Installing PostgreSQL on Linux

Recently I had to install postgresql on a linux machine. I ended up referring to more than one article on the web. So here's an attempt to capture all in one document.

1. Download latest postgresql-XXX.tar.gz (where XXX is a release number) distribution of postgres database. At the time of writing this document 8.2 is the latest release.

2. Due to built-in security reasons, postgres cannot run as a root user. Therefore, become a superuser and create a postgres group. Then add a user postgres to the group as follows;

sudo su - root (become a superuser)

groupadd postgres (create a postgres group)

useradd postgres –g postgres (create a postgres user)

3. Extract the tar file into /usr/local directory. This should create a postgresql-XXX subdirectory in /usr/local.

cd /usr/local

gunzip -c /path-to-file/postgresql-XXX.tar.gz | tar xvf -

4. create a /usr/local/pgsql directory where postgres database will be installed.

mkdir /usr/local/pgsql

5. Assign ownership of directories created above to postgres user.

chown -R postgres.postgres /usr/local/pgsql

chown -R postgres.postgres /usr/local/postgresql-XXX

6. Switch to postgres user from superuser.

su - postgres

7. Configure and prepare postgres for installation.

./configure

gmake

If successful, the last line displayed should be as below.

"All of PostgreSQL is successfully made. Ready to install."

8. start installation

gmake install

9. Set environment variables. Add following to .bashrc in home directory of postgres user. For example, /home/postgres

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/lib

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH

export PATH

MANPATH=/usr/local/pgsql/man:$MANPATH

export MANPATH

10. Link runtime libraries for faster access. (you need to be a superuser to execute this command. Type exit, run the command and then type "su - postgres" to log back in as postgres user).

/sbin/ldconfig /usr/local/pgsql/lib

11. Create a directory for storing database data files.

mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data

12. Start postgres process.

cd /usr/local/pgsql/bin

postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >logfile 2>&1 &

13. Add following to /etc/rc.d/rc.local script so that postgres is restarted upon reboot.

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -l logfile -D /usr/local/pgsql/data

This completes the Postgres installation.