Installing different PostgreSQL server versions in GitHub Actions#

The GitHub Actions ubuntu-latest default runner currently includes an installation of PostgreSQL 13. The server is not running by default but you can interact with it like this:

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$ /usr/lib/postgresql/13/bin/postgres --version
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postgres (PostgreSQL) 13.3 (Ubuntu 13.3-1.pgdg20.04+1)

You can install alternative PostgreSQL versions by following the PostgreSQL Ubuntu instructions - like this:

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sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list'
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wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -
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sudo apt-get update
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sudo apt-get -y install postgresql-12

This works with postgresql-10 and postgresql-11 as well as postgresql-12.

I wanted to use a GitHub Actions matrix to run my tests against all four versions of PostgreSQL. Here’s my complete workflow - the relevant sections are below:

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name: Test
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on: [push]
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jobs:
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  test:
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    strategy:
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      matrix:
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        postgresql-version: [10, 11, 12, 13]
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    steps:
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    - name: Install PostgreSQL
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      env:
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        POSTGRESQL_VERSION: ${{ matrix.postgresql-version }}
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      run: |
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        sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list'
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        wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -
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        sudo apt-get update
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        sudo apt-get -y install "postgresql-$POSTGRESQL_VERSION"
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    - name: Run tests
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      env:
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        POSTGRESQL_VERSION: ${{ matrix.postgresql-version }}
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      run: |
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        export POSTGRESQL_PATH="/usr/lib/postgresql/$POSTGRESQL_VERSION/bin/postgres"
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        export INITDB_PATH="/usr/lib/postgresql/$POSTGRESQL_VERSION/bin/initdb"
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        pytest

I modified my tests to call the postgres and initdb binaries specified by the POSTGRESQL_PATH and INITDB_PATH environment variables.