Run Postgres Server

# Start /usr/sbin/cygserver first if you haven't already done so
mkdir /srv/pgdata
export PGDATA=/srv/pgdata
pg_ctl init
pg_ctl start

Test Posgres Using Client

psql postgres

postgres=# create table test_ratings(username varchar(200), rating int);
postgres=# insert into test_ratings values('tester1', 5), ('tester2', 4);
postgres=# select * from test_ratings;
 username | rating
----------+--------
 tester1  |      5
 tester2  |      4

Test connectivity using Python

Run pip install psycopg2 if you haven’t already install the driver.

testdb.py.

import psycopg2
with psycopg2.connect('dbname=postgres') as conn:
        with conn.cursor() as cur:
                cur.execute('select * from test_ratings')
                while True:
                        row = cur.fetchmany()
                        if len(row) == 0:
                                break
                        print(row)

Postgres Windows Installation

The official download is provided by EnterpriseDB (EDB) You can get a zip package from:

https://www.enterprisedb.com/download-postgresql-binaries

To install, just unzip it.

mkdir $HOME/apps/postgresql-10.3-2
cd $HOME/apps/postgresql-10.3-2
unzip postgresql-10.3-2-windows-x64-binaries.zip

Server can be started manually like this in cmd.exe prompt:

bin\pg_ctl -D data -o "--encoding=UTF8 --auth=trust" initdb
mkdir logs
bin\pg_ctl -D data -l logs\postgres.log start

bin\createdb %USERNAME%
chcp 1252
bin\psql

zemian=# select version();
                          version
------------------------------------------------------------
 PostgreSQL 10.3, compiled by Visual C++ build 1800, 64-bit
(1 row)

By default inidb will create a "postgres" database, but user is your Windows login name, and it will not match. It’s more convient to create a database that match your username, and use that as default.

You should be careful with "--auth=trust", which can get you started quickly but not very secure.