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7/16/2026

How to Set Up PostgreSQL with Docker on Ubuntu
Short summary
A practical guide to running PostgreSQL 18 on Ubuntu using Docker and Docker Compose, covering Docker Engine installation, environment-based secret management, named volumes, localhost-only port binding, and healthchecks. Key decisions like pinning image tags and avoiding bind mounts are explained with rationale. The tutorial includes full configuration files and shell commands for a reproducible setup.
- •Install Docker Engine and Compose v2 via official apt repository on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04
- •Use named volumes, pinned image tags, .env secrets, and localhost-only port binding for security
- •Add healthchecks so dependent services wait for true database readiness, not just container start
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