Re: BUG #15810: Using custom directory on external HDD gives permission error

Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz> writes:
> On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 04:15:39PM +0000, PG Bug reporting form wrote:
>> Is there some way to circumvent this check without changing format
>> of the HDD?

> That's weird.  If the data folder fed to initdb already exists and is
> empty, then permissions on the path are enforced to 0700 or 0750 (if
> using --allow-group-access) automatically to prevent this error when
> starting Postgres for bootstrapping.

I think we do a chmod but we don't then check to see if stat reports
the correct permissions.  IIUC, the reporter is using a filesystem
that lacks permissions altogether and is just ignoring the chmod.
So later checks fail.

I'm kind of disinclined to provide a way to skip the permissions
check though, especially in view of the fact that there's no good
reason to use a Windows filesystem as native storage for Unix.
There are other things that are likely to not work either, eg
symlinks for tablespaces.

            regards, tom lane