PostgreSQL: Drop PostgreSQL database through command line
You can run the dropdb command from the command line:
dropdb 'database name'
Note that you have to be a superuser or the database owner to be able to drop it.
You can also check the pg_stat_activity
view to see what type of activity is currently taking place against your database, including all idle processes.
SELECT * FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname='database name';
Note that from PostgreSQL v13 on, you can disconnect the users automatically with
DROP DATABASE dbname WITH (FORCE);
or
dropdb -f dbname
Try this. Note there's no database specified - it just runs "on the server"
psql -U postgres -c "drop database databasename"
If that doesn't work, I have seen a problem with postgres holding onto orphaned prepared statements.
To clean them up, do this:
SELECT * FROM pg_prepared_xacts;
then for every id you see, run this:
ROLLBACK PREPARED '<id>';
This worked for me:
select pg_terminate_backend(pid) from pg_stat_activity where datname='YourDatabase';
for postgresql earlier than 9.2 replace pid
with procpid
DROP DATABASE "YourDatabase";
http://blog.gahooa.com/2010/11/03/how-to-force-drop-a-postgresql-database-by-killing-off-connection-processes/