PostgreSQL - Connection refused

While setting up a new PostgreSQL server, I noticed that I was getting a connection refused error while trying to connect to it. After checking the firewall settings and finding everything in order, I decided to check things in the host.

I used ss to inspect connections listening on port 5432 (Default port used by PostgreSQL):

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$ ss -tna src :5432
State       Recv-Q        Send-Q       Local Address:Port        Peer Address:Port
LISTEN        0            128          127.0.0.1:5432             0.0.0.0:*

The output shows that the server is only listening on 127.0.0.1, while we need to allow connections from any IP address.

To fix this we need to modify postgresql.conf. To find the file:

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SELECT
  name, setting
FROM
  pg_settings
WHERE
  name = 'config_file';

Then, to allow connections from any host, we need to add this:

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listen_addresses = '*'

And restart the server:

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sudo systemctl restart postgresql