title: postgres cannot access the server configuration file: Permission denied
body: <p>This is baffling me (trying to set up postgres on MacOS Lion): </p>
  
  <pre><code>delirium:$ sudo ls -al /usr/local/pgsql/data/
  total 64
  drwx------  15 postgres  postgres    510 25 May 10:36 .
  drwxr-xr-x@ 13 103       103         442 25 May 10:35 ..
  -rw-------   1 postgres  postgres      4 25 May 10:36 PG_VERSION
  drwx------   5 postgres  postgres    170 25 May 10:36 base
  drwx------  41 postgres  postgres   1394 25 May 10:36 global
  drwx------   3 postgres  postgres    102 25 May 10:36 pg_clog
  -rw-------   1 postgres  postgres   3652 25 May 10:36 pg_hba.conf
  -rw-------   1 postgres  postgres   1631 25 May 10:36 pg_ident.conf
  drwx------   4 postgres  postgres    136 25 May 10:36 pg_multixact
  drwx------   2 postgres  postgres     68 25 May 10:36 pg_stat_tmp
  drwx------   3 postgres  postgres    102 25 May 10:36 pg_subtrans
  drwx------   2 postgres  postgres     68 25 May 10:36 pg_tblspc
  drwx------   2 postgres  postgres     68 25 May 10:36 pg_twophase
  drwx------   4 postgres  postgres    136 25 May 10:36 pg_xlog
  -rwxr-xr-x   1 postgres  postgres  16879 25 May 10:36 postgresql.conf
  delirium:$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
  postgres cannot access the server configuration file "/usr/local/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf": Permission denied
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Doesn't the output show that postgres is the <strong>owner</strong> of <code>postgresql.conf</code>? So why can't it access the file?</p>
  
  <p>What can I do?</p>