Installing PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL can be installed on many platforms. I'll first outline, in a fair bit of detail, how to install PG on Linux, both using packages, as well as compiling from source. I'll also touch on installing PG in other platforms, enough so you should theoretically be able to do it (I have to admit I haven't tried it.)
The primary goal of this week is to get a working Postgresql installation that you can use. It's good if you can install this locally on your primary desktop or laptop first, then once you've gotten used to it, and we've talked about security issues, etc., then, if that's part of your project, you can install it on a production (or staging) server. Of course, if you've done this sort of thing lots of times, and are really familiar with systems and database admin, by all means, go ahead and do what you want.
Linux
If you want to install PG easily, you can just use the package manager for your distribution. For most distributions, there are several packages to install. The core three are generally called postgresql-version, postgresql-client, and postgresql-common. Here's the list for Ubuntu.
For Ubuntu (or Debian):
mpm@chicago:~$ sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-8.2 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
postgresql-doc-8.2
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-8.2 postgresql-client-8.2 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.
Need to get 4550kB of archives.
After unpacking 22.9MB of additional disk space will be used.
So this picks up the basics that you need - postgresql-8.2 which is the server, plus the client and common files. The documentation is also useful.
On Fedora, you should be able to do the following:
yum install postgresql-server
Other distributions (like Gentoo, or SUSE) will have their own postgresql packages. Find out what they are, and it should be pretty straightforward to install them. Ask the list if you run into trouble.
Installing from source
If you have one of those distros/platforms where you install from source, or you'd just like to do that, it's fairly straightforward, and I'll outline some of the options. The advantage, of course, of compiling from source is that you have granular control over your postgresql installation, and can choose many different versions (including the most recent beta). The downside is that it's not part of your package management system, so it's not as easy to upgrade.
Go to www.postgresql.org , and find the source downloads ( here's one mirror ) Choose a version (I'm trying the beta out) and download it.
Once you download and expand the package, you'll see a file called "INSTALL". Have a look at that file. There are TONS of possible options. I'll tell you about a few. First, the simple version:
./configure
gmake
su
gmake install
adduser postgres
mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data
chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
su - postgres
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >logfile 2>&1 &
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb test
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql test
So, first, configure, then "make" using gmake - this is the compile step. Then install - this puts all of the files in the places they need to go - the libraries, executables, etc. Then you need to add a new user, called postgres, who will be the admin user for the server. Create a directory for the data that is owned by the postgres user. Then initiate the database system (which creates the system tables). Start up PG, create a database called 'test' and then use the client to interact with that database.
The other thing you need to do is configure PG to startup automatically from boot (which basically means adding a startup script to /etc/init.d)
(A note: installing using package managers will generally have done all of this for you).
The options on the ./configure step (syntax would be ./configure --with-option1 --with-option2) include changing the destination directory, the directories on the libraries, installing perl, python or tcl support (full installs of these have to already be present), adding PAM, LDAP and/or SSL support, etc. Most Linux distributions have packages to give these, but for some reason, you might want to install them yourself (especially if you have an unusual setup.)
Make sure to carefully read the INSTALL file - that should take care of any snags.
Installing PG on a Macintosh
The easiest way to go about it is to use Fink which is the project that brings open source packages to the MacOS (they are compiled and configured for the mac). It's modeled after the Debian package manager. Once you install Fink, you can then just:
fink install postgresql82
You can also look for other PG related packages.
You can also use MacPorts I've not tried it, but it is another avenue. MacPorts work more like Portage - they aren't compiled, but you compile them.
Installing PG on Windows
In the downloads region of www.postgresql.org, there will be a directory labeled 'win32'. I used "postgresql-8.2.5-1.zip" - but there does exist a file with the label "binaries no installer" - which I guess you could try.
PostgreSQL can be installed on many platforms. I'll first outline, in a fair bit of detail, how to install PG on Linux, both using packages, as well as compiling from source. I'll also touch on installing PG in other platforms, enough so you should theoretically be able to do it (I have to admit I haven't tried it.)
The primary goal of this week is to get a working Postgresql installation that you can use. It's good if you can install this locally on your primary desktop or laptop first, then once you've gotten used to it, and we've talked about security issues, etc., then, if that's part of your project, you can install it on a production (or staging) server. Of course, if you've done this sort of thing lots of times, and are really familiar with systems and database admin, by all means, go ahead and do what you want.
Linux
If you want to install PG easily, you can just use the package manager for your distribution. For most distributions, there are several packages to install. The core three are generally called postgresql-version, postgresql-client, and postgresql-common. Here's the list for Ubuntu.
For Ubuntu (or Debian):
mpm@chicago:~$ sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-8.2 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
postgresql-doc-8.2
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-8.2 postgresql-client-8.2 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.
Need to get 4550kB of archives.
After unpacking 22.9MB of additional disk space will be used.
So this picks up the basics that you need - postgresql-8.2 which is the server, plus the client and common files. The documentation is also useful.
On Fedora, you should be able to do the following:
yum install postgresql-server
Other distributions (like Gentoo, or SUSE) will have their own postgresql packages. Find out what they are, and it should be pretty straightforward to install them. Ask the list if you run into trouble.
Installing from source
If you have one of those distros/platforms where you install from source, or you'd just like to do that, it's fairly straightforward, and I'll outline some of the options. The advantage, of course, of compiling from source is that you have granular control over your postgresql installation, and can choose many different versions (including the most recent beta). The downside is that it's not part of your package management system, so it's not as easy to upgrade.
Go to www.postgresql.org , and find the source downloads ( here's one mirror ) Choose a version (I'm trying the beta out) and download it.
Once you download and expand the package, you'll see a file called "INSTALL". Have a look at that file. There are TONS of possible options. I'll tell you about a few. First, the simple version:
./configure
gmake
su
gmake install
adduser postgres
mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data
chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
su - postgres
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >logfile 2>&1 &
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb test
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql test
So, first, configure, then "make" using gmake - this is the compile step. Then install - this puts all of the files in the places they need to go - the libraries, executables, etc. Then you need to add a new user, called postgres, who will be the admin user for the server. Create a directory for the data that is owned by the postgres user. Then initiate the database system (which creates the system tables). Start up PG, create a database called 'test' and then use the client to interact with that database.
The other thing you need to do is configure PG to startup automatically from boot (which basically means adding a startup script to /etc/init.d)
(A note: installing using package managers will generally have done all of this for you).
The options on the ./configure step (syntax would be ./configure --with-option1 --with-option2) include changing the destination directory, the directories on the libraries, installing perl, python or tcl support (full installs of these have to already be present), adding PAM, LDAP and/or SSL support, etc. Most Linux distributions have packages to give these, but for some reason, you might want to install them yourself (especially if you have an unusual setup.)
Make sure to carefully read the INSTALL file - that should take care of any snags.
Installing PG on a Macintosh
The easiest way to go about it is to use Fink which is the project that brings open source packages to the MacOS (they are compiled and configured for the mac). It's modeled after the Debian package manager. Once you install Fink, you can then just:
fink install postgresql82
You can also look for other PG related packages.
You can also use MacPorts I've not tried it, but it is another avenue. MacPorts work more like Portage - they aren't compiled, but you compile them.
Installing PG on Windows
In the downloads region of www.postgresql.org, there will be a directory labeled 'win32'. I used "postgresql-8.2.5-1.zip" - but there does exist a file with the label "binaries no installer" - which I guess you could try.