create_role(5)
CREATE ROLE() SQL Commands CREATE ROLE()
NAME
CREATE ROLE - define a new database role
SYNOPSIS
CREATE ROLE name [ [ WITH ] option [ ... ] ]
where option can be:
SUPERUSER | NOSUPERUSER
| CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
| CREATEROLE | NOCREATEROLE
| CREATEUSER | NOCREATEUSER
| INHERIT | NOINHERIT
| LOGIN | NOLOGIN
| CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit
| [ ENCRYPTED | UNENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD 'password'
| VALID UNTIL 'timestamp'
| IN ROLE rolename [, ...]
| IN GROUP rolename [, ...]
| ROLE rolename [, ...]
| ADMIN rolename [, ...]
| USER rolename [, ...]
| SYSID uid
DESCRIPTION
CREATE ROLE adds a new role to a PostgreSQL database clus-
ter. A role is an entity that can own database objects and
have database privileges; a role can be considered a
``user'', a ``group'', or both depending on how it is used.
Refer to in the documentation and in the documentation for
information about managing users and authentication. You
must have CREATEROLE privilege or be a database superuser to
use this command.
Note that roles are defined at the database cluster level,
and so are valid in all databases in the cluster.
PARAMETERS
name The name of the new role.
SUPERUSER
NOSUPERUSER
These clauses determine whether the new role is a
``superuser'', who can override all access restrictions
within the database. Superuser status is dangerous and
should be used only when really needed. You must your-
self be a superuser to create a new superuser. If not
specified, NOSUPERUSER is the default.
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CREATE ROLE() SQL Commands CREATE ROLE()
CREATEDB
NOCREATEDB
These clauses define a role's ability to create data-
bases. If CREATEDB is specified, the role being defined
will be allowed to create new databases. Specifying
NOCREATEDB will deny a role the ability to create data-
bases. If not specified, NOCREATEDB is the default.
CREATEROLE
NOCREATEROLE
These clauses determine whether a role will be permit-
ted to create new roles (that is, execute CREATE ROLE).
A role with CREATEROLE privilege can also alter and
drop other roles. If not specified, NOCREATEROLE is
the default.
CREATEUSER
NOCREATEUSER
These clauses are an obsolete, but still accepted,
spelling of SUPERUSER and NOSUPERUSER. Note that they
are not equivalent to CREATEROLE as one might naively
expect!
INHERIT
NOINHERIT
These clauses determine whether a role ``inherits'' the
privileges of roles it is a member of. A role with the
INHERIT attribute can automatically use whatever data-
base privileges have been granted to all roles it is
directly or indirectly a member of. Without INHERIT,
membership in another role only grants the ability to
SET ROLE to that other role; the privileges of the
other role are only available after having done so. If
not specified, INHERIT is the default.
LOGIN
NOLOGIN
These clauses determine whether a role is allowed to
log in; that is, whether the role can be given as the
initial session authorization name during client con-
nection. A role having the LOGIN attribute can be
thought of as a user. Roles without this attribute are
useful for managing database privileges, but are not
users in the usual sense of the word. If not speci-
fied, NOLOGIN is the default, except when CREATE ROLE
is invoked through its alternate spelling CREATE USER.
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CREATE ROLE() SQL Commands CREATE ROLE()
CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit
If role can log in, this specifies how many concurrent
connections the role can make. -1 (the default) means
no limit.
PASSWORD password
Sets the role's password. (A password is only of use
for roles having the LOGIN attribute, but you can
nonetheless define one for roles without it.) If you do
not plan to use password authentication you can omit
this option. If no password is specified, the password
will be set to null and password authentication will
always fail for that user. A null password can option-
ally be written explicitly as PASSWORD NULL.
ENCRYPTED
UNENCRYPTED
These key words control whether the password is stored
encrypted in the system catalogs. (If neither is speci-
fied, the default behavior is determined by the confi-
guration parameter password_encryption.) If the
presented password string is already in MD5-encrypted
format, then it is stored encrypted as-is, regardless
of whether ENCRYPTED or UNENCRYPTED is specified (since
the system cannot decrypt the specified encrypted pass-
word string). This allows reloading of encrypted pass-
words during dump/restore.
Note that older clients may lack support for the MD5
authentication mechanism that is needed to work with
passwords that are stored encrypted.
VALID UNTIL 'timestamp'
The VALID UNTIL clause sets a date and time after which
the role's password is no longer valid. If this clause
is omitted the password will be valid for all time.
IN ROLE rolename
The IN ROLE clause lists one or more existing roles to
which the new role will be immediately added as a new
member. (Note that there is no option to add the new
role as an administrator; use a separate GRANT command
to do that.)
