Mac OS X Hacks

Installing the PostgreSQL Database

The PostgreSQL database has good third-party support from developers and passes the ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) test. What more could you want from an open source database?

Are you a longtime Mac user curious about working with databases in the past but scared away by prohibitive prices? Are you new to Apple and would like to put your prior database experience to use on the Mac? If you’re either, read on. I’m going to walk you through installing PostgreSQL (http://PostgreSQL.org) on Mac OS X (I’m using 10.1.4), as well as using SQL tools with it and connecting to PostgreSQL with Java. The Java bit is at the tail end of this piece so that if programming (or Java itself) isn’t your thing you can easily skip it.

I’m a new Mac user. I recently made the switch from Windows 2000 to Mac OS X and have become comfortable enough in my new environment to flex some of my database skills on this exciting new platform — having worked with everything from MS Access to Oracle in the past. I’ve kept up with some of the high-level news about what is going on in the open source DBMS realm. So when I pondered which DBMS I should install on my Mac, PostgreSQL was the rather quick answer. It has good third-party support from developers, and it passes the ACID test (http://www.orafaq.com/glossary/faqglosa.htm).

Installation

If you don’t already have a current version of Apple’s Developer Tools [Hack #55], now is the time to get and install ...