PostgreSQL

• download source from http://www.postgresql.org
• create a 'postgres' user account

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/pgsql --mandir=/usr/local/man --infodir=/usr/local/info

make

sudo make install

sudo mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data
sudo chown postgres:postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
sudo su - postgres
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
(cd to or replace postgres.log with your desired logfile name and location)
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data > /usr/local/pgsql/log/postgres.log 2>&1 &
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb test 
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql test 

(to shut down the server)
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl stop -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -m fast

• psql (command line, included with PostgreSQL)
• pgAdmin (GUI)

Postgres source code (at least as of 8.3.1) contains a startup script package for OS X. Go to <pg build dir>/contrib/start-scripts/osx, and run this:

sudo /bin/sh ./install.sh

Your /etc/hostconfig file will also be modified to include the line below. You can set it to -NO- if you don't want Postgres to load when your computer starts up:

POSTGRESQL=-YES-

You can now manually control the server with these:

sudo /Library/StartupItems/PostgreSQL/PostgreSQL start
sudo /Library/StartupItems/PostgreSQL/PostgreSQL stop
sudo /Library/StartupItems/PostgreSQL/PostgreSQL restart

• creating_startup_items

• http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/postgres-user.html