Tests fail to start new DB: pg_ctl: unrecognized operation mode

[ShadowWayve]

I'm trying to install DBD::Pg on a Windows 11 machine (64-bit). The installation fails every time because the tests fail.

Installation command: cpanm DBD::Pg@3.16.0 --quiet
Console error message: ! Installing DBD::Pg failed. See C:\Users\[username]\.cpanm\work\1669705333.8180\build.log for details. Retry with --force to force install it.

Last several lines from the build.log file:

t/00_signature.t ....... skipped: Set the environment variable TEST_SIGNATURE to enable this test
t/00basic.t ............ ok
Please wait, creating new database (version 14.5) for testing
pg_ctl: unrecognized operation mode "C:/Users/[username]/.cpanm/work/1669705333.8180/DBD-Pg-3.16.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket'"
Try "pg_ctl --help" for more information.
# 
# DBI                         Version 1.643
# DBD::Pg                     Version 3.16.0
# Perl                        Version 5.32.1
# OS                          MSWin32
# PostgreSQL (compiled)       ?
# PostgreSQL (target)         ?
# PostgreSQL (reported)       ?
# Default port                ?
# DBI_DSN                     ?
# DBI_USER                    <not set>
# Test schema                 dbd_pg_testschema
# LANG                        C
# Adjusted:                   initdb
# Error was: Could not startup new database (pg_ctl -o '-k C:/Users/[username]/.cpanm/work/1669705333.8180/DBD-Pg-3.16.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket' -l C:/Users/[username]/.cpanm/work/1669705333.8180/DBD-Pg-3.16.0/dbdpg_test_database/dbdpg_test.logfile -D C:/Users/[username]/.cpanm/work/1669705333.8180/DBD-Pg-3.16.0/dbdpg_test_database/data start) () ()
Bailout called.  Further testing stopped:  Cannot continue: connection failed
FAILED--Further testing stopped: Cannot continue: connection failed
gmake: *** [Makefile:983: test_dynamic] Error 255
-> FAIL Installing DBD::Pg failed. See C:\Users\[username]\.cpanm\work\1669705333.8180\build.log for details. Retry with --force to force install it.

Additional info about my machine:

• The machine itself has been alive for over a year. I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 a couple weeks ago.
• I installed Perl, cpanminus, PostgreSQL, and Sqitch for the first time EVER today. I installed HeidiSQL a couple weeks ago (not sure if that matters).
• The command perl -e 'use DBI; DBI->installed_versions();' says that I have DBD::Pg version 3.8.0 installed. I don't know where that version of DBD::Pg came from.
• Earlier today I also hit issue Compile error 'initdb' not recognized for ver 3.15.1 #96. I resolved that issue by installing PostgreSQL and adding the PostgreSQL bin folder to my Path.

I've never used PostgreSQL before, so feel free to share as much "obvious" beginner information with me as you want. I won't think that you are being condescending. 😄

[esabol]

I haven't used a Windows computer in over 25 years, so take what I write with a grain of salt, but, based on my googling, I think the pg_ctl: unrecognized operation mode error means you need to run the tests in a shell with administrator privileges, or at least that's what someone wrote on the pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org mailing list.

[ShadowWayve]

I haven't used a Windows computer in over 25 years, so take what I write with a grain of salt, but, based on my googling, I think the pg_ctl: unrecognized operation mode error means you need to run the tests in a shell with administrator privileges, or at least that's what someone wrote on the pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org mailing list.

I guess I should have mentioned that I was running the command in an elevated PowerShell command prompt (powershell.exe). I tried executing cpanm DBD::Pg@3.16.0 --quiet in an elevated cmd.exe instance just now too. Same error. 😞

Thank you for sharing your hunch, though!! Much appreciated.

[ShadowWayve]

Something else I should have shared:

The "socket" folder mentioned in the error message "pg_ctl: unrecognized operation mode "C:/Users/[username]/.cpanm/work/1669705333.8180/DBD-Pg-3.16.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket'" doesn't exist on my machine. Is that socket folder supposed to be created on the fly later, or should it exist at the time this error is hit?

