Docker & Postgres: Failed to bind tcp 0.0.0.0:5432 address already in use

Problem

I'm trying to start postgres in a docker container on my Mac, but I keep getting the following error message

> docker: Error response from daemon: driver failed programming external connectivity on endpoint postgres (8392b9e5cfaa28f480fe1009dee461f97e82499726f4afc4e916358dd2d2f61e): Error starting userland proxy: Failed to bind tcp 0.0.0.0:5432 address already in use.

I have postgres installed locally, but I stopped it and running

pg_ctl status

returns >pg_ctl: no server running

I've ran the following to check what's running on 5432

lsof -i tcp:5432

&

netstat -anp tcp | grep 5432

and nothing is running on the port.

Versions

Mac - OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.2

PostgreSQL - 9.5

Docker - Docker version 1.12.0-rc2, build 906eacd, experimental

If lsof -i :5432 doesn't show you any output, you can use sudo ss -lptn 'sport = :5432' to see what process is bound to the port.

Proceed further with kill <pid>

If you execute lsof -i :5432 on the host you can see what process is bound to the port.

Some instance of Postgres is running. You can execute kill <pid> to kill it if you want. You can also use 5432 instead of 5432:5432 in your docker command or docker-compose file and let docker choose the host port automatically.

The first thing you should do is stop PostgreSQL service. In most cases it fixed the issue.

sudo service postgresql stop

If above doesn't work. then add the following line to /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf

sudo vim /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf

## good if you add under CONNECTION AND AUTHENTICATION comments
listen_addresses = "*"

it is worked for me, probably you should stop postgres :

sudo systemctl stop postgresql

In some cases it is critical to perform a more in-depth debugging to the problem before stopping or killing the container/process.

Consider following the checklist below:

1. Check you current docker compose environment
   Run docker-compose ps.
   If port is in use by another container, stop it with docker-compose stop <service-name-in-compose-file> or remove it by replacing stop with rm.

2. Check the containers running outside your current workspace
   Run docker ps to see list of all containers running under your host.
   If you find the port is in use by another container, you can stop it with docker stop <container-id>.
   (*) Because you're not under the scope of the origin compose environment - it is a good practice first to use docker inspect to gather more information about the container that you're about to stop.

3. Check if port is used by other processes running on the host
   For example if the port is 6379 run:

   $ sudo netstat -ltnp | grep ':6379' tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:6379 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 915/redis-server 12 tcp6 0 0 ::1:6379 :::* LISTEN 915/redis-server 12

(*) You can also use the lsof command which is mainly used to retrieve information about files that are opened by various processes (I suggest running netstat before that).

So, In case of the output above the PID is 915. Now you can run:

$ ps j 915
 PPID   PID  PGID   SID TTY      TPGID STAT   UID   TIME COMMAND
    1   915   915   915 ?           -1 Ssl    123   0:11 /usr/bin/redis-server 127.0.0.1:6379

And see the ID of the parent process (PPID) and the execution command.
You can also run: $ pstree -s <PID> to a visual display of the process and its related processes (install with: brew install pstree).

In our case we can see that the process probably is a daemon (PPID is 1) - In that case consider running:
A) $ cat /proc/<PID>/status in order to get a more in-depth information about the process like the number of threads spawned by the process, its capabilities, etc'.
B) $ systemctl status <PID> in order to see the [tag:systemd] unit that caused the creation of a specific process. If the service is not critical - you can stop and disable the service.

4. Restart Docker service
   Run sudo service docker restart.

5. You reached this point and..
   Only if its not placing your system at risk - consider restarting the server.

None of these other answers worked for me. (For example, lsof and netstat just returned empty lines.) The following worked, though:

sudo -u postgres pg_ctl -D /Library/PostgreSQL/13/data stop

Go to project and click on docker-compose.yml

version: '2'

services: web: build: . ports: - "8000:8000" volumes: - .:/app links: - db - mail-server db: image: "postgres" environment: POSTGRES_PASSWORD: hunter2 ports: - "5432:9432" mail-server: image: "mailhog/mailhog" expose: - 1025 ports: - "8026:8026"

" change the ports to 8026:8026 because there is already running another container on this port number only change the port number"

In case of mac,

• if you are OK with uninstalling the POSTGRES for the time being:

brew uninstall postgres

Then check if the process still exists

sudo lsof -nP -i4TCP:5432 | grep LISTEN

If it exists, then kill it

kill -9 <pid>

Check again if the 5432 is being listened at, this time it should not be.

I tried to sudo kill -9 <PID> to disable postgres process, but it spawns again and again with a different PID. After that, I found that it stores a process under LaunchDemos and it runs on every startup:

• cd /Library/LaunchDemos/
• sudo rm com.edb.launchd.postgresql-13.plist
• Restart your PC to apply changes.

If you execute sudo lsof -i :5432 on the host you can see what process is bound to the port.

- sudo service postgresql stop
- while lsof -Pi :5432 -sTCP:LISTEN -t; do sleep 1; done

macOS Monterey

None of the above commands worked for me - need to do few changes. So, adding the complete working solution:

1. Identify what is running in port 5432: sudo lsof -i :5432

2. Kill all the processes that are running under this port: sudo kill -9 <pid>

3. Run the command again to verify no process is running now: sudo lsof -i :5432