Re: permissions.

[not a bug, moving to -general]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 12:46 PM, Frik Brits <fbrits(at)lantic(dot)net> wrote:

> Hello,
> What is to be done here, below between the lines is an excerpt from my
> bash console if I want to start PostgreSQL.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> frik(at)linux-cj2v:/etc/alternatives> postgres -D /bigdisk/data/postgres &
> [1] 10438
> frik(at)linux-cj2v:/etc/alternatives> 2016-01-12 13:09:29 SAST FATAL:
> could
> not create lock file "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432.lock": Permission
> denied
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> mySQL has the same problems. Perhaps worse.I know u do not do mySQL stuff,
> but
> still.
>
> I can go fix this by changing the permissions of /var/run and
> /var/run/postgresql/ direc tories but then one will have to change it every
> single time I want to start the databse. O by the way starting it as a
> service
> is even worse because the then it wants to work in it own data directory.
>
> Can this not be fixed, I mean linux is linux whichever flavour one my want
> to
> use?.
>
> Fortunately not all linux programs have these strange permissions hickups.
>

Typically a postgres installation configured in such a way expects that the
master process is started by the user named postgres. You can achieve that
by using sudo(1) command, e.g: sudo -u postgres COMMAND

In your example:

$ sudo -u postgres postgres -D /bigdisk/data/postgres

Not sure why are you trying to start it in foreground. Please refer to
documentation for pg_ctl(1) and your distribution init system. Something
like the following should have equivalent effect (that is, starting
postgres):

$ sudo pg_ctl -D /bigdisk/data/postgres start

OR

$ sudo service postgresql start

Debian and derivative systems such as Ubuntu provide pg_ctlcluster(1)
command to manage multiple clusters and PostgreSQL versions.

Can you elaborate on the problems you encounter when PostgreSQL is started
as a service?

--
Alex