Re: PostgreSQL fails to start

I have had the same/similar problem on a Mac. Postgres creates a user
"postgres" and the only way that user can see files is for them to
exist outside of any other particular user's home directory. I placed
the files in the root directory!? I would like, I think, to give
"postgres" privileges in my home directory (emphasis, I think). As a
sign of despicable laziness, could I ask where the granting of user
privileges is documented in the 8.4 docs?

John

On Feb 20, 2010, at 5:13 PM, Heddon's Gate Hotel wrote:

> Thanks very much for the tip, Ray - it has led me to discover the
> Windows Event Viewer, which I did not even know existed. It was a
> sort of help, because it enabled me - eventually - to diagnose that
> the problem was to do with directory permissions.
>
> I had installed PostgreSQL with its data directory set to be under
> the Administrator's "home" directory, since that is the account I
> log on as. It seems that PostgreSQL, running as user postgres,
> couldn't see this directory. I have since reinstalled PostgreSQL,
> setting the data directory to be somewhere that Windows doesn't seem
> to restrict the permissions of (that weirdness is another whole
> story), and it runs fine.
>
> This is a real gotcha in the PostgreSQL Windows installation process
> - it should give you at least a warning about trying to create a
> data directory in a location that is not accessible to the postgres
> user.
>
> It also seems to show a weakness in PostgreSQL's logging, in that
> (a) it would help a lot if it just printed its error to stderr, and
> (b) the log message it did send to the event log was of the form
> "directory not found" rather than "permission denied".
>
> Eddie
>
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