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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 cluster. 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 the documentation and  the  documentation  for
       information about managing users and authentication. You must have CRE-
       ATEROLE 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 yourself be a superuser to create a  new
              superuser.  If not specified, NOSUPERUSER is the default.

       CREATEDB

       NOCREATEDB
              These  clauses  define  a role's ability to create databases. 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 databases. If not specified, NOCREATEDB is the
              default.

       CREATEROLE

       NOCREATEROLE
              These clauses determine whether a role will be permitted to cre-
              ate new roles (that is, execute CREATE ROLE).  A role with  CRE-
              ATEROLE  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  privi-
              leges  of  roles  it  is  a  member of.  A role with the INHERIT
              attribute can automatically  use  whatever  database  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 privi-
              leges 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 connection. 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  specified,
              NOLOGIN  is  the  default,  except  when  CREATE ROLE is invoked
              through its alternate spelling CREATE USER.

       CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit
              If role can log in, this specifies how many  concurrent  connec-
              tions 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.

       ENCRYPTED

       UNENCRYPTED
              These key words control whether the password is stored encrypted
              in  the  system  catalogs. (If neither is specified, the default
              behavior is determined  by  the  configuration  parameter  pass-
              word_encryption.) If the presented password string is already in
              MD5-encrypted format, then it is stored encrypted as-is, regard-
              less of whether ENCRYPTED or UNENCRYPTED is specified (since the
              system cannot decrypt the specified encrypted password  string).
              This    allows   reloading   of   encrypted   passwords   during
              dump/restore.

              Note that older clients may lack support for the MD5 authentica-
              tion  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 auto-
              matically added as members of the new  role.   (This  in  effect
              makes the new role a ``group''.)

       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 backwards com-
              patibility.


NOTES

       Use ALTER ROLE [alter_role(l)] to change the attributes of a role,  and
       DROP ROLE [drop_role(l)] 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(l)] and REVOKE [revoke(l)].

       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 privi-
       lege 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(l)] before creating a database.

       The INHERIT attribute is the default for reasons of backwards  compati-
       bility: 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.

       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.


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 ]

       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 commands defining
       users to be specified by each database implementation. 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(l)],   ALTER  ROLE  [alter_role(l)],  DROP  ROLE
       [drop_role(l)], GRANT [grant(l)], REVOKE [revoke(l)], createuser(1)

SQL - Language Statements         2005-11-05                     CREATE ROLE()

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