postgresql: Why do I have to specify -h localhost when running psql? - macos

Question

psql mydb yields:
psql: could not connect to server: Permission denied
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432"?
psql -h localhost mydb works just fine. pg_hba.conf looks like:
local all all trust
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust
host all all ::1/128 trust
What up?

Answer 1

I had the exact same thing happen to me, presumably due to the conflicting version of psql (one from Lion, one from homebrew). While I still haven't been able to figure out how to make psql use the /tmp socket directory, I do have a work around.
Put the following in your .bashrc (or .zshrc, etc):
export PGHOST=/tmp
This sets the correct "host" back to the correct socket directory, without having to supply the -h flag

Answer 2

Probably psql and the server use a different location for the unix-domain socket.
( /var/pgsql_socket/ is a strange location) This can happen if you are mixing binaries from different packages.
Try to locate the socket ( /tmp/ is a good place to start) You can force psql to use a different directory by misusing the -h option:
psql -h /tmp/

Answer 3

It appears to be a reported defect.

Answer 4

This happened to me on OS X, and the problem was that /usr/bin/psql is what I was using, but postmaster was running from /Library/PostgreSQL/9.0. Using /Library/PostgreSQL/9.0/bin/psql (getting that into my PATH before all else) fixed the problem.

Answer 5

As other answers addressed other alternatives, I guess I could provide something about Mac OS X Server on Lion. I run into very similar issue - in my case even -h localhost didn't work as networking was disabled in PostregSQL which is by the way in many cases very good idea. The thing with Mac OS X Server is that it launches PostgreSQL server via launchd.
Some hints as you go around:
serveradmin service: postgres
launchd configuration file: /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postgresql.postgres.plist
database folder: /var/pgsql
socket folder: /var/pgsql_socket
That configuration file overrides several configuration directives that can be found in postgresql.conf under database folder. Especially these two:
unix_socket_group
unix_socket_permissions
You can find that _postgres account is used to run the server and everything is also accessible if active user is member of _postgres group.
By running dscl . -read /Groups/_postgres GroupMembership you can see that by default that group has these members: _devicemgr _calendar _teamsserver _www
I guess you have two options. Add yourself to _postgres group or change launchd configuration plist file. The later is just plain text editing... But beware of security, because this way you'll be opening Server to whatever meets criteria you change (see the last paragraph).
The former can be done either via Server.app or via dscl command-line utility. The first option probably doesn't need anything to be added. Just make sure that you can see System Accounts (View -> Hide/Show System Accounts). I'm kind of CLI junkie so this should add your user to _postgres group:
sudo dscl . -append /Groups/_postgres GroupMembership $USER
Of course you should be careful what you run under your account then because you're giving access to you Mac OS X Server database back-end. So either secure you _postgres account or create separate user to manipulate your database or don't save anything private there.