Easiest way to spin up a dev/throwaway Postgres instance (Docker)

easy_postgres_docker.md

Introduction

This quick guide will spin up a Postgres 12 container accessible from localhost:9432. This is NOT a durable setup and data is very likely to be lost after the database is shutdown. For demo purposes only.

Prerequisites

• Docker

Instructions

In one shell, run

$ docker run -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres --publish 9432:5432 --name demo-pg12 postgres:12
... Postgres logs ...

This will start Postgres 12 accessible from localhost:9432. Username, password, and default database all are postgres.

Then, in another shell, run

$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE         COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                    NAMES
5fbf767ba025   postgres:12   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds   0.0.0.0:9432->5432/tcp   demo-pg12

$ docker exec -it demo-pg12 psql -U postgres
psql (12.4 (Debian 12.4-1.pgdg100+1))
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# select 'tada! we have access to postgres!' as helloworld;
            helloworld
-----------------------------------
 tada! we have access to postgres!
(1 row)

Alternatively, you can connect to Postgres via a natively installed psql client

$ PGPASSWORD=postgres psql -h localhost -p 9432 -U postgres -d postgres
psql (12.4 (Debian 12.4-1.pgdg100+1))
Type "help" for help.

postgres=#

To clean up, just <CTRL-C> to close the first shell with Docker running Postgres. You can exit psql with either or by typing in \q<ENTER>.