Re: Make check fails on 8.3.7

Tom Lane wrote:
> Christine Desmuke <cdesmuke(at)kshs(dot)org> writes:
>> I'm trying to install 8.3.7, but can't get past make check.
>> CentOS release 4.7 (Final), with an existing install of 8.3.1 running as
>> a warm standby
>> ...
>> It looks in every case like the ERROR (and also HINT lines) lines are
>> causing the failures, but I'm not sure what setting I messed up to cause
>> that. What should I be looking for?
>
> Years ago I saw roughly similar symptoms when SELinux decided postgres
> shouldn't be allowed to write to /dev/tty. I'm not sure how that would
> relate to your situation, but it'd be worth checking for avc messages in
> the kernel log ...
>
> regards, tom lane

Thanks for the suggestion. It is not SELinux (SELinux status: disabled),
but _something_ is preventing postgres (both the existing install and
the one I'm trying to check) from writing to /dev/tty. There are no
related messages in the kernel log or postgres log, however.

The permissions on /dev/tty appear to be ok:

[root(at)zu log]# ls -l /dev/tty
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 5, 0 Jul 31 12:23 /dev/tty

Trying to invoke psql ought to write an error (because the warm standby
is perpetually in startup mode), but I'm just returned to the prompt:

[cdesmuke(at)zu ~]# psql -h localhost
psql: [cdesmuke(at)zu ~]#

Other programs can write to /dev/tty without problems:

[cdesmuke(at)zu ~]# mysql
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'cdesmuke'@'localhost' (using
password: NO)
[cdesmuke(at)zu ~]$ pg_config
BINDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/bin
DOCDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/doc
INCLUDEDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/include
PKGINCLUDEDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/include
INCLUDEDIR-SERVER = /usr/local/pgsql/include/server
LIBDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/lib
PKGLIBDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/lib
LOCALEDIR =
MANDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/man
SHAREDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/share
SYSCONFDIR = /usr/local/pgsql/etc
PGXS = /usr/local/pgsql/lib/pgxs/src/makefiles/pgxs.mk
CONFIGURE =
CC = gcc
CPPFLAGS = -D_GNU_SOURCE
CFLAGS = -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Winline
-Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wendif-labels -fno-strict-aliasing -fwrapv
CFLAGS_SL = -fpic
LDFLAGS = -Wl,-rpath,'/usr/local/pgsql/lib'
LDFLAGS_SL =
LIBS = -lpgport -lz -lreadline -ltermcap -lcrypt -ldl -lm
VERSION = PostgreSQL 8.3.1

The same thing happens whether trying as root, as postgres, or under my
own unprivileged username.

Trying to connect to this instance from another machine does generate
the expected error:
[cdesmuke(at)alberta ~]$ psql -h zu
psql: FATAL: the database system is starting up

Some other PG programs seems to work partway, but not fully:
[cdesmuke(at)zu ~]$ pg_dump -U gar
pg_dump: [archiver (db)] connection to database "gar" failed:
[cdesmuke(at)zu ~]$

[i.e., the message "fe_sendauth: no password supplied" that I expected
to see did not appear, and the command prompt appeared immediately after
the "failed:" rather than on a new line.]

I'm out of ideas on what to check next. Thank you for any and all
suggestions.

--

Christine Desmuke
Kansas State Historical Society
cdesmuke(at)kshs(dot)org