Postgres on Rails FATAL: database does not exist

Question

I've reinstalled Postgres (9.2.4) and I'm having trouble getting it set back up with Rails 3.2.11. I did:

brew install postgresql
initdb /usr/local/var/postgres
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start

So now I have

$ psql --version
psql (PostgreSQL) 9.2.4
$ which psql
/usr/local/bin/psql

My database.yml file looks like

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: myapp_development
  pool: 5
  username: Tyler
  password:
  host: localhost
  port: 5432

And when I run rake db:create:all then rake db:migrate I get the error:

PG::Error: ERROR:  relation "posts" does not exist
LINE 5:              WHERE a.attrelid = '"posts"'::regclass
                                    ^
:         SELECT a.attname, format_type(a.atttypid, a.atttypmod),
                 pg_get_expr(d.adbin, d.adrelid), a.attnotnull, a.atttypid, a.atttypmod
          FROM pg_attribute a LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d
            ON a.attrelid = d.adrelid AND a.attnum = d.adnum
         WHERE a.attrelid = '"posts"'::regclass
           AND a.attnum > 0 AND NOT a.attisdropped
         ORDER BY a.attnum

I have tried to clear out everything related to past db, migrations, etc.

I've deleted the schema.rb, seed.rb, and all files in the migrations folder, and anything else I can think of. But the error referring to "posts" makes me think there is still some old reference to my prior database (which had a table called "posts").

Does anyone know how to troubleshoot this error, when trying to completely reinstall/refresh my database?

This sounds like your migration files are not consistent. Are you sure you are creating `posts` before referencing it? — iltempo, Jul 29 '13 at 20:30
I tried putting only the first migration file in the migration folder (which does not reference posts anywhere), and I still get the problem. I also tried removing ALL migration files, and I still get the message... — Tyler, Jul 29 '13 at 20:31
Are you trying to access the database at the class level in any of your models? — usha, Jul 29 '13 at 20:33

score 79 · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-17T19:50:24.763

79

I was having a similar problem. I checked different websites and tried what they suggested but didn't work. Then I tried what you suggested. rake db:create:all and rake db:migrate it worked for me. Thank you!

edited Dec 17 '13 at 19:50

answered Dec 17 '13 at 19:21

5

this wasn't working for me until I adde bundle exec. `bundle exec rake db:create:all`. Thanks! – acrogenesis Sep 04 '15 at 16:18

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 29 '13 at 23:17

4

You need to create the databases first. Run rake db:create:all

Also make sure your yml file is set up correctly for postgres.

answered Oct 29 '13 at 23:17

user2329711

61
2

N. S. · Answer 3 · 2018-02-14T10:20:16.013

2

db:create:all and db:migrate did not work for me first. I changed my database name from development.pg to developmentpg in myapp/config/database.yml file:

database: db/developmentpg

and then rake db:create:all and rake db:migrate, it worked for me.

Thank you

edited Feb 14 '18 at 10:20

answered May 09 '15 at 13:42

N. S.

159
7

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 04 '17 at 10:51

0

I tried running rake db:create:all, which didn't work. However, running bundle exec rake db:create:all worked for me.

Hope this helps!

answered Jan 04 '17 at 10:51

remi466

1

Postgres on Rails FATAL: database does not exist

4 Answers4

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