How to downgrade/have a previous version of Postgres DB in Postgres.app

Question

I have installed Postgres.app from here ( http://postgresapp.com ) a couple of days ago. It comes with Postgres 9.4.4.

Today I realised that the software I am using officially supports only Postgres 9.3. The 9.4.4 version works, but sometimes there are DB locks.

Is there a way to downgrade my current db (very small in size, created just for testing), which is version 9.4.4 to 9.3? Or is it possible to create another DB with version 9.3 without uninstalling current version of Postgres.app?

OS: OS X Yosemite 10.10.4

Thank you.

Answer 1

1. install postgres 9.3 server and client to your mac
2. run locate initdb expected in /Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/bin/initdb let's assume it is there
3. create 9.3 instance /Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/bin/initdb -D /new_data_directory
4. export 9.4 db /Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/bin/pg_dump -U 94_username -d 94_database >somefile.dmp
5. shutdown old /Library/PostgreSQL/9.4/bin/pg_ctl stop -m fast
6. startup new /Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/bin/pg_ctl start 7.create 93 db /Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/bin/psql -U 93_superuser_user -c "create database IMPORT_DB"
7. import 93 db /Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/bin/psql -U 93_superuser_user -f somefile.dmp IMPORT_DB

I don't know if there are articles on this topic. I know I sound old fashion, but maybe manuals? :) and experience

Answer 2

If you need to downgrade the Postgres version but prefer to continue using Postgres.app, there are previous releases recorded at https://github.com/PostgresApp/PostgresApp/releases/ including links to the dmg or older zip installers.

For example in August 2017 the current Postgres.app ( v2.0.4 ) uses Postgres version 9.6.4 . However if you needed say Postgres 9.6.2 you could page back through the previous releases to find that the v.2.0.2 release from Feb 2017 uses Postgres 9.6.2 . https://github.com/PostgresApp/PostgresApp/releases/tag/v2.0.2

Older versions of Postgres are there too even back to the 9.3 series referenced in the original question.

I'm not sure if the old installers are "officially" provided by Postgres.app. I couldn't find any mention of them on http://postgresapp.com/ . Just noticed the releases history on Github.