I'm attempting to run initdb /usr/local/var/postgres after installing postgresql 9.5 via homebrew on El Capitan but I get the following:
The files belonging to this database system will be owned by user "kyledecot".
This user must also own the server process.
The database cluster will be initialized with locale "en_US.UTF-8".
The default database encoding has accordingly been set to "UTF8".
The default text search configuration will be set to "english".
Data page checksums are disabled.
fixing permissions on existing directory /usr/local/var/postgres ... initdb: could not change permissions of directory "/usr/local/var/postgres": Operation not permitted
When attempting to cd /usr/local/var/postgres I get:
cd: permission denied: /usr/local/var/postgres
It appears that I don't have the proper permission to do this. I assume this has something to do w/ El Capitan's System Integrity Protection but I could be wrong.
How do I go about fixing this?
sudo chown -R `whoami` /usr/local
I had to combine two bits of advice that I have seen with Stack Overflow questions related to this question/error. I found myself in a chicken and an egg situation where I would reinstall postgres and change permissions one at a time, but both commands conflicted with each other.
So I did this:
sudo chown -R `whoami` /usr/local && brew postinstall postgresql
...and it worked fine.
I find it not really efficient and secure to chown all /usr/local directory, so I did simply
mkdir /usr/local/var/postgres
And all went smooth.
Ok. I have been trying to solve this problem for several days. I installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled Postgresql 3 times. I followed precisely the instructions in this forum: https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/42048/cant-connect-to-the-postgres-server-ls-tmp-s-pgsql-5432-no-such-file-or-dir
I found this solution in many forums, so I tried to run:
$ mkdir /var/pgsql_socket/
$ sudo mkdir /var/pgsql_socket/
$ ln -s /private/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432 /var/pgsql_socket/
But this didn't work. When I try to start the server it still says there is another one running and then proceeds to fail every time I try to create a database or type "psql"
I then tried to run the following in order to change the path of the commands from OS X's builtin version of postgres to my version and it seemed to work:
$ cd /usr/local/bin
$ rm postgres
$ ln -s /Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/bin/postgres postgres
$ rm psql
$ ln -s /Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/bin/psql psql
$ rm pg_ctl
$ ln -s /Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/bin/pg_ctl pg_ctl
So then I ran the following to create a user for postgres:
$ sudo -u postgres createuser --superuser $Sarah
$ sudo -u postgres createuser --superuser user_sarah
$ sudo -u postgres psql postgres
But it kept saying "unknown user postgres"
I then tried to install the Ruby pg gem, but that also failed, saying there was a problem with necessary libraries.
I have saved a text file of everything I tried to do in the terminal. Let me know if I should post that. Thanks.
update:
When I try to run this:
$ pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
I get this:
-bash: /usr/local/bin/pg_ctl: No such file or directory
Which is different from a lot of other errors that I have seen posted on this problem.
first, you should verify that there is no postmaster running: ps -ef | grep postmaster. once you've verified the postmaster is not running, you should look into the postgresql command initd. Depending on your server installation, it may or may not be installed. You need to create a database before attempting to start postgres. It sounds to me like you got an installation that didn't install the main postgresql commands to /usr/bin, pg_ctl being one of these.
FYI: the postgres account is not a login account and is automatically created when installing postgresql, so it should be there if you had a good installation. You cannot sudo as postgres if postgres is not in the sudoers file.
The homebrew install of PostgreSQL does not create or need a postgres account, so all the mentions of doing sudo -u postgresor ps -fu postgres don't apply to your case.
The command brew info postgresql outputs various information about to start and stop it, you may read them. By contrast you don't want to put blind faith into what random users tell about how they "fixed" their non-working installation. In fact, the web carries a shocking amount of bad advice concerning PostgreSQL on MacOS X, and to me the answer you linked on dba.se is among them. It's wrong from start to finish, and you should note that it was not accepted as an answer. Certainly the author means well, but he fails to see that his own context can't be generalized to other installations.
The worst part is the suggestion to delete in /usr/local/bin/ the binaries postgres, psql, pg_ctl and soft-linking them into supposed equivalents inside /Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/bin/.
To me it just breaks the homebrew install.
No wonder that after doing this you get this error:
/usr/local/bin/pg_ctl: No such file or directory
So my answer would be to reinstall postgresql with brew to restart from a clean state, then make sure that all postgres commands you launch are from /usr/local/bin, and always first read the server log file passed to pg_ctl if you have any doubt on anything PG-related.
