diff --git a/tools/create_database.sh b/tools/create_database.sh
index ee90346b63..fe1ff40329 100755
--- a/tools/create_database.sh
+++ b/tools/create_database.sh
@@ -5,12 +5,24 @@
 #
 # $db_name is passed as an environment variable
 
-source config.sh
-source utils.sh
+die() {
+  echo 
+  echo "Erreur: $1"
+  echo
+  exit 1
+}
 
-echo 'Creating postgresql database'
+source config.sh || die "config.sh not found, exiting"
+source utils.sh || die "config.sh not found, exiting"
+
+if [ "$db_name" == "" ]
+then
+    echo "Error: env var db_name unset"
+    echo "(ce script ne doit pas être lancé directement !)"
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 # ---
-echo 'Creating postgresql database ' $db_name
-createdb -E UTF-8  -p $POSTGRES_PORT -O $POSTGRES_USER $db_name
+echo 'Creating postgresql database ' "$db_name"
+createdb -E UTF-8  -p "$POSTGRES_PORT" -O "$POSTGRES_USER" "$db_name"
 
diff --git a/tools/create_users_database.sh b/tools/create_users_database.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755