Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL

By : Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi
Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL

By: Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi

Overview of this book

PostgreSQL is one of the fastest-growing open source object-relational database management systems (DBMS) in the world. As well as being easy to use, it’s scalable and highly efficient. In this book, you’ll explore PostgreSQL 12 and 13 and learn how to build database solutions using it. Complete with hands-on tutorials, this guide will teach you how to achieve the right database design required for a reliable environment. You'll learn how to install and configure a PostgreSQL server and even manage users and connections. The book then progresses to key concepts of relational databases, before taking you through the Data Definition Language (DDL) and commonly used DDL commands. To build on your skills, you’ll understand how to interact with the live cluster, create database objects, and use tools to connect to the live cluster. You’ll then get to grips with creating tables, building indexes, and designing your database schema. Later, you'll explore the Data Manipulation Language (DML) and server-side programming capabilities of PostgreSQL using PL/pgSQL, before learning how to monitor, test, and troubleshoot your database application to ensure high-performance and reliability. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed with the Postgres database and be able to set up your own PostgreSQL instance and use it to build robust solutions.
Table of Contents (27 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting Started
5
Section 2: Interacting with the Database
12
Section 3: Administering the Cluster
20
Section 4: Replication
23
Section 5: The PostegreSQL Ecosystem

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 drive the cluster, by means of postmaster, to recognize allowed 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.

This chapter has presented you with all of the preceding 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, connect to the...