# Error altering user password when building Postgres container
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-altering-user-password-when-building-postgres-container/293069
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [January 26, 2024, 5:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-altering-user-password-when-building-postgres-container/293069 "2024-01-26T17:06:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ewd910](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ewd910)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 5:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-altering-user-password-when-building-postgres-container/293069/1 "2024-01-26T17:06:59Z")
After postgres is successfully installed in the container, the launcher script tries to change the password of the discourse user. However I get this error
```plaintext
Pups::ExecError: su - postgres -c 'psql discourse' failed with return #
Location of failure: /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:132:in `spawn'
exec failed with the params {"stdin"=>"alter user discourse with password 'redacted';\n", "cmd"=>"su - postgres -c 'psql discourse'", "raise_on_fail"=>true}
bootstrap failed with exit code 141
**FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one.
```
Seems like postgres isn’t running when this command is reached so it fails in a broken pipe. My postgres.yml is based off the data.yml sample file though, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Any ideas?
---
### Author:  [@Firepup650](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Firepup650)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-altering-user-password-when-building-postgres-container/293069/2 "2024-01-26T18:03:03Z")
Would you please
> [@ewd910](#):
>
> `scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one.`
And then share them here?
---
### Author:  [@ewd910](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ewd910)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-altering-user-password-when-building-postgres-container/293069/3 "2024-01-26T18:18:00Z")
Hi, nothing notable in the earlier logs, but I noticed in the container logs this message
```plaintext
2024-01-26 12:30:54 I, [2024-01-26T17:30:54.465403 #1] INFO -- : Reading from stdin
2024-01-26 12:30:54 /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups/config.rb:22:in `block in initialize': undefined method `has_key?' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
2024-01-26 12:30:54
2024-01-26 12:30:54 @config[key] = {} unless @config.has_key?(key)
2024-01-26 12:30:54 ^^^^^^^^^
2024-01-26 12:30:54 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups/config.rb:21:in `each'
2024-01-26 12:30:54 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups/config.rb:21:in `initialize'
2024-01-26 12:30:54 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups/cli.rb:68:in `new'
2024-01-26 12:30:54 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups/cli.rb:68:in `run'
2024-01-26 12:30:54 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/bin/pups:9:in `'
2024-01-26 12:30:54 from /usr/local/bin/pups:25:in `load'
2024-01-26 12:30:54 from /usr/local/bin/pups:25:in `'
```
This crashes the container even with the `after_postgres` password alteration commented out, which is where the broken pipe comes in