After restarting my MacBook Pro I am unable to start the database server:
could not connect to server: No such file or directory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?
I checked the logs and the following line appears over and over again:
FATAL: database files are incompatible with server
DETAIL: The data directory was initialized by PostgreSQL version 9.2, which is not compatible with this version 9.0.4.
9.0.4 was the version that came preinstalled on the mac, 9.2[.4] is the version I installed via Homebrew.
As mentioned, this used to work before the restart, so it can't actually be a compiling issue. I also re-ran initdb /usr/local/var/postgres -E utf8 and the file still exists.
If you recently upgraded postgres to latest version, you can run the below command to upgrade your postgres data directory retaining all data:
brew postgresql-upgrade-database
The above command is taken from the output of brew info postgres
Note: this won't work for upgrading from 14 to 15 as of recent testing.
If you are looking for the nuclear option (delete all data and get a fresh database), you can do:
rm -rf /usr/local/var/postgres && initdb /usr/local/var/postgres -E utf8
and then you'll need to rake db:setup and rake db:migrate from your Rails app to get setup again.
Try this :
https://gist.github.com/joho/3735740
It worked perfectly for me.
In the end it also generates you 2 bash scripts to check your DB and remove the old cluster.
Really Awesome.
see: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.2/static/pgupgrade.html to understand more.
Found on internet, this solution work fine for me.
When I tried to start postgresql server after upgrade to OS X 10.10 Yosemite, I encountered with a next problem:
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
could not connect to server: No such file or directory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432"?
Okay, lets take a look into server logs:
cat /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log
FATAL: database files are incompatible with server
DETAIL: The data directory was initialized by PostgreSQL version 9.2, which is not compatible with this version 9.3.5.
So, we need to follow a few steps after upgrade postgresql:
launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist
mv /usr/local/var/postgres /usr/local/var/postgres92
brew update
brew upgrade postgresql
initdb /usr/local/var/postgres -E utf8
pg_upgrade -b /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.2.3/bin -B /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.3.5_1/bin -d /usr/local/var/postgres92 -D /usr/local/var/postgres
cp /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.3.5_1/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
rm -rf /usr/local/var/postgres92
That's it.
If you want to keep the previous version of postgres, use brew switch:
$ brew info postgresql
postgresql: stable 10.5 (bottled), HEAD
Object-relational database system
https://www.postgresql.org/
Conflicts with:
postgres-xc (because postgresql and postgres-xc install the same binaries.)
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.6.3 (3,259 files, 36.6MB)
Poured from bottle on 2017-07-09 at 22:15:41
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/10.5 (1,705 files, 20.8MB) *
Poured from bottle on 2018-11-04 at 15:13:13
$ brew switch postgresql 9.6.3
$ brew services stop postgresql
$ brew services start postgresql
Otherwise, consider this brew command to migrate existing data: brew postgresql-upgrade-database. Check out the source code.
As #Gowtham mentioned, you can solve this problem by executing a brew command
brew postgresql-upgrade-database
The above command is taken from the output of brew info postgres
However, don't forget to stop the postgres service before executing it, use the following command:
`brew services stop postgresql
you may have to start the service again.
So the final order of commands are:
brew services stop postgresql
brew postgresql-upgrade-database
brew services start postgresql
Similar to these answers (1, 2), my Postgres database files were incompatible to my Postgres version after upgrading to postgresql 13.3.
Unfortunately, upgrading my Postgres data directory failed.
$ brew postgresql-upgrade-database
...
Setting next OID for new cluster
*failure*
Consult the last few lines of "pg_upgrade_utility.log" for
the probable cause of the failure.
Failure, exiting
Error: Upgrading postgresql data from 12 to 13 failed!
==> Removing empty postgresql initdb database...
==> Moving postgresql data back from /usr/local/var/postgres.old to /usr/local/var/postgres...
Error: Failure while executing; `/usr/local/opt/postgresql/bin/pg_upgrade -r -b /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql#12/12.7/bin -B /usr/local/opt/postgresql/bin -d /usr/local/var/postgres.old -D /usr/local/var/postgres -j 8` exited with 1.
My workaround for this was to reinstall postgresql 12.7.
$ brew reinstall postgresql#12
$ brew services start postgresql#12
This can also occur when running a new Postgres in Docker, and your old volume isn't updated.
