User postgres can't write to /var/lib/postgresql

[Todd Decker]

Unable to write to history log. Seems to be the same problem as bug 32696 which was marked as fixed back in 2006. But, it happens to me too after straight postgress installation on an Ubuntu 14.04 Amazon EC2 instance.

Steps taken to install:

<Stand up EC2 instance>

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib

$ sudo apt-get install pgadmin3

Problem occurs:

ubuntu@ip-172-31-20-201:~$ sudo -u postgres psql postgres
psql (9.3.4)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# \password postgres
Enter new password:
Enter it again:
postgres=# \q
could not save history to file "/var/lib/postgresql/.psql_history": No such file or directory

<ctrl-d>

Listing of /var/lib/postgresql directory:

ubuntu@ip-172-31-20-201:~$ ls -al /var/lib/postgresql
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 3 postgres postgres 4096 Jun 26 14:58 .
drwxr-xr-x 41 root root 4096 Jun 26 14:54 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 postgres postgres 4096 Jun 26 14:54 9.3
-rw------- 1 postgres postgres 19 Jun 26 14:58 .psql_history

Diagnostics

ubuntu@ip-172-31-20-201:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release: 14.04

ubuntu@ip-172-31-20-201:~$ apt-cache policy postgresql
postgresql:
  Installed: 9.3+154
  Candidate: 9.3+154
  Version table:
 *** 9.3+154 0
        500 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Phil (philip-olson-m)]

Same issue - not EC2 instance but home server with default install of postgresql

Diagnostics

Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04

postgresql:
  Installed: 9.3+154
  Candidate: 9.3+154
  Version table:
*** 9.3+154 0
  500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
  100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Maria Vargas (melocoton)]

You need to modify /etc/passwd.
Put the location of your pgsql folder on postgres line and try :
grep postgres /etc/passwd | cut -d ':' -f 6