postgres launch daemon not working

[Daniel J. Luke]

On Jan 31, 2012, at 2:52 PM, Scott Frankel wrote:
> 	% sudo su postgres -c "/opt/local/lib/postgresql84/bin/pg_ctl -D /opt/local/var/postgresql84/defaultdb -l /opt/local/var/postgresql84/defaultdb/data/logfile.txt start"

> Jan 31 08:29:07 tiento com.apple.SystemStarter[53]: pg_ctl: could not open PID file "/Library/PostgreSQL8/data/postmaster.pid": Permission denied
> Jan 31 08:29:08 tiento SystemStarter[53]: PostgreSQL database server (90) did not complete successfully

This looks like you are pointing to a different directory than the one you set up when you installed postgresql84-server (and also a different one than the one you're pointed to when you manually start postgres). 

> Looks like pg_ctl is trying to open a postmaster.pid file it doesn't have permissions for.  How can I point launchd invocations of pg_ctl to the correct postgres data dir?  

If you look at the plist that macports installed, you'll see that it uses a wrapper script to launch the postgres server process. That script will default to using the environment variable $POSTGRESQL84DATA for the data dir (and fall back on the one you show that you're using).

It's very likely that you have $POSTGRESQL84DATA set, and you don't want it set.

--
Daniel J. Luke                                                                   
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