PG::ConnectionBad - could not connect to server: C

Question

Everytime I run my rails 4.0 server, I get this output.

Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-11-06 23:56:36 -0500

PG::ConnectionBad - could not connect to server: Connection refused
Is the server running on host "localhost" (::1) and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?
could not connect to server: Connection refused
Is the server running on host "localhost" (127.0.0.1) and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?
could not connect to server: Connection refused
Is the server running on host "localhost" (fe80::1) and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?
:
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:825:in `connect'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:542:in `initialize'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:41:in `postgresql_connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:440:in `new_connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:450:in `checkout_new_connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:421:in `acquire_connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:356:in `block in checkout'
 /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:355:in `checkout'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:265:in `block in connection'
 /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:264:in `connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:546:in `retrieve_connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:79:in `retrieve_connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:53:in `connection'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/migration.rb:792:in `current_version'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/migration.rb:800:in `needs_migration?'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/migration.rb:379:in `check_pending!'
 activerecord (4.0.0) lib/active_record/migration.rb:366:in `call'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:29:in `block in call'
 activesupport (4.0.0) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:373:in `_run__1613334440513032208__call__callbacks'
 activesupport (4.0.0) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:80:in `run_callbacks'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:27:in `call'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/reloader.rb:64:in `call'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/remote_ip.rb:76:in `call'
 better_errors (0.9.0) lib/better_errors/middleware.rb:84:in `protected_app_call'
 better_errors (0.9.0) lib/better_errors/middleware.rb:79:in `better_errors_call'
 better_errors (0.9.0) lib/better_errors/middleware.rb:56:in `call'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/debug_exceptions.rb:17:in `call'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb:30:in `call'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:38:in `call_app'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:21:in `block in call'
 activesupport (4.0.0) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:67:in `block in tagged'
 activesupport (4.0.0) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:25:in `tagged'
 activesupport (4.0.0) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:67:in `tagged'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:21:in `call'
 quiet_assets (1.0.2) lib/quiet_assets.rb:18:in `call_with_quiet_assets'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/request_id.rb:21:in `call'
 rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/methodoverride.rb:21:in `call'
 rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/runtime.rb:17:in `call'
 activesupport (4.0.0) lib/active_support/cache/strategy/local_cache.rb:83:in `call'
 rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/lock.rb:17:in `call'
 actionpack (4.0.0) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/static.rb:64:in `call'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/engine.rb:511:in `call'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/application.rb:97:in `call'
 rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/content_length.rb:14:in `call'
 thin (1.5.1) lib/thin/connection.rb:81:in `block in pre_process'
 thin (1.5.1) lib/thin/connection.rb:79:in `pre_process'
 thin (1.5.1) lib/thin/connection.rb:54:in `process'
 thin (1.5.1) lib/thin/connection.rb:39:in `receive_data'
 eventmachine (1.0.3) lib/eventmachine.rb:187:in `run'
 thin (1.5.1) lib/thin/backends/base.rb:63:in `start'
 thin (1.5.1) lib/thin/server.rb:159:in `start'
 rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/handler/thin.rb:16:in `run'
 rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/server.rb:264:in `start'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/commands/server.rb:84:in `start'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/commands.rb:78:in `block in <top (required)>'
 railties (4.0.0) lib/rails/commands.rb:73:in `<top (required)>'
 bin/rails:4:in `<main>'

I'm running Mavericks OS X 10.9 so I don't know if that's the problem. I've tried everything I could but nothing seems to work. I've uninstalled and install both postgres and the pg gem multiple times now.

This is my database.yml file

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: metals-directory_development
  pool: 5
  username: 
  password: 
  template: template0
  host: localhost
  port: 5432

test: &test
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: metals-directory_test
  pool: 5
  username: 
  password: 
  template: template0
  host: localhost
  port: 5432

staging:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: metals-directory_production
  pool: 5
  username:
  password:
  template: template0
  host: localhost

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: metals-directory_production
  pool: 5
  username:
  password:
  template: template0
  host: localhost

cucumber:
  <<: *test

Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

I had the same problem, this explanation solved it for me: http://blog.55minutes.com/2013/09/postgresql-93-brew-upgrade/

key step was looking at the tail of my /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log , that let me see what the real problem was, which was that i hadn't fully completed the process of upgrading PostgreSQL

Answer 2

It could be as simple as a stale PID file. It could be failing silently because your computer didn't complete the shutdown process completely which means postgres didn't delete the PID (process id) file.

The PID file is used by postgres to make sure only one instance of the server is running at a time. So when it goes to start again, it fails because there is already a PID file which tells postgres that another instance of the server was started (even though it isn't running, it just didn't get to shutdown and delete the PID).

1. To fix it remove/rename the PID file. Find the postgres data directory. On a MAC using homebrew it is /usr/local/var/postgres/, other systems it might be /usr/var/postgres/.
2. To make sure this is the problem, look at the log file (server.log). On the last lines you will see:

FATAL: lock file "postmaster.pid" already exists
HINT: Is another postmaster (PID 347) running in data directory "/usr/local/var/postgres"?

3. If so, rm postmaster.pid

4. Restart your server. On a mac using launchctl (with homebrew) the following commands will restart the server.

   launchctl unload homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist  
   launchctl load -w homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist
   

   OR on newer versions of Brew

   brew services restart postgresql
   

Answer 3

It was definitely @Chris Slade's answer which helped me.

I wrote a little script to kill those remaining processes if usefull:

kill_postgres() {
  if [[ $* -eq "" ]]; then
    echo "Usage: 'kill_postgres <db_name>' to kill remaining instances (Eg. 'kill_postgres my_app_development')"
  else
    gksudo echo "Granted sudo"
    pids="$(ps xa | grep postgres | grep $* | awk '{print $1}' | xargs)"
    if [[ $pids -eq "" ]]; then
      echo "Nothing to kill"
    else
      for pid in "${pids[@]}"
      do
        echo "Killing ${pid}"
        sudo kill $pid
        echo "Killed ${pid}"
      done
      kill_postgres $*
    fi
  fi
}

Answer 4

If you hit this problem after doing a brew upgrade which upgraded postgres to a new major version (f.ex 9.3.0 to 9.4.0 or higher), then do this:

@dmitrygusev's fix from https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/35240

Following official [Postgresql] migration guide helped:

brew switch postgres 9.3.5    # presuming you already installed 9.4.1
pg_dumpall > outputfile
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist
mv /usr/local/var/postgres /usr/local/var/postgres.old
brew switch postgres 9.4.1
initdb -D /usr/local/var/postgres
psql -d postgres -f outputfile

That's all. Check if import went well, then delete backups:

rm outputfile
rm -Rf /usr/local/var/postgres.old

The issue here is that on a major version upgrade of postgres, it's necessary to recreate/migrate your database. And possibly chown directories or manually call initdb.

See also: How to upgrade PostgreSQL from version 9.5 to version 9.6 without losing data?

---

Some other tips, that might come handy, in case you're not using Homebrew:

How to stop PG server manually:

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log stop

How to start PG server manually:

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start

Answer 5

put host: localhost in database.yml file and run this command:

rake db:create db:migrate  

Answer 6

This is what really helped me.

$ cd /usr/local/var/postgres/
$ rm postmaster.pid

Reference: http://alumni.lewagon.org/questions/60