could not open version file PG_VERSION postgresql pg upgrade

Question

I need some help please, I am upgrading postgresql from v10 to v11 on Windows, but get the following error message: could not open version file: C:/Program Files/PostgresSQL/11/data/PG_VERSION.

Here are the steps taken:

1. Stopped both PostgresSQL v10 and PostgresSQL v11 services using

   services.msc
   

2. Set full access control/complete permissions for users for both v10 and v11.

3. Created 'postgres' user account with full admin rights.

4. Opened command-line and entered

   RUNAS /USER:postgres "CMD.EXE
   

   prompted to enter password for user postgres user.

5. New command-line window opens and cd to 'C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\11'.

6. Entered the following:

pg_upgrade.exe --old-datadir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/10/data" --new-datadir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/11/data" --old-bindir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/10/bin" --new-bindir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/11/bin" --check

On pressing enter I get the above mentioned error.

I am new to the whole process of using PostgreSQL.

Any thoughts on what is wrong?

Glaser

1. How are you upgrading PostgreSQL? What steps are you following? 2. What command generates that error? 3. What do the logs say? – Ezzo

Using pg_upgrade from v11 and ran the following pg_upgrade --old-datadir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/10/data" --new-datadir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/11/data" --old-bindir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/10/bin" --new-bindir "C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/11/bin" --check from C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\11 from the cli – Glaser

Storing the data directory into c:\Program File is a really bad idea. Regular users are not allowed to write there (for good reasons). It's a really, really bad choice of the EnterpriseDB installer to suggest that directory. %ProgramData% is much better place to store that – Chicky

Yes, but it's a local machine I use for development, only I have use this machine – Glaser

I had this error because I had a copy paste error, and instead of passing a data dir I was passing a bin dir. Doesn't look like your problem, but maybe the data dir in you old distribution was renamed? Did you end up finding a solution? – Farant

Answer 1

I had to grant \postgres modify access to both the old and the new datadirectory. That solved the problem for me while upgrading from 9.6 to 10

Radiophone

Answer 2

I had the same problem. I solved it by not running a cmd as postgres user. Instead I made a passwsord file and set the env PGPASSFILE accordingly:https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/libpq-pgpass.html

Apparently when running cmd as postgres user, it was some permissions that prohibited the PG_VERSION to be opened

Burdick