PostgreSQL + PostGIS

What is PostgreSQL + PostGIS?

PostGIS is an extension for PostgreSQL that adds support for geographic objects, spatial indexes, and spatial SQL functions (distance, intersection, containment, and more). This service is a full Postgres image with PostGIS already installed, use it instead of plain postgres when your app needs geospatial queries; for everything else the two behave the same.

Start PostgreSQL + PostGIS

docker compose up -d postgres-postgis

It runs as its own container and doesn't depend on any other service in compose.yml. Note it shares the same connection variables (POSTGRES_DB, POSTGRES_USER, POSTGRES_PASSWORD, POSTGRES_PORT) as the plain postgres service, so avoid running both at once unless you give one a different port and data path.

Stop PostgreSQL + PostGIS

docker compose stop postgres-postgis

This stops the container without deleting its data. To remove the container (data on disk is untouched, it lives under DATA_PATH_HOST): docker compose rm -f postgres-postgis.

Configuration

Variable	Default	Where	What it does
POSTGIS_VERSION	17-3.5	postgres-postgis/defaults.env	Image tag from postgis/postgis on Docker Hub (Postgres major version + PostGIS version, e.g. 17-3.5).
POSTGIS_INSTALL_PGSQL_HTTP_FOR_POSTGIS13	false	postgres-postgis/defaults.env	When true, builds and installs the pgsql-http extension for making HTTP requests from SQL (only relevant on the PostGIS 13 base image).
POSTGRES_DB	default	root .env	Database created automatically on first boot.
POSTGRES_USER	default	root .env	User created automatically on first boot.
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	secret	root .env	Password for POSTGRES_USER.
POSTGRES_PORT	5432	root .env	Host-side port published (host:container).

Data is stored under DATA_PATH_HOST/postgres, the same path plain Postgres uses; running both services against the same DATA_PATH_HOST will conflict.

Change the PostGIS version

POSTGIS_VERSION=16-3.4

docker compose build postgres-postgis

Changing the major Postgres version against an existing data folder can break startup. Point DATA_PATH_HOST at a fresh folder or back up and drop the old one first.

Enable the extension in a database

PostGIS ships with the image but each database still needs the extension turned on once:

docker compose exec postgres-postgis psql -U default -d default -c "CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS postgis;"

Connect from your host machine

Inside Laradock, other containers reach it by container name: DB_HOST=postgres-postgis. From your own machine (TablePlus, DBeaver, pgAdmin, QGIS), connect to localhost on POSTGRES_PORT (5432 by default) with the credentials above.

Common issues

• Running postgres and postgres-postgis together. Both default to the same DATA_PATH_HOST/postgres folder and the same POSTGRES_PORT. Pick one, or override DATA_PATH_HOST/POSTGRES_PORT for whichever you run second.
• CREATE EXTENSION postgis fails. Make sure you're connecting to a database created after the container booted with the PostGIS image; extensions are per-database and must be created explicitly, they aren't automatic.
• Credential/database changes don't take effect. POSTGRES_DB, POSTGRES_USER, and POSTGRES_PASSWORD only apply the first time the data folder is created. Drop DATA_PATH_HOST/postgres (data loss) or create the new user/database manually.
• Port already in use on your host. Change POSTGRES_PORT in .env and restart.

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Need Postgres without the geospatial extension? See PostgreSQL. For the full list of services, see Getting Started.