postgres does not know where to find the server configuration file

[mxcl]

Posting for discussion.

Surely, surely, we should have this default to something?

$ postgres
postgres does not know where to find the server configuration file.
You must specify the --config-file or -D invocation option or set the PGDATA environment variable.

[mxcl]

At least we should configure postgres to have a default place that it looks for its configuration.

[MikeMcQuaid]

Agreed.

[mxcl]

Possibly this is what is required: --sysconfdir=#{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/etc/postgres

[adamv]

Did that work?

[BlakeGardner]

I tried recompiling with that option and it was a no-go. After asking around in IRC and reading the documents i was told that there's no way to compile in a default server configuration file.

[nandub]

You can add this to the caveat on the formula to specify location of server configuration
export PGDATA=/usr/local/var/postgres

[mxcl]

I guess the caveat is the best we can do then. Thanks for asking around @BlakeGardner.

[petere]

Normally you would install an init script or equivalent that encodes the location of the data directory.