Question Of Postgresql
 

Why i typed psql, it would be prompt a msg:

[root@localhost local]# psql
psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?


And How do I know it is install properly?


Thks

How did you install it? Did you actually start the postmaster (ps aux will give you a list of everything that's running)?

It did not show the service something like pgsql..! so I think it is not running!
But Why it was prompt as following msg when I typed psql?

[root@localhost local]# psql
psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

You have to start the postmaster (the daemon that accepts client connections) before you can connect to the PostgreSQL server. I do this through the pg_ctl utility that is installed in /usr/local/pgsql/bin (it might be somewhere else on your system, depending on how stuff is installed). There's copious documentation about this at the PostgreSQL Web site, which I suggest you read if you're having trouble. I've only tinkered with Postgres, and never used it seriously, so I'm afraid I can't help much more than this.

I planned to install again the new version postgresql 7.4.5; What different to install by rpm / tar.gz?

The difference between the RPM and the tar.gz is the RPM is already compiled and configured to run. The tar.gz is the source code which needs to be compiled and configured. As a newbie I would use the RPM and then upgrade once I've become more familar with the server

psql is the command line client and as stated postmaster is the database server. Since the server is a network application it runs by default on port 5432.