Getting PostgreSQL Running on OS X 10.6

So…

I’m getting ready to deploy some new web applications and, normally, I’d just go ahead and use the installed mySQL server on our CentOS based servers and that would be that.

Except that we’re not going to be running on one of those…

So I figured I’d take some time to just install PostgreSQL.

That turned out to be pretty darn slick.

Get the binary installer from here, run the installer, and voilà!

After installation, it brings you to an installer that will let you install a few handy add-ons like a full Apache 2.2.x, Drupal, ODBC and JDBC drivers, some performance tuning tools, replication, and such.

I used the installer to install Apache 2.2.14 (latest stable 2.2 branch), Drupal, phpPgAdmin 4.2.2, and the JDBC driver. Damn handy, that.

One small wrinkle that I’ve not quite worked out but have worked around.

When you install phpPgAdmin, the postgres (root) user is not allowed to log in so you have to go into the config file way the heck down in:

/Library/PostgreSQL/EnterpriseDB-ApachePhp/apache/www/phpPgAdmin/conf

and tweak the:

 $conf['extra_login_security'] = false; #  true;

setting to false from true.

Then you can login with the postgres user. To add users, just go into the pgsql command, using the postgres user.

There are some more fun things to do at the Apple link for PostgreSQL which I’ll get to later.

To get the Python driver recommended for use with Django, I went to the ugly site pointed to by the Django documentation. Not sure what’s up with that.

Anyway, that’s what it took, I’ll write more after I do a bit more poking around…