Question

I have to run a simulation with several postgresql databases spread on different machines which all of them are running linux.

I successfully compiled and built postgresql from the source code and I can also run the server, but when I try to create a new db with this command:

./postgresql/bin/createdb db1

I get this error:

createdb: could not connect to database postgres: FATAL:  role "giulio" does not exist

where giulio is my username to access all the machines.

On some machine it works while on other it does not. I really cannot figure out the root of the problem. I suppose it is something related with the access control of postgres.

I did several research on google but I was not able to found and to solve the problem.

Does anyone know how to get this work?

Thanks,

-Giulio

Answer 1

I would assume that on the machines where the user “giulio” is already known, you executed initdb with exactly this user making him the DB superuser. A quote from inidb(1) (emphasis mine):

–username=username
Selects the user name of the database superuser. This defaults
to the name of the effective user running initdb. It is really
not important what the superuser’s name is, but one might choose
to keep the customary name postgres, even if the operating sys‐
tem user’s name is different.

On the other machines I assume you did execute initdb with another user, hopefully using postgres.

In order to get back on the standard track I propose, that you delete the database cluster on the machines where “giulio” is the superuser and setup a new database cluster using the standard postgres user. Then add another user “giulio”. This will avoid more confusion down the road as some scripts/programs expect a superuser account named postgres.