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dbname

The database name. Defaults to be the same as the user name. In certain contexts, the value is checked for extended formats; see Section 32.1.1 for more details on those.

Reading PostgreSQL 18.6.

Description

The database name. Defaults to be the same as the user name. In certain contexts, the value is checked for extended formats; see Section 32.1.1 for more details on those.

Client library: libpq 18.6
Manual definition: Documented
Source environment fallback: PGDATABASE
Compiled fallback expression: NULL

Usage

dbname

Default resolution and service-file precedence

The following environment variables can be used to select default connection parameter values, which will be used by PQconnectdb , PQsetdbLogin and PQsetdb if no value is directly specified by the calling code. These are useful to avoid hard-coding database connection information into simple client applications, for example.

Service names can be defined in either a per-user service file or a system-wide file. If the same service name exists in both the user and the system file, the user file takes precedence. By default, the per-user service file is named ~/.pg_service.conf . On Microsoft Windows, it is named %APPDATA%\postgresql\.pg_service.conf (where %APPDATA% refers to the Application Data subdirectory in the user's profile). A different file name can be specified by setting the environment variable PGSERVICEFILE . The system-wide file is named pg_service.conf . By default it is sought in the etc directory of the PostgreSQL installation (use pg_config --sysconfdir to identify this directory precisely). Another directory, but not a different file name, can be specified by setting the environment variable PGSYSCONFDIR .

Connection parameters obtained from a service file are combined with parameters obtained from other sources. A service file setting overrides the corresponding environment variable, and in turn can be overridden by a value given directly in the connection string. For example, using the above service file, a connection string service=mydb port=5434 will use host somehost , port 5434 , user admin , and other parameters as set by environment variables or built-in defaults.

Environment variable evidence

PGDATABASE behaves the same as the dbname connection parameter.

Environment fallback

Variable	Documented behavior
PGDATABASE	PGDATABASE behaves the same as the dbname connection parameter.

Manual definition

dbname: The database name. Defaults to be the same as the user name. In certain contexts, the value is checked for extended formats; see Section 32.1.1 for more details on those.

Related entries

Documentation and source

Source build

Version: 18.6
Build: https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/source/v18.6/postgresql-18.6.tar.bz2
Source fingerprint: ee8d1a3612338fd9adf250730cb640fcc5233b5491337cc00a316a44e3a0b9f8

Compare versions

PostgreSQL 11 → 12: changed.

--- PostgreSQL 11
+++ PostgreSQL 12
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "compiled_default_expression": "NULL",
   "default_evidence": [],
-  "definition": "The database name. Defaults to be the same as the user name. In certain contexts, the value is checked for extended formats; see Section 34.1.1 for more details on those.",
+  "definition": "The database name. Defaults to be the same as the user name. In certain contexts, the value is checked for extended formats; see Section 33.1.1 for more details on those.",
   "documented": true,
   "environment": "PGDATABASE",
   "keyword": "dbname"

Compares recorded interfaces and attributes. Source fingerprints and build metadata are excluded; an absent sample is not proof of the introduction or removal release.

Related entries

Export JSON · Back to Connection Parameters · Recorded in PostgreSQL 10 through 20; the first sample is not necessarily its introduction.