Thread: Upgrading to 9.0 on Mac OS X

Just upgraded my 8.4.2 installation to 9.0.3 on Mac OS 10.6 using the Enterprise one-click installer. Everything went
smoothly,except: 

The installer asked me for the postgres password, but PG wouldn't accept it later on. I'm pretty sure i didn't mistype
it.Have seen this a number of times on different machines. Had to change the password via the passwd utility. Anyone
elseseen this?  

Maximilian Tyrtania Software-Entwicklung
Dessauer Str. 6-7
10969 Berlin
http://www.contactking.de

To be clear about the 2 passwords involved with Postgres on your Mac:

• The installer asks for your usual Mac admin account password, to get permission for 2 operations: (1) to install
stuffon your computer and (2) to create a special Unix user account named (by default) 'postgres'. 

The actual disk files that make up your databases, the files containing your data, are stored in a folder owned by that
'postgres'user rather than your normal Mac user account. The reason is security: If your usual user account is
compromised,at least your data files remain behind the wall of that other user. 

• The installer prompts you to create a password for that 'postgres' user.

Make it a good password (long, use digits etc. to avoid being simply dictionary words).

When you run the 'pgAdmin' app, it will prompt you for that 'postgres' password to connect to the database server as
that'postgres' user. 

--Basil Bourque

On Feb 13, 2011, at 10:46, Sachin Srivastava wrote:

> The postgres account created on your OS is locked account (without any password) for security reasons. The password
askedduring installation is your database superuser password (used to connect to database). 
> Thus on your MAC you can login to postgres account as "sudo su postgres".
>
>
> On Feb 13, 2011, at 11:27 PM, Maximilian Tyrtania wrote:
>
>> Just upgraded my 8.4.2 installation to 9.0.3 on Mac OS 10.6 using the Enterprise one-click installer. Everything
wentsmoothly, except: 
>>
>> The installer asked me for the postgres password, but PG wouldn't accept it later on. I'm pretty sure i didn't
mistypeit. Have seen this a number of times on different machines. Had to change the password via the passwd utility.
Anyoneelse seen this?  

> On Feb 14, 2011, at 4:42 AM, Basil Bourque wrote:
>
>> To be clear about the 2 passwords involved with Postgres on your Mac:
>>
>> • The installer asks for your usual Mac admin account password, to get permission for 2 operations: (1) to install
stuffon your computer and (2) to create a special Unix user account named (by default) 'postgres'. 

Yes. What confused me is: The installer seems to change the passsword of an already existing postgres user on that
machineto "". Did i understand that correctly? Should it really do that? 

Maximilian Tyrtania Software-Entwicklung
Dessauer Str. 6-7
10969 Berlin
http://www.contactking.de

>>> To be clear about the 2 passwords involved with Postgres on your Mac:
>>>
>>> • The installer asks for your usual Mac admin account password, to get permission for 2 operations: (1) to install
stuffon your computer and (2) to create a special Unix user account named (by default) 'postgres'. 
>
> Yes. What confused me is: The installer seems to change the passsword of an already existing postgres user on that
machineto "". Did i understand that correctly? Should it really do that? 

You originally posted that you are upgrading from Postgres 8.4.x to Postgres 9.0.x. I can't speak to that. But I can
say:in upgrading between minor versions of 9.0.x, the 'postgres' user's password definitely does *not* change. 

--Basil Bourque