psycopg

This is for installing the psycopg2 PostgreSQL adapter for python.

1. ensure python is set up on your machine
   1. it should come with a stock Apple install, so type python –version in a terminal to be sure
   2. at the time of this writing, these instructions worked with Python 2.7.1
2. ensure you have a postgresql installation available
3. download the source for psycopg2 from http://initd.org/psycopg/
4. decompress the archive
5. follow along with these commands:

   # change into the psycopg2 directory
   cd psycopg2-2.5.1
    
   # allow postgres binaries to be available
   export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/pgsql/bin
    
   # build and install psycopg2
   sudo easy_install psycopg2

6. sample python script to test db connection

   #!/usr/bin/python
    
   import psycopg2
    
   # psycopg features
   print 'Features of the psycopg are:',
   print ('API Level: %s, Thread Safety Level: %s, Parameter Style: %s.\n' % \
            (psycopg2.apilevel,psycopg2.threadsafety,psycopg2.paramstyle))
    
   # create a connection to the db
   try:
       conn=psycopg2.connect("host=localhost dbname=world user=postgres password=mypass")
       print 'Successfully connected to the database.\n'
   except:
       print 'Error: Unable to connect to database!\n'
    
   conn.close()