Other folders that do exist at "C:/Users/[username]/.cpanm/work/1669705333.8180/DBD-Pg-3.16.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/":

• base
• global
• pg_commit_ts
• pg_dynshmem
• pg_logical
• pg_multixact
• pg_notify
• pg_replslot
• pg_serial
• pg_snapshots
• pg_stat
• pg_stat_tmp
• pg_subtrans
• pg_tblspc
• pg_twophase
• pg_wal
• pg_xact

Files that exist in the data folder:

• pg_hba.conf
• pg_ident.conf
• PG_VERSION
• postgresql.auto.conf
• postgresql.conf

A total of 22 folders & files.

[turnstep]

This means that pg_ctl is not getting the final argument, 'start', as probably the other arguments are somehow intercepting it. Does the actual username contain spaces or anything odd? You could try from the command line and putting the "start" as the very first argument, and seeing if the output can give us a clue where the problem is.

[wheeheee]

Hello, I have this same problem. My username does not have any spaces in it.
Running with start as the first argument, nothing changes, I still get the error.

[wheeheee]

Also errors even if I create the directory first.

[esabol]

Hello, I have this same problem. My username does not have any spaces in it. Running with start as the first argument, nothing changes, I still get the error.

What was the exact command you executed and what was the output?

Is it possible you misunderstood the comment about start? The command you would run is pg_ctl start with some additional arguments to specify the data directory and log file location. If you can't get that command to work, then you haven't installed a working version of PostgreSQL, which is a prerequisite for running DBD::Pg's tests certainly.

[wheeheee]

No, that was what I did, this is the exact command executed:

pg_ctl start -o '-k .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket' -l .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/dbdpg_test.logfile -D .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data

And this is the output from DBD-Pg-3.18.0\dbdpg_test_database\dbdpg_test.logfile:

2025-11-03 21:35:21.990 -08 [8584] LOG:  redirecting log output to logging collector process
2025-11-03 21:35:21.990 -08 [8584] HINT:  Future log output will appear in directory "log".

And the log file DBD-Pg-3.18.0\dbdpg_test_database\data\log\postgres2025-11-03.log in the log directory:

2025-11-03 21:35:21.990 -08 [8584] LOG:  starting PostgreSQL 18.0 on x86_64-windows, compiled by msvc-19.44.35217, 64-bit
2025-11-03 21:35:21.992 -08 [8584] LOG:  listening on IPv4 address "127.0.0.1", port 5440
2025-11-03 21:35:21.995 -08 [8584] FATAL:  could not create lock file ".cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket/.s.PGSQL.5440.lock": No such file or directory
2025-11-03 21:35:21.998 -08 [8584] LOG:  database system is shut down

[esabol]

Well, for starters, I wouldn't include the single quotes around the -k .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket part of the command, but probably that doesn't matter. Try it without the single quotes anyway.

If that doesn't work, you might be experiencing issue #78 or some issue similar to it. Could you try setting the DBDPG_TEMPDIR environment variable to a short directory name that's writable like C:/ProgramData/Temp and make sure it exists and is writable? Try using forward slashes (what Perl wants) and backslashes. Also, you might need to double the backslashes to escape them. This is used by the tests, not PostgreSQL, so rerun the tests (not the pg_ctl command) for this.

[wheeheee]

If I remove the single quotes:

pg_ctl: too many command-line arguments (first is ".cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket")
Try "pg_ctl --help" for more information.

Tried all these suggestions, they don't make a difference.

EDIT: oops, never mind, I only ran the pg_ctl command. Will try again.

[wheeheee]

OK, I have tried all the backslash combinations too, and confirmed it doesn't change anything.
For example:

# $env:DBDPG_TEMPDIR = "C:/ProgramData/Temp"
# cpanm DBD::Pg

[esabol]

Oh, I see the single quotes around the -k path do matter. That string is an argument to the -o switch, so the single quotes are needed. Sorry I didn't realize that sooner.

What is the full path for the .cpanm directory? What if you put the full path to .cpanm after the -k ?

Maybe the -k option just doesn't work on Windows? Maybe try removing it entirely?

[wheeheee]

C:\Users\wheat\.cpanm.
I'll try removing the -k option later...

[esabol]

C:\Users\wheat\.cpanm.

Try executing:

pg_ctl start -o '-k C:/Users/wheat/.cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data/socket' -l .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/dbdpg_test.logfile -D .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data

Then, if that doesn't work, try executing:

pg_ctl start -l .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/dbdpg_test.logfile -D .cpanm/work/1762229519.9504/DBD-Pg-3.18.0/dbdpg_test_database/data

EDIT: Oh, I see now that you already tried the second command here in #106 (comment).