Re: Getting Started newbie questions - Mailing list pgsql-novice

Thanks to all for the help. I had three responses in ten minutes, and three
more within the hour. The info was helpful, and I'm rolling again. I'm
impressed.

Steve Miller
SIL International

On 01/09/2003 11:47:39 AM pgsql-novice-owner wrote:

>Steve_Miller@sil.org writes:
>
>> I'm new to both Linux and Postgres
>
>Welcome to the club
>
>> I installed Red Hat 8 on a stand-alone test machine yesterday. I did
>> a custom install, and installed everything. So my assumption is that
>> everything Red Hat 8 could install was installed, including
>> Postgresql.
>
>You will soon find out that in Linux installing *everything* gets a
>lot of stuff installed.  That's handy when you are first learning to
>use Linux (you don't have to worry about installing things later), but
>it's probably not a good idea on a production machine.
>
>> I went into Server Settings, Services, and in Service Configuration
found
>> postgresql. I checked it, so that it would start on reboot. The machine
has
>> since been rebooted
>>
>> The tutorial says the Postgresql is stored in /usr/local/pgsql/ and
>> /usr/local/pgsql/data. I don't see either one, either as me (Steve) or
as
>> root. I do see files under /usr/lib/, usr/share/, and usr/include.
>
>The tutorial supposes that you installed from source code.  /usr/local
>is where you should install packages that you install from source code
>instead of via RPM.  On my Debian machine the actual database is
>stored in /var/lib/postgres, and the various binaries are somewhere in
>the /usr diretories RedHat is probably similar.  Learning the hows,
>whys, and wheres of the Linux filesystem is pretty useful stuff, but
>it isn't necessary for running PostgreSQL.
>
>> The tutorial says to try to create a new database with
>>
>>       $ createdb mydb
>>
>> I get the error:
>>
>>
>>       psql: FATAL 1:  user "Steve" does not exist
>>       createdb: database creation failed.
>
>That's actually a good sign.  It would appear that PostgreSQL is up
>and running, the problem is that you don't have a PostgreSQL user
>named "Steve" yet.  What you need to do is create such a user.  To do
>so you will need to change to the postgres user.  Since the postgres
>user probably doesn't have a password (for security reasons) this is a
>two step process.
>
>1. Change to the root user using the `su' command:
>
>su
>
>(you will need to type in the root password).
>
>2. Change to the postgres user using the su command again.  I usually
>   do this by typing:
>
>su - postgres
>
>You can read the su man page by typing `man su' to see why it is that
>I called it that way.
>
>Once you are logged in as the postgres user you should be able to run
>all of the createdb and createuser commands that you want.
>
>> This sounds to me like postmaster is running. But what do I know?
>>
>> The tutorial says to try the command with the absolute path:
>>
>>       /usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb mydb
>>
>> I get the error:
>>
>>       No such file or directory
>>
>> No surprise there. I already saw that I couldn't find a /usr/local/pgsql
>>
>> Steve
>
>Yes, PostgreSQL isn't installed in that directory.  Try typing:
>
>which createdb
>
>this should show you where createdb is actually installed.  You also
>might want to play with the `locate' command.
>
>Good Luck,
>
>Jason
>
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