ERROR: dbpath does not exist

Question

I set dbpath in mongodb config file:

#dbpath=/var/lib/mongodb
dbpath=~/data/db

Then try start mongodb but got error:

ERROR: dbpath (~/data/db) does not exist.

Allthough I can check existance of ~/data/db easy:

# cd ~/data/db
user@server:~/data/db# pwd
/root/data/db

When I run it...

# mongod --dbpath ~/data/db

... got output:

Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.040 [initandlisten] MongoDB starting : pid=3786 port=27017 dbpath=/root/data/db 64-bit host=callzone2
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.040 [initandlisten] db version v2.4.6
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.040 [initandlisten] git version: b9925db5eac369d77a3a5f5d98a145eaaacd9673
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.041 [initandlisten] build info: Linux ip-10-2-29-40 2.6.21.7-2.ec2.v1.2.fc8xen #1 SMP Fri Nov 20 17:48:28 EST 2009 x86_64 BOOST_LIB_VERSION=1_49
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.041 [initandlisten] allocator: tcmalloc
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.041 [initandlisten] options: { dbpath: "/root/data/db" }
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] exception in initAndListen std::exception: locale::facet::_S_create_c_locale name not valid, terminating
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 dbexit: 
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to close listening sockets...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to flush diaglog...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to close sockets...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: waiting for fs preallocator...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: lock for final commit...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: final commit...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: closing all files...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] closeAllFiles() finished
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 [initandlisten] shutdown: removing fs lock...
Tue Oct 15 05:05:49.044 dbexit: really exiting now

And client shows that server not started:

# mongo
MongoDB shell version: 2.4.6
connecting to: test
Tue Oct 15 05:08:22.139 Error: couldn't connect to server 127.0.0.1:27017 at src/mongo/shell/mongo.js:145
exception: connect failed

When I run in this way...

# sudo service mongodb restart

... got output in mongo log file:

*********************************************************************
 ERROR: dbpath (~/data/db) does not exist.
 Create this directory or give existing directory in --dbpath.
 See http://dochub.mongodb.org/core/startingandstoppingmongo
*********************************************************************
, terminating
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 dbexit: 
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to close listening sockets...
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to flush diaglog...
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] shutdown: going to close sockets...
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] shutdown: waiting for fs preallocator...
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] shutdown: lock for final commit...
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] shutdown: final commit...
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] shutdown: closing all files...
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 [initandlisten] closeAllFiles() finished
Tue Oct 15 05:10:39.311 dbexit: really exiting now

So cannot change dbpath.

My ubuntu version:

# uname -a
Linux hostName 3.2.0-23-virtual #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 22:29:03 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Answer 1

I solved the problem with :

sudo mongod --dbpath=/var/lib/mongodb and then mongo to access the mongodb Shell.

Answer 2

What user is MongoDB running as a service?

It is usually mongod or mongodb, not root - and in fact you should not run it as root in general. The default dbpath in Ubuntu is /var/lib/mongodb so it seems you have changed that in the config file to be ~/mongodb/db.

If you do that, the ~ will expand to be the home folder for the user that the service is running as. Hence you would need to create /home/mongodb/db or /home/mongod/db/, not /root/db, and make sure it is owned by the relevant user to use that setting.

I would recommend using a full path to eliminate the confusion. Create a folder like /data/mongodb/db or similar and make sure it has the correct ownership (see this answer for more on setting permissions appropriately).

Answer 3

In my experience mongodb is very picky about the locale, I had the same issues, try:

export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
locale-gen en_US.UTF-8

sudo service mongodb restart