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I am using mac OS X 10.5.8. I installed PostgreSQL 9.1 (using a mac dmg driver) in order to build a database with python (using sqlalchemy and psycopg2).

When I first tried to connect to PostgreSQL via sqlalchemy I could not find a username:password combination that would allow me to create an engine and connect. I tried logging in as a superuser with postgres (which supposedly does not require a password), but that didn't work. I run into the same problems if I try connecting using the SQL shell (it requires me to enter a password even if I pick postgres as the user) or on the command line using su postgres.

Searching on Google for similar problems, it seems that this has something to do with the pg_hba.conf file, but I cannot locate it. Somebody pointed out that on mac it should be in Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/data folder, but I do not have rights to access this folder. Typing locate pg_hba.conf in the command line returns nothing. If I understand correctly (and I'm sure I don't as I've never used a database server before and I am no UNIX expert), the server is not recognizing me as the administrator, or superuser.

Is there something extremely obvious I do not know about initializing PostgreSQL (I searched through the documentation for "getting started" and post-installation configuration, but did not find anything that would obviously be related to this issue)? Could this be a problem with the installation of PostgreSQL? Might I have to change something in my environment?

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There are several pre-packaged postgresql around for OSX, and each one of them has different ways to "get started". A first step would be to identify which package you use. Or at least where you downloaded it from. –  Daniel Vérité Feb 8 '13 at 15:38
    
Thank you for your reply. I installed Postgresql 9.1 using macports, which has installed it in opt/local/lib/postgresql91 and created a bin folder with psql and other unix executable file. I have edited my .profile to include the path to the postgresql91/bin and ran source ~/.profile. echo $PATH confirms the path is there. But when I type psql in the command line (which, as mentioned by depesz is what I need to use to get postgresql started and to set user privileges and passwords), I get "command not found". –  user2054545 Feb 8 '13 at 18:48

1 Answer 1

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You need to switch to system account postgres. Usually this is done using su - postgres. If that doesn't work - I can't help as it looks like operating system level issue.

When you'll be on postgres system account, you can edit pg_hba.conf, and, usually, you will be able to connect to pg, without password, using just plain psql.

On some systems, instead of using su, people use sudo, in which case you can try sudo su - postgres.

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Thank you very much. Indeed, when I do sudo su - postgres, I get into postgres. Where can I learn what to do from there? My goal is to connect to postgres from python and create and build a database from there. –  user2054545 Feb 8 '13 at 15:02
    
Use psql to connect to PostgreSQL, set some passwords (alter user ... with password '...'), and then try to connect from your normal system account to some database account. When you'll have it working, you can use your Python/whatever application normally. –  user80168 Feb 8 '13 at 15:04
    
Well, sorry but that's not PostgreSQL problem, but rather OS issue. You have to have correct PATH set, and I have no idea what is the path that will work on Mac. –  user80168 Feb 8 '13 at 15:17

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