Database setup

This guide will help you install and setup PostgreSQL for hosting the database locally.

Windows

Caution

Windows is not supported for firmware and ground station development.

If you are using Windows, you will need to install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). WSL lets you run a complete Linux environment directly inside Windows without virtual machine overhead or dual booting.

Make sure you follow the Initial setup guide.

Linux/WSL

1. Open a terminal and run the following commands to install PostgreSQL:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install postgresql-16

2. Run sudo -u postgres psql --version to ensure PostgreSQL was installed properly. It should print that the major version is 16.

3. Run the following commands to setup PostgreSQL for the ground station.

   Caution

   Make your PostgreSQL username the same as your Linux username. Also, try not to include special characters in your password as it may break connection strings.

   # Connect to PostgreSQL CLI as the postgres superuser
   sudo -u postgres psql
   # Replace your_username and your_password with your desired values
   CREATE USER your_username WITH PASSWORD 'your_password' SUPERUSER;
   CREATE DATABASE gs;

4. Log out, then verify that you can log in to your newly created user and database:

   \q # Log out
   # Replace your_username with your actual username
   psql -U your_username -d gs
   # You should be logged into the database
   \q # Log out again

5. From the root directory, run the following commands to create a new .env file:

   cd gs/backend/config
   cp template.env .env

6. Edit the .env file to add your login details in the quotes. In Linux/WSL, you can use vim or nano.

7. Ensure that your Python virtual environment is activated. If not, follow Initial setup. Start the backend in development mode by running fastapi dev gs/backend/main.py from the root directory. This will also initialize the database.