Reference

alter_user(7l)

change a database user account

NAME

ALTER USER - change a database user account

SYNOPSIS

ALTER USER username [ [ WITH ] option [ ... ] ]
where option can be:
	  [ ENCRYPTED | UNENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD 'password' 
        | CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
        | CREATEUSER | NOCREATEUSER 
        | VALID UNTIL 'abstime'

INPUTS

username

The name of the user whose details are to be altered.

password

The new password to be used for this account.

ENCRYPTED
UNENCRYPTED

These keywords control whether the password is stored encrypted in pg_shadow. (See CREATE USER [create_user(l)] for more information about this choice.)

CREATEDB
NOCREATEDB

These clauses define a user's ability to create databases. If CREATEDB is specified, the user being defined will be allowed to create his own databases. Using NOCREATEDB will deny a user the ability to create databases.

CREATEUSER
NOCREATEUSER

These clauses determine whether a user will be permitted to create new users himself. This option will also make the user a superuser who can override all access restrictions.

abstime

The date (and, optionally, the time) at which this user's password is to expire.

OUTPUTS

ALTER USER

Message returned if the alteration was successful.

ERROR: ALTER USER: user "username" does not exist

Error message returned if the specified user is not known to the database.

DESCRIPTION

ALTER USER is used to change the attributes of a user's PostgreSQL account. Attributes not mentioned in the command retain their previous settings.

Only a database superuser can change privileges and password expiration with this command. Ordinary users can only change their own password.

ALTER USER cannot change a user's group memberships. Use ALTER GROUP [alter_group(l)] to do that.

Use CREATE USER [create_user(l)] to create a new user and DROP USER [drop_user(l)] to remove a user.

USAGE

Change a user password:

ALTER USER davide WITH PASSWORD 'hu8jmn3';

Change a user's valid until date:

ALTER USER manuel VALID UNTIL 'Jan 31 2030';

Change a user's valid until date, specifying that his authorization should expire at midday on 4th May 1998 using the time zone which is one hour ahead of UTC:

ALTER USER chris VALID UNTIL 'May 4 12:00:00 1998 +1';

Give a user the ability to create other users and new databases:

ALTER USER miriam CREATEUSER CREATEDB;

COMPATIBILITY

SQL92

There is no ALTER USER statement in SQL92. The standard leaves the definition of users to the implementation.

History