pgserver: pip-installable postgres + pgvector for your python app

pip install pgserver

pgserver lets you build Postgres-backed python apps that remain wholly pip-installable; saving you and your users from needing to understand how to install and setup a postgres server. To achieve this, you need two things which pgserver provides

• wheels with postgres binaries included
• convenient initialization and server process management, with defaults that do not interfere with existing postgres installations, and with handling or prevention of many corner cases (being root, port conflicts, etc)

Additionally, this package includes the pgvector extension.

Try it out:

Basic summary:

• Pip installable binaries: built and tested on Manylinux, MacOS and Windows.
• No sudo or admin rights needed: Does not require root privileges or sudo.
• but... can handle root: in some environments your python app runs as root, eg docker, google colab, pgserver handles this case.
• Simpler initialization: pgserver.get_server(MY_DATA_DIR) method to initialize data and server if needed, so you don't need to understand initdb, pg_ctl, port conflicts.
• Convenient cleanup: server process cleanup is done for you: when the process using pgserver ends, the server is shutdown, including when multiple independent processes call pgserver.get_server(MY_DATA_DIR) on the same dir (wait for last one). You can blow away your PGDATA dir and start again.
• 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.

Originally based on https://github.com/michelp/postgresql-wheel,which offers an ubuntu wheel. But with the following differences:

1. binary wheels for multiple platforms (ubuntu x86, MacOS apple silicon, MacOS x86, Windows)
2. postgres server management: cross-platform builds, with cross-platfurm startup and cleanup including many edge cases.
3. includes pgvector extension but excludes postGIS (need to build cross platform, pull requests taken)