On Sun, 16 Jun 2002, Joseph Maxwell wrote:
> I am setting up PostgreSQL version 7.2.1, with all default settings on a
> BSD platform ,4.5-RELEASE FreeBSD.
> I have created user postgres and chown /usr/local/pgsql/data to
> postgres. Kept postgres group as wheel. On initialization of the
> database the following was obtained:==>
>
> hostname# initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
> /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb: cannot create /dev/null:
> permission denied
> /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb: cannot create /dev/null:
> permission denied
> The program
> '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres'
> needed by initdb does not belong to PostgreSQL version 7.2.1,
> or
> there may be a configuration problem.
>
> This was the error message issued by that program:
> /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb: cannot create /dev/null:
> permission denied
>
> Should this be run as root, since it is attempting to do a 'create
> /dev/null', the Administrator's Guide shows that it should be executed
> as postgres. [All executables in /usr/local/pgsql/bin have 755
> permissions.
> Advice, solutions?
I'd guess that's from redirecting output or error to /dev/null (which
should probably already exist). Does it already exist and have reasonable
permissions?