Requirements¶

How to install PostgreSQL¶

Linux¶

If you are on Arch Linux you can use the following command:

sudo pacman -S postgresql

to install it, but if you are on other Linux distributions just change the Package Manager.

macOS¶

If you are on macOS you can use Homebrew to install PostgreSQL with the following command:

brew install postgresql

or you can use MacPorts with the following command:

sudo port install postgresql16

Configure PostgreSQL¶

Linux¶

After the installation of PostgreSQL you need to use the following commands:

sudo -u postgres initdb -D /var/lib/postgres/data
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/postgres/data
sudo chown postgres:postgres /var/lib/postgres/data

to initialize the database and create the necessary directories. Then you can use the following command to start the PostgreSQL service:

sudo systemctl start postgresql

and to enable it at startup use the following command:

sudo systemctl enable postgresql

How to create a database¶

Once you have downloaded PostgreSQL you need to create the todolist database. Open a terminal and write:

sudo -i -u postgres

this command allows you to change your computer user by selecting the postgres user. Now use the following command to create a database called todolist:

createdb todolist

Now run the command:

# Linux
psql

# macOS
psql postgres

you will get something like this:

psql (16.2)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=#

then write:

\c todolist

you should get a message similar to this:

You are now connected to database "todolist" as user "postgres".

Now if you open the src/table.sql file you will find this code inside:

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-- Use the following command to create a tasks table on todolist database
CREATE TABLE tasks (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    description TEXT NOT NULL
);

compact this code as follows:

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CREATE TABLE tasks (id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, description TEXT NOT NULL);

and write it immediately after todolist=# and you should get this message:

CREATE TABLE

Now use the following SQL code to see the description and id columns that are part of the tasks table:

SELECT * FROM tasks;

and in particular you should get something similar to this:

id | description 
----+-------------
(0 rows)

Now that you have successfully created the todolist database and created a tasks table to place the information in, you can exit psql using the \q command and then you can switch back to the main user using the exit command.