PostgreSQL Fink Notes

the Fink distribution of Postgres (as of 8.2.4) contains a startup script to help start/stop the service; more information is available from the info file of the package:

$ fink info postgresql82
Information about 7342 packages read in 1 seconds.

postgresql82-8.2.4-1021: PostgreSQL open-source database
 .
 Usage Notes:
 The package runs initdb on installation as the user 'postgres'.
 .
 The best way to run it is using the supplied pgsql.sh script, i.e.
 'sudo pgsql.sh start'.  Or, you can run
 'sudo daemonic enable postgresql82' as root to create a
 StartupItem for it.
 .
 Unless you set up admin users in the database, the easiest way to
 run psql commands with administrator access is to prefix them with
 the command "sudo -u postgres".  This will ask you your administrator
 password, and then run the command as the postgres user.
 .
 For example, to create a new database, you would run:
 .
   sudo -u postgres createdb mydb
 .
 Web site: http://www.postgresql.org/
 .
 Maintainer: Benjamin Reed <postgresql82@fink.racoonfink.com>

you may need to modify your memory settings to accommodate PostgreSQL before it will start:

http://wiki.finkproject.org/index.php/Shared_Memory_Regions_on_Darwin

Shared Memory Regions on Darwin
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Shared memory regions are set during the system's startup. Unfortunately, once the shared memory
regions have been configured on Mac OS X, it appears they can't be changed. Here's how to
increase them on your system.

Edit /etc/sysctl.conf and set higher numbers there:

 kern.sysv.shmmax=16777216
 kern.sysv.shmmin=1
 kern.sysv.shmmni=64
 kern.sysv.shmseg=8
 kern.sysv.shmall=32768


These settings are contained within /etc/rc as of 10.4 and 10.3.9 (and perhaps other versions)

Remember to set all of the 5 values above, otherwise your settings will be overriden by /etc/rc.