Comments on: Installing PostgreSQL 8.3 on Leopard

By: Russ Brooks

Russ Brooks — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:58:49 +0000

Hey, Adrian. Thanks for the link to my blog article above. You may want to update it to: http://www2.russbrooks.com:8000/2009/3/20/install-upgrade-php-apache-postgresql-on-mac-os-x-10-5-leopard
The old link is no longer valid and I apologize. My new article mentions the same thing… that I prefer to avoid the MacPort when it comes to PostgreSQL.

By: Part 1: Installing MySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache2, and PHP on Leopard » Blip, Official Blog of Martino Flynn Advertising, Public Relations, Branding, Marketing, Keyword-Droppin’ Agency

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:40:51 +0000

[...] Follow these instructions to install PostgreSQL [...]

By: Shanx

Shanx — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:34:06 +0000

I think BitNami’s MAPP is the best way to install Postgres etc on a Leopard machine. Works like a charm.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:09:28 +0000

Thanks for the link! I’ll check it out for sure.

By: Santosh Patnaik

Santosh Patnaik — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:27:19 +0000

Kyng Chaos has an OS X package/installer for PostgreSQL (currently version 8.3.3) that works on OS X Leopard for sure:

http://www.kyngchaos.com/wiki/software:postgres

It installs PostgreSQL in usr/local/pgsql with PL/Python built-in using Mac OS’s default Python, and OpenSSL, PAM, Kerberos 5, LDAP and thread safety support, creates user postgres and assigns pgsql to it, installs a startup item, and seeds an initial database.

To set a password for the user postgres:

$ sudo dscl localhost
>cd Local/Default/Users/
>passwd postgres new_password

pgAdmin III, the GUI-based admin tools, can be downloaded from http://www.pgadmin.org/
T

By: Erick

Erick — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:43:39 +0000

I tried MacPorts too, and the console stuff is pretty cumbersome. If I wanted that stuff, I’d rather install from source.

The folders inside MacPorts are HUGE and eat up way more space than necessary. And no, the install is not as clean as remove /opt. There are several other folders to uninstall:

http://trac.macports.org/wiki/FAQ#HowdoIremoveoruninstallMacPorts

I loved the “Postgresql for Mac” software. Will write a blog entry, just to increase the traffic to that site! I want to run Postgresql for trying out my PHP and Python projects on Apache. For the latter, it’s a breeze to install with XAMPP, but the Postgresql and PHP working in tandem is tricky. Any thoughts on making that work easily?

Thanks for this excellent recommendation otherwise! The packaging is superlative.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:15:33 +0000

Thanks for your comments Pierre!
Indeed I use MacPorts as often as possible, but in many cases I’ve installed software using the classic “./configure – make – make install” or using package installers. It depends; if I need the latest version of a specific library, I prefer to install from source; but sometimes (or if I just need the binaries), then I use the installers. And finally there’s Fink and MacPorts; I think it’s great to work on a platform that offers so many choices.

By: Pierre Omidyar

Pierre Omidyar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:49:33 +0000

Thanks for your post. I have to say that I had no trouble at all installing PostgresSQL 8.3 using MacPorts on Leopard on a new MacBook Air. The only slightly tricky thing is that you have to manually install the startup item, and manually init the database. The port makes this easy by spitting out two commands at the end of its installation that you can execute to accomplish these two things. The only trick is that if you happen to miss this console output, it can be a pain to scroll back and find the commands.

I haven’t tweaked any shared memory params and haven’t needed to, but I’m not really pushing the db yet anyway.

I really like MacPorts because it simplifies package management, and installs everything cleanly under /opt/, which makes it trivial to remove everything if you decide things have gone horribly wrong and need a pristine machine. It also reminds me in that way of the excellent FreeBSD port system.