3

Someone, please, please, please explain to me what the hell is going on here, and how I can fix this?

I'll let my console do the talking:

root@worker2:/var/run# service postgresql start
 * Starting PostgreSQL 9.3 database server                                                           * The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output:
2016-01-15 10:47:08 PST FATAL:  could not create lock file "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432.lock": Permission denied
                                                                                             [fail]
root@worker2:/var/run# chmod 777 postgresql
root@worker2:/var/run# ls -l |grep post
drwxrwsrwx 2 postgres    postgres       40 Jan 15 10:24 postgresql
root@worker2:/var/run# chmod g-s postgresql
root@worker2:/var/run# ls -l |grep post
drwxrwxrwx 2 postgres    postgres       40 Jan 15 10:24 postgresql
root@worker2:/var/run# service postgresql start
 * Starting PostgreSQL 9.3 database server                                                           * The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output:
2016-01-15 10:47:48 PST FATAL:  could not create lock file "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432.lock": Permission denied
                                                                                             [fail]
root@worker2:/var/run# ls -l |grep post
drwxrwsr-x 2 postgres    postgres       40 Jan 15 10:24 postgresql
Ernie Dunbar
  • 31
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • Notice that the permissions on the folder /var/run/postgresql **change from 777 to 775** with a sticky bit on group when I try to start the daemon. **The daemon actually changes these permissions to break operation**. If I *could* change it to 777 permanently, at the very least I could find out what user postgresql was actually running as, and fix that, but no, the daemon changes its permissions to break operation instead. – Ernie Dunbar Jan 19 '16 at 16:57

3 Answers3

2

I had the exact same problem. I still don't know what caused it, but as a workaround I changed the postgresql pid file directory and unix socket directory (although perhaps the former wasn't necessary). I will call this new directory /pg_workaround in this answer.

mkdir /pg_workaround
chown postgres:postgres /pg_workaround
chmod 777 /pg_workaround

Then edit /etc/postgresql/<version>/main/postgresql.conf and modify the following lines:

external_pid_file = '/pg_workaround/<version>-main.pid'
unix_socket_directory = '/pg_workaround'

(Replace /pg_workaround with the desired location and <version> with your actual postgres version.)

Cinnam
  • 201
  • 2
  • 4
1

Check the owner of /var/run/postgresql and set it to postgres if not already so To do so, type

sudo chown -R postgres:postgres /var/run/postgresql**

If the user you are running as does not have sudo privilege, then

1) Change to root

su -

2) Change ownership of /var/run/postgresql to postgres user and postgres group

chown -R postgres:postgres /var/run/postgresql

I had the same problem when installing postgres on Ubuntu 14.04 and changing the ownership fixed the problem for me.

Saleh Salem
  • 11
  • 1
  • Read my output carefully please. That's exactly what I did. What appears to be happening, is that Postgresql **actually changes this file's permissions** to *not* work with whatever user the Postgresql server is actually running with. (ie, not postgres, or the permissions above would actually work - yes, I've tested writing files as the postgres user in /var/run/postgresql) – Ernie Dunbar Jan 15 '16 at 21:00
  • I can see that you used chmod not chown! – Saleh Salem Jan 16 '16 at 21:21
  • root@worker2:/var/run# chown -R postgres:postgres /var/run/postgresql root@worker2:/var/run# service postgresql start * Starting PostgreSQL 9.3 database server * The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output: 2016-01-19 08:50:36 PST FATAL: could not create lock file "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432.lock": Permission denied – Ernie Dunbar Jan 19 '16 at 16:51
  • It was already chowned to postgresql:postgresql, and doing it again hasn't changed anything. There's nothing in this directory. the file /var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432.lock cannot exist, and even if it did and the ownership was correct, it still appears that PostgreSQL actually runs as another user, because it can't write to this directory. – Ernie Dunbar Jan 19 '16 at 16:53
0

This is result of a bug usually on VPS when OS and shared Kernel differ. Workaround; create a cronjob that fix it on every reboot like following:

@reboot chown -R postgres:postgres /var/run/postgresql

For more detail relevant to this issue: SSH Server stops working after reboot, caused by missing /var/run/sshd

Ghazi
  • 121
  • 5