Joana Camacho <joanacmch@gmail.com> writes:
> I'm using Postgresql 8.7.3 on Debian. I was trying to launch the postgresql
> server to create a simple user and a database, but I've got this output:
Did you look into the postmaster logfile? It's not clear from this if
it failed to start (if so it should have put a message in the logfile)
or if it started but is not listening where createuser expects the
socket to be. createuser says it expects it at "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"
which is the standard place on most platforms; but I think Debian
prefers something under /var/run, so you could be running into a problem
of having partially absorbed some Debian preferences.
You could also try using ps to confirm whether the postmaster is running
and if so use lsof on it to see where its socket is.
regards, tom lane