Completely uninstall PostgreSQL 9.0.4 from Mac OSX Lion?

macos postgresql osx-lion uninstallation
Ramy picture Ramy · Nov 7, 2011 · Viewed 290.2k times · Source

This question may look like a duplicate of: How to uninstall postgresql on my Mac (running Snow Leopard) however, there are two major differences. I'm running Lion and I'm trying to uninstall PostgreSQL 9.0.4. I've looked at the last question and the link that it referenced, but I did not find a file called "uninstall-postgresql" when I run this command:

sudo find / -name "*uninstall-*"

So, I assume this means that the uninstall process for 9.0.4 is different than that of 8.x.

I've seen a couple of posts in different places describing a method for manual uninstallation but, similarly, some of the directories/files referenced are not present on my machine.

Any assistance or direction you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Just for reference, this is the link the other poster used to uninstall postgres from snow leopard. As I tried to step through these commands, most of them choked with some variant of "command not found".

UPDATE:

In addition to brew uninstall postgres, should I remove any of the following files/directories manually? Keep in mind I want to completely wipe the slate clean, no data files/database tables or anything.

> sudo find / -name "*postgres*"             
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/doc/activerecord-3.1.1/rdoc/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter_rb.html
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/doc/activerecord-3.1.1/ri/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/PostgreSQLAdapter/postgresql_version-i.ri
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/doc/arel-2.2.1/rdoc/lib/arel/visitors/postgresql_rb.html
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-3.1.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/arel-2.2.1/lib/arel/visitors/postgresql.rb
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/arel-2.2.1/test/visitors/test_postgres.rb
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/railties-3.1.1/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/templates/config/databases/jdbcpostgresql.yml
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/railties-3.1.1/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/templates/config/databases/postgresql.yml
/Library/WebServer/Documents/postgresql
/Library/WebServer/Documents/postgresql/html/app-postgres.html
/Library/WebServer/Documents/postgresql/html/postgres-user.html
/private/etc/apache2/users/postgres.conf
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/groups/_postgres.plist
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/postgres's Public Folder.plist
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/_postgres.plist
/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/postgres.plist
/System/Library/DirectoryServices/DefaultLocalDB/Default/groups/_postgres.plist
/System/Library/DirectoryServices/DefaultLocalDB/Default/users/_postgres.plist
/Users/postgres
/Users/remcat/dev/working/startwire/vendor/plugins/foreign_keys/lib/foreign_keys/postgresql_adapter.rb
/Users/remcat/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/postgres_DCCEF98F-4602-5FF7-964F-5E717AC007B4.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Caches/Homebrew/postgresql-9.0.4.tar.bz2
/Users/remcat/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari/History/http:%2F%2Fwww.postgresql.org%2Fdocs%2Fcurrent%2Fstatic%2Findex.html.webhistory
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194716_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194742_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194757_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-194958_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-203352_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/postgres_2011-11-06-203359_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194716_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194742_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194757_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-194958_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-203352_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.postgres_2011-11-06-203359_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash.plist
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194716_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194742_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194757_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-194958_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-203352_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/postgres_2011-11-06-203359_Ramys-MacBook-Pro.crash
/Users/remcat/Library/Saved Application State/org.postgresql.pgadmin.savedState
/usr/bin/postgres_real
/usr/include/postgres_ext.h
/usr/include/postgresql
/usr/include/postgresql/internal/postgres_fe.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres_ext.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres_fe.h
/usr/lib/postgresql
/usr/local/Library/Aliases/postgres
/usr/local/Library/Formula/postgresql.rb
/usr/local/var/postgres
/usr/local/var/postgres/postgresql.conf
/usr/share/devicemgr/backend/vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
/usr/share/devicemgr/backend/vendor/rails/railties/configs/databases/postgresql.yml
/usr/share/devicemgr/webserver/gems/gems/eventmachine-0.12.10/lib/em/protocols/postgres3.rb
/usr/share/man/man1/postgres.1.gz
/usr/share/postgresql
/usr/share/postgresql/postgres.bki
/usr/share/postgresql/postgres.description
/usr/share/postgresql/postgres.shdescription
/usr/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf
/usr/share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample

Answer

user1181328 picture user1181328 · Feb 11, 2012

The following is the un-installation for PostgreSQL 9.1 installed using the EnterpriseDB installer. You most probably have to replace folder /9.1/ with your version number. If /Library/Postgresql/ doesn't exist then you probably installed PostgreSQL with a different method like homebrew or Postgres.app.

To remove the EnterpriseDB One-Click install of PostgreSQL 9.1:

  1. Open a terminal window. Terminal is found in: Applications->Utilities->Terminal

  2. Run the uninstaller:

    sudo /Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/uninstall-postgresql.app/Contents/MacOS/installbuilder.sh

    If you installed with the Postgres Installer, you can do:

    open /Library/PostgreSQL/9.2/uninstall-postgresql.app

    It will ask for the administrator password and run the uninstaller.

  3. Remove the PostgreSQL and data folders. The Wizard will notify you that these were not removed.

    sudo rm -rf /Library/PostgreSQL

  4. Remove the ini file:

    sudo rm /etc/postgres-reg.ini

  5. Remove the PostgreSQL user using System Preferences -> Users & Groups.

    1. Unlock the settings panel by clicking on the padlock and entering your password.
    2. Select the PostgreSQL user and click on the minus button.

  6. Restore your shared memory settings:

    sudo rm /etc/sysctl.conf

That should be all! The uninstall wizard would have removed all icons and start-up applications files so you don't have to worry about those.

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