Re: starting up database server + user postgres

Jennifer Liu <jennliu(at)MIT(dot)EDU> writes:
> root# /usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb test
> 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"?
> createdb: database creation failed

The PG postmaster isn't running, evidently. You didn't say what Linux
distro you are using, so it's hard to give exact details about how to
start it, or to tell whether there's any preliminary setup you need to
do. It seems odd that you have a postgres group but not a postgres
user, though.

> root# chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
> chown: `postgres': invalid user

Is that directory already there? If so, what user owns it? That's
probably the user you want to start the postmaster as.

regards, tom lane