homebrew – PostgreSQL daemon not working

I’m having trouble creating a successful daemon. Before PostgreSQL used the @ symbol to specify folder names, there was a working daemon, but now something unknown has changed.

If I run:

sudo -u _systemuser /opt/homebrew/opt/postgresql@14/bin/postgres -D /opt/homebrew/var/postgresql@14

PostgreSQL starts normally.

But this plist doesn’t work.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>homebrew.mxcl.postgresql</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>GroupName</key>
    <string>_systemuser</string>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>_systemuser</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/opt/homebrew/bin/postgres</string>
        <string>-D</string>
        <string>/opt/homebrew/var/postgres</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

LaunchControl says “This operation failed for no apparent reason.”

So, if you enable logging:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>homebrew.mxcl.postgresql14</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>GroupName</key>
    <string>_systemuser</string>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>_systemuser</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/opt/homebrew/opt/postgresql@14/bin/postgres</string>
        <string>-D</string>
        <string>/opt/homebrew/var/postgres@14</string>
    </array>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/opt/homebrew/var/log/(email protected)</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/opt/homebrew/var/log/(email protected)</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I get the error “User _systemuser cannot write to the following file: “file:///opt/homebrew/var/log/(email protected)””.

I changed the permissions on that folder using:

sudo chown -R _systemuser /opt/homebrew/var/postgresql@14
sudo chgrp -R _systemuser /opt/homebrew/var/postgresql@14

However, using this logging plist causes a new error in LaunchControl.

2024-12-26 11:06:02.649106 <Error> Service could not initialize: posix_spawn(/opt/homebrew/opt/postgresql@14/bin/postgres), error 0xd - Permission denied

But as I said at the beginning, PostgreSQL starts fine from the CLI.

Embarrassing situation. Any ideas on what the problem might be?