ozzie00 / postgresapp

The easiest way to get started with PostgreSQL on the Mac

Postgres.app

Postgres.app is the easiest way to get started with PostgreSQL on the Mac. Open the app, and you have a PostgreSQL server ready and awaiting new connections. Close the app, and the server shuts down.

Download

The latest version is available from the Postgres.app website.

Older versions and pre-releases are available in the releases section on github.

Documentation

Documentation is available at http://postgresapp.com/documentation, as well as from the "Open Documentation" menu item in Postgres.app.

What's Included?

• PostgreSQL 9.3.5
• PostGIS 2.1.3
• plv8

How To Build

If you want to tweak the GUI only, just make sure you have a compiled copy of Postgres.app in your applications folder. Open the XCode file and start hacking!

If you want to build your own versions of all the PostgreSQL binaries, you have a bit more work.

Make sure you have autoconf, automake installed. The quickest way to install them is using MacPorts:

sudo port install autoconf automake

For building PostgreSQL with docs, you also need a bunch of other tools:

sudo port install docbook-dsssl docbook-sgml-4.2 docbook-xml-4.2 docbook-xsl libxslt openjade opensp

Then make sure you remove other versions of Postgres.app from your Applications folder.

Open the src directory and type make. This will download and build PostgreSQL, PostGIS, and PLV8. Several hundred megabytes of sources will be downloaded and built. This can take an hour or longer, depending on your Internet connection and processor speed. All the products will be installed in /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS/.

Once this is done, you can just open Postgres.xcodeproj in Xcode, select the "Postgres" scheme, and click "Build".

To share your build, use the "Archive" command and then use the "Distribute" command in Organizer.

Under the Hood

Postgres.app bundles the PostgreSQL binaries as auxiliary executables. An XPC service manages postgres processes, which are terminated when the app is quit.

The database data directory is located in the /var directory of the Postgres.app Container's Application Support directory. When the app is launched, it checks for "PG_VERSION" in the directory. If it does not exist, initdb is run, and later, createdb to create a default database for the current user.

Command Line Utilities

Postgres.app also includes useful command line utilities:

• PostgreSQL: clusterdb createdb createlang createuser dropdb droplang dropuser ecpg initdb oid2name pg_archivecleanup pg_basebackup pg_config pg_controldata pg_ctl pg_dump pg_dumpall pg_receivexlog pg_resetxlog pg_restore pg_standby pg_test_fsync pg_test_timing pg_upgrade pgbench postgres postmaster psql reindexdb vacuumdb vacuumlo
• PROJ.4: cs2cs geod invgeod invproj nad2bin proj
• GDAL: gdal_contour gdal_grid gdal_rasterize gdal_translate gdaladdo gdalbuildvrt gdaldem gdalenhance gdalinfo gdallocationinfo gdalmanage gdalserver gdalsrsinfo gdaltindex gdaltransform gdalwarp nearblack ogr2ogr ogrinfo ogrtindex testepsg
• PostGIS: pgsql2shp raster2pgsql shp2pgsql

See the documentation for more info.

Contact

If you find a bug, please open an issue.

Postgres.app is maintained by Jakob Egger and Craig Kerstiens.

Postgres.app was created by Mattt Thompson.

License

Postgres.app is released under the PostgreSQL License. See LICENSE for additional information.