How to add a new user that I can log in as with "su -l"

[markpatterson]

Hi,

I'm trying to get into PostgreSQL. I've installed it, following the instructions here: http://developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/postgres.html

Where I had to add a user I added it with NetInfo Manager, following the page that postgres site referred to: http://developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/osdb.html

But when I try to log in as postgres, I don't change user, so the next command fails with permission problems.

Pattersons-eMac:~ mark$ su -l postgres         
Password:
su: /dev/null: Permission denied

or

Pattersons-eMac:/usr/local/pgsql root# su -l postgres
su: /dev/null: Permission denied

or variations on that theme.
Does anyone recognise what this could be?

Regards,
Mark

 

[Viro]

Try

sudo su -l postgres

 

[scruffy]

su requires the password of the user you're going to su to, unless you're going from being root. Giving your postgres user a password, shell, and valid home directory would be a very bad idea, and unnecessarily being root is a slightly bad habit. sudo is definitely what you want.

Incidentally, you can also

sudo -s -u postgres

for the same effect, which will give you a shell, or

sudo -u postgres (whatever command)

which will just do the one command as postgres, and has the advantage, from a manageability point of view, that each command gets logged (to system.log or secure.log, I can't recall which). Then if something is messed up, you can check exactly who did what. Can be useful for debugging.

 

[markpatterson]

Try

sudo su -l postgres

Hey! That worked:

Pattersons-eMac:~ mark$ sudo su -l postgres
Password:
Pattersons-eMac:~ postgres$

Now, why didn't I think of that? I entered only my password.

Thanks

 

[markpatterson]

su requires the password of the user you're going to su to, unless you're going from being root.

OK, that's useful to have cleared up

Giving your postgres user a password, shell, and valid home directory would be a very bad idea,

Yes, I agree, that's why I used NetInfo manager rather than System Preferences.

sudo -s -u postgres

for the same effect, which will give you a shell, or

I tried that and it worked as well as Viro's sudo su -l

Thanks