Install PostgreSQL on Mac OS X Leopard

This type of guide is all over the internet, but I’m too lazy to search for one every time I want to do this. So here’s a brief overview of how I got PostgreSQL set-up nicely on Mac OS 10.5…

Setting Up Our Environment

Using a text editor of your choice, add the following lines to the bottom of the /etc/profile file (you’ll need to be an administrator to do this):

# MacPorts
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
 
# PostgreSQL
export PATH=/opt/local/lib/postgresql83/bin:$PATH

Now before we move on, make sure that you have MacPorts installed.

Installing PostgreSQL with MacPorts

I like MacPorts - it makes installing general Unix packages and keeping them up-to-date a snap. As such, we’ll use it to do the heavy lifting for installing PostgreSQL. Open up a terminal and hit up the following command:

sudo port install postgresql83 postgresql83-server

Sit back and wait a while… That’s the basic install done.

Now to configure it, do the following:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/local/var/db/postgresql83/defaultdb
sudo chown postgres:postgres /opt/local/var/db/postgresql83/defaultdb
sudo su postgres -c '/opt/local/lib/postgresql83/bin/initdb -D /opt/local/var/db/postgresql83/defaultdb'

This installs a default database instance for us to be getting on with. Next, run this command to get PostgreSQL to start on system boot:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql83-server.plist

Reboot your Mac.

Creating a User Account and Database

Once your Mac is back up, we finally need to create an account for us to use (substitute ‘daz’ for your username)…

createuser --superuser daz -U postgres

Now a database to play with…

createdb test_db

Admin Your Database with pgAdmin 3

Download pgAdmin, then run the following commands to set up some functions that allows pgAdmin to collect statistics about your databases:

cd /opt/local/share/postgresql83/contrib/
sudo su postgres -c psql < adminpack.sql

That’s it - job done!¹