Re: Forgot to dump old data before re-installing machine

On Jan 24, 2008, at 4:41 PM, Tom Lane wrote:

> Stefan Schwarzer <stefan.schwarzer@grid.unep.ch> writes:
>> After running initdb the postmaster started smoothly. I stopped it,
>> copied my database files into the same location, started the
>> postmaster again, and then got this error message:
>
>>     schwarzers-mac-mini:/usr/local/pgsql schwarzer$ /usr/local/bin/
>> pg_ctl
>> -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l postgres.log start
>>     pg_ctl: could not open PID file "/usr/local/pgsql/data/
>> postmaster.pid": Permission denied
>
> You're trying to start the server as yourself (user schwarzer) but the
> files all belong to user postgres:
>
>> drwx------   16 postgres  admin   544 Jan 23 18:23 data
>
> The files have to be owned by the user that runs the server.  If you
> want to switch over to doing that as schwarzer, a quick "chown -R"
> will help.

Oh, stupid me! Gush, I'll never learn it...

But nevertheless:

When I start the postmaster it seems ok. But there is no process
running. When I try to stop it it says:

pg_ctl: PID file "/usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid" does not exist
Is postmaster running?

I slowly get the feeling that all my efforts are in vain...

Stef