How Do You Troubleshoot the Postgres Message “ERROR: permission denied to create database”?

Problem scenario
From a SQL front end you are connected to a Postgres database as user jdoe.  You try to create a database with the "create database verycool" SQL command.  You get this message: "ERROR: permission denied to create database."

You try to enter the database from the back end, but you get 'psql: FATAL: role "root" does not exist.'   Or you may even get the error "psql: FATAL:  Peer authentication failed for user" when trying to connect or log into Postgres.  What do you do with these errors?

Solution
From the Linux back end, run these four commands:

# sudo -u postgres -i

# psql

# alter role jdoe createdb;

# \q

Now the jdoe user should be able to create a database.

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