PSQL Account Management on Linux and OS X
The following topics provide information on Linux and OS X user accounts with respect to operation of PSQL. Use of the .bash shell is assumed, but similar instructions should apply to other shells.
After Installation Behavior
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User psql has no password and can be accessed only through the root account using su.
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You can access the .bash_profile for user psql with ~psql/.bash_profile.
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All PSQL files have user:group ownership psql:pvsw
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You must be logged in as root to run the start and stop scripts for the PSQL engines.
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You can run utilities on other user accounts if you add needed environment variables to the user .bash_profile or system /etc/profile. See Using Utilities from Users Other Than psql.
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In addition to the instructions under Using Utilities from Users Other Than psql, users other than ROOT must be a member of the group pvsw to perform functionality with the following utilities:
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PSQL Control Center (PCC) to administer the local server.
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License Administrator utility (clilcadm) for functions other than displaying current licenses.
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Named Database Maintenance utility (dbmaint) for functions other than displaying current databases.
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PSQL Services Registry Editor (psregedit) for functions other than displaying the registry.
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Command line configuration (bcfg).
The User Environment
The single environment variable $PVSW_ROOT is used to determine the location of installed components.
The generic location for configuration files are $PVSW_ROOT/etc.
For executable files, the location is $PVSW_ROOT/bin.
For shared libraries (32-bit) the location is $PVSW_ROOT/lib; for shared libraries (64-bit) the location is $PVSW_ROOT/lib64.
We recommend that you add $PVSW_ROOT/bin to your PATH environment variable.
As described in the next topic, add $PVSW_ROOT/lib64 to LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Linux and to DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on OS X.
If you are using the 32-bit Client Access package, you also must add $PVSW_ROOT/lib to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. This 32-bit package is not supported on OS X.
Using Utilities from Users Other Than psql
To use utilities from user accounts other than psql, you must first make modifications to the user account configuration. Copy the lines from the following example to either the profile for a specific user or to the /etc profile that all users inherit.
/home/username/.bash_profile
/Users/username/.bash_profile
Profile for the user. Similar to /etc/profile but only for the current user.
Look for this file in /home/username on Linux or in /Users/username on OS X.
/etc/profile
Default profile for all user accounts on the system. Use this profile to grant access to PSQL utilities to all user accounts.
Changing this profile according to the example given does not grant administrative privileges or access to PSQL data.
Examples of a Modified Profile
Be sure to export all variables specific to PSQL.
Linux
PVSW_ROOT=/usr/local/psql
PATH=$PATH:$PVSW_ROOT/bin:/bin:/usr/bin
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PVSW_ROOT/lib64:$PVSW_ROOT/lib:$PVSW_ROOT/bin:/usr/lib
MANPATH=$MANPATH:$PVSW_ROOT/man
OS X
PVSW_ROOT=/usr/local/psql
PATH=$PATH:$PVSW_ROOT/bin:/bin:/usr/bin
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PVSW_ROOT/lib64:$PVSW_ROOT/lib:$PVSW_ROOT/bin:/usr/lib
MANPATH=$MANPATH:$PVSW_ROOT/man