Steps to Install PostgreSQL Server on macOS Catalina. Install Homebrew. Open Terminal and then paste this command to install Homebrew. Homebrew is a clever application that will help us to install almost anything on macOS. Press Enter to start the installation. Install PHP 7.3 + xdebug on MacOS Catalina (with homebrew) Homebrew have relocated “php” formulas and renamed “php71” into “php@7.1” in 2018 making it quite difficult to and also.

Setting Up A Database

We're going to install sqlite3 from homebrew because we can't use the built-in version with macOS Sierra without running into some troubles.

Rails ships with sqlite3 as the default database. Chances are you won't want to use it because it's stored as a simple file on disk. You'll probably want something more robust like MySQL or PostgreSQL.

There is a lot of documentation on both, so you can just pick one that seems like you'll be more comfortable with.

Homebrew Install Mac Catalina 2020

If you're new to Ruby on Rails or databases in general, I strongly recommend setting up PostgreSQL.

If you're coming from PHP, you may already be familiar with MySQL.

MySQL

You can install MySQL server and client from Homebrew:

Once this command is finished, it gives you a couple commands to run. Follow the instructions and run them:

How To Install Homebrew On Macos Catalina

By default the mysql user is root with no password.

When you're finished, you can skip to the Final Steps.

PostgreSQL

How To Do A Fresh Install Of Mac Catalina

You can install PostgreSQL server and client from Homebrew:

Once this command is finished, it gives you a couple commands to run. Follow the instructions and run them:

Install Homebrew Mac Os X Catalina

By default the postgresql user is your current OS X username with no password. For example, my OS X user is named chris so I can login to postgresql with that username.