PostgreSQL Mountain Lion socket issue

Question

I\'ve been trying to set up PostgreSQL on my system (OSX 10.8, clean install), but I\'m running into trouble with using psql, createdb, etc. I\'ve

Answer 1

I encountered this same issue when installing PostgreSQL 9.2 via Homebrew. psql that comes with this build looks to /tmp for a socket when called without any options.

I didn't feel like adding any new environment variables like PGHOST or creating aliases for psql. There's nothing wrong with doing any of these things, but I just didn't feel like adding to the clutter of my environment.

So, why not just set unix_socket_directory in postgresql.conf to /tmp? I did:

unix_socket_directory = '/tmp'      # (change requires restart)
#unix_socket_group = ''             # (change requires restart)
#unix_socket_permissions = 0777     # begin with 0 to use octal notation

After a reload, I can just run $ psql with no -h option, without having added an alias or environment variable.