DROPDB(1) PostgreSQL 18.6 Documentation DROPDB(1) NAME dropdb - remove a PostgreSQL database SYNOPSIS dropdb [connection-option...] [option...] dbname DESCRIPTION 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 ef- fective difference between dropping databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server. OPTIONS 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. -f --force Attempt to terminate all existing connections to the target database before dropping it. See DROP DATABASE (DROP_DATABASE(7)) for more in- formation on this option. -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 is- sued in this case. -? --help Show help about dropdb command line arguments, and exit. dropdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for connection pa- rameters: -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 authen- tication and a password is not available by other means such as a .pg- pass 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 ex- tra 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. This can be a connection string. If so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options. ENVIRONMENT PGHOST PGPORT PGUSER Default connection parameters PG_COLOR Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never. This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environ- ment variables supported by libpq (see Section 32.15). DIAGNOSTICS In case of difficulty, see DROP DATABASE (DROP_DATABASE(7)) and psql(1) 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. EXAMPLES 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; SEE ALSO createdb(1), DROP DATABASE (DROP_DATABASE(7)) PostgreSQL 18.6 2026 DROPDB(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | DIAGNOSTICS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO
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