Thread: could not open file xxxx for writing: Permission denied

Hello,

Using PostgreSQL 8.1.4, pgadmin III 1.6.0 in WinXP I tried to export a table
using COPY (first time in postgresql, did many times in Sybase):

COPY ml50jtsk_datum_v TO 'c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out';

I got the following errormessage:

ERROR: could not open file "c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out" for writing:
Permission denied
SQL state: 42501

What's wrong? Does it mean that the database user has no writing permission
out of the database? How I did a pg_dump then few weeks ago?

Many thanks for help and/or explanation, best regards and Happy New Year

Tomas

That usually means that the database user doesn't have Windows file
level permissions to write to that folder.

Maybe when you upgraded to pgadmin 1.6 and now are using a different
user id to log into the it?  Perhaps the destination directory was c:
\postgresql\8.1\data before?

Mike

On Thu, 2007-01-04 at 03:28 +0100, Tomas Lanczos wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Using PostgreSQL 8.1.4, pgadmin III 1.6.0 in WinXP I tried to export a table
> using COPY (first time in postgresql, did many times in Sybase):
>
> COPY ml50jtsk_datum_v TO 'c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out';
>
> I got the following errormessage:
>
> ERROR: could not open file "c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out" for writing:
> Permission denied
> SQL state: 42501
>
> What's wrong? Does it mean that the database user has no writing permission
> out of the database? How I did a pg_dump then few weeks ago?
>
> Many thanks for help and/or explanation, best regards and Happy New Year
>
> Tomas
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?
>
>                http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq

> Hello,
>
> Using PostgreSQL 8.1.4, pgadmin III 1.6.0 in WinXP I tried to export a table
> using COPY (first time in postgresql, did many times in Sybase):
>
> COPY ml50jtsk_datum_v TO 'c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out';
>
> I got the following errormessage:
>
> ERROR: could not open file "c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out" for writing:
> Permission denied
> SQL state: 42501
>
> What's wrong? Does it mean that the database user has no writing permission
> out of the database? How I did a pg_dump then few weeks ago?

Yes, that's what it means. pg_dump works because it uses the clients account, but copy uses the servers. To use client
permissionswith copy in psql, use \copy  
instead.

/Magnus

"Tomas Lanczos" <lanczos@t-zones.sk> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Using PostgreSQL 8.1.4, pgadmin III 1.6.0 in WinXP I tried to export a table
> using COPY (first time in postgresql, did many times in Sybase):
>
> COPY ml50jtsk_datum_v TO 'c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out';
>
> I got the following errormessage:
>
> ERROR: could not open file "c:/postgresql/ml50jtsk.out" for writing:
> Permission denied
> SQL state: 42501
>
> What's wrong? Does it mean that the database user has no writing permission
> out of the database? How I did a pg_dump then few weeks ago?

When you run a pg_dump, the file is created with the perms of the user
calling the pg_dump program.

When you do a "copy", the file is created with the perms of the user
running the PostgreSQL _server_ process.  Probably a user called
"postgres".

If the user the server runs as doesn't have permission to write to the
specified directory, you'll see this error.

As Magnus stated, you can do \copy, which executes the copy command in
the the client instead of in the server, and it will have the perms of
the user who started the client -- assuming you're using the psql
program.

You can also change that directory's perms to allow the server user to
write to it, or choose a directory that the server user already has
rights to.

HTH,
Bill