Pull the PostgreSQL image

Pull the latest PostgreSQL image from Docker Hub. In your terminal, run docker pull postgres to pull the latest Postgres version from Docker Hub:

docker pull postgres

Alternatively, you can pull preferred version with a specific tag:

docker pull postgres:15

When postgres image is downloaded, you can check it in Images tab in Docker Desktop or by running docker images:

docker images

REPOSITORY   TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
postgres     latest    75282fa229a1   6 weeks ago     453MB

Start a Postgres instance

To start a new PostgreSQL container, run the following command:

docker run --name drizzle-postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mypassword -d -p 5432:5432 postgres

1. The --name option assigns the container the name drizzle-postgres.
2. The -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD= option sets the POSTGRES_PASSWORD environment variable with the specified value.
3. The -d flag runs the container in detached mode (in the background).
4. The -p option maps port 5432 on the container to port 5432 on your host machine, allowing PostgreSQL to be accessed from your host system through this port.
5. The postgres argument specifies the image to use for the container. You can also specify other versions like postgres:15.

You can also specify other parameters like:

1. The -e POSTGRES_USER= option sets the POSTGRES_USER environment variable with the specified value. Postgres uses the default user when this is empty. Most of the time, it is postgres and you can check it in the container logs in Docker Desktop or by running docker logs <container_name>.
2. The -e POSTGRES_DB= option sets the POSTGRES_DB environment variable with the specified value. Defaults to the POSTGRES_USER value when is empty.

To check if the container is running, check Containers tab in Docker Desktop or use the docker ps command:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE      COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                    NAMES
df957c58a6a3   postgres   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   4 seconds ago   Up 3 seconds   0.0.0.0:5432->5432/tcp   drizzle-postgres

Configure database url

To connect to the PostgreSQL database, you need to provide the database URL. The URL format is:

postgres://<user>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<database>

You should replace placeholders with your actual values. For example, for created container the url will be:

postgres://postgres:mypassword@localhost:5432/postgres

Now you can connect to the database using the URL in your application.