Re: Starting postmaster on startup in Mac OS X 10.2.4 via shell script

Adam and Jeff,
Thank you for your replies. I actually tried using Marc Liyanage's startup
item prior to attempting to write my own. In fact, Marc uses the following
syntax, which is the same as one of the ones I tried, except that his pg_ctl
path and unprivileged account name differ from mine and the order of the two
switches -i and -o are reversed:

su - postgres -c '/usr/local/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l
logfile -o -i'

The only difference between what Liyanage does and what I did is the method
for creating the user account to run postmaster. I used NetInfo manager much
in the way described on Apple's web article for the setup of MySQL
(http://developer.apple.com/internet/macosx/osdb.html - see "Adding a User with
NetInfo Manager"). This worked fine for installing MySQL from source and
configuring it to start automatically; of course, the user account for starting
mysqld can be passed as a command line argument.
In an effort to test my hypothesis of the user creation method being an
issue, I deleted user pgsql in NetInfo Manager and recreated it through the
Accounts tool in System Preferences in OS X. I then installed Marc Liyanage's
startup item package over my own and modified the user account and path to
pg_ctl. I then issued 'sudo chmod -R pgsql /usr/local/pgsql'. As before, I am
able to su into pgsql and start postmaster, but the startup item fails.
Creating a user in NetInfo Manager foregoes the creation of a home
directory and a few other minor tasks. The home directory for a user created
in NetInfo manager is /dev/null by default, so I thought that perhaps this was
causing a hiccup with the su directive passed in the script. I have now
eliminated that possibility.
Any other ideas?

Regards,
--
Barry C. Hawkins
Systems Consultant
All Things Computed
barry(dot)hawkins(at)allthingscomputed(dot)com
404-795-9147 voice/fax

Quoting Adam Witney <awitney(at)sghms(dot)ac(dot)uk>:

>
> There is a startup item listed on Marc Liyanage's page
>
> http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/postgresql/
>
> Look for pgsql-startupitem-1.2.pkg.tar.gz
>
> Never tried it myself though.....
>
> adam
>
>
> > Colleagues,
> > I recently installed PostgreSQL 7.3.2 from source on Mac OS X 10.2.4, and
> I
> > am wanting to have the server start automatically when the OS starts up.
> > However, I am having trouble with the shell script to start postmaster.
> > I can manually su into the user account under which postmaster runs
> > (named 'pgsql', surprisingly I am sure) and execute the following command
> line
> > successfully:
> >
> > #: /usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l logfile -i
> -o
> >
> > The shell script equivalent which I am trying to use is as follows:
> >
> > su -c '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l
> logfile -
> > i -o' pgsql
> >
> > Upon login, I open a terminal and run 'pg_ctl status' and it confirms
> that
> > postmaster is not running. I have also tried the following permutations
> for
> > the shell script command line:
> >
> > su - pgsql -c '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
> -l
> > logfile -i -o'
> >
> > su -l pgsql -c '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
> -l
> > logfile -i -o'
> >
> > su -m pgsql -c '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
> -l
> > logfile -i -o'
> >
> > I am quite new to PostgreSQL, but its feature set seems unparalleled in
> > open source database platforms, so I really want to get this thing
> running.
> > Since I am prompted for the password when I run 'su -l pgsql' manually, I
> > can't
> > help but think that I am failing to acquire the appropriate context under
> > which
> > postmaster must run. My logfile also seems to indicate that. I am sure
> this
> > is some neophyte error on my part, but if one of the sages would be so kind
> as
> > to direct me, I would be most grateful.
> >
> > Regards,
>
>
> --
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