Setting Up PostgreSQL on Mac OSX

Here are the steps I used to set up Postgres in Mac OSX. Most of what is written here was learned from this blog post. I am saving my notes here in case that site gets removed.

Install Postgress using brew

If you don’t have homebrew, install it first. Then simply run the command:

brew install postgres

Initialize Postgres

This command initializes the database.

initdb /usr/local/var/postgres

Set up Postgres to run at startup

Check if the directory ~/Library/LaunchAgents exists. Create it if it doesn’t exist.

Find the plist file that came with the postgres install. I found mine at /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.3.4/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist.

Copy the plist file to the LaunchAgents directory.

cp /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.3.4/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

Now use launchctl to load the file using this command:

launchctl load -w homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist

Now when the computer reboots, postgres will automatically startup.

Additional Postgres Commands

Create a user

Postgres has a shell command called createuser which will create a user for Postgres. Use it right from the OSX terminal command line like this:

createuser --pwprompt tunnelsup

If it asks you questions about the user you can say ‘n’ for all of the questions.

If you wish to create a user without a password just take the --pwprompt off the command.

Create a database

Here is the command:

createdb -Otunnelsup -Eutf8 mysite_development

The -O indicates the user that will become the owner of the database.

Access the Database

The following command can be used to log into the database.

psql -U tunnelsup -W mysite_development

The -U means to login using that username and the -W means to prompt for a password.

To exit the shell hit Ctrl+d

Starting a new Rails project

In case you’re using this guide to get started using rails here’s how I would start the new rails app.

# Create the rails project
rails new projectname --database=postgresql
cd projectname
# Create the Postgres user
createuser projectname
# Create the databases
createdb -Oprojectname -Eutf8 projectname_development
createdb -Oprojectname -Eutf8 projectname_test
# Create some models/controllers etc
rails generate controller site
rails generate model 
# Run migrations
rake db:migrate
# Start the server
rails server

In dev I may not use a password for the database user. This makes it easier for me to get started and I don’t even have to edit the database.yml file.