If you don't need to keep your data easiest is to clear the old volumes in the docker folder, in Linux that's here:
/var/lib/docker/volumes
It happened for me when I was trying to start Postgres12 with postgres11 mounted volume. Just deleting the mounted volume for postgres11 and restart worked for me.
Previously I was using:
docker run -d --name my_database -v /Users/champ/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data -p 54320:5432 postgres:11
I deleted /Users/champ/postgres and restarted postgres 12, using
docker run -d --name my_database -v /Users/champ/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data -p 54320:5432 postgres:12
brew info postgres will give you hints Like To migrate existing data from a previous major version of PostgreSQL run:
So in my case removing the old one rm -rf /usr/local/var/postgres.old and upgrading the DB brew postgresql-upgrade-database
A stale postmaster.pid file caused this for me.
Simply navigate to your postgres directory /Users/st/Library/Application Support/Postgres/, for me, that's:
cd '/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Postgres/var-10'
Then delete the file postmaster.pid. Restart postgres and it will work.
To me works with this command:
brew install --build-from-source postgresql#12
Then started Postgres:
brew services start postgresql#12
You can also check the port 5432 is listen:
netstat -nl |grep 5432
Final update:
I had forgotten to run the initdb command.
By running this command
ps auxwww | grep postgres
I see that postgres is not running
> ps auxwww | grep postgres
remcat 1789 0.0 0.0 2434892 480 s000 R+ 11:28PM 0:00.00 grep postgres
This raises the question:
How do I start the PostgreSQL server?
Update:
> pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
server starting
sh: /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log: No such file or directory
Update 2:
The touch was not successful, so I did this instead:
> mkdir /usr/local/var/postgres
> vi /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log
> ls /usr/local/var/postgres/
server.log
But when I try to start the Ruby on Rails server, I still see this:
Is the server running on host "localhost" and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?
Update 3:
> pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres status
pg_ctl: no server running
Update 4:
I found that there wasn't any pg_hba.conf file (only file pg_hba.conf.sample), so I modified the sample and renamed it (to remover the .sample). Here are the contents:
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust
# IPv6 local connections:
host all all ::1/128 trust
But I don't understand this:
> pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
server starting
> pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres status
pg_ctl: no server running
Also:
sudo find / -name postgresql.conf
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory
Update 5:
sudo pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
Password:
pg_ctl: cannot be run as root
Please log in (using, e.g., "su") as the (unprivileged) user that will own the server process.
Update 6:
This seems odd:
> egrep 'listen|port' /usr/local/var/postgres/postgresql.conf
egrep: /usr/local/var/postgres/postgresql.conf: No such file or directory
Though, I did do this:
>sudo find / -name "*postgresql.conf*"
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory
/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample
/usr/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample
So I did this:
egrep 'listen|port' /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample
#listen_addresses = 'localhost' # what IP address(es) to listen on;
#port = 5432 # (change requires restart)
# supported by the operating system:
# %r = remote host and port
So I tried this:
> cp /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf
> cp /usr/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample /usr/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf
I am still getting the same "Is the server running?" message.
The Homebrew package manager includes launchctl plists to start automatically. For more information, run brew info postgres.
Start manually
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start
Stop manually
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop
Start automatically
"To have launchd start postgresql now and restart at login:"
brew services start postgresql
What is the result of pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start?
What is the result of pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres status?
Are there any error messages in the server.log?
Make sure tcp localhost connections are enabled in pg_hba.conf:
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust
Check the listen_addresses and port in postgresql.conf:
egrep 'listen|port' /usr/local/var/postgres/postgresql.conf
#listen_addresses = 'localhost' # What IP address(es) to listen on;
#port = 5432 # (change requires restart)
Cleaning up
PostgreSQL was most likely installed via Homebrew, Fink, MacPorts or the EnterpriseDB installer.
Check the output of the following commands to determine which package manager it was installed with:
brew && brew list|grep postgres
fink && fink list|grep postgres
port && port installed|grep postgres
If you want to manually start and stop PostgreSQL (installed via Homebrew), the easiest way is:
brew services start postgresql
and
brew services stop postgresql
If you have a specific version, make sure to suffix the version. For example:
brew services start postgresql#10
I had almost the exact same issue, and you cited the initdb command as being the fix. This was also the solution for me, but I didn't see that anyone posted it here, so for those who are looking for it:
initdb /usr/local/var/postgres -E utf8
If your computer was abruptly restarted
You may want to start PG server but it was not.
