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+# How to prepare postgres for pict-rs
+
+## Preparing postgres
+
+### I already have a postgres
+
+If you already have a postgres server, we'll create an additional database in it for pict-rs. First,
+you'll need to connect to your postgres server as an administrator. The general command should look
+like the following.
+```bash
+psql -U postgres
+```
+> `postgres` here is the name of the administrator role. If your administrator role is named
+something else (maybe `lemmy`) then use that instead.
+
+If postgres is running in a docker-compose environment, it might look like this.
+```bash
+sudo docker-compose exec postgres psql -U postgres
+```
+> note that the first `postgres` in this command is the docker-compose service, and the second
+`postgres` is the name of the database administrator role
+
+Once you have a postgres shell, we'll configure the postgres user and database.
+
+First, create the pictrs user.
+```sql
+CREATE USER pictrs;
+```
+
+Then set the pictrs user's password
+```sql
+\password pictrs -- allows setting the password for the postgres user
+```
+
+Finally, create the pictrs database giving ownership to the pictrs user.
+```sql
+CREATE DATABASE pictrs OWNER pictrs;
+```
+
+The database configuration is now complete.
+
+### I don't have a postgres
+
+Postgres can be installed in a variety of ways, but a simple way to do it is with docker-compose,
+although installing docker and docker-compose is left as an exercise to the reader. An example
+docker-compose file can be found below.
+
+```yaml
+version: '3.3'
+
+services:
+  postgres:
+    image: postgres:16-alpine
+    ports:
+    - "5432:5432"
+    environment:
+    - PG_DATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    - POSTGRES_DB=pictrs
+    - POSTGRES_USER=pictrs
+    - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=CREATE_YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD
+    volumes:
+    - ./storage/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+```
+
+After the file is written, a quick `sudo docker-compose up -d` should launch the postgres server,
+making it available on `localhost:5432`.
+
+## Connecting to postgres
+
+pict-rs can be configured to talk to your postgres server a few different ways.
+1. environment variables
+2. the `pict-rs.toml` file
+3. commandline arguments
+
+In many cases, environment variables will be the easiest.
+
+### Environment Variables
+
+The variables you'll need to set are the following
+- `PICTRS__REPO__TYPE`
+- `PICTRS__REPO__URL`
+
+with a few optional variables for folks who have TLS involved
+- `PICTRS__REPO__USE_TLS`
+- `PICTRS__REPO__CERTIFICATE_FILE`
+
+For a simple self-hosted postgres deployment, the following variables should be set:
+```bash
+PICTRS__REPO__TYPE=postgres
+PICTRS__REPO__URL=postgres://pictrs:CREATE_YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD@localhost:5432/pictrs
+```
+
+If you're running pict-rs in the same docker-compose file as you are postgres, then change
+`localhost` in the above URL to the name of your postgres service, e.g.
+```yaml
+- PICTRS__REPO__TYPE=postgres
+- PICTRS__REPO__URL=postgres://pictrs:CREATE_YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD@postgres:5432/pictrs
+```
+
+If your postgres is provided by another party, or exists on a different host, then provide the
+correct hostname or IP address to reach it.
+
+If your postgres supports TLS connections, as might be present in cloud environments, then the
+following variables should be set.
+```bash
+PICTRS__REPO__USE_TLS=true
+PICTRS__REPO__CERTIFICATE_FILE=/path/to/certificate/file.crt
+```
+> Note that if you provide a path to the certificate file, pict-rs must be able to read that path.
+This means that if you're running pict-rs in docker, the certificate file needs to be mounted into
+the container.
+
+### pict-rs.toml
+
+The toml configuration can be set pretty easily. The `repo` section should look like the following
+```toml
+[repo]
+type = 'postgres'
+url = 'postgres://pictrs:CREATE_YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD@postgres:5432/pictrs'
+```
+note that the hostname `postgres` should be changed to the host that your postgres server is
+accessible at.
+
+For enabling TLS, the configuration would look like the following:
+```toml
+[repo]
+type = 'postgres'
+url = 'postgres://pictrs:CREATE_YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD@postgres:5432/pictrs'
+use_tls = true
+certificate_file = '/path/to/certificate/file.crt'
+```
+
+### Commandline arguments
+
+pict-rs can be configured entirely from the commandline. An example invocation could look like the
+following:
+```bash
+pict-rs run \
+    filesytem -p /path/to/files \
+    postgres -u 'postgres://pictrs:CREATE_YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD@postgres:5432/pictrs'
+```
+
+with TLS it could look like this:
+```bash
+pict-rs run \
+    filesytem -p /path/to/files \
+    postgres \
+        -u 'postgres://pictrs:CREATE_YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD@postgres:5432/pictrs' \
+        -t \
+        -c /path/to/certificate/file.crt
+```
+
+## Additional comments
+
+When configuring TLS, the `certificate_file` setting isn't required, however, it is likely it will
+be used when TLS is enabled. A case when it might not be required is if your postgres publicly
+accessible on the internet and receives a valid certificate from a trusted certificate authority.
+
+For testing TLS, I've been using `certstrap` to generate a CA and certificates. I have a script
+called `setup-tls.sh` that looks like this:
+```bash
+certstrap init --common-name pictrsCA
+certstrap request-cert --common-name postgres --domain localhost
+certstrap sign postgres --CA pictrsCA
+```
+
+This genrates a CA and uses that CA to sign a new certificate for `localhost`. Then I update
+postgres' pg_hba.conf file to allow connections over TLS:
+```pg_hba.conf
+hostssl all all all cert clientcert=verify-full
+```
+
+Finally, I launch postgres with a custom commandline.
+```
+-c "ssl=on" \
+-c "ssl_cert_file=/path/to/postgres.crt" \
+-c "ssl_key_file=/path/to/postgres.key" \
+-c "ssl_ca_file=/path/to/pictrsCA.crt" \
+-c "ssl_crl_file=/path/to/pictrsCA.crl"
+```
+Alternatively, I could update the postgresql.conf file.
+```postgresql.conf
+ssl=on
+ssl_cert_file=/path/to/postgres.crt
+ssl_key_file=/path/to/postgres.key
+ssl_ca_file=/path/to/pictrsCA.crt
+ssl_crl_file=/path/to/pictrsCA.crl
+```