Re: Cannot initdb on fresh install

Dimitri <dimitri(at)shackletonpacific(dot)com> writes:
> I am attempting a fresh install of postgresql9.5 on FreeBSD
> I am at the point of initialising the database server. When I issue the
> initdb command (see below) I am requested to enter a password. Which
> password am I meant to insert here?
> When I cat /etc/passwd I notice there is a user pgsql ( a pseudo user)
> which I never created so I dont know what the password is for pgsql.
> I have tried using the root password, my user's password, and a user I
> created (postgres) but all to no avail.
> Can anyone help me along?

I'm mostly guessing here, since I do not know how the FreeBSD package
you're using is set up; but it's fairly common for PG packages to create
a "postgres" or "pgsql" daemon user without setting any password for it.
That means you can't log in as that user. Rather, you're supposed to do
something like "sudo su - pgsql" to become that user, and then you can
do tasks like running initdb as that user.

Alternatively, you can use your root powers to assign a password for that
user, if you prefer that way. But keep in mind that that user is mainly
meant for running the PG server, not for manual tasks.

I'd sort of expect the package to include some documentation around this
point ...

regards, tom lane