Mac Docker and Postgres - a Quick Start Guide

Running Postgres on your mac doesn't have to be hard. Let's look at a super fast way to get up and running with Postgres.

1) Install Docker

Head over to the Docker Website, sign up, install docker, and login to the docker app. Now open a terminal and punch in these commands:

docker version
# You should see a version output. This may be large.
docker compose version
# Again, you should see a version. This will likely be a shorter output

2) Spin up Postgres in a Docker Container

Open a new folder in an IDE of your choice. Create a file in the root of that folder called docker-compose.yml and paste the below yaml code:

version: "3.9"

services:
  # Our Postgres database
  db: # The service will be named db.
    image: postgres # The postgres image will be used
    restart: always # Always try to restart if this stops running
    environment: # Provide environment variables
      POSTGRES_USER: johndoe # POSTGRES_USER env var w/ value johndoe
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: astrongpassword
      POSTGRES_DB: yournewdatabase
    ports: # Expose ports so that apps not running via docker compose can connect to them.
      - 5432:5432 # format here is "port on our machine":"port on container"

  # Adminer provides a nice little web UI to connect to databases
  adminer:
    image: adminer
    restart: always
    environment:
      ADMINER_DESIGN: dracula # Pick a theme
    ports:
      - 3333:8080

Now with that saved, open a terminal in the root of your folder and type docker compose up. This will spin up a docker container and, if everything goes well, you should see a log stating database system is ready to accept connections in the terminal.

3) Connect to Your New Docker Container

Open a new terminal tab and execute the following command:

docker compose exec -it db psql -U johndoe -d yournewdatabase

This will connect you to your database and now you'll be able to execute Postgres commands directly from the terminal.

Fin

That's the long short. Happy Postgresing!