How to setup PostgreSQL on MacOS

I would be lying, if I say I don't look up how to setup PostgreSQL - every DAMN time. We know it was hard to do before, but now it isn't, yet most of the guides we find are outdated. So, here we have an updated version of it.

Installing PostgreSQL

First, install HomeBrew if you don't have it already, you can use the following script to install it.

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Once you are done with it, update HomeBrew dependencies and install PostgreSQL.

brew update
brew install postgresql

See, I told you it was Easy. Let's check Postgres version

postgres --version
postgres (PostgreSQL) 11.3

Initializing the DB

A Database needs some space allocated on your hard-disk, also called as "cluster" or "Data directory". It happens automatically, but to be sure run the following

initdb /usr/local/var/postgres

You may see the error message: initdb: directory “/usr/local/var/postgres” exists but is not empty if the database was already created when we installed PostgreSQL.

Start/Stop PostgreSQL

You can do it either ways, by directly calling the following

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop

or by using brew

brew services postgres start
brew services postgres stop
brew services postgres restart

Creating a PostgreSQL Database

To create a database run the following

createdb databasename

To remove a database run the following

dropdb databasename

To Connect to a database run

psql databasename

This will open up the psql sheel, where you can run SQL quries, to exit press ctrl+d. Some useful commands, to know.

• \list To list all databases.
• \c databaseName to connect to databaseName.
• \d To list relations in current database.
• \d tableName To list info of a table.