Thread: Getting Started newbie questions)

I'm new to both Linux and Postgres

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.

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 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.

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

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

Redhat builds postgresql in /var/lib/pgsql

Ron Peck
Software Engineer
Associated Creditors Exchange
(602) 650-5918


    -----Original Message-----
    From:    Steve_Miller@sil.org [SMTP:Steve_Miller@sil.org]
    Sent:    Thursday, January 09, 2003 9:56 AM
    To:    pgsql-novice@postgresql.org
    Subject:    [NOVICE] Getting Started newbie questions)

    I'm new to both Linux and Postgres

    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.

    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 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.

    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



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I have tried inserting a string with Unicode character, and then a
non-English ASCII character into a postgres DB on cygwin from pgAdminII.
Both failed. Unicode actually displays as its equivalent ASCII in the
tool, and that probably has to do with pgAdmin rather than postgres and
is not a concern.
But then I tried to do the same from a Java class, and it failed too:
java.sql.SQLException: ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "'My word
ým'" at character 28
at org.postgresql.core.QueryExecutor.execute(QueryExecutor.java:131)
at
org.postgresql.jdbc1.AbstractJdbc1Connection.ExecSQL(AbstractJdbc1Connec
tion.java:505)

I even tried to re-encode the sql statement into "Unicode", but that can
be tricky and I'm not sure I got it right.

Thank you for any feedback.

P.S. In Java I only get the line references. In pgAdmin, however, it
says this for character 'ý' (0xfd) when it is the last one:
Invalid Unicode character sequence found (0xfd000a)
This is actually an ISO-8859-1 character, not Unicode. Although it's not
in English. If it's followed by 'm' for example, the error says:
... (0xfd6d00)
In reality this character should map to (0x00fd), and it shouldn't
matter what it's followed by.

P.P.S. Just in case, where could I get the source for JDBC driver? It's
not included in my cygwin distribution. I only have the compiled code.

Thank you,
r.