Need a debugging tip or two

I've just started fooling with some modifications to the backend.
I'm new at doing this in PG, so I'm blundering I'm sure.

In any event when I start the backend standalone (i.e. running
the 'postgres -D ....' command, it seems I have to be the root
or postgres root user because of file permissions.  But I want
access to the database of my normal username, which is 'kevin'.

Questions: have I identified the problem right?  Is that why I
can't see my tables?  If so, is there a way to change databases,
given that the \ commands don't work in the backend?

Or am I just going at this all wrong in some way?

++ kevin


-- 
Kevin O'Gorman  (805) 650-6274  mailto:kogorman@pacbell.net
Permanent e-mail forwarder:  mailto:Kevin.O'Gorman.64@Alum.Dartmouth.org
At school: mailto:kogorman@cs.ucsb.edu
Web: http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~kogorman/index.html
Web: http://trixie.kosman.via.ayuda.com/~kevin/index.html

"There is a freedom lying beyond circumstance,
derived from the direct intuition that life can
be grounded upon its absorption in what is
changeless amid change"   -- Alfred North Whitehead