Giving users their own private database

Separating data and users is a key part of administration. There will always be a need to give users a private, secure, or simply risk-free area ("sandpit") to use the database. Here's how.

Getting ready

Again, make sure you've read the Deciding on a design for multitenancy recipe so that you're certain this is the route you wish to take. Other options exist, and they may be preferable in some cases.

How to do it…

1. We can create a database for a specific user with some ease. From the command line, as a superuser, these actions would be as follows:

   postgres=# create user fred;
   CREATE ROLE
   postgres=# create database fred owner = fred;
   CREATE DATABASE
   

2. As the database owners, users have login privileges, so they can connect to any database by default. There is a command named ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES, however, that does not currently apply to databases, tablespaces, or languages. The ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command also currently applies only to roles (that...