Super Easy - Postgres Database on Docker

Quick and easy way to get Postgres up and running on Docker

Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

Setting up a Postgres database on your computer can be a pain in the backside. With weird setup methods and installations can sometimes lead you to feeling demoralised.

If only there was a quick an easy way to get up and running.

Fortunately there is, thanks to Docker.

In this article I am going to show you how I setup a Postgres database using Docker. So treat this article as more of a cheat sheet.

TLDR

docker pull postgres:alpine

docker run --name postgres-container -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password -d -p 5432:5432 postgres:alpine

docker exec -it postgres-container bash

psql -U postgres

CREATE DATABASE mydb;

CREATE USER myuser WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'mypass';

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE mydb TO myuser;

ALTER USER myuser WITH SUPERUSER;

Part 1 — Docker Setup

Assuming you have Docker already installed.

1. In your command line run the command docker pull postgres:alpine

2. If you want to check what images are currently installed docker images

3. Then we want to setup the Docker container to host our Postgres database.

docker run --name <name_of_container> -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=<your_password> -d -p 5432:5432 postgres:alpine

Anything that you see inside of the arrow bracket <> is for you to decide.

4. To see the containers that you have you can run docker ps . You should see your new container running based on what you put for <name_of_container>

Part 2 — Database Setup

1. Now that we have the container spinning we can jump into it by running docker exec -it <name_of_container> bash

2. Once you’re in the container you have to make another leap to access the Postgres shell. To do that run psql -U postgres

3. You can now start entering Postgres commands. So let’s use one to create a database. Run CREATE DATABASE <name_of_database>;

4. The database also needs a user. CREATE USER <username> WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '<password>';

5. Finally we can link our new user to the database with the correct permissions.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE <name_of_database> TO <username>;
ALTER USER <username> WITH SUPERUSER;

Congratulations

That’s is we’re now done with setting up a Postgres database. If you had any issues be sure to drop a comment or contact me on Twitter.