Re: Cannot initdb on fresh install

On 2016-02-03 12:22, Tom Lane wrote:
> 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
sudo su - pgsql
is the correct way.

(from a FreeBSD user)

--
Larry Rosenman http://www.lerctr.org/~ler
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