Use curl to create a CouchDB admin user
This too me longer to find than it should have done, so I’m writing it here for future me.
When you install CouchDB, it is in a mode where anyone can do anything with the database including creating and deleting databases. This is called “Admin Party” mode which is a pretty cool name, but not what I want.
Creating admin users
To create a user in 1.6 (I’ve not used 2.0 yet, but assuming it’s the same) you simply click on the “Fix This” link in Futon which is available at http://localhost:5984/_utils/ by default.
As CouchDB’s entire API is essentially a RESTFul API, to do this via the command line, you simply PUT a new user to into the _configs/admins collection like this:
CouchDB 1.x:
curl -s -X PUT http://localhost:5984/_config/admins/rob -d '"123456"'
CouchDB 2.x:
curl -s -X PUT http://localhost:5984/_node/couchdb@localhost/_config/admins/rob -d '"123456"'
This creates an admin user called rob with a password of 123456. Note that the password within the body of the PUT request must be a quoted string. This caught me out for a while!
From this point on, we can then use basic authentication to do admin-y things, such as create a bookshelf_api database:
$ curl -s -X PUT http://rob:123456@localhost:5984/bookshelf_api
{"ok":true}
Other users
You can also set up per-database users which is handy for limiting what your application can do when connected to CouchDB. This is done creating users in the /_users/ collection and then assigning them to a class in the _security collection of the database. There are two default classes: “members” and “admins” where members can modify data, but not design documents and admins can modify all documents including user roles on that database.
Tried this on couch 2.0
curl -X PUT http://localhost:5984/_config/admins/root -d '"super_secret"'
but got back
{"error":"not_found","reason":"Database does not exist."}
@spidey the API changed, and now you have to inform the node name in the URL, like this:
curl -X PUT $HOST/_node/$NODENAME/_config/admins/root -d '"super_secret"'
The default node is "nonode@nohost", so that would end up like:
curl -X PUT $HOST/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/admins/root -d '"super_secret"'
If you are unsure of what nodes you have, you can get info about all of them like this:
curl -X GET $HOST/_membership
And if you have already created an admin account you'll have to use it to be able to query (you'll be asked for the password):
curl -X GET $HOST/_membership --user root
@AlexandreNicastro Would you happen to know what my be causing the error message:
`{"error":"nodedown","reason":"nonode@nohost is down"}`
when I run
`curl -X PUT $HOST/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/admins/root -d '"super_secret"'`?
You are using the wrong information for the default node. Try the following:
curl -X PUT $HOST/_node/couchdb@localhost/_config/admins/root -d '"super_secret"'
tried this on 2.1.1
curl -s -X PUT http://localhost:5984/_node/couchdb@localhost/_config/admins/rob -d '"123456"'
but getting an error
{"error":"unauthorized","reason":"You are not a server admin."}
curl -s -X PUT http://CURENTADMIN:currentadminpass@localhost:5984/_node/couchdb@localhost/_config/admins/rob -d '"123456"'
Try above.
I am very new on couchdb, I have installed couchdb(2.3.1) and after setting up, some DB's, user role etc.
Now I wanted to set dbadmin, So for this I am hitting this command > curl -X PUT $HOST/_node/$NODENAME/_config/admins/anna -d '"secret"
" from cmd. It saying output "curl: (6) Could not resolve host: $HOST".
Can someone please save me from here.
Try replacing $HOST with the correct hostname for your CouchDB and $NODENAME for the correct name of the database within it.
Hi! I use CouchDB Fauxton for several days. Where exactly I can write the curl command?
Тhanks in advance!
Hristina,
curl commands are written in your terminal.