Setup Rails 3.1 and Postgresql on Snow Leopard - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have spent countless number of hours trying to setup PostgreSql on my Intel Mac.
I am able to install Rails and all but PostgreSql would not get installed on my Mac.
Anybody has any solution or any tutorial which I can follow to install it ??
P.S. I just started using Mac as my development machine. I have been using Windows before that !

Answer 1

Ok I had to do a little more research with a fresh mind and I am now able to solve the problem myself. Here is the solution :
Install Homebrew using this command :
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSLk https://gist.github.com/raw/323731/install_homebrew.rb)"
Once installed write this in your terminal :
brew install postgres
If this is your first install ( which was the case with me ) than type this in terminal after the above step:
$ initdb /usr/local/var/postgres
To start the postgresql type this in terminal:
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start
After the above step type this :
ps auxwww | grep postgres
If the result of the above command in terminal looks like this than that means the postgresql is installed correctly :
26000 0.0 0.1 2445860 1556 ?? Ss 1:59AM 0:00.05 postgres: autovacuum launcher process
25999 0.0 0.0 2445728 512 ?? Ss 1:59AM 0:00.15 postgres: wal writer process
25998 0.0 0.0 2445728 912 ?? Ss 1:59AM 0:00.21 postgres: writer process
25996 0.0 0.1 2445728 2508 ?? S 1:59AM 0:00.15 /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres
26257 0.0 0.0 2435548 0 s000 R+ 2:19AM 0:00.00 grep postgres
Create a user and database:
createuser username
createdb -Ousername -Eutf8 databasename
To login to postgresql use this command:
psql -U username databasename
If you are using it with rails you can install the gem like this :
sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install --no-ri --no-rdoc pg
If you would like to stop the PostgreSQL service use this command :
pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop -s -m fast
Hope this will help others in saving the time of going through different resources to come with the solution like I did :)

Answer 2

Try using Cinderella. That will give you the whole stack (including MongoDB, Redis, and a whole bunch of other stuff) in one nice neat bundle in ~/Developer. You're better off using custom builds of all your development tools so that you don't have to worry about what version of anything comes with the system and what an upgrade might to do your OS.
References:
Cinderella on Github
Cinderella Homepage

Answer 3

A few other notes to add to your instructions:
There is a good post at Russ Brooks Blog on installation which validates much of what you have above.
There are a set of admin tools available at pgadmin.org which will allow you to browse your database through a simple GUI on the Mac
If you use the admin tools you should install the instrumentation pack with the following:
psql -d postgres < /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/share/postgresql/contrib/adminpack.sql
where the exact command obviously depends on the version of postgresql you are using.
If you are using postgres with rails and bundler then make sure the "pg" gem is in your gem file and run bundler with the following command immediately after you add it:
env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" bundle install
This will do the same as your 'gem install' command above. After you run it for the first time you no longer need to use the 'env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"' when you run bundler.

Answer 4

I had luck downloading and installing it straight from the site:
http://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx

Answer 5

I have used MacPorts for most of my server/low level program installations (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.). If you choose to go that route, you can then follow this blog post/tutorial on installing PostgreSQL via MacPorts onto your Mac. One thing to note on the PostgreSQL link: when following along, change the instances of 83 to 90. For example, you will see this in his steps:
sudo port install postgresql83 postgresql83-server
You can instead, type this to get the newest version of PostgreSQL
sudo port install postgresql90 postgresql90-server
I would also recommend grabbing a program such as Navicat for PostgreSQL Lite. It's free and nice to have to manage your local PostgreSQL DBs.
If you don't want to go with MacPorts, there's a similar alternative called HomeBrew that's quite popular ... I'm just too lazy to switch from MacPorts :).