Socket File “/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432” Missing In Mountain Lion (OS X Server)

Question

I just upgraded my MacMini Server from Lion Server to Mountain Lion using OS X Server. I am having the same problem with PostgreSQL that I did last year when I first instal

Answer 1

Check for the status of the database:

service postgresql status

If the database is not running, start the db:

sudo service postgresql start

Answer 2

I was able to solve by simply filling in 127.0.0.1 for the PostgreSQL host address rather than leaving it blank. (Django Example)

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'database_name',
        'USER': 'database_user',
        'PASSWORD': 'pass',
        'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
        'PORT': '',
        }
}

Answer 3

As mentioned by others in the comments, a really simple solution to this issue is to declare the database 'host' within the database configuration. Adding this answer just to make it a little more clear for anyone reading this.

In a Ruby on Rails app for example, edit /config/database.yml:

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: database_name
  pool: 5
  host: localhost

Note: the last line added to specify the host. Prior to updating to Yosemite I never needed to specify the host in this way.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers

Answer 4

check the postgres server is running with following code

sudo service postgresql status

if the postgres server is inactive, write the following command.

sudo service postgresql start

Answer 5

I was able to add the following to my .bash_profile to prevent the error:

export PGHOST=localhost

This works because:

If you omit the host name, psql will connect via a Unix-domain socket to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to localhost on machines that don't have Unix-domain sockets.

Your OS supports Unix domain sockets, but PostgreSQL's Unix socket that psql needs either doesn't exist or is in a different location than it expects.

Specifying a hostname explicitly as localhost forces psql to use TCP/IP. Setting an environment variable PGHOST is one of the ways to achieve that. It's documented in psql's manual.

Answer 6

If you have the above problem but you have upgraded from Yosemite, then a different approach is needed as the upgrade solution can destroy some files. More details are at `pg_tblspc` missing after installation of latest version of OS X (Yosemite or El Capitan).