Postgresql installation issues on OS X

I used Fink to install postgresql on os x. when i try to start psql, i get:

psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
    Is the server running locally and accepting
    connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

I have never installed postgresql before so I am not really sure where to look. Have any suggestions?

Solution 1:

That means the PostgreSQL daemon is not running. You'll want to find where the daemon is installed. By default, it should be installed in /usr/local/pgsql. If it's there, inspect to see if there is a /usr/local/pgsql/data directory. If there is not run the following:

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data

then, if successful, run

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data start

And that should get you on the right track.

Solution 2:

It seems to me, you're trying to run PostgresSQL under your current user-account. I don't know the fink-properties for PostgreSQL, but the associated daemons are supposed to run under a dedicated user-account (lets say postgres for example).

First identify the data-directory, in which PostgresSQL stores it's data and configuration files exist. Your error messages seems to say this may be "/Library/PostgreSQL/8.4/data". This directory should belong already to the postgres-user and have rwx-privileges for him. I guess Fink has already created it, so check out the install-logs.

Look inside this directory (you may need to su/sudo because you may not have sufficient privileges to do so with your console user). If there are some files, eg. postgresql.conf, a bunch of pg_* and some other files, all belonging to postgres, the data directory seems to be allright, otherwise invoke the following (replace the binary-path, postgres-user and the data path with your system-values, see man initdb for more options):

sudo -u postgres /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb  -D /Library/PostgreSQL/8.4/data

It's important to sudo as the postgres user here, because the user-account the postgres deamons runs as will have to have the sufficients access-rights.

Also, you will have to start the deamon with the the sudo (this should later be handled by a lauchctl-entry, or something similar), so:

sudo -u postgres /usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl -D /Library/PostgreSQL/8.4/data

You can always re-create the data-directory, but be sure to make a backup and do not overwrite it when postgres is still running.

Solution 3:

You can check that Postgresql is running and listening with:

lsof -i |grep LISTEN