When using psql with PostgreSQL, we can use the \list+ command to return information about all databases on the server.

We can also use the short form (\l+) to achieve the same result.

Example

Here’s what I get when I run the command on my test server:

\l+

Result:

                                                                     List of databases
+-----------+----------+----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+---------+------------+--------------------------------------------+
|   Name    |  Owner   | Encoding |   Collate   |    Ctype    |   Access privileges   |  Size   | Tablespace |                Description                 |
+-----------+----------+----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+---------+------------+--------------------------------------------+
| barney    | barney   | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |                       | 8433 kB | pg_default |                                            |
| music     | barney   | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |                       | 8225 kB | pg_default |                                            |
| pagila    | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |                       | 16 MB   | pg_default |                                            |
| pethotel  | barney   | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |                       | 8169 kB | pg_default |                                            |
| postgres  | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |                       | 8097 kB | pg_default | default administrative connection database |
| template0 | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | =c/postgres          +| 7905 kB | pg_default | unmodifiable empty database                |
|           |          |          |             |             | postgres=CTc/postgres |         |            |                                            |
| template1 | postgres | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | =c/postgres          +| 7905 kB | pg_default | default template for new databases         |
|           |          |          |             |             | postgres=CTc/postgres |         |            |                                            |
+-----------+----------+----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+---------+------------+--------------------------------------------+

The command can also be run without the plus sign (+), but this will exclude size information (and default tablespaces, and descriptions).

You can also append a database name in order to return information about a single database.

Example:

\l+ music

Result:

                                                List of databases
+-------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+-------------------+---------+------------+-------------+
| Name  | Owner  | Encoding |   Collate   |    Ctype    | Access privileges |  Size   | Tablespace | Description |
+-------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+-------------------+---------+------------+-------------+
| music | barney | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |                   | 8225 kB | pg_default |             |
+-------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+-------------------+---------+------------+-------------+