First, you have to delete the file /usr/local/var/postgres/postmaster.pid Then you can restart the service using one of the many other mentioned methods depending on your install.
You can verify this by looking at the logs of Postgres to see what might be going on: tail -f /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log
For specific version:-
tail -f /usr/local/var/postgres#[VERSION_NUM]/server.log
Eg:
tail -f /usr/local/var/postgres#11/server.log
Another approach is using the lunchy gem (a wrapper for launchctl):
brew install postgresql
initdb /usr/local/var/postgres -E utf8
gem install lunchy
To start PostgreSQL:
lunchy start postgres
To stop PostgreSQL:
lunchy stop postgres
For further information, refer to: "How to Install PostgreSQL on a Mac With Homebrew and Lunchy"
Here my two cents: I made an alias for postgres pg_ctl and put it in file .bash_profile (my PostgreSQL version is 9.2.4, and the database path is /Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/data).
alias postgres.server="sudo -u postgres pg_ctl -D /Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/data"
Launch a new terminal.
And then? You can start/stop your PostgreSQL server with this:
postgres.server start
postgres.server stop
The cleanest way by far to start/stop/restart PostgreSQL if you have installed it through brew is to simply unload and/or load the launchd configuration file that comes with the installation:
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist
The first line will stop PostgreSQL and the second line will start it. There isn't any need to specify any data directories, etc. since everything is in that file.
To start the PostgreSQL server:
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
To end the PostgreSQL server:
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop -s -m fast
You can also create an alias via CLI to make it easier:
alias pg-start='pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start'
alias pg-stop='pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop -s -m fast'
With these you can just type "pg-start" to start PostgreSQL and "pg-stop" to shut it down.
For test purposes, I think PostgreSQL App is the best option!
Run an app, and the server is up and running.
Close the app, and the server goes down.
http://postgresapp.com/
If you have installed using Homebrew, the below command should be enough.
brew services restart postgresql
This sometimes might not work. In that case, the below two commands should definitely work:
rm /usr/local/var/postgres/postmaster.pid
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start
# Remove old database files (if there was any)
$ rm -rf /usr/local/var/postgres
# Install the binary
$ brew install postgresql
# init it
$ initdb /usr/local/var/postgres
# Start the PostgreSQL server
$ postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres
# Create your database
$ createdb mydb
# Access the database
$ psql mydb
psql (9.0.1)
Type "help" for help.
Sometimes it's just the version which you are missing, and you are scratching your head unnecessarily.
If you are using a specific version of PostgreSQL, for example, PostgreSQL 10, then simply do
brew services start postgresql#10
brew services stop postgresql#10
The normal brew services start postgresql won't work without a version if you have installed it for a specific version from Homebrew.
When you install PostgreSQL using Homebrew,
brew install postgres
at the end of the output, you will see this methods to start the server:
To have launchd start postgresql at login:
ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/postgresql/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
Then to load postgresql now:
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist
Or, if you don't want/need launchctl, you can just run:
postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres
I think this is the best way.
You can add an alias into your .profile file for convenience.
I had the same problem and performed all updates from the first post. But after checking the log file,
/usr/local/var/postgres/server.log
I see the true cause:
FATAL: data directory "/usr/local/var/postgres" has group or world access
DETAIL: Permissions should be u=rwx (0700).
After changing permissions on this directory,
chmod 0700 /usr/local/var/postgres
the PostgreSQL server started.
Check the log file every time.
For a quick disposable test database, you can run the server in the foreground.
Initialize a new PostgreSQL database in a new directory:
mkdir db
initdb db -E utf8
createdb public
Start the server in the foreground (Ctrl + C to stop the server):
postgres -d db
In another shell session, connect to the server
psql -d public
If you didn't install it with Homebrew and directly from the Mac package, this worked for me for PostgreSQL 12 when using all the default locations, variables, etc.
$ sudo su postgres
bash-3.2$ /Library/PostgreSQL/12/bin/pg_ctl -D /Library/PostgreSQL/12/data/ stop
Variation on this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/13103603/2394728
initdb `brew --prefix`/var/postgres/data -E utf8`` && pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres/data -l logfile start
PostgreSQL is integrated in Server.app available through the App Store in Mac OS X v10.8 (Mountain Lion). That means that it is already configured, and you only need to launch it, and then create users and databases.
Tip: Do not start with defining $PGDATA and so on. Take file locations as is.
