Re: Standard in must be a tty

"White, Benjamin" <Benjamin(dot)White(at)umassmed(dot)edu> writes:
> I'm trying to initialize and start postgresql under Red Hat 8 using the
> command:
> /etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql start
> The script fails, and from looking at the log, it would appear that the
> error "Standard in must be a tty" occurs when the script does a
> "su" to the postgres user to run the initdb script.

I'm quite sure that no part of the Postgres code reports such an error,
so it seems reasonable to suppose that "su" itself is complaining.
Which really means that the script invoking "su" is doing it wrong.

> The version of Postgresql is 7.1.3-2, and all components (lib,
> postgresql, server, and perl) were installed using RPM.

7.1.3 is ancient history now, and very likely the start script you're
trying to use is too. My local copy of RH 8.0 has PG 7.2.3 as the
standard package --- but if you are just getting started with Postgres,
there is no rational reason for you to be running anything before 7.3.4.
Go forth and get an up-to-date RPM; if it doesn't have a workable start
script included, let us know and we'll try to help more.

regards, tom lane