In Rails, Couldn't create database for {“adapter”=>“postgresql”,

Question

I\'m trying to run rake db:create or rake db:setup but I get the following error. It\'s strange because rake db:create it\'s working f

Answer 1

I encountered an identical issue and was able to solve the error by:

1. using postgresapp.com (recommended by heroku in https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgresql#local-setup),

2. adding to config/database.yml

   host: localhost
   

3. resetting shared memory settings as recommended in troubleshooting section of http://postgresapp.com/documentation:

   sudo sysctl -w kern.sysv.shmall=65536
   sudo sysctl -w kern.sysv.shmmax=16777216
   

Answer 2

The answer from zquintana above worked for me with a few small caveats.

My solution (using Homebrew):

1. If you have the gem installed gem uninstall pg
2. Remove old copy of postgresql brew uninstall postgresql
3. Re-install postgresql brew install postgresql
4. The install notes mention:

To have launchd start postgresql at login:

ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/postgresql/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Then to load postgresql now:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist

Or, if you don't want/need launchctl, you can just run:

postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres

4. So run ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/postgresql/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents

5. Then launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist

6. Now re-install the gem with the Homebrew configs gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/usr/local/bin/pg_config

7. Now run your rake db:create

Answer 3

First, you will need to create your user manually in Postgres, while granting privilege of database creation (AKA createdb) for this user.

To do so, first, open Postgres shell prompt

$ sudo -u postgres psql

Create your user

postgres=# create role Your_DB_username with createdb login password 'YOUR_PASSWORD';

Exit from Postgres shell

postgres=# \q

Do whatever db-related rake task:

$ rake db:create

And it will work!

Answer 4

I installed PG on Mac OS X via Homebrew (I didn't realize it came default in Mac OS X), and had the same problem. I may have made the problem worse by installing the pg gem before installing pg via Homebrew.

I solved this same problem by doing the following:

1. Make sure that all binaries are pointing to binaries in Cellar directory (/usr/local/Cellar on Mac OS X)
2. Uninstall pg gem gem uninstall pg
3. Reinstall with Homebrew configs gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/usr/local/bin/pg_config (if you created a rails project with pg setup, this is explained in your database.yml config file)

And it worked!

Answer 5

Simple add host: localhost to your database.yml

For more detail please visit rake db:create:all fails to connect to PostgreSQL database

Answer 6

Solved!

Solution was simple to update current installed gems.

Another solution to try is set host: localhost or whatever host you use on development settings on database.yml file.