How to create a new database with the hstore extension already installed?

hstore, postgresql, postgresql-9.1, sql

Solution

Long story short:

Install hstore in the template1 database:

psql -d template1 -c 'create extension hstore;'

Step-by-step explanation:

As stated by the PostgreSQL documentation:

CREATE EXTENSION loads a new extension into the current database.

Installing an extension is database-specific. The following returns you the current database name:

$ psql -c 'select current_database()'
 current_database 
------------------
 username
(1 row)

In case you have a database named after your username. Now with `dbtest`:

$ psql -d dbtest -c 'select current_database()'
 current_database 
------------------
 dbtest
(1 row)

Ok, you got it. Now, to create new databases with hstore installed, you'll have to install it in the `template1` database. According to the doc:

CREATE DATABASE actually works by copying an existing database. By default, it copies the standard system database named template1.

Let's do this:

$ psql -d template1 -c 'create extension hstore;'

And check that it works :

$ createdb dbtest
$ psql -d dbtest -c '\dx'
                 List of installed extensions
  Name   | Version |   Schema   |                   Description                    
---------+---------+------------+--------------------------------------------------
 hstore  | 1.0     | public     | data type for storing sets of (key, value) pairs
 plpgsql | 1.0     | pg_catalog | PL/pgSQL procedural language
(2 rows)

Done!

Problem

Recently I went into trouble trying to use hstore with Django. I installed hstore this way: ``` $ sudo -u postgres psql postgres=# CREATE EXTENSION hstore; WARNING: => is deprecated as an operator name DETAIL: This name may be disallowed altogether in future versions of PostgreSQL. CREATE EXTENSION postgres=# \dx List of installed extensions Name | Version | Schema | Description ---------+---------+------------+-------------------------------------------------- hstore | 1.0 | public | data type for storing sets of (key, value) pairs plpgsql | 1.0 | pg_catalog | PL/pgSQL procedural language (2 rows) ``` And naively thought that my new databases would include hstore. That ain't the case: ``` $ createdb dbtest $ psql -d dbtest -c '\dx' List of installed extensions Name | Version | Schema | Description ---------+---------+------------+------------------------------ plpgsql | 1.0 | pg_catalog | PL/pgSQL procedural language (1 row) ``` Is there a way to automatically have hstore in a newly created database ?

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