Installing PostgreSQL on Fedora: choosing between 16, 17, 18 and 19beta

Fedora packages PostgreSQL in an unusual way: four major versions sit in the repo at once, but you can install only one.

What the repo actually offers

dnf list --available "postgresql1*-server.x86_64" 2>/dev/null | grep x86_64

postgresql16-server.x86_64   16.14-5.fc45     fedora
postgresql17-server.x86_64   17.9-10.fc45     fedora
postgresql19-server.x86_64   19beta1-6.fc45   fedora

Plus the unversioned name, which tracks the newest stable:

dnf list --available postgresql-server.x86_64

postgresql-server.x86_64   18.3-12.fc45   fedora

You want	Install	Version
PG 16	postgresql16-server	16.14
PG 17	postgresql17-server	17.9
PG 18 (default)	postgresql-server	18.3
PG 19 (beta)	postgresql19-server	19beta1

Caution

These packages cannot coexist. Installing postgresql-server (18) together with postgresql16-server fails outright:

Problem: conflicting requests
  - package postgresql16-server-16.14-5.fc45.x86_64 from fedora conflicts with
    postgresql-server-any provided by postgresql-server-18.3-12.fc45.i686 from fedora

Both Provides: postgresql-server-any — they are alternate versions of the same thing, not parallel-installable variants. This differs from Node.js nodejs22/24/26, which genuinely install side by side. PostgreSQL here is a mutually exclusive choice.

Installing the default (PG 18)

sudo dnf install postgresql-server

Modest size: 7.9 MiB download, 32.9 MiB installed.

Confirm the binaries:

postgres --version
psql --version

postgres (PostgreSQL) 18.3
psql (PostgreSQL) 18.3

initdb first — the package does not do it

Fedora’s package does not initialize the data directory, so starting the service immediately fails. Initialize:

sudo postgresql-setup --initdb

 * Initializing database in '/var/lib/pgsql/data'
 * Initialized, logs are in /var/lib/pgsql/initdb_postgresql.log

The data directory is /var/lib/pgsql/data.

Then start:

sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql
systemctl is-active postgresql

active

Two units are present:

postgresql.service      disabled   disabled
[email protected]     disabled   disabled

[email protected] is a template unit for running multiple instances on one host — the supported route for multi-instance needs (see below).

Verify a connection

sudo -u postgres psql -c "select version();"

 PostgreSQL 18.3 on x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (GCC) 16.2.1 20260819
 (Red Hat 16.2.1-2), 64-bit
(1 row)

Note the -u postgres: only the postgres system user can connect by default, because auth is peer-based.

Loopback only by default

ss -lntp | grep 5432

LISTEN 0  200  127.0.0.1:5432  0.0.0.0:*
LISTEN 0  200     [::1]:5432     [::]:*

As with Valkey, the database is not exposed by default.

Default auth: peer and ident

sudo grep -vE "^(#|$)" /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

local   all   all                     peer
host    all   all   127.0.0.1/32      ident
host    all   all   ::1/128           ident
local   replication  all              peer

• peer — on a local socket, the OS username must match the database username
• ident — TCP connections also require an identity check

So psql -U postgres fails as a normal user; use sudo -u postgres. To allow password login, switch the method to scram-sha-256 and set a password.

Caution

After editing pg_hba.conf, run sudo systemctl reload postgresql. Skip the reload and your new rules never take effect — the classic “I changed it and nothing happened”.

Running multiple versions

Since the four repo packages are mutually exclusive, keeping 16 and 18 on one host takes one of three routes:

Approach	How	Trade-off
multi-instance (recommended)	several instances of one version via [email protected], different ports and data dirs	same version only
PGDG repository	add PostgreSQL’s pgdg repo and install postgresql-16-server plus postgresql-18-server	extra repo
containers	one Podman container per version	strongest isolation, more ops work

The key to multi-instance is the template unit. The instance name maps to a data directory:

sudo postgresql-setup --initdb --unit postgresql@16-main \
  --port 5433 --datadir /var/lib/pgsql/16/data
sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql@16-main

Now 18 listens on 5432 and 16 on 5433, independent of each other.

Note

The container route is easy on Fedora — podman run -d -p 5433:5432 docker.io/library/postgres:16 stands up a 16 in one line. See Podman in practice.

Everyday commands

sudo -u postgres psql                    # interactive psql
sudo -u postgres createuser --interactive
sudo -u postgres createdb mydb
sudo -u postgres psql -c "\l"            # list databases
sudo -u postgres psql -c "\du"           # list roles

\q exits.

Common traps

Symptom	Cause
service will not start	postgresql-setup --initdb was never run
psql: FATAL: Peer authentication failed	a normal user ran psql -U postgres; use sudo -u postgres
pg_hba.conf edit has no effect	forgot systemctl reload postgresql
remote 5432 fails	default bind is 127.0.0.1; change listen_addresses
installing 16 and 18 together errors	they conflict; use multi-instance or PGDG
wrong data directory ownership	must be postgres:postgres; restart after fixing

Related pages

• Valkey — default configuration of another database
• Podman in practice — multiple versions via containers
• Multiple versions — the version policy across languages
• firewalld — preparing to open 5432
• Official: PostgreSQL documentation