missing /etc/postgresql/ after uninstall/reinstall

[Uqbar]

Binary package hint: postgresql

I have uninstalled postgresql-8.1 by mistake but after the re-installation the /etc/postgresql/ directory is missing.
Apparently there's no package that will install that directory.
Any hint?

[Uqbar (uqbar)]

Also /var/lib/postgresql/ is empty.

[Uqbar (uqbar)]

I've fixed the problem by manually reinstalling all postgresql related packages.
I've seen that no .deb package contains that directory so it must be created by the installation scripts.
I have no idea which one created it but I'd say that either the postgresql-common or the postgresql-server should do the "magics",

[xdude (uniqus)]

I have the same problem with postgresql-8.2 on feisty, and I cannot solve this whatever packages I remove/install/reinstall. Directory /ets/postgresql is not created at all, and directory /var/lib/postgresql is created empty. And "/etc/init.d/postgresql-8.2 start" just fails and says nothing. I had a brief look through some scripts in /usr/share/postgresql-common/ and found out that some files are required under /etc/postgresql/8.2/, but I do not know and can not find out what data they should contain. Please help, I do not want to reinstall the whole system just because of one single package, I already spent a lot of time with it configuring tons of drivers, software and so on.

[Kevin Hunter (hunteke)]

After uninstalling 8.1 and installing 8.2, I find that the init.d script does me no good. After some snooping, it appears that this is because I have no DB data, but I did for 8.1. Seems that rather than the script just silently exiting, at least an explanation of /why/ it exited would have saved me 5-10 minutes of scratching my head. On the other hand, I'll bet that the "proper" procedure was to have them both installed side by side, migrate, then uninstall?

[Barthelemy D. (bart-cs)]

Hi guys,

I had exactly the same problem and solved it by purging (instead of just uninstalling or removing) the postgresql-8.2.

Now everything works fine: the /etc/postgresql has been created along with the startup script.

I don't think the difference between remove and purge is obvious and this should be addressed as a more general problem.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

If you remove the package, the existing databases (and thus /etc/postgresql/<version>/<cluster> are kept, and reinstalling it will work.

If you purge, /etc/postgresql will go away, but then that's what you asked for. The directory is called by pg_createcluster, which is used in the postinst script to create a default 'main' cluster, unless another one exists already or the package is upgraded (not installed freshly).

[Uqbar (uqbar)]

Well, but after all, after the re-installation the /etc/postgresql/ directory is missing.
I would expect it to be either kept after an unistall+install or recreated from scratch after a purge+install.
Or am I missing something else?

[Arne Nordmann (launchpad-norro)]

I am expriencing the same problem. After first installation, directory /etc/postgresql/ is missing.
purge+install doesn't help.
Using karmic, postgresql-8.4_8.4.1-1_amd64

[Arne Nordmann (launchpad-norro)]

Purging the postgresql package _and_ all the installed dependencies helped. After that reinstallation created the directory /etc/postgresql/

> aptitude purge postgresql libpq5 libreadline5 postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
> aptitude install postgresql

[joschi (jochen+launchpad-schalanda)]

I experienced the same problem with postgresql-8.4 on Ubuntu 9.10 and Ubuntu 10.04.

After purging postgresql-8.4 and removing the configuration directory /etc/postgresql/, it is not recreated when the package postgresql-8.4 is installed again.

Only removing the user/group "postgres", the directory /var/lib/postgresql/ and running "dpkg -P" on the PostgreSQL packages helped.

IMHO this should be fixed and not be marked as invalid.

I understand the point made by Martin Pitt in comment #7, but I disagree: It would be perfectly sensible if this problem occurred after removing postgresql-8.4 instead of purging it. But purging a package should revert to a state in which a simple `aptitude install <package>` installs the respective files which are needed for the package to run properly.

[Jordon Bedwell (envygeeks)]

Hello Joschi

dpkg -P is a purge. If a package is being uninstalled by apt, synaptics or aptitude and does not properly purge the files, you should file a bug against the respective package manager instead of against postgresql. Thanks for taking the time to help make Ubuntu better.

[joschi (jochen+launchpad-schalanda)]

Hello Jordon,

I beg to differ.

In Debian packages, creating and removing users is the task of the pre-/post-scripts of the package and not the task of DPKG.

If the problem was only that /var/lib/postgresql still existed after purging the postgresql-8.4 package, I'd be completely with you, but it looks like it's a problem with the postgresql-8.4 package itself (or more precisely the postrm script).