CommandError: You appear not to have the 'psql' program installed or on your path

Question

I'm using Windows, no virtualenv. I have psycopg2 installed with Pip, and the latest version of PostgreSQL installed as well.

When I run ./ manage.py dbshell, I get the following error:

CommandError: You appear not to have the 'psql' program installed or on your path.

When I run ./ manage.py dbshell psql, I get this:

usage: manage.py dbshell [-h] [--version] [-v {0,1,2,3}] [--settings SETTINGS]
                         [--pythonpath PYTHONPATH] [--traceback] [--no-color]
                         [--database DATABASE]
manage.py dbshell: error: unrecognized arguments: psql

I have read a few other posts on this error like this but I don't understand why this is not working for me. I have all the settings properly configured, and all the proper apps installed.

My settings.py:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': 'postgres',
        'USER': 'postgres',
        'PASSWORD': '********',
        'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
        'PORT': '5432',
    }
}

EDIT: I did not add Postgres's /bin folder into my PATH. I just did it and it is working now. Thanks to Daniel Roseman.

Well, is it on your path? What happens if you just run `psql`? — Daniel Roseman, Nov 05 '17 at 20:02
Don't forget to restart the command prompt after you have updated the PATH environment variable to reflect the changes. — Ahtisham, Aug 29 '18 at 07:13

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 05 '20 at 11:38

5

In Windows I solved by adding this to PATH environment:

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\12\bin

then restart terminals and IDEs

Path Environment PATH

How to add a folder to Path environment variable in Windows

answered Nov 05 '20 at 11:38

Jorge Dri

51
1
4

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 19 '18 at 10:33

0

For mac, run command brew install postgres.

In case, your machine don't have brew installed, follow this to install brew. Or run command

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

answered Jul 19 '18 at 10:33

kartikmaji

946
7
22

Super Kai - Kazuya Ito · Answer 3 · 2022-09-06T19:18:48.607

I got the same error on Windows 11:

python manage.py dbshell

CommandError: You appear not to have the 'psql' program installed or on your path.

Even though I installed "psycopg2":

pip install psycopg2

So, I added the path "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\<version>\bin" to Path of User variables or System variables which are under Environment Variables, then I could solve the error. *In my case, <version> is 14 as shown below:

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\14\bin

score -2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 05 '17 at 22:58

-2

Is postgresql installed on your machine.

Apart from:

pip install psycopg2

you need to install postgres:

sudo apt-get install postgres

answered Nov 05 '17 at 22:58

Zeeshan Abid

43
5

Maybe you mean `sudo apt-get install postgresql` ? – Nico Knoll Jun 27 '23 at 13:50

CommandError: You appear not to have the 'psql' program installed or on your path

4 Answers4

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