Installing Postgres from Source
Tags: postgres, apacheage
Published: 2023-06-13 07:19:48

PostgreSQL is a popular open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). It is available in both binary and source code distributions. This article will show you how to install PostgreSQL from source on a Linux system.

### Prerequisites

Before you can install PostgreSQL from source, you will need to have the following prerequisites installed on your system:

* A Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, or CentOS
* A compiler, such as GCC or Clang
* A development library, such as GNU Development Tools (GDT) or LLVM
* A text editor, such as Vim or Emacs

### Installing PostgreSQL from Source

To install PostgreSQL from source, follow these steps:

1. Download the PostgreSQL source code from the PostgreSQL website.
2. Extract the PostgreSQL source code archive.
3. Change to the PostgreSQL source code directory.
4. Run the `./configure` script to configure PostgreSQL for your system.
5. Run the `make` command to build PostgreSQL.
6. Run the `make install` command to install PostgreSQL on your system.

### Configuring PostgreSQL

The `./configure` script allows you to configure PostgreSQL for your system. The following are some of the options that you can configure:

* The data directory: This is the directory where PostgreSQL will store its data files.
* The port number: This is the port number that PostgreSQL will listen on.
* The user name and password for the PostgreSQL superuser: The PostgreSQL superuser is a special user that has complete control over the PostgreSQL database cluster.

### Building PostgreSQL

The `make` command builds PostgreSQL from source. This may take a few minutes to complete.

### Installing PostgreSQL

The `make install` command installs PostgreSQL on your system. This will create a number of files and directories, including:

* The PostgreSQL binaries: These are the executable files that you will use to interact with PostgreSQL.
* The PostgreSQL libraries: These are the libraries that are used by the PostgreSQL binaries.
* The PostgreSQL documentation: This is the documentation for PostgreSQL.

### Starting PostgreSQL

To start PostgreSQL, run the following command:

```
pg_ctl start
```

This will start the PostgreSQL server. You can then connect to PostgreSQL using a client application, such as psql.

### Stopping PostgreSQL

To stop PostgreSQL, run the following command:

```
pg_ctl stop
```

This will stop the PostgreSQL server.

### Restarting PostgreSQL

To restart PostgreSQL, run the following command:

```
pg_ctl restart
```

This will stop and then start the PostgreSQL server.

### Backing Up PostgreSQL

To back up PostgreSQL, run the following command:

```
pg_dumpall > backup.sql
```

This will create a SQL dump of the PostgreSQL database cluster. You can then use this SQL dump to restore PostgreSQL to a different system.

### Restoring PostgreSQL

To restore PostgreSQL from a backup, run the following command:

```
psql -U postgres -d postgres -f backup.sql
```

This will restore the PostgreSQL database cluster from the SQL dump.

I hope this article has helped you to install PostgreSQL from source. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.