psql: error: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: FATAL: Peer authentication failed for user "postgres" (Ubuntu)
Oct 22
When I try to open psql with this command:
psql -U postgres
I get this error:
psql: error: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: FATAL: Peer authentication failed for user "postgres"
But it connects successfully when I use:
sudo -u postgres psql
Can someone please explain what is happening and how to diagnose/fix this problem? My pg_hba.conf contains the following:
# Database administrative login by Unix domain socket
local all postgres peer
# TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local all all md5
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 scram-sha-256
# IPv6 local connections:
host all all ::1/128 scram-sha-256
# Allow replication connections from localhost, by a user with the
# replication privilege.
local replication all peer
ubuntu
postgresql1 answer
Accepted answer · original discussion
Jan 18
You can edit your .conf files with privileges using an editor, for my case it is nano. First edit the pg_ident.conf file:
$sudo nano /etc/postgresql/14/main/pg_ident.conf
Map your user by adding this line
# MAPNAME SYSTEM-USERNAME PG-USERNAME
user1 <computer-username> postgres
Replace the <computer-username> with the System-Username, which can be found using the whoami command. Type in your terminal:
$whoami
Then go ahead to edit the pg_hba.conf file with privileges
$sudo nano /etc/postgresql/14/main/pg_hba.conf
Add your postgres user, with method=peer, as shown below:
# TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD
local all postgres peer
This worked for me.
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