Re: It's dead and won't get up!! - Mailing list pgsql-novice

On Thu, 8 Nov 2001, KUCHARSKI, DAVID R. wrote:

> when I try:
> #su postgres
> $ postmaster
>
> I get the following:
> /usr/bin/postmaster doesn't know where to find database system data.  You
> must specify the directory that contains the database system either by
> specifying the -D invocation option or by setting the PGDATA environment
> variable.

Try "su - postgres".
The error you are seeing is basically a lack of configuration.
I believe there is an OS variable "pgdata" which gets set when the
postgres user is started and this is how the database knows where the
database directory is.