Resetting the PostgreSQL Password

Find the file pg_hba.conf - it may be located in /etc/postgresql-9.1/pg_hba.conf or /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf (back it up).

Place the following line (as either the first uncommented line, or as the only one):

local all all trust

Restart your PostgreSQL server, e.g., on Linux:

sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql restart or (for systemd) sudo service postgresql restart

If the service (daemon) doesn't start reporting in log file: local connections are not supported by this build you should change:

local all all trust to host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust

Connect as the postgres user:

psql -U postgres

Reset the password:

ALTER USER my_user_name WITH PASSWORD 'super_secure_password';

Restore the old pg_hba.conf as it is very dangerous to keep around (remove the line added above or replace with the backup copy).

Restart the server as described above.