unix socket location confusion

- on OS X 10.10.2
- downloaded 9.3.6 sources
- ./configure --with-openssl --prefix=/my/specific/location/pg-9.3
- make & install
- cd /my/specific/location/
- pg-9.3/bin/postmaster -D...
- socket is created in /tmp, as expected
- pg-9.3/bin/psql mydb
- gives error about not being able to connect to /var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432
- ???

env shows that I have no PG-related environment variables set; existing postgresql.conf in the data dir does not specify unix_directories, leaving it at the default /tmp.

So why is the freshly-built psql trying to check /var/pgsql_socket/ instead of /tmp? Did it perhaps get linked to a client dylib from a different build, thanks to Apple's tools using a search path that led outside the build for the libs???

I know how to specify things the way I want, but I thought I'd bring this up because there's a whole ton of confusion on StackOverflow about this issue, with a lot of bad guessing going on. I built from straight-up sources, and I'm specifying the paths to the specific executables I want to run, and still seeing the problem. (And, FWIW, I've long had multiple versions of PG built on my system for different projects, and never seen this problem before.)

--
Scott Ribe
scott_ribe(at)elevated-dev(dot)com
http://www.elevated-dev.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottribe/
(303) 722-0567 voice