What Could Cause This Behavior?

Now that I have postgres-8.1.2 properly configured and running I wanted to
create a new database for an application. Postgres would not let me -- as a
user -- create the database, so I su'd to 'postgres'.

As user 'postgres' I could invoke psql and tried to create the database
with the command, 'create database contacts username=rshepard'. That failed
with no error message. I exited from psql and user postgres and ran the
command 'createdb contacts' as me. That worked.

Also, I (as a listed superuser of postgres) cannot run 'psql' and get a
prompt. I'm told, 'psql: FATAL: database "rshepard" does not exist'. But, as
user postgres I can type 'psql' and get into the interactive mode.

In earlier versions I did not have this dichotomy. I could do everything as
a superuser and did not need to be logged in as user postgres. Any ideas
what's going on?

Rich

--
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | Author of "Quantifying Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM) | Impact Assessments Using Fuzzy Logic"
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax: 503-667-8863