Postgres error: No existing local cluster is suitable as a default target

Question

I have an old project that I'm trying to get back into, but I can't enter postgres. Running sudo -u postgres psql gives me:

Error: No existing local cluster is suitable as a default target. 
Please see man pg_wrapper(1) how to specify one.

I'm wondering if this might be because I upgraded postgres to version 9.4 a few months back. This is my output for dpkg --get-selections |grep postgres:

postgresql                          install
postgresql-9.3                      install
postgresql-9.4                      install
postgresql-client-9.3               install
postgresql-client-9.4               install
postgresql-client-common            install
postgresql-common                   install
postgresql-contrib                  install
postgresql-contrib-9.3              install
postgresql-contrib-9.4              install
postgresql-server-dev-9.3           install

These are my current clusters from pg_lsclusters:

Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory               Log file
9.4 apps    5434 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/9.4/apps /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.4-apps.log

9.4 main    5433 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/9.4/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.4-main.log

What can I do to be able to access postgres again? Googling hasn't been much help.

Please see man pg_wrapper(1) how to specify one.. So, when you read the documentation.... — Craig Ringer
– Craig Ringer, Commented Jun 30, 2015 at 11:34
I also started getting the same warning because I went from only having the postgres-10 cluster installed to having the postgres-10 and postgres-11 clusters installed — icc97
– icc97, Commented Mar 15, 2020 at 10:07

Daniel Vérité · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-30 10:41:25Z

16

As none of your clusters listens on the default port 5432, psql (which is in fact a link to pg_wrapper) doesn't know which one should be the "default".

You may use psql --cluster 9.4/apps [other arguments] to access the first cluster and psql --cluster 9.4/main [other arguments] for the second one.

Or alternatively define a $PGCLUSTER environment variable to 9.4/apps or 9.4/main

These come from rules #2 and #4 (out of 8) of pg_wrapper manpage.

answered Jun 30, 2015 at 10:41

Daniel Vérité

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rigyt Over a year ago

or locate postgresql.conf and change the port to 5432 in the file of the preferred version

Jonathan Baker · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-10 02:11:44Z

6

If you don't care what your default cluster is, and just want things to work like they did before, just specify the port you want to connect to with

psql -p 5432

and postgres won't try to be clever for you and use a "cluster", whatever that is.

answered Jan 10, 2017 at 2:11

Jonathan Baker

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Sarvar Nishonboyev · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-08 15:03:04Z

5

Just set PGCLUSTER

export PGCLUSTER=9.4/main

answered Oct 8, 2019 at 15:03

Sarvar Nishonboyev

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