Postgresql version 14.7 installed in my macbook through homebrew raised an error that returned the following error message while running psql on terminal.psql: error: connection to server on socket "/tmp/.s.pgsql.5432" failed: no such file or directory
Found out that this is a very common error that comes up if you depend on postgresql service on your own device. This is usually caused for the following reasons:
– Postgresql is running on a different port but your application is trying to connect to port 5432
– Unexpected shutdown of postgresql service
In my case, it was the unexpected shutdown.
Steps to fix:
- Check if postgresql is up
pgrep -l postgres
if there is no output, postgresql is not running - Try starting postresql service
brew services start postgresql
check again if the service is up by runningpgrep -l postgres - If there is still no output, we will have to check log. Lets head to the following directory to check for log.
cd /usr/local/var/log
Depending on your version of postgres, you will find your log as shown below:
- Follow your log to check for the error
tail postgresql@14.log - If you see an error regarding postmaster.pid file, your case is similar.
This states that postgresql service was not shutdown properly and the file postmaster.pid file still consists of the process id the last time the service was running. If this is not the case, you will need to debug more regarding the error.
- Head over to the installation directory and check for the contents of postmaster.pid
cat /usr/local/var/postgresql@14/postmaster.pid
The file should consist of the stale process id, deleting the file should work. - Delete the file postmaster.pid and start postgresql again
rm /usr/local/var/postgresql@14/postmaster.pid
brew services start postgresqlpgrep -l postgres - You should now see similar output
Your postgresql service is now running.