BUG #14567: Overriding PGDATA during initdb always fails

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference: 14567
Logged by: Henti Smith
Email address: henti@geekware.co.za
PostgreSQL version: 9.6.2
Operating system: Centos 7
Description:

When using the "/usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/postgresql96-setup" script to initdb the
environment variable PGSETUP_INITDB_OPTIONS can be used to pass options to
the initdb binary.

This allows you to do the following.
export PGSETUP_INITDB_OPTIONS="--pgdata=/postgresql"
/usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/postgresql96-setup initdb

Internally, the following happens.
$PGDATA is retrieved from systemctl using Environment.
$PGDATA is then used in initdb() to :
Check if "$PGDATA/PG_VERSION" exists before running perform_initdb()
$PGDATA is then used in perform_initdb() to :
Create and chown $PGDATA
restorecon $PGDATA

Then initdb binary gets called like this:
initdbcmd="$PGENGINE/initdb --pgdata='$PGDATA' --auth='ident'"
initdbcmd+=" $PGSETUP_INITDB_OPTIONS"

Where --pgdata can be passed. At this point the directory is not created and
owned and the command fails. If you create the directory manually the script
continues to:
Create and chown log directory at $PGDATA/pg_log
restorecon $PGDATA/pg_log

And finally it tests the installation with

if [ -f "$PGDATA/PG_VERSION" ]; then
return 0
fi
return 1

Which always returns 1 as $PGDATA was never set to the custom directory.

I used --pgdata=/postgresql as the only way to set a custom DB directory,
because the setup script never sources /etc/sysconfig/postgresql-9.6 which
is where I set the PGDATA override before.

This can all be fixed by adding
source /etc/sysconfig/pgsql/postgresql-$PGMAJORVERSION

before
export PGDATA

on line 107

Sorry for duplicate post.

Regards
Henti

--
Sent via pgsql-bugs mailing list (pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-bugs