As a developer, I often ssh right into my local database, just to test my application before pushing my code.

However, I find that every time I want to access Postgres, I have to type in

postgres@ubuntu:~$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql test

whereas on my work machine, all I have to do is type

postgres@ubuntu:~$ psql --dbname=test --username=user

I tried creating a symlink, which was successful, but whenever I try connecting to it through this shortcut, I get the following error message:

psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
    Is the server running locally and accepting
    connections on Unix domain socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

How do I get this to work? In case it makes any difference, I'm using a self-compiled version of the 9.1.x series.