Re: changing user id

Russell Davie <rjrd@exemail.com.au> writes:
> postgres@XXXXX:~$ /etc/init.d/postgresql-7.4 start
> chmod: changing permissions of `/var/run/postgresql': Operation not permitted
>  * Starting PostgreSQL 7.4 database server:main
> Error: Could not change user id                                     [fail]

init scripts generally expect to be launched as root.  Perhaps
    sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-7.4 start
would work better.  Actually, I believe that on modern systems
you're not really supposed to invoke an init script directly like
that at all, but instead through the "service" program; that is,
you should really be typing something like
    sudo /sbin/service postgresql-7.4 start

            regards, tom lane