Why doesn't psql --version work in zsh macOS?

Question

After installing Postgresql from postgresql.org/download, and then running brew install postgresql, I am trying to confirm I have installed postgresql by typing 'psql --version' on my zsh, terminal. However, it is showing the following error message:

     psql --version
      dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/[email protected]/lib/libssl.1.1.dylib
  Referenced from: /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/12.4/lib/libpq.5.12.dylib
  Reason: image not found
zsh: abort      psql --version

I have tried many commands I found online such as brew doctor, brew update, brew install readline, brew link readline --force, and cd /usr/local/opt/readline/lib ln -s libreadline.8.0.dylib libreadline.7.dylib, not particularly in order.

Why is the error message saying "Library is not loaded" when I have successfully installed, and what commands can I run to resolve?

Paul Paul · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-23T15:38:58

Had the same problem here running MacOS Mojave. I was creating a new Rails 6.1.3 app when I tried to start the server, I got this error:

dlopen(/Users/my_user_name/.rbenv/versions/2.5.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/pg-1.2.3/lib/pg_ext.bundle, 9): Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/[email protected]/lib/libssl.1.1.dylib (LoadError) Referenced from: /usr/local/opt/postgresql/lib/libpq.5.dylib Reason: image not found - /Users/my_user_name/.rbenv/versions/2.5.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/pg-1.2.3/lib/pg_ext.bundle

and when I ran psql, I got this error:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/[email protected]/lib/libssl.1.1.dylib Referenced from: /usr/local/lib/libpq.5.dylib Reason: image not found Abort trap: 6

Here's what I did to get it to work. I'm no expert on this stuff and I can't guarantee that it's a good idea to turn off System Integrity Protection, haha! You could try to reinstall Postgres without turning SIP off first and see if it works:

I turned off System Integrity Protection. I ran this command in the terminal to see if it was enabled: csrutil status This comment talked about it: https://github.com/kelaberetiv/TagUI/issues/86#issuecomment-532462565 and I followed these instructions to do it: https://www.imore.com/how-turn-system-integrity-protection-macos.
Then I followed these instructions to reinstall Postgres with Brew: https://gist.github.com/ibraheem4/ce5ccd3e4d7a65589ce84f2a3b7c23a3

Since I already had Postgres installed, I just got to the pg_start step and ran psql and it was working again!

Why doesn't psql --version work in zsh macOS?

1 Answers