Super stumped by why Postgres isn't working on a new app I just started. I've got it working for one app already. I'm using postgres.app, and it's running. I started a new app with rails new depot -d postgresql and then I went into the database.yml file and changed username to my $USER (which is what it is for the other app, which is working). So now my database.yml file has this development section: development: adapter: postgresql encoding: unicode database: depot_development pool: 5 username: <username> password: But when I run "rake db:create" or "rake db:create:all" I still got this error (in full, cause I don't know what's relevant): Couldn't create database for {"adapter"=>"postgresql", "encoding"=>"unicode", "database"=>"depot_development", "pool"=>5, "username"=>"<username>", "password"=>nil} could not connect to server: Permission denied Is the server running locally and accepting connections on Unix domain socket "/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432"? /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:1213:in `initialize' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:1213:in `new' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:1213:in `connect' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:329:in `initialize' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:28:in `new' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:28:in `postgresql_connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:309:in `new_connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:319:in `checkout_new_connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:241:in `block (2 levels) in checkout' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:236:in `loop' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:236:in `block in checkout' /Users/<username>/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:233:in `checkout' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:96:in `block in connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:95:in `connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:404:in `retrieve_connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:170:in `retrieve_connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:144:in `connection' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake:107:in `rescue in create_database' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake:51:in `create_database' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake:40:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake:40:in `each' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake:40:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:205:in `call' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:205:in `block in execute' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:200:in `each' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:200:in `execute' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:158:in `block in invoke_with_call_chain' /Users/<username>/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:151:in `invoke_with_call_chain' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:144:in `invoke' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:116:in `invoke_task' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:94:in `block (2 levels) in top_level' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:94:in `each' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:94:in `block in top_level' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:133:in `standard_exception_handling' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:88:in `top_level' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:66:in `block in run' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:133:in `standard_exception_handling' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:63:in `run' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/bin/rake:33:in `<top (required)>' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/bin/rake:19:in `load' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@global/bin/rake:19:in `<main>' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/ruby_noexec_wrapper:14:in `eval' /Users/<username>/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/ruby_noexec_wrapper:14:in `<main>' Couldn't create database for {"adapter"=>"postgresql", "encoding"=>"unicode", "database"=>"depot_test", "pool"=>5, "username"=>"<username>", "password"=>nil} I have tried createdb depot_development I have tried going into the psql environment and listing users (which included my username among them). In the same psql environment, I tried CREATE DATABASE depot; I've made sure that the pg gem is installed with bundle install, I've run "pg_ctl start", to which I got this response: pg_ctl: no database directory specified and environment variable PGDATA unset I ran "ps aux | grep postgres" to make sure postgres was running, to which I got this in return (which looks like it's doing OK, right?): <username> 10390 0.4 0.0 2425480 180 s000 R+ 6:15PM 0:00.00 grep postgres <username> 2907 0.0 0.0 2441604 464 ?? Ss 6:17PM 0:02.31 postgres: stats collector process <username> 2906 0.0 0.0 2445520 1664 ?? Ss 6:17PM 0:02.33 postgres: autovacuum launcher process <username> 2905 0.0 0.0 2445388 600 ?? Ss 6:17PM 0:09.25 postgres: wal writer process <username> 2904 0.0 0.0 2445388 1252 ?? Ss 6:17PM 0:12.08 postgres: writer process <username> 2902 0.0 0.0 2445388 3688 ?? S 6:17PM 0:00.54 /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/postgres -D /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Postgres/var -p5432 The short of it, is I've been troubleshooting for a WHILE and have NO idea what's wrong. Any ideas? I'd really appreciate it, cause I'm pretty new to Rails, and this is a pretty disheartening roadblock. Thanks! EDIT -- Per request, posting the successful database.yml . It seems the difference is the inclusion of a password: development: adapter: postgresql encoding: unicode database: *******_development pool: 5 username: ******* password: ******* EDIT2 -- When I add a password to the .yml file, then run rake db:create again, I get this error. rake aborted! No Rakefile found (looking for: rakefile, Rakefile, rakefile.rb, Rakefile.rb)