Re: Error message "psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory"

On 06/25/2012 04:21 PM, Stefan Schwarzer wrote:
>> I just went back to the postgres documentation [1] (actually reading all google results on the error message one after the other) and tried out what was said there (adapted to my conditions):
>>
>> sudo -u _postgres /usr/local/pgsql-9.1/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql-9.1/data
>>
>> and suddenly postgres runs….
> And for whatever reason, after having worked this morning, it doesn't work anymore after I restarted the computer in the middle of the day. I can't believe it.
>
> When I type in:
>
> sudo -u _postgres /usr/local/pgsql-9.1/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql-9.1/data
>
> it spits out:
>
> LOG: 00000: could not identify current directory: Permission denied
'cd' to the postgresql datadir before running the command, or use pg_ctl
instead of trying to launch the postgres server executable directly.

It's trying to get information on the current directory - probably your
home dir - but the _postgres user doesn't have access to it.

--
Craig Ringer