postgresql installation failed with apt-get

Question

I'm running on an AWS Ubuntu image.

In an attempt to set up my machine, I played around with apt-get to add and remove PostgreSql and some of its modules.

Now, when I run sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.3 i get the following error:

Setting up postgresql-9.3 (9.3.10-0ubuntu0.14.04) ... update-alternatives: using /usr/share/postgresql/9.3/man/man1/postmaster.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/postmaster.1.gz (postmaster.1.gz) in auto mode * Starting PostgreSQL 9.3 database server * Error: could not exec /usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/bin/pg_ctl /usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/bin/pg_ctl start -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main -s -o -c config_file="/etc/postgresql/9.3/main/postgresql.conf" : No such file or directory 

The only file/directory missing is /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main

I tried:

1. Adding the directory
2. Removing postgresql with sudo apt-get remove postgresql-9.3 and installing it again

The error still occurs.

What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this?

Answer 1

My understanding is that you deleted the cluster when uninstalling and it isn't recreated automatically.

Recreating the cluster should solve the problem:

mkdir /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main chown postgres /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main su postgres /usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/bin/pg_ctl -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main initdb 

You may need to substitute postgres with the database user account that is used on ubuntu.

Checkout the postgres manual for more information: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/creating-cluster.html