Code 301 Setup

Postgres Database

Postgres is an SQL (Relational) Database server that we will be using throughout Code 301 and also 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.

Installation

Open your terminal, and run this command to install the Postgres client and server

brew install postgresql

This will take a short time to complete. Once it does, 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.

Linux and Windows Users

Run this command to start the server

pg_ctl -D /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/postgres 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/postgres start"' >> ~/.profile
echo 'alias pgstop="pg_ctl -D /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/postgres stop"' >> ~/.profile

From this point onward, you can simply run pgstart or pgstop to start and stop your postgres server

Mac Users

On Mac, we start the postgres server in such a way as to have it run right away, and also re-start itself whenever you restart your computer.

Run this command to enable postgres:

brew services start postgres

Linux Users

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.

Create your "user" database

Once the server is up and running, we'll need to create a default database for our user. Run this command:

createdb `whoami`

Validate that postgres clients can connect

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.

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