Still no way to install PostGres on os x Lion?

Kenneth McDonald wrote:

While trying to install 9.0.4, I ran into this:

Problem running post-install step. Installation may not
complete correctly
The database cluster initialisation failed.

A little bit of digging revealed reports to the effect that the PostGres installer did not yet handle Lion. Is there a workaround for this, or a fix in the near (hopefully immediate) future?

Are you running a binary installer or are you building from source?

You should be able to create the database cluster yourself on the command line.
The software is already installed, it sounds like. You would be doing this
periodically anyway; a cluster is just your Postgres data files.

-- Darren Duncan

Kenneth McDonald wrote:

Unfortunately, "initdb" has not been installed into a directory on the shell
search path, and I can't find it by inspecting other likely places. I do like
OS X, but sometimes its unique approach to doing things causes problems.

I don't believe that is an OS X problem but rather a problem with your installer.

Try building from source instead, which I believe would use the normal Unix
locations.

In fact, in my experience, having built Postgres on Mac OS X and using the
binary installer, I found the source was actually easier to do.

FYI, this is basically what I did; I use custom locations by preference for both
the binaries and data, and I use custom OS users and custom ports, so to avoid
conflicts with any other installed software including some other Pg install.
But at the same time, no default locations for config/data/etc files are changed
at compile time so the binary should behave like default settings.

First, this was done as the OS user that would own the program files:

tar zxvf postgresql-9.0.4.tar.gz
cd postgresql-9.0.4
./configure --with-openssl --prefix=/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current
make
make check
make install

Then to create a database, done as the OS user that would own the db files or
that Postgres would execute as:

/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current/bin/initdb \
-D /myapp/data/postgres/current -U postgres -W

To start the Postgres server, do this as the OS user that Postgres runs as:

/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current/bin/postmaster \
-D /myapp/data/postgres/current &

To stop the server:

/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current/bin/pg_ctl stop \
-D /myapp/data/postgres/current -m fast

To make the server run automatically at startup, I think I had a process but it
was outdated so you'll have to figure this out yourself.

Details of how to login with psql or create databases etc or to choose what port
you want to use, I'm sure you know or could figure out.

If you want to use Pg in its default location, remove the --prefix= part or
otherwise make appropriate adjustments.

My example didn't select any options except for openssl, so for example I didn't
add PL/whatever, though I believe PL/PgSQL is standard with Pg 9+ (in 8.4 it
wasn't).

See also the Pg install/setup info files as they suggest changes to certain Mac
OS X settings so Pg runs better.

I hope this helps.

-- Darren Duncan

On Saturday, August 27, 2011 4:26:59 PM UTC-6, Darren Duncan wrote:

Kenneth McDonald wrote:

Unfortunately, "initdb" has not been installed into a directory on the shell
search path, and I can't find it by inspecting other likely places. I do like
OS X, but sometimes its unique approach to doing things causes problems.

I don't believe that is an OS X problem but rather a problem with your installer.

Try building from source instead, which I believe would use the normal Unix
locations.

In fact, in my experience, having built Postgres on Mac OS X and using the
binary installer, I found the source was actually easier to do.

FYI, this is basically what I did; I use custom locations by preference for both
the binaries and data, and I use custom OS users and custom ports, so to avoid
conflicts with any other installed software including some other Pg install.
But at the same time, no default locations for config/data/etc files are changed
at compile time so the binary should behave like default settings.

First, this was done as the OS user that would own the program files:

tar zxvf postgresql-9.0.4.tar.gz
cd postgresql-9.0.4
./configure --with-openssl --prefix=/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current
make
make check
make install

Then to create a database, done as the OS user that would own the db files or
that Postgres would execute as:

/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current/bin/initdb \
-D /myapp/data/postgres/current -U postgres -W

To start the Postgres server, do this as the OS user that Postgres runs as:

/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current/bin/postmaster \
-D /myapp/data/postgres/current &

To stop the server:

/myapp/deps/shared/Postgres/current/bin/pg_ctl stop \
-D /myapp/data/postgres/current -m fast

To make the server run automatically at startup, I think I had a process but it
was outdated so you'll have to figure this out yourself.

Details of how to login with psql or create databases etc or to choose what port
you want to use, I'm sure you know or could figure out.

If you want to use Pg in its default location, remove the --prefix= part or
otherwise make appropriate adjustments.

My example didn't select any options except for openssl, so for example I didn't
add PL/whatever, though I believe PL/PgSQL is standard with Pg 9+ (in 8.4 it
wasn't).

See also the Pg install/setup info files as they suggest changes to certain Mac
OS X settings so Pg runs better.

I hope this helps.

-- Darren Duncan

On Aug 27, 2011, at 3:48 PM, Darren Duncan wrote:

Kenneth McDonald wrote:

While trying to install 9.0.4, I ran into this: Problem running
post-install step. Installation may not complete correctly The database
cluster initialisation failed. A little bit of digging revealed reports
to the effect that the PostGres installer did not yet handle Lion. Is
there a workaround for this, or a fix in the near (hopefully immediate)
future?

Are you running a binary installer or are you building from source?

You should be able to create the database cluster yourself on the command
line. The software is already installed, it sounds like. You would be
doing this periodically anyway; a cluster is just your Postgres data files.

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Thank you for this concise and accurate post.
I made the same mistake of installing Postgres DB Enterprise binaries, which is not what I wanted as a developer.
Will follow Darren's instructions to get the install done right...

Rick Casey