Issues while connecting psql

Question

I installed postgresql in accordance with the instructions given at: http://xadmin.info/?p=284

# pg_ctl -D /var/lib/pgsql/data -l pglog.log start
server starting
postgres@linux-p0pl:~> psql
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 am not getting as to why am I getting this error when the server has started...can someone please please help.

My pglog.log file shows the following output:

2013-02-06 19:43:39 GMT   FATAL:  lock file "postmaster.pid" already exists
2013-02-06 19:43:39 GMT   HINT:  Is another postmaster (PID 23971) running in data directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data"?
2013-02-06 19:44:02 GMT   FATAL:  lock file "postmaster.pid" already exists
2013-02-06 19:44:02 GMT   HINT:  Is another postmaster (PID 23971) running in data directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data"?
2013-04-24 12:43:29 GMT   FATAL:  data directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data" has group or world access
2013-04-24 12:43:29 GMT   DETAIL:  Permissions should be u=rwx (0700).
2013-04-24 12:44:07 GMT   FATAL:  data directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data" has group or world access
2013-04-24 12:44:07 GMT   DETAIL:  Permissions should be u=rwx (0700).
2013-04-24 12:57:02 GMT   FATAL:  data directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data" has group or world access
2013-04-24 12:57:02 GMT   DETAIL:  Permissions should be u=rwx (0700).
2013-04-24 12:57:40 GMT   FATAL:  data directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data" has group or world access
2013-04-24 12:57:40 GMT   DETAIL:  Permissions should be u=rwx (0700).

ps -ef | grep postgres

root     21659 21591  0 19:14 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto postgres

Solution 1

The permissions and ownership on /var/lib/pgsql/data should be:

# ll -d /var/lib/pgsql/data
drwx------. 15 postgres postgres 4096 Apr 24 10:27 /var/lib/pgsql/data

If they are not do as root:

# chmod -R 700 /var/lib/pgsql/data
# chown -R postgres /var/lib/pgsql/data

Solution 2

Check in the pglog.log file to ensure that the server did actually start without error. Given the error it seems like it did not start properly.

Solution 3

You probably don't have your server configured to put unix domain sockets in "/tmp". It's probably somewhere like "/var/run/pgsql" but see your postgresql.conf file to see exactly what.

Then you can specify this directory as a "host" on the command-line:

psql -h /path/we/want ...

If that's not the problem, check the port number.

Not sure why/how your psql client and postgresql server have different default paths, but then I've never heard of the site you got the instructions from, so I've no idea how useful they are.

Comments

[user1778824]

I have posted my pglog.log file's content. Hope that will help u in helping me further

[Ed Plese]

It's listing a number of fatal errors regarding permissions so I would check that first as well as ensuring that a separate Postgres process is not already running which the logs also note.

[user1778824]

With psql -h localhost. I get: psql: could not connect to server: Connection refused Is the server running on host "localhost" (::1) and accepting TCP/IP connections on port 5432? could not connect to server: Connection refused Is the server running on host "localhost" (127.0.0.1) and accepting TCP/IP connections on port 5432?

[user1778824]

Thanks for helping. Hopefully the above command will help you in helping me further

[user1778824]

how do i check that an stop the separate postgres process

[Ed Plese]

The postmaster.pid file should contain the process ID and then you can check to see if that process is still running.

[Richard Huxton]

No. Because you've switched from domain sockets to tcp/ip via localhost. Get a coffee, find your postgresql.conf file and read through it and the configuration section of the online manuals.

[Ed Plese]

To add to my last comment the PID is listed on the first line in postmaster.pid.

[user1778824]

I have uncommented my listen_address='localhost' and port=5432 in postgresql.conf...still i am getting the same error. I know this may sound insane but I am a novice at postgresql..therefore pls please excuse

[user1778824]

postmaster.pid file does not exist on my system. My system gives "pg_ctl: PID file "/var/lib/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid" does not exist"..now how do i check

[Ed Plese]

Can you try ps -ef | grep postgres and see if any processes are running that way?

[user1778824]

root 21606 21591 0 19:06 pts/0 00:00:00 su - postgres postgres 21607 21606 0 19:06 pts/0 00:00:00 -bash postgres 21648 21607 0 19:08 pts/0 00:00:00 ps -ef postgres 21649 21607 0 19:08 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto postgres

[user1778824]

The above is the output which it gives me

[user1778824]

root 21659 21591 0 19:14 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto postgres is the output which i get..sorry for the previous output

[user1778824]

Thanks a lot for replying. But even after changing permission and ownership it is giving me the same error..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"?

[user1778824]

postgres was working fine before I changed the pg_hba.conf file to: # TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD # "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only local all all trust # IPv4 local connections: host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust # IPv6 local connections: host all all ::1/128 trust

[user1778824]

I tried to restore the above changes from trust to ident and peer..however my error persists

[Clodoaldo Neto]

The last error from the pglog.log you posted is about permissions. Is it the same now? Did you change pg_hba as the postgres user?

[user1778824]

Thanks a lot. Now my problem w.r.t psql is indeed solved. Can you also help me with this...I am now getting the error "FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user "postgres"". Even though I changed ph_hba's method to trust still I am getting the error of authentication failure. Thanks a lot again..hope u will also solve this problem of mine...please please

[user1778824]

As soon as I restart the server after making the changes with rcpostgresql restart..I again start getting the same error as posted in the question

[Clodoaldo Neto]

@user What are the last errors in pglog.log? When you saved pg_hba as root it became unreadable by postgres which is (or should be) the user the postgresql processes run as. Only edit those files as postgres. Check the permissions and ownership or just run the commands in my answer again.