You would have this file:
/Library/Server/PostgreSQL/Config/org.postgresql.postgres.plist
To start:
sudo serveradmin start postgres
Process started with arguments:
/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/postgres_real -D /Library/Server/PostgreSQL/Data -c listen_addresses=127.0.0.1,::1 -c log_connections=on -c log_directory=/Library/Logs/PostgreSQL -c log_filename=PostgreSQL.log -c log_line_prefix=%t -c log_lock_waits=on -c log_statement=ddl -c logging_collector=on -c unix_socket_directory=/private/var/pgsql_socket -c unix_socket_group=_postgres -c unix_socket_permissions=0770
You can sudo:
sudo -u _postgres psql template1
Or connect:
psql -h localhost -U _postgres postgres
You can find the data directory, version, running status and so forth with
sudo serveradmin fullstatus postgres
For development purposes, one of the simplest ways is to install Postgres.app from the official site. It can be started/stopped from Applications folder or using the following commands in terminal:
# Start
open -a Postgres
# Stop
killall Postgres
killall postgres
This worked for me (macOS v10.13 (High Sierra)):
sudo -u postgres /Library/PostgreSQL/9.6/bin/pg_ctl start -D /Library/PostgreSQL/9.6/data
Or first
cd /Library/PostgreSQL/9.6/bin/
If you installed PostgreSQL using the EnterpriseDB installer, then what Kenial suggested is the way to go:
sudo -u postgres pg_ctl -D /Library/PostgreSQL/{version}/data start
sudo -u postgres pg_ctl -D /Library/PostgreSQL/{version}/data stop
Homebrew is the way!!
To start the service:
brew services start postgresql
To list it:
brew services list | grep postgres
To stop the service:
brew services stop postgresql
If you didn't install the Postgres server with Homebrew or installed using .dmg file, try this:
$ sudo su postgres
bash-3.2$ /Library/PostgreSQL/13/bin/pg_ctl -D /Library/PostgreSQL/13/data/ stop
For MacPorts, just use the load/unload command and the port name of the running server:
sudo port load postgresql96-server
- or -
sudo port unload postgresql96-server
so you don't have to remember where the /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql96.plist file is located.
having installed Postgres with homebrew that is what I do to start postgres and keep it in foreground to see the logs:
/opt/homebrew/opt/postgresql/bin/postgres -D /opt/homebrew/var/postgres
install postgresql using brew: brew install postgresql, you can specify the version using "#" sign: brew install postgresql#14
start postgresql: brew services start postgresql or specific version brew services start postgresql#14
stop postgresql: brew services stop postgresql
$ brew upgrade postgres
fixed it for me.
That, of course, will upgrade your PostgreSQL version and update/install any dependencies.
Warning: Do this knowing that your PostgreSQL version will likely change. For me, that wasn't a big deal.
None of the previous answers fixed the issue for me, despite getting the same error messages.
I was able to get my instance back up and running by deleting the existing postmaster.pid file which was locked and was not allowing connections.
This worked for me every time, inspired by Craig Ringer:
brew install proctools
sudo pkill -u postgres
proctools includes pkill. If you don't have Homebrew: https://brew.sh/
After doing brew services restart postgresql.
It works best to:
brew services stop postgresql
brew postgresql-upgrade-database
brew services start postgresql
Then type: psql
it now runs this was after the error:
psql: error: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?
The upgrade may be optional depending on the other dependencies your running.
Which means that rather than Restart using brew for in on mac os, Stop completely postgres and then start postgres and connect to your psql databaseName.
Hope this was useful.
After upgrading to Lion, I get the following error when trying to start up the Postgres server:
pg_ctl: could not open PID file "/usr/local/var/postgres/postmaster.pid": Permission denied
I also tried to re-run the initdb command, but ran into a similar problem:
initdb: could not access directory "/usr/local/var/postgres": Permission denied
If it matters, PostgreSQL was installed via Homebrew. Running brew info postgresql yields the expected results (version, summarized docs).
Well, it turns out the solution was pretty simple. I changed the group on /usr/local/var to staff (from wheel) and changed the ownership (chown -R) to my system account (from root).
After that, postgres started up fine.
I was a little nervous changing those permissions, but the only thing in my /usr/local/var was a postgres directory, so all should be well. If you have other directories/files in /usr/local/var, maybe don't use the -R flag when chown'ing?
The Homebrew ruby installer script changes the group of /usr/local/var to staff, so that must have gotten undone when upgrading to Lion. Not sure about the ownership being root instead of my system account though...
sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/var