IN GROUP rolename
IN GROUP is an obsolete spelling of IN ROLE.
ROLE rolename
The ROLE clause lists one or more existing roles which
are automatically added as members of the new role.
(This in effect makes the new role a ``group''.)
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CREATE ROLE() SQL Commands CREATE ROLE()
ADMIN rolename
The ADMIN clause is like ROLE, but the named roles are
added to the new role WITH ADMIN OPTION, giving them
the right to grant membership in this role to others.
USER rolename
The USER clause is an obsolete spelling of the ROLE
clause.
SYSID uid
The SYSID clause is ignored, but is accepted for back-
wards compatibility.
NOTES
Use ALTER ROLE [alter_role(5)] to change the attributes of a
role, and DROP ROLE [drop_role(5)] to remove a role. All the
attributes specified by CREATE ROLE can be modified by later
ALTER ROLE commands.
The preferred way to add and remove members of roles that
are being used as groups is to use GRANT [grant(5)] and
REVOKE [revoke(5)].
The VALID UNTIL clause defines an expiration time for a
password only, not for the role per se. In particular, the
expiration time is not enforced when logging in using a
non-password-based authentication method.
The INHERIT attribute governs inheritance of grantable
privileges (that is, access privileges for database objects
and role memberships). It does not apply to the special role
attributes set by CREATE ROLE and ALTER ROLE. For example,
being a member of a role with CREATEDB privilege does not
immediately grant the ability to create databases, even if
INHERIT is set; it would be necessary to become that role
via SET ROLE [set_role(5)] before creating a database.
The INHERIT attribute is the default for reasons of back-
wards compatibility: in prior releases of PostgreSQL, users
always had access to all privileges of groups they were
members of. However, NOINHERIT provides a closer match to
the semantics specified in the SQL standard.
Be careful with the CREATEROLE privilege. There is no con-
cept of inheritance for the privileges of a CREATEROLE-role.
That means that even if a role does not have a certain
privilege but is allowed to create other roles, it can
easily create another role with different privileges than
its own (except for creating roles with superuser
privileges). For example, if the role ``user'' has the
CREATEROLE privilege but not the CREATEDB privilege,
nonetheless it can create a new role with the CREATEDB
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CREATE ROLE() SQL Commands CREATE ROLE()
privilege. Therefore, regard roles that have the CREATEROLE
privilege as almost-superuser-roles.
PostgreSQL includes a program createuser [createuser(1)]
that has the same functionality as CREATE ROLE (in fact, it
calls this command) but can be run from the command shell.
The CONNECTION LIMIT option is only enforced approximately;
if two new sessions start at about the same time when just
one connection ``slot'' remains for the role, it is possible
that both will fail. Also, the limit is never enforced for
superusers.
Caution must be exercised when specifying an unencrypted
password with this command. The password will be transmitted
to the server in cleartext, and it might also be logged in
the client's command history or the server log. The command
createuser [createuser(1)], however, transmits the password
encrypted. Also, psql [psql(1)] contains a command \password
that can be used to safely change the password later.
EXAMPLES
Create a role that can log in, but don't give it a password:
CREATE ROLE jonathan LOGIN;
Create a role with a password:
CREATE USER davide WITH PASSWORD 'jw8s0F4';
(CREATE USER is the same as CREATE ROLE except that it
implies LOGIN.)
Create a role with a password that is valid until the end of
2004. After one second has ticked in 2005, the password is
no longer valid.
CREATE ROLE miriam WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'jw8s0F4' VALID UNTIL '2005-01-01';
Create a role that can create databases and manage roles:
CREATE ROLE admin WITH CREATEDB CREATEROLE;
COMPATIBILITY
The CREATE ROLE statement is in the SQL standard, but the
standard only requires the syntax
CREATE ROLE name [ WITH ADMIN rolename ]
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CREATE ROLE() SQL Commands CREATE ROLE()
Multiple initial administrators, and all the other options
of CREATE ROLE, are PostgreSQL extensions.
The SQL standard defines the concepts of users and roles,
but it regards them as distinct concepts and leaves all com-
mands defining users to be specified by each database imple-
mentation. In PostgreSQL we have chosen to unify users and
roles into a single kind of entity. Roles therefore have
many more optional attributes than they do in the standard.
The behavior specified by the SQL standard is most closely
approximated by giving users the NOINHERIT attribute, while
roles are given the INHERIT attribute.
SEE ALSO
SET ROLE [set_role(5)], ALTER ROLE [alter_role(l)], DROP
ROLE [drop_role(l)], GRANT [grant(l)], REVOKE [revoke(l)],
createuser(1)
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