Recover postgres user in PostgreSQL

Question

I need to recover the superuser privilege for the postgres user, because it lost the superuser qualification.

I cannot do anything in the psql shell, it gives the message

must be superuser to create superusers

The system is Ubuntu 16.04 and PostgreSQL 9.5.
Can I recover this postgres user?

Laurenz Albe · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-23 06:49:21Z

3

If you managed to remove superuser privileges from all your users, you'll have to start the database in single user mode:

Stop the database server as operating system user postgres:

/path/to/postgresql/bin/pg_ctl stop -D /path/to/data/directory

Start the server in single user mode:

/path/to/postgresql/bin/postgres --single -D /path/to/data/directory postgres

Now you are a superuser.

answered Aug 23, 2018 at 6:49

Laurenz Albe

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2 Comments

Thanks Laurenz Albe

@FernandoMiranda if that answer solved your problem, then please accept it so that your question is marked as resolved