Installing PostgreSQL and PostGIS on Mac OS X

So, you want to install PostgreSQL and PostGIS on Mac OS X Lion? Good idea. Here’s how to do it.

Start by downloading and installing MacPorts from www.macports.org.

Install PostgreSQL:

$ sudo port install postgres90 postgres90-server

And follow the installation instructions. If you get a permission denied error, you can try running it using sudo -u postgres before the command itself. If you get an error message saying “Is the server running locally and accepting connections on Unix domain socket xxx?” try running it with -h localhost. This is an issue that started on Mac OS X Lion.

If you want to install a default user that will be used to login to your PostgreSQL using psql:

$ createuser -h localhost -U postgres -s <your OS X username>

E.g.

$ createuser -h localhost -U postgres -s admin

Next, create a database for development. We will be using this database later on when installing PostGIS:

$ createdb -h localhost my_development_database

Install PostGIS:

$ sudo port install postgis

Install PostGIS in the database:

$ cd /opt/local/share/postgresql90/contrib/postgis-1.5/
$ psql -d my_development_database -f postgis.sql -h localhost
$ psql -d my_development_database -f spatial_ref_sys.sql -h localhost

And you’re done! You can now use PostGIS in your my_development_database database.

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Tags: Geospatial, OS X, PostGIS, PostgreSQL

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 8th, 2011 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Misc. It has 5,877 views. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.