Thread: Issues starting database for the first time on Linux
I'm following the instructions for setting up Postgres 11 on my Linux machine. I'm new to database management, and just need to run a postgres server to link up to a client on another machine, nothing complicated (hopefully).
I'm following the long version, but will use the short version of the documentation to describe where I've got to.
./configure make su make install
> All the above was done through the repository installer on Linux (Manjaro).
adduser postgres
> Not sure why or how, but I found a user 'postgres' already existed on my system, so left it there.
mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data su - postgres
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
> No apparent problem here, the text output ends with "Success. You can now start the database server using: pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l logfile start"
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >logfile 2>&1 &
>I presume this is a similar instruction to the above (just specifying the path to the binary), either way - nothing I try here works
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l logfile start - leads to "waiting for server to start..../bin/sh: logfile: Permission denied stopped waiting pg_ctl: could not start server"
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >logfile 2>&1 & - leads to "[1] 2996 [postgres@desk ~]$ -bash: logfile: Permission denied"
postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data (starting it in the foreground) - leads to
2019-12-04 10:07:57.604 GMT [3005] LOG: listening on IPv6 address "::1", port 5432
2019-12-04 10:07:57.604 GMT [3005] LOG: listening on IPv4 address "127.0.0.1", port 5432
2019-12-04 10:07:57.606 GMT [3005] FATAL: could not create lock file "/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432.lock": No such file or directory
2019-12-04 10:07:57.606 GMT [3005] LOG: database system is shut down
Why am I getting permission denied at every turn, I've tried to follow the instructions to the letter?
Isaac Braham <isaac.o.braham@gmail.com> writes:
...
> chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
> su - postgres
> /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
> pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l logfile start - leads to "waiting
> for server to start..../bin/sh: logfile: Permission denied stopped
> waiting pg_ctl: could not start server"
Apparently, you haven't got sufficient privilege to create "logfile".
Given that you just did "su - postgres", that seems to mean that
whatever directory is recorded as being postgres' home directory
(look in /etc/passwd to find out) isn't writable by postgres.
Or, maybe there already is a "logfile" there, but it's not
writable by postgres. Anyway, get the permissions straightened out,
or tell it to write to a log file located someplace else.
regards, tom lane
On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 3:47 AM Isaac Braham <isaac.o.braham@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm following the instructions for setting up Postgres 11 on my Linux machine. I'm new to database management, and just need to run a postgres server to link up to a client on another machine, nothing complicated (hopefully).
I'd highly recommend you use a packaged installation instead of installing from source.
David J.