Postgres ERROR: could not open file for reading: Permission denied

Postgresql Problem Overview

Computer: Mac OS X, version 10.8 Database: Postgres

Trying to import csv file into postgres.

pg> copy items_ordered from '/users/darchcruise/desktop/items_ordered.csv' with CSV;
ERROR:  could not open file "/users/darchcruise/desktop/items_ordered.csv" for reading: Permission denied

Then I tried

$> chown postgres /users/darchcruise/desktop/items_ordered.csv
chown: /users/darchcruise/desktop/items_ordered.csv: Operation not permitted

Lastly, I tried

$> ls -l
-rw-r--r--  1 darchcruise  staff      1016 Oct 18 21:04 items_ordered.csv

Any help is much appreciated!

Postgresql Solutions

Solution 1 - Postgresql

Assuming the psql command-line tool, you may use \copy instead of copy.

\copy opens the file and feeds the contents to the server, whereas copy tells the server the open the file itself and read it, which may be problematic permission-wise, or even impossible if client and server run on different machines with no file sharing in-between.

Under the hood, \copy is implemented as COPY FROM stdin and accepts the same options than the server-side COPY.

Solution 2 - Postgresql

Copy the CSV file to /tmp

For me this solved the issue.

Solution 3 - Postgresql

chmod a+rX /users/darchcruise/ /users/darchcruise/desktop /users/darchcruise/desktop/items_ordered.csv

This will change access rights for your folder. Note that everyone will be able to read your file. You can't use chown being a user without administrative rights. Also consider learning umask to ease creation of shared files.

Solution 4 - Postgresql

Copy your CSV file into the /tmp folder

Files named in a COPY command are read or written directly by the server, not by the client application. Therefore, they must reside on or be accessible to the database server machine, not the client. They must be accessible to and readable or writable by the PostgreSQL user (the user ID the server runs as), not the client. COPY naming a file is only allowed to database superusers, since it allows reading or writing any file that the server has privileges to access.

Solution 5 - Postgresql

I had the issue when I was trying to export data from a remote server into the local disk. I hadn't realised that SQL copy actually is executed on the server and that it tries to write to a server folder. Instead the correct thing to do was to use \copy which is the psql command and it writes to the local file system as I expected. http://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CAFjNrYsE4Za_KWzmfgN1_-MG7GTw_vpMRxPk=OEjAiLqLskxdA@mail.gmail.com

Perhaps that might be useful to someone else too.

Solution 6 - Postgresql

Another way to do this, if you have pgAdmin and are comfortable using the GUI is to go the table in the schema and right click on the table you wish to import the file to and select "Import" browse your computer for the file, select the type your file is, the columns you want the data to be imputed into, and then select import.

That was done using pgAdmin III and the 9.4 version of PostgreSQL

Solution 7 - Postgresql

I resolved the same issue with a recursive chown on the parent folder:

sudo chown -R postgres:postgres /home/my_user/export_folder

(my export being in /home/my_user/export_folder/export_1.csv)

Solution 8 - Postgresql

COPY your table (Name, Latitude, Longitude) FROM 'C:\Temp\your file.csv' DELIMITERS ',' CSV HEADER;

Use c:\Temp\"Your File"\.

Solution 9 - Postgresql

For me it worked to simply to add sudo (or run as root) for the chown command:

sudo chown postgres /users/darchcruise/desktop/items_ordered.csv

Solution 10 - Postgresql

just in case you're facing this problem under windows 10 , add the group of users "youcomputer\Users" on the security Tab and grant it full control , that solved my issue

Solution 11 - Postgresql

for macbook first i opened terminal then type

open /tmp

or in finder directory you directly enter command+shift+g then type /tmp in go to the folder.

it opens temp folder in finder. then i paste copied csv file into this folder.then again i go to postgres terminal and typed below command and then it is copied my csv data into db table

\copy recharge_operator FROM '/private/tmp/operator.csv' DELIMITER ',' CSV;

Solution 12 - Postgresql

You must grant the pg_read_server_files permission to the user if you are not using postgres superuser.

Example:

GRANT pg_read_server_files TO my_user WITH ADMIN OPTION;

Solution 13 - Postgresql

I had the same error message but was using psycopg2 to communicate with PostgreSQL. I fixed the permission issues by using the functions copy_from and copy_expert that will open the file on the client side as the user running the python script and feed the data to the database over STDIN.

Refer to this link for further information.

Solution 14 - Postgresql

This answer is only for Linux Beginners.

Assuming initially the DB user didn't have file/folder(directory) permission on the client side.

> Let's constrain ourselves to the following:

User: postgres

Purpose: You wanted to (write to / read from) a specific folder

Tool: psql

Connected to a specific database: YES

FILE_PATH: /home/user/training/sql/csv_example.csv

Query: \copy (SELECT * FROM table_name TO FILE_PATH, DELIMITER ',' CSV HEADER;

Actual Results: After running the query you got an error : Permission Denied

Expected Results: COPY COUNT_OF_ROWS_COPIED

Here are the steps I'd follow to try and resolve it.

Confirm the FILE_PATH permissions on your File system.

Inside a terminal to view the permissions for a file/folder you need to long list them by entering the command ls -l.

The output has a section that shows sth like this -> drwxrwxr-x Which is interpreted in the following way:

TYPE | OWNER RIGHTS | GROUP RIGHTS | USER RIGHTS

rwx (r: Read, W: Write, X: Execute)

TYPE (1 Char) = d: directory, -: file

OWNER RIGHTS (3 Chars after TYPE)

GROUP RIGHTS (3 Chars after OWNER)

USER RIGHTS (3 Chars after GROUP)

If permissions are not enough (Ensure that a user can at least enter all folders in the path you wanted path) - x.

This means for FILE_PATH, All the directories (home , user, training, sql) should have at least an x in the USER RIGHTS.

Change permissions for all parent folders that you need to enter to have a x. You can use chmod rights_you_want parent_folder

Assuming /training/ didn't have an execute permission.

I'd go the user folder and enter chmod a+x training

Change the destination folder/directory to have a w if you want to write to it. or at least a r if you want to read from it

Assuming /sql didn't have a write permission.

I would now chmod a+w sql

Restart the postgresql server sudo systemctl restart postgresql
Try again.

This would most probably help you now get a successful expected result.

Solution 15 - Postgresql

I just copied the source csv file to an external USB drive, and it worked fine.

Solution 16 - Postgresql

May be You are using pgadmin by connecting remote host then U are trying to update there from your system but it searches for that file in remote system's file system... its the error wat I faced May be its also for u check it

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	user2449984	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Postgresql	Daniel Vérité	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Postgresql	user637338	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Postgresql	Basilevs	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Postgresql	Antonio	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Postgresql	nikola	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Postgresql	Jeff Spicoli	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Postgresql	Benjamin Crouzier	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Postgresql	Kalpana	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Postgresql	annakeuchenius	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Postgresql	Benderradji Khireddine	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - Postgresql	Dinesh Gurjar	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 12 - Postgresql	ZUIBAFI	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 13 - Postgresql	mx3swish	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 14 - Postgresql	N. Maina	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 15 - Postgresql	Zatman	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 16 - Postgresql	raj	View Answer on Stackoverflow