In this post, we are going to figure out how to start, stop, and restart a PostgreSQL server on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
1. On macOS
If you installed PostgreSQL via Homebrew:
- To start manually:
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start
- To stop manually:
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop
- To start PostgreSQL server now and relaunch at login:
brew services start postgresql
- And stop PostgreSQL:
brew services stop postgresql
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2. On Windows
First, you need to find the PostgreSQL database directory, it can be something like
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10.4\data. Then open Command Prompt and execute this command:pg_ctl -D "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6\data" start
- To stop the server
pg_ctl -D "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6\data" stop
- To restart the server:
pg_ctl -D "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6\data" restart
Another way:
- Open Run Window by
Winkey + R - Type
services.msc - Search Postgres service based on version installed.
- Click stop, start or restart the service option.
3. On Linux
Update and install PostgreSQL 10.4
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install postgresql-10.4
By default, the postgres user has no password and can hence only connect if ran by the postgres system user. The following command will assign it:
sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER postgres PASSWORD 'postgres';"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE DATABASE testdb;"
- Start the PostgreSQL server
sudo service postgresql start
- Stop the PostgreSQL server:
sudo service postgresql stop
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