Why can't I add PostgreSQL to my path? - macos

Question

After I upgraded to Mavericks, PostgreSQL started playing up, giving this error message whenever I call pg_restore without calling the full path:
pg_restore: command not found
If I specify the full path it works, but that's obvious not optimal:
/Applications/Postgres93.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/pg_restore --verbose --clean --no-acl --no-owner -h localhost -U steven -d db/testivate_development $file_path
To fix this problem, I have tried removing all versions of PostgreSQL (with Homebrew) and then installed Postgres.app. You can confirm this has worked like this:
$ sudo find / -name pg_restore
/Applications/Postgres93.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/pg_restore
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory
To add PostgreSQL to my path, I've tried adding each of the following lines to ~/.bash_profile, ~/bashrc and ~/.zshrc, restarting after each attempt:
export PATH="/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS/bin:$PATH"
...as per the postgresapp.com documentation, and then...
export PATH="/Applications/Postgres93.app/Contents/MacOS/bin:$PATH"
...as per the comments below.
None of this has solved my problem.

Answer 1

Try adding this line to your .bash_profile:
export PATH="/Applications/Postgres93.app/Contents/MacOS/bin:$PATH"
and remove or comment out the previous reference.

Answer 2

I had this problem too, so instead of adding this to my path in .bash_profile:
export PATH="/Applications/Postgres93.app/Contents/MacOS/bin:$PATH"
which is what had been recommended, I added
export PATH="/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/bin:$PATH"
instead. The '9.3' is replaced by your own version.
I verified it afterwards using
which psql
And it found my version, whereas before it reported nothing.
I then then created a test database with
createdb test
This worked like a charm.

Answer 3

If you are using zsh, try this line in your .zshrc and then restart the terminal
export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.4/bin

Answer 4

The examples others are giving that do export PATH=... should be the solution to your problem. Since it's not working, you're going to have to debug a problem with your shell that has nothing to do with PostgreSQL.
Firstly, do which pg_restore to see if there is another file called pg_restore in your path that is confusing things. which will usually give no output rather than a helpful error if nothing is found, otherwise it will print the path of what it did found. You may find an old broken install of PostgreSQL in /usr/local/bin, for example.
If that didn't work, try echo $PATH from a new shell. Do you see the path to the PostgreSQL binary directory in there? If not, $PATH is not being set in your shell dot-rc files. This would be the case if you added it to a file called ~/bashrc since bash(1) actually read ~/.bashrc. Note the extra dot! I suspect this is your actual problem.
If that turns out to not be the problem, you can (re)read the rc file into your current session with source ~/.bashrc. Again, echo $PATH If it still doesn't contain the path, the dot-rc file contains a bug and is not being executed as far as the part that updates $PATH. You can do bash --verbose ~/.bashrc to run it, and you'll see each command as it's being executed. The failing command should be the last one displayed. (Note that when you run a script with bash, it will not set variables in your current shell.)

Answer 5

You need to add the path in your bash_profile
nano ~/.bash_profile
Add this line (my postgres version is 9.1):
export PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/bin/

Answer 6

On macOS Sierra 10.12.1 with PostgreSQL 9.6.0.0
/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS/Postgres
Postgres is binary file.

Answer 7

On my macOS, Postgre 9.6 is installed in
/Library/PostgreSQL/9.6

Answer 8

on macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 and PostgreSQL 9.6 it works for me:
export PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.6/bin:$PATH