README.md

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The process for setting up PostgreSQL is different for Ubuntu and macOS, but it's the same for Ubuntu and WSL. So we'll document these two processes separately, starting with Ubuntu & WSL.

Scroll down to view the instructions for macOS.

Installation on Ubuntu & WSL

Open your Terminal and type in the following commands:

(press Y when it asks, "Do you want to continue? [Y/n]")

sudo apt update
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev

This will install the PostgreSQL database server on your computer. Let's make sure that its server is up and running using the following command:

sudo service postgresql start

Note for WSL users: You'll need to run the above command each time you restart Windows and open up Ubuntu for the first time.

Installation on macOS

We'll use Homebrew to install the PostgreSQL server and client:

brew install postgresql

Once that's done, follow the instructions printed to the console and run some additional commands:

# To have launchd start postgresql at login:
brew services start postgresql

After installation: Run psql and create your first database

On Ubuntu, installing Postgres will also have created a user called postgres on our machine, which we'll need to use to connect to the database. On macOS, this additional user isn't created, so we'll create it instead.

Let's begin by giving the user a password to secure databases under it. Type the following in the terminal:

On Ubuntu & WSL

# Switch the shell to the `postgres` user, and then run psql.
sudo -i -u postgres
psql

On macOS

# Create the `postgres` DB user, and then sign in as that user.
createuser -s postgres
psql -U postgres

psql is similar to a Node.js console - it is an interactive console where we can execute database commands and SQL queries.

Once psql is running, type the following commands:

# First, set a password for the `postgres` user.
alter user postgres password 'changeme';

# Let's create a database that we can use for our webapp.
create database todo_db;

# Finally, quit from the psql application.
\q

Quick tips:

1. Don't forget the semicolon (;) at the end of each command.
2. Don't type in changeme. Change your password to something else.

This will set the database password for the database user to changeme (whatever password you typed). It will also create a new blank database called todo_db which we will use to build our web application. The final \q will allow you to exit from psql and return to the shell.

Once you're in the shell, type exit, so you go back to your original user.

Now you have setup a Postgres database server in your Ubuntu machine, given the database username a password, and created a database called todo_db. Next, we'll learn to use Sequelize to work with this database.