While Ubuntu Linux is — besides Debian — the Linux-distribution of my choice, some packages could be more up-to-date.
In this scenario given, my Ubuntu 20.04 doesn’t provide the latest PostgreSQL-version 14 which was released in late September. Working with v12 or v13 isn’t a real mud in the eye but the speed bump that comes with number 14 is quite impressive. In my case, a new installation was the base for a project and I decided to go with the latest release of PostgreSQL before doing anything else.
About the repository
The way of adding the official repository is quite easy as PostgreSQL backs all major distributions by its PostgreSQL Apt Repository. At the time of writing, the following versions of Ubuntu are maintained:
- impish (21.10)
- hirsute (21.04)
- focal (20.04)
- bionic (18.04)
So far, PostgreSQL gives its blessing for the following architectures:
- amd64
- arm64 (18.04 and newer; LTS releases only)
- i386 (18.04 and older)
- ppc64el (LTS releases only)
PostgreSQL — Logo
Adding the latest repository
Three commands are necessary to add the specific repository to our distribution, a fourth command then installs the latest version — or the version you prefer.
First of all, we need to create the file repository’s configuration by typing
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list'
and importing the repository signing key afterwards:
wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -
Installation
Now update the package list just like you would do with any Ubuntu-/Debian-based distro:
sudo apt-get update
Then you need to choose whether to go with the latest version of PostgreSQL or choose a desired version, a command like
sudo apt-get -y install postgresql postgresql-contrib
for example will install version 14 at the time of writing and the contributing packages while
sudo apt-get -y install postgresql-12
will install version 12 in case you specifically need this iteration of PostgreSQL.
Conclusion
We managed to add the latest official PostgreSQL-repositories on — here — Ubuntu 20.04 in no time. Without any hassle we can now install the most up-to-date version of the modern PostgreSQL-relational database system. I hope this tutorial has helped you in your specific project.
And, by all means, don’t forget: You are now running an out-of-the-box configuration of PostgreSQL and there are many tweaks in the RDMS’s configuration file you may apply — but this is yet another story to be told! Making your configuration to suit your personal needs may be a quite demanding task but tools like PGTune serve well here to adopt some parameters to your installation’s specific use case!
