Installing PostgreSQL & Connecting with psql

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Installing PostgreSQL & Connecting with psql

The fastest way to get Postgres running locally is via your OS package manager. On macOS the recommended approach is Homebrew; on Ubuntu/Debian use apt.

bash

# macOS
brew install postgresql@16
brew services start postgresql@16

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib
sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql

After installation Postgres creates a system user named postgres. Switch to it and launch the interactive shell psql to verify everything is working.

bash

# Linux — switch to the postgres system user
sudo -i -u postgres psql

# macOS — the default superuser is your OS username
psql postgres

Essential psql Meta-Commands

\l — list all databases
\c dbname — connect to a database
\dt — list tables in the current schema
\d tablename — describe a table (columns, types, constraints)
\dn — list schemas
\timing — toggle query execution time display
\q — quit

psql reads a ~/.psqlrc file on startup. A popular trick is to add \set PROMPT1 '%[%033[1;32m%]%n@%/%[%033[0m%]%# ' for a coloured prompt showing the current user and database.

bash

# Connect with explicit flags
psql -h localhost -p 5432 -U myuser -d mydb

# Run a single query and exit
psql -U myuser -d mydb -c 'SELECT version();'

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