[TheJoshu]

Hi guys. I'm trying to get PostgreSQL to start up every time my Mac mini does, but that requires Terminal access. Some guy created a utility to do this (which some other guy fixed), and I've ended up with this relevant excerpt in a StartupItem document:

StartService ()
{

if [ "${POSTGRES:=-YES-}" = "-YES-" ]; then

ConsoleMessage "Starting PostgreSQL database server"
su - postgres -c '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l /usr/local/pgsql/logfile -o -i'

fi

}

However, it doesn't work, and when I test it in the Terminal (sudo /Library/StartupItems/PostgreSQL/PostgreSQL start) I get the error /usr/local/pgsql/logfile - permission denied.

The basic parameters of this are: I am logging in as one user, let's say "thejoshu", and the owner of these folders (/usr/local/postgres/[...]) is another user, "postgres." By hand, in the Terminal, I use Apple's recommendation to start PostgreSQL:

su -l postgres
[password]
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l logfile start

I expect the problem is that there's no place in this code for me to provide postgres's password before starting postgreSQL?

Any ideas? Thanks!

[Tesseract]

If you are root (or using sudo) you should be able to su to any user without giving that user's password. This is how the script can start postgres as the postgres user without having the password in the script.

That said, I don't run postgres on my Mac so I have no idea what your actual problem is.

[TheJoshu]

OK, so, is the idea that postgres maybe doesn't - for some reason - own that logfile? If I use sudo to su to that user, it'll give me that issue because it's owned by another user? Maybe the tragedy is that the logfile is owned by someone else. Now, to track down the logfile.

[TheJoshu]

ah, so that's the solution indeed. move logfile to a place where postgres can write... Works great when I change that line from usr/local/pgsql/logfile to usr/local/pgsql/data/logfile!