PostgreSQL 9.0.0

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PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. It has more than 15 years of active development and a proven architecture that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness.

Last update N/A | old versions Licence Free OS Support Mac Ranking #6 in Databases & Networks

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PostgreSQL Editor's Review

This PostgreSQL server is a particular build, Mac OS compatible, of PostgreSQL server.

This build comes with the support for GNU Readline library, JDBC, ODBC, C++, Multibyte/Unicode, OpenSSL integration and tcl. In order to use it from a Web interface it requires an administrator interface such as phpPgAdmin. You can easily use this PHP frontend with your built in Apache Web Server by installing a PHP module with PostgreSQL support, such as PHP Apache Module.

The server comes as a installation package but running the installer won't be enough. In order to use the server there are several steps that you have to follow in order to install properly this package.

The first thing that you have to do is to create a new account with your Mac OS X. You can do this very easily from the 'System Preferences' panel. The producer recommends some settings that I used during this test. You can see them into my screenshot.

After you create the required system user, you have to open a Terminal window and use the following commands:

sudo chown -R postgres /usr/local/pgsql/ and enter your user's password when required;

su - postgres and enter the password of the new account when the shell asks for it;

/usr/local/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data and wait for the operation to complete;

/usr/local/bin/pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l postgres.log start in order to start the server.

These are the official instructions for the producer of this PostgreSQL package.

You can use other line commands such as /usr/local/bin/createdb new_database in order to create a new database named 'new_database' and you can use it with /usr/local/bin/psql new_database. After you run the use command, you can execute SQL queries. You have a command line help with all the SQL commands supported and the Postgre specific commands that are supported. Anyway, the command line management of the server isn't very easy for a beginner and is not 'user friendly' at all.

If you would like to start up automatically the SQL server, then the producer has a solution. Install this package which will add a new StartupItem into /Library/StartupItems/.

Pluses: it is a strong build of PostgreSQL server with the support for all kind of integrations.

Drawbacks / flaws: the installation and the management without a Web/GUI interface can give you some headaches if you are a beginner.

In conclusion: a very good SQL server package and it can be administered very nicely from a powerful Web interface, phpPgAdmin.

version reviewed: 8.1.4