Postgres is not in the sudoers file

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The error message “postgres is not in the sudoers file” occurs when the user “postgres” does not have the necessary privileges to execute commands with superuser (root) permissions using “sudo”. This error usually occurs on Unix-like systems, including Linux and macOS.

To explain it in detail, “sudo” is a command used to execute programs with the security privileges of another user, usually the root user. By default, only users with administrative rights, specified in the sudoers file, are allowed to use sudo.

The sudoers file is a configuration file that contains information about who can run commands with root privileges using sudo. It is usually located at “/etc/sudoers” or “/etc/sudoers.d/“. Modifications to the sudoers file should be done with caution, as incorrect changes can lead to system issues.

In the case of the error message “postgres is not in the sudoers file”, it means that the user “postgres” is not listed in the sudoers file or does not have the necessary permissions to execute commands as root.

To fix this issue, you can follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal or command prompt.
  2. Switch to a user with administrative privileges or log in as the root user.
  3. Open the sudoers file using a text editor. For example, you can use the following command:

    sudo visudo

    This command ensures that the sudoers file is being edited with the correct syntax and prevents simultaneous edits by other users.

  4. Locate the section in the sudoers file where user privileges are defined. It may look similar to the following:

    ## User privilege specification
      root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

    Add a line below this section to grant sudo privileges to the user “postgres”. For example (assuming “postgres” is the username):

    postgres  ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

    Save the changes and exit the text editor.

  5. Test whether the changes in the sudoers file have taken effect by running a command with sudo using the “postgres” user. For example:

    sudo -u postgres whoami

    If the command executes without the error message, then the issue has been resolved.

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