psql: FATAL: Peer authentication failed for user "dev"

Question

when i create a new user, but it cannot login the database.
I do that like this:

postgres@Aspire:/home/XXX$ createuser dev
Shall the new role be a superuser? (y/n) n
Shall the new role be allowed to create databases? (y/n) y
Shall the new role be allowed to create more new roles? (y/n) y

then create a database:

postgres@Aspire:/home/XXX$ createdb -O dev test_development

after that, I try psql -U dev -W test_development to login, but get the error:

psql: FATAL:  Peer authentication failed for user "dev"

I tried to solve the problem but failed.

Answer 1

Try:

psql -U user_name  -h 127.0.0.1 -d db_name

where

• -U is the database user name
• -h is the hostname/IP of the local server, thus avoiding Unix domain sockets
• -d is the database name to connect to

This is then evaluated as a "network" connection by Postgresql rather than a Unix domain socket connection, thus not evaluated as a "local" connect as you might see in pg_hba.conf:

local   all             all                                     peer

Answer 2

Your connection failed because by default psql connects over UNIX sockets using peer authentication, that requires the current UNIX user to have the same user name as psql. So you will have to create the UNIX user dev and then login as dev or use sudo -u dev psql test_development for accessing the database (and psql should not ask for a password).

If you cannot or do not want to create the UNIX user, like if you just want to connect to your database for ad hoc queries, forcing a socket connection using psql --host=localhost --dbname=test_development --username=dev (as pointed out by @meyerson answer) will solve your immediate problem.

But if you intend to force password authentication over Unix sockets instead of the peer method, try changing the following pg_hba.conf* line:

from

# TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD
local  all      all          peer

to

# TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD
local  all      all          md5

• peer means it will trust the identity (authenticity) of UNIX user. So not asking for a password.

• md5 means it will always ask for a password, and validate it after hashing with MD5.

You can, of course, also create more specific rules for a specific database or user, with some users having peer and others requiring passwords.

After changing pg_hba.conf if PostgreSQL is running you'll need to make it re-read the configuration by reloading (pg_ctl reload) or restarting (sudo service postgresql restart).

^{* The file pg_hba.conf will most likely be at /etc/postgresql/9.x/main/pg_hba.conf}

Edited: Remarks from @Chloe, @JavierEH, @Jonas Eicher, @fccoelho, @Joanis, @Uphill_What comments incorporated into answer.