PG::Error: ERROR: new encoding (UTF8) is incompatible

Question

I have installed postgresql-9.2.4 from the source, now in rails app when I execute:

rake db:create command I get:

$ bin/rake db:create RAILS_ENV="test"
PG::Error: ERROR:  new encoding (UTF8) is incompatible with the encoding of the template database (SQL_ASCII)
HINT:  Use the same encoding as in the template database, or use template0 as template.
: CREATE DATABASE "verticals_test" ENCODING = 'unicode'
/home/vagrant/my-project/.gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.12/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:652:in `exec
....
bin/rake:16:in `load'
bin/rake:16:in `<main>'
Couldn't create database for {"adapter"=>"postgresql", "encoding"=>"unicode", "database"=>"my_db", "host"=>"localhost", "pool"=>5, "username"=>"my_user", "password"=>"my_password"}

any idea?

Answer 1

Ok, below steps resolved the problem:

1. First, we need to drop template1. Templates can’t be dropped, so we first modify it so t’s an ordinary database:

   UPDATE pg_database SET datistemplate = FALSE WHERE datname = 'template1';

2. Now we can drop it:

   DROP DATABASE template1;

3. Now its time to create database from template0, with a new default encoding:

   CREATE DATABASE template1 WITH TEMPLATE = template0 ENCODING = 'UNICODE';

4. Now modify template1 so it’s actually a template:

   UPDATE pg_database SET datistemplate = TRUE WHERE datname = 'template1';

5. Now switch to template1 and VACUUM FREEZE the template:

   \c template1

   VACUUM FREEZE;

Problem should be resolved.

Answer 2

Make sure you have the correct setup in your database.yml file. You should use template0, as the error suggests:

test:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: your_db_name
  template: template0
  host: localhost
  ...

Answer 3

If you use Debian, when you install the postgresql package it will use your default locale to create the template1 database. If you have not configured your OS to use UTF-8 as a default locale, you will encounter this error.

In addition to the above solutions, if you are on a new installation and have no active databases, you can remove the postgresql package and set your default locale to UTF-8. The advantage of this method is you can omit locale information when creating databases in the future.

dpkg-reconfigure locales

If you don't see the desired locale, install the locales-all package

apt-get install locales-all

Then remove postgresql

apt-get remove --purge postgresql-<version>

Then reinstall or better yet upgrade to a recent release that isn't in Debian stable.

Answer 4

If your postgres installation is new and you haven't populated any databases yet, then you can remove your data directory and re-run the initdb command with the flag to create databases using UTF-8.

Modify this command to match your postgres installation. The -E flag tells what character encoding should be the default. Other character encodings are listed here.

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -E UTF8 -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -U postgres

It should error and tell you that the data directory is not empty. Follow the instructions and remove the directory, then re-run the command. (Or, remove the data directory before you start, but it's always nice to see the instructions for yourself.)