Setting PostgreSQL using docker

You, of course, need to have docker installed.

Download the Postgres image.

$ docker pull postgres

This will pull the latest version of the database available. If you want a different version you can specify it changing the word postgres for postgres:9.6 in this case to get the version 9.6.

Start the container

docker run --name  pg-local -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=pgpassword  -d -p 5432:5432 -v $HOME/Documents/docker/db_vol/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data  postgres:9.6

pg-local is the name of the container.

pgpassword is going to be the postgres user password inside the container.

Other commands:

-d is for detached mode (run in the background). -p To expose / map container ports. -e Is to expose environment variables.

-v maps data or information folders. Note: This works on Mac or Linux. On Windows maybe the path structure changes.

If you want the container to be ephemeral (be destroyed on exit) add the –rm argument. Ex docker run --rm --name pg-local...

Docker kinda-monitoring commands

Validate your container is running

docker ps | grep pg-local

And your container should be shown in the output.

View your logs

docker logs -f pg-local

If you don’t want the continuous output, remove the -f tag.

To validate it’s up and running correctly.

docker logs pg-local | grep tail

If you haven’t attempted any connection. This should be the last line: LOG: database system is ready to accept connections

Access the container

You could access first from the shell using

docker exec -it pg-local sh
# now you should be inside your container
psql --username=postgres

or direcly

docker exec -it pg-local psql --username=postgres

On both scenarios you should be able to see: postgres=# on your terminal

Here you can use all common postgres commands like:

CREATE DATABASE "mydb";
CREATE USER myuser WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'mypass';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE mydb TO myuser;
help
\q
# Or any other command you know

Access from local

Use libpq, this will install only the pg libraries (psql), not the database itself. To install on mac use: brew install libpq. On ubuntu sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

Remember to map the directory to your path. Ex.

export export PATH="/usr/local/Cellar/libpq/11.1/bin/:$PATH"

And also consider pgcli.

And start working on it.

Hope it helps you.

• Postgresql
• Docker
• Local