PostgreSQL on MacOS X

There are quite a few resources available on the ’Net about compilation and setup of PostgreSQL on a Mac OS X. This O’Reily article, and this one from Apple just to name a few.

For me, where both these articles are falling short is in describing how to set Postgres to start automatically when I boot my Mac. Interestingly, I had to read an article about Oracle on a Mac to see how this can be done for Postgres.

Naturally, it is very simple. As long as you followed all the instructions in either of above 2 articles (I opted for installing Postgres and dependencies out of Darwinports, as I am a bit repelled by Fink), all you need to do is:

1. Create a directory /Library/StartupItems/Postgres
2. Create 2 files in that directory: Postgres and StartupParameters.plist. Note that a startup script must be called the same as a directory!
3. chmod(1) above files sensibly (700 is a good option) and chown(1) them to be owned by root:wheel.
4. Put the following into the Postgres startup script:

   #!/bin/sh
   
   #
   # For postmaster startup options, edit $PGDATA/postgresql.conf
   #
   # Note that PGDATA is set in ~${PGUSER}/.profile, don't try to manipulate it here!
   #
   
   . /etc/rc.common
   
   PREFIX=/opt/local
   PGBIN=${PREFIX}/bin
   PGUSER=postgres
   
   StartService ()
   {
       if [ -x ${PGBIN}/pg_ctl ]; then
           ConsoleMessage "Starting PostgreSQL"
           su -l ${PGUSER} -c "[ -d ${PGDATA} ] && exec ${PREFIX}/bin/pg_ctl start -s -w"
       fi
   }
   
   StopService ()
   {
       if [ -x ${PGBIN}/pg_ctl ]; then
           ConsoleMessage "Stopping PostgreSQL"
           su -l ${PGUSER} -c "exec ${PREFIX}/bin/pg_ctl stop -m fast"
       fi  
   }
   
   RestartService ()
   {
       if [ -x ${PGBIN}/pg_ctl ]; then
           ConsoleMessage "Restarting PostgreSQL"
           su -l ${PGUSER} -c "exec ${PREFIX}/bin/pg_ctl restart -s -m fast"
       fi
   }
   
   RunService "$1"
   
   

5. Puth the following into StartupParameters.plist:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
   <key>Description</key>
   <string>PostgreSQL 7.4.1 Database Server</string>
   <key>Provides</key>
   <array>
   <string>PostgreSQL 7.4.1 Database</string>
   </array>
   <key>Requires</key>
   <array>
   <string>Disks</string>
   </array>
   <key>Uses</key>
   <array>
   <string>Disks</string>
   <string>Network</string>
   <string>NFS</string>
   </array>
   <key>OrderPreference</key>
   <string>Late</string>
   </dict>
   </plist>

You can now try and run sudo /Library/StartupItems/Postgres/Postgres start to check if it all works.