Fall 2016, CS-160 Handout: How to install and configure the Postgres database server on Linux Mint

In your terminal window type the following at the command prompt: su
You will be prompted to enter the root password. Enter that password.
Your terminal window should now display a "#" (hash mark) prompt. This indicates you are logged in as root!

First we need to update our cache of software libraries that are available to install or update.
In your terminal window type the following at the command prompt (you should be root): apt-get update

Now that we've updated our cache, the next step is to install the Postgres database server.
In your terminal window type the following at the command prompt (you should be root): apt-get install postgresql postgresql-server-dev-all

Now that we've installed Postgres, the next step is to log into the Postgres server.
In your terminal window type the following at the command prompt (you should be root): su postgres
In your terminal window type the following at the command prompt (you should now be user postgres): psql
You should now be logged into Postgres.

Now that we are logged into Postgres, it's time to change the password when connecting to the Postgres database as user "postgres". We will change the Postgres password to student.
In your terminal window while logged into Postgres database (include the semicolon after this SQL statement): ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'student';

Now that we've changed the Postgres password, it's time to log out of the database.
In your terminal window while logged into Postgres database enter the following command (no semicolon needed): \q

Your terminal window should still be present. Now your window is probably user student. This is a non-priviledged user (i.e. not root).
Now it's time to log into the Postgres database again but this time it'll be much easier now that we've updated the Postgres password.
At the command prompt type in the terminal window type the following: psql -U postgres -h localhost
Postgres will then prompt you to enter the password. Enter student
You should now be logged into Postgres.

Now that you are logged into the Postgres server, we need to create a new database. This database will serve as container for one or more relational tables. We will create a database called cs160.
In your terminal window at the postgres command prompt (include the semicolon after this SQL statement): CREATE DATABASE cs160;