docker-postgres-pg-cron

This repository builds Docker images that package PostgreSQL with the pg_cron extension across multiple base OS variants, and publishes multi-arch images for both amd64 and arm64.

What you get

• PostgreSQL + pg_cron: pg_cron is built/installed and ready to enable per database.
• Base OS variants: Alpine (including specific minor versions) and Debian Trixie.
• Multi-arch: Images are pushed as a manifest list covering amd64 and arm64; Docker automatically pulls the right image for your platform.

Variants (by Dockerfile in this repo)

• Dockerfile.alpine
• Dockerfile.alpine3.21
• Dockerfile.alpine3.22
• Dockerfile.trixie (Debian Trixie)

Tag names in your registry may follow a pattern like:

• postgres-<MAJOR>-alpine
• postgres-<MAJOR>-alpine3.21
• postgres-<MAJOR>-alpine3.22
• postgres-<MAJOR>-trixie

Replace <MAJOR> with the PostgreSQL major version you want (e.g., 16, 15). See the GHCR package page for the authoritative list of available tags.

Quick pull instructions

Images are published to GHCR under ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron.

# Alpine latest for a major version (example: Postgres 16 on Alpine)
docker pull ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron:16-alpine

# Specific Alpine base version
docker pull ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron:16-alpine3.22

# Debian Trixie variant
docker pull ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron:16-trixie

# Older major versions (examples)
docker pull ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron:15-alpine
docker pull ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron:15-trixie

Because these are multi-arch images, you do not need to specify architecture; Docker will pull the correct amd64 or arm64 image automatically based on your platform.

Enabling pg_cron in your database

Once the container is running and you are connected to a database, enable the extension:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_cron;

You can then schedule jobs, for example:

SELECT cron.schedule('nightly-vacuum', '0 3 * * *', $$VACUUM$$);

Example docker run

docker run -d \
  --name pg-cron \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron:16-alpine

Then connect with your preferred client and enable pg_cron as shown above.

Building locally (optional)

If you want to build locally for testing, you can target a specific Dockerfile:

# Alpine 3.22 example
docker build -f Dockerfile.alpine3.22 -t local/docker-postgres-pg-cron:postgres-16-alpine3.22 .

# Debian Trixie example
docker build -f Dockerfile.trixie -t local/docker-postgres-pg-cron:postgres-16-trixie .

Push and tag according to your registry conventions.

Troubleshooting

If you see an error like:

Jobs must be scheduled from the database configured in cron.database_name

set the database pg_cron should run against by providing PostgreSQL server args via environment variable when starting the container:

docker run -d \
  --name pg-cron \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_ARGS="-c cron.database_name=YOUR_DB" \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  ghcr.io/suda/docker-postgres-pg-cron:16-alpine

Replace YOUR_DB with the target database name. Schedule jobs from that database after enabling pg_cron.