postgres

What is postgre?

The postgres image runs PostgreSQL, a powerful open-source relational database system known for its reliability, SQL compliance, and extensibility. PostgreSQL supports advanced database features such as ACID transactions, JSONB storage, window functions, full-text search, and rich indexing capabilities. It’s widely used in production environments for web applications, data analytics platforms, and enterprise systems.

This image provides a fully functional PostgreSQL server in a containerized format, making it easy to run databases in local development, CI/CD pipelines, and Kubernetes clusters. PostgreSQL is often chosen in containerized infrastructure for its balance of strong relational guarantees and modern extensibility, supporting both structured and semi-structured data.

The postgres image is relevant for teams looking to deploy a reliable database service with predictable behavior, whether as a standalone container, part of a microservices architecture, or as a stateful service in orchestrated environments.

How to use this image

The postgres image can be run as a single-node database for testing or development, or extended into a production service with persistence and replication. It supports environment variables for configuring the database name, user, and password.Run a database container:docker run --name some-postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecret -d postgres

‍Mount a persistent volume:

<code>docker run --name some-postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecret \  -v pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data -d postgres</code>

Connect with psql client:

<code>docker exec -it some-postgres psql -U postgres</code>

Use as a base image in a Dockerfile:

<code>FROM postgres:16COPY init.sql /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/</code>

By default, PostgreSQL listens on port 5432. Logs are written to stdout, viewable via docker logs. Initialization scripts placed in /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/ are executed when the container first starts.

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Image variants

ublished under postgres, the image is available in multiple variants:

postgres:latest

Tracks the latest stable release.Suitable for quick testing, but not recommended in production.

postgres:<version>

Tagged by release version (e.g. 16, 15, 14).

Recommended for production to ensure stability and compatibility.

postgres:<version>-alpine

Lightweight Alpine-based variant.Significantly smaller footprint, but may lack some OS libraries required by extensions.

postgres:<version>-bullseye / -bookworm

Debian-based variants tied to specific distributions.Useful when aligning with enterprise baselines.Postgres images are regularly rebuilt to include security patches. For predictable deployments, pin to a specific tag like postgres:16.3.