Postgres is an SQL (Relational) Database server that we will be using in some 401 level courses. In this step, we’ll be installing Postgres on your system and preparing it for use.
Postgres comes in 2 parts, a client and a server … the server runs constantly, waiting for clients to connect to it so that they can store and retrieve data. The server does the actual management of the data. You’ll get much deeper into the inner workings of these during your coursework.
Open your terminal, and run this command to install the Postgres client and server
brew install postgresql@14
This will take a short time to complete. (If prompted to restart your computer, do that now.) Once installation is finished, you’ll need to “start” the postgres server so that we can make sure clients can connect. How we do this is slightly different for each operating system.
Run this command to start the server
pg_ctl -D /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/postgresql@14 start
Note that the postgres server will not automatically re-start after your computer reboots, so you’ll need to re-run that command anytime you restart or if your clients are unable to connect. To make that easier, we can create an alias so that you can do that with a single command. Run this command to create the alias:
echo 'alias pgstart="pg_ctl -D /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/postgresql@14 start"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'alias pgstop="pg_ctl -D /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/postgresql@14 stop"' >> ~/.zshrc
From this point onward, you can simply run pgstart or pgstop to start and stop your postgres server
Postgresql 14 automatically starts in the background after installation, and whenever your computer reboots.
On Linux, postgres can be setup to automatically start when your system reboots, so you do not have to run pgstart every time. To set this up, refer to the Postgres Server Documentation and follow the appropriate instructions for your Linux version to have postgres auto-start as a service.
Once the server is up and running, we’ll need to create a default database for our user. Run this command:
createdb `whoami`
Now, let’s make sure we can connect to the postgres server. Run this command:
psql
You should see something similar to the following:
psql (12.3)
Type "help" for help.
yournamehere=#
Type \q to exit the postgres client application and return to your bash shell.