PostgreSQL configuration

I won't lie to you, setting up PostgreSQL on a Linux machine might look simple but it's a pain in the ass when you're not comfortable with using phpPgAdmin (kinda like phpMyadmin for MySQL)

Installation

If you are on a Linux machine, use your favorite package manager to get the Postgresql package from your distribution

Ubuntu/Debian: apt-get install postgresql

Now we need to reset the password for the ‘postgres’ admin account for the server, so we can use this for all of the system administration tasks. Type the following at the command-line (substitute in the password you want to use for your administrator account):

$ sudo su postgres -c psql template1 template1=# ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'password'; template1=# \q

That alters the password for within the database, now we need to do the same for the unix user ‘postgres’:

$ sudo passwd -d postgres $ sudo su postgres -c passwd

Now enter the same password that you used previously.

Finally, we need to open up the server so that we can access and use it remotely - unless you only want to access the database on the local machine. To do this, first, we need to edit the postgresql.conf file:

$ sudo vi /etc/postgresql/8.2/main/postgresql.conf

Now, to edit a couple of lines in the ‘Connections and Authentication’ section…

Change the line:

#listen_addresses = 'localhost' to listen_addresses = '*'

and also change the line:

#password_encryption = on to password_encryption = on

Save the file.

That’s it, now all you have to do is restart the server:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.2 restart

And all should be working.