Install PostgreSQL on MacOS
To install this database engine, I recommend having previously installed homebrew. If you have already installed PostgreSQL and you want to know some console commands, visit our article Connection by terminal to PostgreSQL. Having said that, let's get started with the installation.
Installation
Installation is just a matter of executing the following command with homebrew.
brew install PostgreSQLTo verify the installed version, we can use the following command:
thor: dario$ postgres -V
postgres (PostgreSQL) 12.1
Creating the database cluster
The installation of PostgreSQL should have created a database cluster. To verify this, simply check that the following directory is created.
ls /usr/local/var/postgres/If it is not, you must create a new PostgreSQL cluster with the following command:
initdb /usr/local/var/postgresA cluster is nothing more than a collection of databases that are managed by a server instance.
Starting the database service
Taking into account the cluster created in the previous step, starting or stopping the database service is just a matter of executing the following commands as appropriate.
initdb /usr/local/var/postgrespg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stopIf the PostgreSQL cluster was created automatically during the installation, you probably won't have to start the service manually. The output of the service startup command should be similar to the following if everything has gone well.
waiting for server to start....2020-01-05 11:20:06.259 -05 [30885] LOG: starting PostgreSQL 12.1 on x86_64-apple-darwin18.7.0, compiled by Apple clang version 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.12), 64-bit
2020-01-05 11:20:06.264 -05 [30885] LOG: listening on IPv6 address "::1", port 5432
2020-01-05 11:20:06.264 -05 [30885] LOG: listening on IPv4 address "127.0.0.1", port 5432
2020-01-05 11:20:06.267 -05 [30885] LOG: listening on Unix socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"
2020-01-05 11:20:06.297 -05 [30886] LOG: database system was shut down at 2020-01-05 10:55:01 -05
2020-01-05 11:20:06.305 -05 [30885] LOG: database system is ready to accept connections
done
server startedAmong other things, this output shows us that the server is available to accept connections on port 5432. Once the service is started, it is sufficient to use the simplest connection method specifying only the database to which we will connect. To see more authentication options, we invite you to check our post Connection by terminal to PostgreSQL.
psql postgresThe database postgres should have been created during the installation. To obtain a list of the databases in the cluster, you can execute the command psql -l.
If the service is not set to start up with the operating system, you can execute the following command.
brew services start postgresql