Re: [HACKERS] IPC Memory problem with Postmaster on BSDi 4.x

"J. Michael Roberts" <mirobert(at)cs(dot)indiana(dot)edu> writes:
> Since this was my first time compiling/installing pgsql, I've noticed a
> couple of oopses (maybe mine) in the installation instructions... Who do
> I talk to to update them? (Example: Instead of being able simply to type
> "initdb" to get started, I had to specify a user with "initdb -u
> postgres". That kind of stuff.)

FWIW, I think I know the cause of that one --- initdb, and also the
regression tests (and maybe other places?) look at the USER environment
variable by default to get the name of the postgres user. If you are
on a platform that doesn't ordinarily set USER, you lose. I've been
burnt by that myself.

I am not sure whether we ought to make the code look at LOGNAME as
a fallback if USER isn't set, or just document that you ought to set
USER. The first sounds good, but I wonder what the odds are of
picking up the wrong username. On my platform, for example, su'ing
to the postgres account does *not* change LOGNAME, which would mean
initdb would pick the wrong thing. Maybe what we need is just a
better error message ("USER environment variable is not set, please
set it or provide -u switch" ...)

regards, tom lane