initlocation \(em create a new Postgres storage area

.BR "initlocation"

.IR "directory"

.PP

.BR "initlocation"

.IR "$environment_variable"

.IR initlocation

creates a new Postgres database storage area. A storage area contains

distinct Postgres databases, with each database in a separate directory

and managed by a single postmaster.

.PP

Creating a database storage area consists of creating the directories in which

the database data will live.

There are 2 types of arguments for

.IR initlocation .

First, you can specify an explicit

absolute path to the top directory of the storage area.

Second, you can specify an environment variable (e.g. $PGDATA2).

This environment variable should be known to the backend for later use in

.IR "create database" .

In either case Postgres will add /base/

to the specified path to create the storage area.

create_database(l),

initdb(1).