Jonathon McKitrick <jcm(at)FreeBSD-uk(dot)eu(dot)org> writes:
> I'm migrating to a new MacBook, and while I finally got it to compile, initdb,
> and start a postmaster, any time I try createdb or createuser, I get a message
> that the database 'postgres' cannot be found.
It sounds to me like you're trying to use PG 8.1 client tools with an
8.0 (or older) postmaster. 8.1 tools expect there to be a 'postgres'
database created by default, but that is not the convention in older
releases. Better check exactly what's laying around already on that
machine. Apple does ship some version of Postgres in OS X IIRC...
regards, tom lane