PostgreSQL newbie – how to create objects in a database

pgadminpostgresql

I've just finished installing PostgreSQL and pgadmin3 on Ubuntu. Using pgadmin, I've been able to create a new user called 'test' and also a new database with 'test' as the owner.
Now I'm trying to create tables using SQL statements… but I can't seem to be able to figure out how to do that in pgAdmin. I don't' want to create each column individually using the GUI.
Is there any way I can run a SQL statement like:

create table test 
( 
  id serial primary key, 
  name varchar(64), 
  handler varchar(16), 
  desc varchar(255) 
);

Best Answer

I figured it out. I can create an empty table using the "new table.." menu item. Then I can edit the table once created by right clicking on it and choosing "scripts".

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Postgresql – Problem with permissions for user

GRANTing ALL permissions for public to the database is mostly redundant (as public has connect, temporary by default, so you'd only be adding CREATE which you probably don't want to do). You probably expected a GRANT ALL on the database to result in a recursive GRANT ALL to contained schemas and tables. GRANT is not recursive, so this doesn't happen; a GRANT ALL on a database just grants CONNECT and TEMPORARY rights to the database, with no effect on contained schemas and tables.

The default GRANTs are, from the docs on GRANT:

PostgreSQL grants default privileges on some types of objects to PUBLIC. No privileges are granted to PUBLIC by default on tables, columns, schemas or tablespaces. For other types, the default privileges granted to PUBLIC are as follows: CONNECT and CREATE TEMP TABLE for databases; EXECUTE privilege for functions; and USAGE privilege for languages. The object owner can, of course, REVOKE both default and expressly granted privileges. (For maximum security, issue the REVOKE in the same transaction that creates the object; then there is no window in which another user can use the object.) Also, these initial default privilege settings can be changed using the ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command.

So you can see you don't need to GRANT anything on the database unless you want the user to be able to create schemas, etc. You need to:

GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA myschema TO theuser; for any schema other than public. CREATE can be granted if you want the user to be able to make tables, views, etc.
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON TABLE sometable TO theuser; for tables. I've omitted the TRUNATE, REFERENCES and TRIGGER rights as you probably don't want to grant them.
GRANT USAGE ON SEQUENCE sometable_somecolumn_seq TO theuser; for any sequences that are used in table defaults, either explicitly or via a SERIAL or BIGSERIAL column.

... etc. See the manual for GRANT linked above for full definitions of what the privileges do, which are available on which objects, etc. Take note of the wildcard ALL TABLES and ALL SEQUENCES options.

If this seems like too much hassle to do for each table, view, schema, sequence, etc, you can in Pg 9.1 and above use ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES to change the default GRANTs on new objects.

PostgreSQL – pgAdmin Always Says Server Not Listening

Since you installed multiple versions of PostgreSQL, there is a good chance your cluster is running on a different port than 5432. Additional clusters automatically use the next free port unless instructed otherwise. Like 5433, 5434 etc.

Check your setting in postgresql.conf to find out and connect to the proper port. postgresql.conf is usually installed in your data directory, which in turn is defined in pg_env.bat, usually located here

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\<version>\pg_env.bat

Default location of the data directory:

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\<version>\data\postgresql.conf

Where <version> is 9.1 or 9.2 in your case.
Base directory varies according to your version of Windows.

Obviously initdb fails to create a database cluster. Read the chapter in the manual to get a grip on initdb. Maybe a problem with missing privileges?

Here is a closely related question with a solution.

Best Answer

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Postgresql – Problem with permissions for user

PostgreSQL – pgAdmin Always Says Server Not Listening

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