How to install PostgreSQL client psql on macOS, Linux (Ubuntu), and Windows?

The installation process for the PostgreSQL client, psql, may vary depending on your operating system. Here are the general steps for some popular operating systems:

Linux (Ubuntu)

1. Open the terminal and run the following command to update the package list:

sudo apt-get update

1. Install the PostgreSQL client by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

macOS

1. Install Homebrew by running the following command in Terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

1. Once Homebrew is installed, run the following command to install PostgreSQL:

brew install postgresql

Alternatively, you could also use homebrew to install libpq that gives you psql, pg_dump and a whole bunch of other client utilities.

Unfortunately, since it provides some of the same utilities as are included in the full PostgreSQL package, brew installs it “keg-only” which means it isn’t in the PATH by default.

Windows

1. Download the PostgreSQL installer for Windows from the official website.
2. Run the downloaded installer and follow the prompts to install PostgreSQL.

After completing the installation process, you should be able to run psql in the terminal/command prompt to connect to your PostgreSQL database.