postgreSQL error initdb: command not found

Question

i was installing postgresql on ubuntu using linuxbrew:

brew install postgresql

it seems to work fine but after that because i was installing PostgreSQL for the first time i tried creating a database:

initdb /usr/local/var/postgres -E utf8

but it returned as:

initdb: command not found

i tried running the command with sudo but that doesn't helped

Answer 1

run locate initdb it should give you the list to chose. smth like:

MacBook-Air:~ vao$ locate initdb
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.5.3/bin/initdb
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.5.3/share/doc/postgresql/html/app-initdb.html
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.5.3/share/man/man1/initdb.1
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.6.1/bin/initdb
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.6.1/share/doc/postgresql/html/app-initdb.html
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.6.1/share/man/man1/initdb.1
/usr/local/bin/initdb
/usr/local/share/man/man1/initdb.1

So in my case I want to run

/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.6.1/bin/initdb 

If you don't have mlocate installed, either install it or use

sudo find / -name initdb

Answer 2

There's a good answer to a similar question on SuperUser.

In short:

1. Postgres groups databases into "clusters", each of which is a named collection of databases sharing a configuration and data location, and running on a single server instance with its own TCP port.
2. If you only want a single instance of Postgres, the installation includes a cluster named "main", so you don't need to run initdb to create one.
3. If you do need multiple clusters, then the Postgres packages for Debian and Ubuntu provide a different command pg_createcluster to be used instead of initdb, with the latter not included in PATH so as to discourage end users from using it directly.

And if you're just trying to create a database, not a database cluster, use the createdb command instead.