Question

This question may look like a duplicate of: How to uninstall postgresql on my Mac (running Snow Leopard) however, there are two major differences. I’m running Lion and I’m trying to uninstall PostgreSQL 9.0.4. I’ve looked at the last question and the link that it referenced, but I did not find a file called “uninstall-postgresql” when I run this command:

sudo find / -name "*uninstall-*"  

So, I assume this means that the uninstall process for 9.0.4 is different than that of 8.x.

I’ve seen a couple of posts in different places describing a method for manual uninstallation but, similarly, some of the directories/files referenced are not present on my machine.

Any assistance or direction you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Just for reference, this is the link the other poster used to uninstall postgres from snow leopard. As I tried to step through these commands, most of them choked with some variant of “command not found”.

---

UPDATE:

In addition to brew uninstall postgres, should I remove any of the following files/directories manually? Keep in mind I want to completely wipe the slate clean, no data files/database tables or anything.

> sudo find / -name "*postgres*"             
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/doc/activerecord-3.1.1/rdoc/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter_rb.html
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/doc/activerecord-3.1.1/ri/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/PostgreSQLAdapter/postgresql_version-i.ri
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/doc/arel-2.2.1/rdoc/lib/arel/visitors/postgresql_rb.html
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-3.1.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/arel-2.2.1/lib/arel/visitors/postgresql.rb
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/arel-2.2.1/test/visitors/test_postgres.rb
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/railties-3.1.1/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/templates/config/databases/jdbcpostgresql.yml
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/railties-3.1.1/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/templates/config/databases/postgresql.yml
/Library/WebServer/Documents/postgresql
/Library/WebServer/Documents/postgresql/html/app-postgres.html
/Library/WebServer/Documents/postgresql/html/postgres-user.html
/private/etc/apache2/users/postgres.conf
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/groups/_postgres.plist
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/postgres's Public Folder.plist
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/_postgres.plist
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/postgres.plist
/System/Library/DirectoryServices/DefaultLocalDB/Default/groups/_postgres.plist
/System/Library/DirectoryServices/DefaultLocalDB/Default/users/_postgres.plist
/Users/postgres
/Users/remcat/dev/working/startwire/vendor/plugins/foreign_keys/lib/foreign_keys/postgresql_adapter.rb
/Users/remcat/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/postgres_DCCEF98F-4602-5FF7-964F-5E717AC007B4.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Caches/Homebrew/postgresql-9.0.4.tar.bz2
/Users/remcat/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari/History/http:%2F%2Fwww.postgresql.org%2Fdocs%2Fcurrent%2Fstatic%2Findex.html.webhistory
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194716_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194742_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194757_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194958_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-203352_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-203359_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194716_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194742_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194757_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194958_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-203352_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-203359_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194716_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194742_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194757_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194958_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-203352_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-203359_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Saved Application State/org.postgresql.pgadmin.savedState
/usr/bin/postgres_real
/usr/include/postgres_ext.h
/usr/include/postgresql
/usr/include/postgresql/internal/postgres_fe.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres_ext.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres_fe.h
/usr/lib/postgresql
/usr/local/Library/Aliases/postgres
/usr/local/Library/Formula/postgresql.rb
/usr/local/var/postgres
/usr/local/var/postgres/postgresql.conf
/usr/share/devicemgr/backend/vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
/usr/share/devicemgr/backend/vendor/rails/railties/configs/databases/postgresql.yml
/usr/share/devicemgr/webserver/gems/gems/eventmachine-0.12.10/lib/em/protocols/postgres3.rb
/usr/share/man/man1/postgres.1.gz
/usr/share/postgresql
/usr/share/postgresql/postgres.bki
/usr/share/postgresql/postgres.description
/usr/share/postgresql/postgres.shdescription
/usr/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf
/usr/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample

Answer 1

homebrew Installer

Assuming you installed PostgreSQL with homebrew as referenced in check status of postgresql server Mac OS X and how to start postgresql server on mac os x: you can use the brew uninstall postgresql command.

EnterpriseDB Installer

If you used the EnterpriseDB installer then see the other answer in this thread.

The EnterpriseDB installer is what you get if you follow “download” links from the main Postgres web site. The Postgres team releases only source code, so the EnterpriseDB.com company builds installers as a courtesy to the community.

Postgres.app

You may have also used Postgres.app.

This double-clickable Mac app contains the Postgres engine.