Postgres drop database error: pq: cannot drop the currently open database
PostgresqlGoPostgresql Problem Overview
I'm trying to drop the database I'm currently connected to like so, but I'm getting this error:
pq: cannot drop the currently open database
I don't really understand how I'm expected to drop the database if I have to close my connection, because then I don't think I will be able to use dbConn.Exec to execute my DROP DATABASE statement?
dbConn *sql.DB
func stuff() error {
_, err := dbConn.Exec(fmt.Sprintf(`DROP DATABASE %s;`, dbName))
if err != nil {
return err
}
return dbConn.Close()
}
I guess I could connect to a different database and then execute it on that connection, but I'm not even sure if that'd work, and it seems really weird to have to connect to a new database just to drop a different database. Any ideas? Thanks.
Postgresql Solutions
Solution 1 - Postgresql
Because, you are trying to execute dropDb
command on database, to which you have open connection.
According to postgres documentation: > You cannot be connected to the database you are about to remove. Instead, connect to template1 or any other database and run this command again.
This makes sense, because when you drop the entire database, all the open connection referencing to that database becomes invalid, So the recommended approach is to connect to different database, and execute this command again.
If you are facing a situation, where a different client is connected to the database, and you really want to drop the database, you can forcibly disconnect all the client from that particular database.
For example, to forcibly disconnect all clients from database mydb
:
If PostgreSQL < 9.2
SELECT pg_terminate_backend(procpid) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = 'mydb';
Else
SELECT pg_terminate_backend(pid) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = 'mydb';
Note: This command requires superuser privileges.
Then, you can connect to different database, and run dropDb
command again.
Solution 2 - Postgresql
If you encounter this problem in IntelliJ, change the schema with the following dropdown to postgres.
After that, I was able to drop a db.
Solution 3 - Postgresql
I am using PostgreSQL 12 and pgAdmin-4 in Windows 10. I had to use a combination of the above answers to drop a database, which I could not drop in pgAdmin because I was unable to close all open connections in pgAdmin.
Close pgAdmin-4.
In Windows command line, assuming my server's name is postgres and my database is mydb:
C:\> psql -U postgres
I logged in with my server password.
I then closed all open connections to mydb:
postgres-# SELECT * FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE pg_stat_activity.datname='mydb';
postgres-# SELECT pg_terminate_backend(pid) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = 'mydb';
Finally, I successfully dropped mydb:
postgres-# DROP DATABASE mydb;
Now if I go back into pgAdmin-4 it is gone.
Solution 4 - Postgresql
My table structure:
Root | Databases |
---|---|
postgres | foo1 |
foo2 | |
foo3 | |
foo4 | |
foo5 |
When opened, the database foo2
with \c foo2
then \dt
- I could view the database tables under the database foo2
.
When, after checking the database, I do not need the database again, so I need to delete the database with DROP DATABASE foo2
.
And I got the above error, which the question follows.
To drop the database:
\c postgres
Then
DROP DATABASE foo2
worked
Solution 5 - Postgresql
None of this worked for me since I tried to do it through pgAdmin which kept database connections open as soon as I delete them.
Solution:
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\11\scripts\runpsql.bat
after you supply correct information you will be able to get pg command prompt, here you can just type:
dbdrop yourdatabase
After that you might still see database in pgAdmin but now you can just simply delete it with right click and DELETE/DROP
option.
Solution 6 - Postgresql
you can force to drop database with: DROP DATABASE mydb WITH (FORCE)
Solution 7 - Postgresql
It's simple, just connect to another database \c database2
. Once connected execute the drop database command while connected to the other database.