Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL - Second Edition

By : Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi
1 (2)
Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL - Second Edition

1 (2)
By: Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi

Overview of this book

The latest edition of this PostgreSQL book will help you to start using PostgreSQL from absolute scratch, helping you to quickly understand the internal workings of the database. With a structured approach and practical examples, go on a journey that covers the basics, from SQL statements and how to run server-side programs, to configuring, managing, securing, and optimizing database performance. This new edition will not only help you get to grips with all the recent changes within the PostgreSQL ecosystem but will also dig deeper into concepts like partitioning and replication with a fresh set of examples. The book is also equipped with Docker images for each chapter which makes the learning experience faster and easier. Starting with the absolute basics of databases, the book sails through to advanced concepts like window functions, logging, auditing, extending the database, configuration, partitioning, and replication. It will also help you seamlessly migrate your existing database system to PostgreSQL and contains a dedicated chapter on disaster recovery. Each chapter ends with practice questions to test your learning at regular intervals. By the end of this book, you will be able to install, configure, manage, and develop applications against a PostgreSQL database.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
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Index

Installing PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL can run on several operating systems, most notably Unix and Unix-like systems, including Linux, as well as on Microsoft Windows 11 or higher. So far, the most supported platform remains Linux because most PostgreSQL developers work on this platform, and so it is the one with the most tested use cases. However, deploying on other supported platforms should not present any problems and is not going to put your data at any risk.

This section will focus on installing PostgreSQL 16, since it is the latest stable version available worldwide. You will learn, however, how to build your own version of PostgreSQL, and this may also be the way for you to install other versions of PostgreSQL in the future.

Before installing PostgreSQL, you need to choose, or at least evaluate, how to install it. There are two main ways to get PostgreSQL up and running:

  • Compiling from sources
  • Using binary packages

Binary packages are provided by...