Postgresql -bash: psql: command not found

linux postgresql psql
Peter picture Peter · Jul 22, 2011 · Viewed 139.6k times · Source

I have installed PostgreSQL and it is working ok. However, when I went to restore a backup I got the error -bash: psql: command not found:

 [root@server1 ~]# su postgres
 [postgres@server1 root]$ psql -f all.sql
 bash: psql: command not found
 [postgres@server1 root]$

What have I done wrong?

Answer

Pavel picture Pavel · Mar 30, 2013 
export PATH=/usr/pgsql-9.2/bin:$PATH

The program executable psql is in the directory /usr/pgsql-9.2/bin, and that directory is not included in the path by default, so we have to tell our shell (terminal) program where to find psql. When most packages are installed, they are added to an existing path, such as /usr/local/bin, but not this program.

So we have to add the program's path to the shell PATH variable if we do not want to have to type the complete path to the program every time we execute it.

This line should typically be added to theshell startup script, which for the bash shell will be in the file ~/.bashrc.

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