dropdb Application dropdb Remove an existing PostgreSQL database 1999-11-07 dropdb [ options ] dbname 1999-11-07 -h, --host host Specifies the hostname of the machine on which the postmaster is running. -p, --port port Specifies the Internet TCP/IP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the postmaster is listening for connections. -U, --username username Username to connect as. -W, --password Force password prompt. -e, --echo Echo the queries that dropdb generates and sends to the backend. -q, --quiet Do not display a response. -i, --interactive Issues a verification prompt before doing anything destructive. dbname Specifies the name of the database to be removed. The database must be one of the existing PostgreSQL databases in this installation. The options -h, -p, -U, -W, and -e are passed on literally to . 1998-10-02 DROP DATABASE The database was successfully removed. dropdb: Database removal failed. Something didn't work out. If there is an error condition, the backend error message will be displayed. See and for possibilities. 1998-10-02 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 shell script wrapper around the SQL command via the PostgreSQL interactive terminal . Thus, there is nothing special about dropping databases via this or other methods. This means that the psql must be found by the script and that a database server is running at the targeted host. Also, any default settings and environment variables available to psql and the libpq front-end library do apply. 1999-11-07 To destroy the database demo on the default database server: $ dropdb demo DROP DATABASE To destroy the database demo using the postmaster on host eden, port 5000, with verification and a peek at the underlying query: $ dropdb -p 5000 -h eden -i -e demo Database "demo" will be permanently deleted. Are you sure? (y/n) y DROP DATABASE "demo" DROP DATABASE