The following documentation comment has been logged on the website: Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/tutorial-createdb.html Description:
In the Getting Started section of the documentation which would be used by a new user immediately after installing PostgreSQL, the user is asked to run $ createdb mydb If the database is correctly installed, this first command to be run by the new user inevitably fails with the error: createdb: error: connection to server at "localhost" (::1), port 5432 failed: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "Mark" The reason it fails by my understanding is because the installation process does not create any user and without a user specified on createdb PostgreSQL is defaulting to using the OS user name. Since this does not exist in PostgreSQL the access is denied with the incorrect error message above. The error message suggests that there is a password issue but the real issue is that PostgreSQL has defaulted to a user that does not exist in PostgreSQL. This is a disappointing start for a new user. It would be better to explain this to the user and take them through the user creation process rather than letting them struggle and Google the issue as I did. I think the typical user would assume that they should be using their OS user password and then wonder why that doesn't work.
