How to install PostgreSQL on Mac?

Kashif Rabbani
2 min readSep 11, 2021

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PostgreSQL Installation on Mac:

During this guide you will learn how to install PostgreSQL latest version on your mac step by step.

For example you can choose “admin” as your password to keep it simple and rememberable.

  • Environment Variables:
    You have to set the environment variables based on the version you have installed, e.g., I have just installed version 13 as shown in the installation summary above.
    Note: If you are installing a different version of PostgreSQL, you need to replace the number “13” in the paths with your installed version number.
export PATH=/Library/PostgreSQL/13/bin:$PATH 
export PGDATA=/Library/PostgreSQL/13/data
export PGDATABASE=postgres
export PGUSER=postgres
export PGPORT=5432
export PGLOCALEDIR=/Library/PostgreSQL/13/share/locale
export MANPATH=$MANPATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/13/share/man

Start PostgreSQL (command line)

Enter the following into your command line tool

psql -U postgres

Replace the username, “postgres”, with the one your choose during setup.

If during setup, you chose to use another port, e.g., port 5433, use the following command:

psql -U postgres -p 5433

When promoted for password, enter the password you specified during setup.

All Set, Ready to go:

Now your installation has been completed. You are ready to import or create databases and start querying.

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Kashif Rabbani

I am a data science PhD researcher who loves to write!