start/stop postgresql in development

gistfile1.txt

Startup/Shutdown

Next, as the instructions suggest you can set Postgres to start and stop automatically when your mac starts. Run these  three commands to have this happen (Postgres will start when you run the last command so there is no need to manually start it if you do this):

mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents
cp /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/org.postgresql.postgres.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.postgresql.postgres.plist
I’ve done this because I use Postgres for all my personal projects. If you’re just experimenting and want to control when it is running you can start and stop Postgres with these commands (perhaps with a shell alias). EDIT: Someone on the Hacker News thread suggested Lunchy for managing launchctl stuff, I’ve not tried it, but it looks useful.

Start Postgres:

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start

Stop Postgres:

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop -s -m fast