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)
20
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21
Index

Summary

PostgreSQL can handle several databases within a single cluster, served out of disk storage contained in a single directory named PGDATA. The cluster runs many different processes; one, in particular, is named postmaster and is in charge of spawning other processes, one per client connection, and keeping track of the status of maintenance processes.

The configuration of the cluster is managed via text-based configuration files, the main one being postgresql.conf. It is possible to filter incoming user connections by means of rules placed in the pg_hba.conf text file.

You can interact with the cluster status by means of the pg_ctl tool or, depending on your operating system, by other provided programs, such as service or systemctl.

This chapter has presented you with the relevant information so that you are able not only to install PostgreSQL but also to start and stop it regularly, integrate it with your operating system, and connect to the cluster.

In the following chapter, you will learn how to manage users and connections.