PostgreSQL: Setting up PostgreSQL in Mac OSX

NOTE: Do NOT mix the 2 methods. Once you install using the dmg, you will lose access to the server data. However you will gain the use of pgAdmin, which is very similar to SQLServer (from what I remember anyway...).

One method is to download the .dmg from their website, which automatically sets up everything for you, including database URL, port, username & password.

The other method is to do this yourself via command-line:

1. mkdir /DB/data
2. chmod 0700 /DB/data
3. initdb -D /DB/data
4. pg_ctl start -D /DB/data
5. pg_ctl stop -D /DB/data

You can use a simple shell script to start/stop/restart the server for you (taken from Will Green)

#!/bin/bash
export PGDATA=/DB/data
start() {
echo -n "Starting Postgres: "
pg_ctl start -l $PGDATA/postgres.log
return
}
stop() {
echo -n "Shutting down Postgres: "
pg_ctl stop -l $PGDATA/postgres.log
return
}
case "$1" in
       start)
               start
               ;;
       stop)
               stop
               ;;
       restart)
               stop
               start
               ;;
       *)
               echo "Usage: {start|stop|restart}"
               exit 1
               ;;
esac
exit $?