Can't run as root

[mullr]

This relies on pg_ctl, which refuses to run as root. It fails with exit code 1, which the software interprets as "unsupported version".

This is a problem because, when you're building in a container inside of GitHub actions, you have to run as root.

[mullr]

This appears to be a restriction for postgresql in general, so perhaps there's not much to be done about it. Maybe a feature to run Postgres as another user, via sudo, could fix it?

[allenap]

Fair point. What would your expectation be? For example, would it be okay if pgdo were to tell you it can't/won't run as root?

Also, can you give some details on your GitHub Actions setup? I've been using pgdo in GitHub Actions here and in another project and somehow I haven't hit this problem (or I've forgotten about it). Now that you mention it, it seems like I should have hit it.

One last thing: are you using pgdo, or were you just trying it out? It hadn't worked out how I had hoped and I didn't have the time to back up and try again; in truth, it's only still here because I'm using it in a private project.

[mullr]

Fair point. What would your expectation be? For example, would it be okay if pgdo were to tell you it can't/won't run as root?

That would certainly have saved me some time.

Also, can you give some details on your GitHub Actions setup? I've been using pgdo in GitHub Actions here and in another project and somehow I haven't hit this problem (or I've forgotten about it). Now that you mention it, it seems like I should have hit it.

I'm using this feature: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/how-tos/write-workflows/choose-where-workflows-run/run-jobs-in-a-container. In my particular context, I'm running on a self-hosted runner, and using containers is the only reasonable way to run tests. It also turns out that, to work with GitHub Actions, the container user MUST be root.

I ended up working around the issue by creating a user inside the build itself, and sudo-ing into that user to run the tests. Inconvenient, but totally workable.

One last thing: are you using pgdo, or were you just trying it out? It hadn't worked out how I had hoped and I didn't have the time to back up and try again; in truth, it's only still here because I'm using it in a private project.

Somewhere in between? I am using it, but said usage is less than a week old, so I could replace it with something hand-rolled if I need to.