Error when connecting to postgresql on localhost with knex - node.js

Question

I am trying to connect to my local postgres db with knex but I keep getting this error.
{ Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:5432
at Object.exports._errnoException (util.js:1022:11)
at exports._exceptionWithHostPort (util.js:1045:20)
at TCPConnectWrap.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (net.js:1090:14)
code: 'ECONNREFUSED',
errno: 'ECONNREFUSED',
syscall: 'connect',
address: '127.0.0.1',
port: 5432 }
// Here is how everything is set up:
const connection = require('./db/knexfile.js').development;
const knex = require('knex')(connection);
const app = express();
const server = app.listen(PORT, '127.0.0.1', 'localhost', () => console.log(`Listening on ${ PORT }`));
// Inside knexfile.js
module.exports = {
development: {
client: 'pg',
connection: {
"user": "development",
"password": "development",
"database": "testdb",
"host": "127.0.0.1",
"port": 5432
},
pool: {
min: 2,
max: 10
},
migrations: {
tableName: 'knex_migrations'
}
}
};
Additional information:
I am also running a React front end through webpack on localhost:3000 that sends http requests to 8080 through a proxy setting on the webpack server but this seems to be working.
I also have elasticsearch running on localhost:9200 and that seems to be wroking, too.

Answer 1

The issue was that I had an incorrect version of postgres installed. I reinstalled postgres and no longer had the issue.

Answer 2

Another, faster, approach is to connect to a local database is to use AF_UNIX sockets. You will have to give access rights to the Linux user that will host the application:
development:
connection: {
host: '/var/run/postgresql', // On Debian it is this one, check your distro
database: 'database_name'
},
This kind of access was measured to be 30% faster than going through AF_INET (TCP/IP) sockets.
Here an old article about that: Performance of UNIX sockets vs TCP sockets