devpg

Launch a temporary, development instance of PostgreSQL on demand.

Introduction

devpg is a small Bash script which:

• creates a new PostgreSQL database directory with init
• start a new PostgreSQL server instance
• initializes the database with optional SQL scripts
• opens a psql session and handles
• handles cleanup of the container

It is meant to simplify your backend development workflow by eliminating the need to manage a PostgreSQL server or its config files, users, permissions, etc.

Prerequisites

devpg requires you have installed the PostgreSQL server and client packages for your installation.

Installation

To install, simply place the devpg script somewhere in your $PATH.

Usage

Usage:
    devpg [OPTION]...

Options:
    -h, --help
    -x, --pg-executable-dir=DIR  postgres executable dir like /usr/lib/postgres/12
    -i, --init-script=FILENAME   initialize the database with some sql
                                 (may be repeated)
    -p, --port=INT               local port (default: 15432)
    -t, --tmp-directory=DIRNAME  temporary directory (default: /tmp/devpg-$PID)
    -k, --keep-directory         don't delete temp dir on exit

At its most basic, running devpg without any arguments will create an instance of PostgreSQL and opens a psql session to the instance for you. You can also connect to the instance from any application on localhost with the connection string specified. User and database name will be the same as your Unix username (the value of $USER).

Additionally, you can provide an SQL initialization script using -i. You can place DDL statements (create table, etc) and sample data (using insert) in this file to quickly test your application against your schema. A small sample database sample/schema.sql is included to show its functionality.

You can also specify multiple init scripts with -i so that you can split the schema and sample data. Init scripts will be applied in the order specified.

Example

Let's say you have a schema in sample/schema.sql:

create table your_awesome_table (first_name text, last_name text);

And some sample data in sample/data.sql:

insert into your_awesome_table (first_name, last_name) 
values ('Ada', 'Lovelace'), ('Charles', 'Babbage');

You can then run this script as:

devpg -i sample/schema.sql -i sample/data.sql 

This will automatically launch an instance of PostgreSQL and open a psql session. You'll also be able to connect to the instance with any other client (for example, your application server on localhost with the port and password specified.)

License

MIT