pgserver 0.0.5

Self-contained postgres server for your python applications

pgserver: pip installable self-contained postgres server

pip install pgserver

pgserver lets you create and manage a Postgres within your Python app, with server binaries included. Wheels are built for multiple platforms.

Example use cases:

• Building a Postgres-backed yet still self-contained Python app, much like you would with sqlite.
• Developing and testing apps that depend on some external Postgres (as a dev dependency)

Basic summary:

• Pip installable binaries: tested on Ubuntu and MacOS (apple silicon + x86), including pgvector extension.
• No sudo needed: Does not require root or sudo.
• Convenient startup: pgserver.get_server(MY_DATA_DIR) factory method to initialize data and server if needed, so you don't need to understand initdb, pg_ctl, port conflicts, and skip debugging why you still cannot connect to the server.
• Convenient cleanup: server process cleanup is done for you, including when multiple independent processes call pgserver.get_server(MY_DATA_DIR)
• Context manager protocol to explicitly control cleanup timing in testing scenarios.
• For lower-level control, wrappers to all binaries, such as initdb, pg_ctl, psql, pg_config. Includes header files in case you wish to build some other extension and use it against these binaries.

# Example 1: postgres backed application
import pgserver

pgdata = f'{MY_APP_DIR}/pgdata'
db = pgserver.get_server(pgdata)
# server ready for connection.

print(db.psql('create extension vector'))
db_uri = db.get_uri()
# use uri with sqlalchemy / psycopg, etc

# if no other process is using this server, it will be shutdown at exit,
# if other process use same pgadata, server process will be shutdown when all stop.

# Example 2: Testing
import tempfile
import pytest
@pytest.fixture
def tmp_postgres():
    tmp_pg_data = tempfile.mkdtemp()
    with pgserver.get_server(tmp_pg_data, cleanup_mode='delete') as pg:
        yield pg

Postgres binaries in the package can be found in the directory pointed to by the pgserver.pg_bin global variable.

Based on https://github.com/michelp/postgresql-wheel, with the following differences:

1. +Wheels for multiple platforms (+MacOS x86, +MacOS apple silicon)
2. +Server management (initialization and cleanup including multi-process )
3. +pgvector extension included
4. -postGIS (many dependencies => harder to build cross platform. pull requests taken)