HOW TO initialize PostgreSQL server

These instructions are appropriate for the multi-user mode of the LexDb. They should also work for single user mode, but single user mode allows for a set up where the user is the database owner. Multi-user mode requires that the database users postgres and lexdb are set up as described below.
PostgreSQL server version 8.0 or above must be running either on the local machine or remotely over a TCP/IP port. You should set the database locale to C; eg. use the --locale=C option when initializing the server with initdb, or select the C locale when prompted by the M$ Windows installer.
Create user accounts.
Configure access privileges.
By default the server will run on port 5432. To use another port set the PSQL environment variable PGPORT.
Restart PostgreSQL server.

Notes:

Selecting a non-C locale hurts performance by disabling index optimizations for certain operators -- see http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/charset.html. The environment variables LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE are recorded during server initialization and automatically adopted at server startup. It is perfectly safe to later select a different (non-C) locale when creating a database within the server.

Create User Accounts

Ensure there exists a database user postgres with superuser privileges.
As the database superuser, create a database user lexdb who will manage the database:
- {{{ $ createuser -U postgres --createdb --no-adduser lexdb

CREATE USER}}}

As the database superuser, create a user account for yourself (substitute your shell login for USERNAME below):
- {{{ $ createuser -U postgres --no-createdb --no-adduser USERNAME

CREATE USER}}}

Ensure the access privilege configuration file pg_hba.conf is set appropriately. E.g.
- {{{# TYPE DATABASE USER CIDR-ADDRESS METHOD

local all all trust host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust host all all ::1/128 trust}}}

[Optional] If you wish to use password authentication replace trust with md5.

Allow remote access to the server by adding lines of the following form to your pg_hba.conf file (replace IP_ADDRESS with the actual numbers):
- host all all IP_ADDRESS/32 md5
- It is advisable to require password authentication (ie. md5 instead of trust) for remote access.

On a PostgreSQL 8 server, remote machines will not be able to connect unless you modify listen_addresses in the postgresql.conf file. (The value takes the form of a comma-separated list of host names and/or numeric IP addresses.)