter_user(7)] to change the attributes of a user, and DROP USER [drop_user(7)] to remove a user. Use ALTER GROUP [alter_group(l)] to add the user to groups or remove the user from groups. PostgreSQL includes a program createuser [createuser(1)] that has the same functionality as this command (in fact, it calls this command) but can be run from the command shell.

EXAMPLES

Create a user with no password:

CREATE USER jonathan;

Create a user with a password:

CREATE USER davide WITH PASSWORD 'jw8s0F4';

Create a user with a password, whose account is valid until the end of 2001. Note that after one second has ticked in 2002, the account is not valid:

CREATE USER miriam WITH PASSWORD 'jw8s0F4' VALID UNTIL 'Jan 1 2002';

Create an account where the user can create databases:

CREATE USER manuel WITH PASSWORD 'jw8s0F4' CREATEDB;

COMPATIBILITY

The CREATE USER statement is a PostgreSQL extension. The SQL standard leaves the definition of users to the implementation.

SEE ALSO
ALTER USER [alter_user(7)], DROP USER [drop_user(l)], createuser(1)