How do I list all postgres databases on my system

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Last Updated On: 2025-10-13 07:27:40 -0400

Go into postgres with:

psql -U sjohnson -d cartazzi_development
psql (11.16)
Type "help" for help.

cartazzi_development=# \l

And you will see a scrollable list of databases:

                                            List of databases
                  Name                   |  Owner   | Encoding | Collate | Ctype |   Access privileges
-----------------------------------------+----------+----------+---------+-------+-----------------------
 adhoc_metadata_development              | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 adhoc_metadata_test                     | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 amazon_comparator_development           | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 amazon_comparator_test                  | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_development                   | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test                          | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-0                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-1                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-2                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-3                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-4                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-5                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-6                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 bootrails_test-7                        | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 cartazzi01_development                  | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 cartazzi01_test                         | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |
 cartazzi01_test-0                       | sjohnson | UTF8     | C       | C     |

Note: \l is NOT a sql command that you can execute via a gui like Postico