How to configure postgresql for the first time?

Question

I have just installed postgresql and I specified password x during installation. When I try to do createdb and specify any password I get the message:

Answer 1

This is my solution:

su root
su postgres
psql

Answer 2

If you're running macOS like I am, you may not have the postgres user.

When trying to run sudo -u postgres psql I was getting the error sudo: unknown user: postgres

Luckily there are executables that postgres provides.

createuser -D /var/postgres/var-10-local --superuser --username=nick
createdb --owner=nick

Then I was able to access psql without issues.

psql
psql (10.2)
Type "help" for help.

nick=#

---

If you're creating a new postgres instance from scratch, here are the steps I took. I used a non-default port so I could run two instances.

mkdir /var/postgres/var-10-local
pg_ctl init -D /var/postgres/var-10-local

Then I edited /var/postgres/var-10-local/postgresql.conf with my preferred port, 5433.

/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/10/bin/postgres -D /Users/nick/Library/Application\ Support/Postgres/var-10-local -p 5433

createuser -D /var/postgres/var-10-local --superuser --username=nick --port=5433
createdb --owner=nick --port=5433

Done!

Answer 3

There are two methods you can use. Both require creating a user and a database.

1. Using createuser and createdb,

   $ sudo -u postgres createuser --superuser $USER
   $ createdb mydatabase
   $ psql -d mydatabase
   

2. Using the SQL administration commands, and connecting with a password over TCP

   $ sudo -u postgres psql postgres
   

   And, then in the psql shell

   CREATE ROLE myuser LOGIN PASSWORD 'mypass';
   CREATE DATABASE mydatabase WITH OWNER = myuser;
   

   Then you can login,

   $ psql -h localhost -d mydatabase -U myuser -p <port>
   

   If you don't know the port, you can always get it by running the following, as the postgres user,

   SHOW port;
   

   Or,

   $ grep "port =" /etc/postgresql/*/main/postgresql.conf
   

Sidenote: the postgres user

I suggest NOT modifying the postgres user.

1. It's normally locked from the OS. No one is supposed to "log in" to the operating system as postgres. You're supposed to have root to get to authenticate as postgres.
2. It's normally not password protected and delegates to the host operating system. This is a good thing. This normally means in order to log in as postgres which is the PostgreSQL equivalent of SQL Server's SA, you have to have write-access to the underlying data files. And, that means that you could normally wreck havoc anyway.
3. By keeping this disabled, you remove the risk of a brute force attack through a named super-user. Concealing and obscuring the name of the superuser has advantages.

Answer 4

Just browse up to your installation's directory and execute this file "pg_env.bat", so after go at bin folder and execute pgAdmin.exe. This must work no doubt!

Answer 5

In MacOS, I followed the below steps to make it work.

For the first time, after installation, get the username of the system.

$ cd ~
$ pwd
/Users/someuser
$ psql -d postgres -U someuser

Now that you have logged into the system, and you can create the DB.

postgres=# create database mydb;
CREATE DATABASE
postgres=# create user myuser with encrypted password 'pass123';
CREATE ROLE
postgres=# grant all privileges on database mydb to myuser;
GRANT

Answer 6

Note: textdb is the database which you are going to explore with 'alex' user 

root@kalilinux:~# sudo su - postgres 
postgres=#  psql   
postgres=#  create database testdb;
postgres=#  create user alex with password 'alex';
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE testdb TO alex;`enter code here`