This document describes the installation of PostgreSQL using the source
code distribution. (If you are installing a pre-packaged distribution,
such as an RPM or Debian package, ignore this document and read the
packager's instructions instead.)
__________________________________________________________________
Short Version
./configure
make
su
make install
adduser postgres
mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data
chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
su - postgres
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >logfile 2>&1 &
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb test
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql test
The long version is the rest of this document.
__________________________________________________________________
Requirements
In general, a modern Unix-compatible platform should be able to run
PostgreSQL. The platforms that had received specific testing at the
time of release are listed in the Section called Supported Platforms
below. In the "doc" subdirectory of the distribution there are several
platform-specific FAQ documents you might wish to consult if you are
having trouble.
The following software packages are required for building PostgreSQL:
* GNU make version 3.80 or newer is required; other make programs or
older GNU make versions will *not* work. (GNU make is sometimes
installed under the name "gmake".) To test for GNU make enter:
make --version
* You need an ISO/ANSI C compiler (at least C89-compliant). Recent
versions of GCC are recommended, but PostgreSQL is known to build
using a wide variety of compilers from different vendors.
* tar is required to unpack the source distribution, in addition to
either gzip or bzip2.
* The GNU Readline library is used by default. It allows psql (the
PostgreSQL command line SQL interpreter) to remember each command
you type, and allows you to use arrow keys to recall and edit
previous commands. This is very helpful and is strongly
recommended. If you don't want to use it then you must specify the
"--without-readline" option to "configure". As an alternative, you
can often use the BSD-licensed "libedit" library, originally
developed on NetBSD. The "libedit" library is GNU
Readline-compatible and is used if "libreadline" is not found, or
if "--with-libedit-preferred" is used as an option to "configure".
If you are using a package-based Linux distribution, be aware that
you need both the readline and readline-devel packages, if those
are separate in your distribution.
* The zlib compression library is used by default. If you don't want
to use it then you must specify the "--without-zlib" option to
"configure". Using this option disables support for compressed
archives in pg_dump and pg_restore.
The following packages are optional. They are not required in the
default configuration, but they are needed when certain build options
are enabled, as explained below:
* To build the server programming language PL/Perl you need a full
Perl installation, including the "libperl" library and the header
files. Since PL/Perl will be a shared library, the "libperl"
library must be a shared library also on most platforms. This
appears to be the default in recent Perl versions, but it was not
in earlier versions, and in any case it is the choice of whomever
installed Perl at your site. "configure" will fail if building
PL/Perl is selected but it cannot find a shared "libperl". In that
case, you will have to rebuild and install Perl manually to be able
to build PL/Perl. During the configuration process for Perl,
request a shared library.
If you intend to make more than incidental use of PL/Perl, you
should ensure that the Perl installation was built with the
usemultiplicity option enabled (perl -V will show whether this is
the case).
* To build the PL/Python server programming language, you need a
Python installation with the header files and the distutils module.
The minimum required version is Python 2.3. (To work with function
arguments of type numeric, a 2.3.x installation must include the
separately-available "cdecimal" module; note the PL/Python
regression tests will not pass if that is missing.) Python 3 is
supported if it's version 3.1 or later; but see the PL/Python
documentation when using Python 3.
Since PL/Python will be a shared library, the "libpython" library
must be a shared library also on most platforms. This is not the
case in a default Python installation built from source, but a
shared library is available in many operating system distributions.
"configure" will fail if building PL/Python is selected but it
cannot find a shared "libpython". That might mean that you either
have to install additional packages or rebuild (part of) your
Python installation to provide this shared library. When building
from source, run Python's configure with the --enable-shared flag.
* To build the PL/Tcl procedural language, you of course need a Tcl
installation. If you are using a pre-8.4 release of Tcl, ensure
that it was built without multithreading support.
* To enable Native Language Support (NLS), that is, the ability to
display a program's messages in a language other than English, you
need an implementation of the Gettext API. Some operating systems
have this built-in (e.g., Linux, NetBSD, Solaris), for other
systems you can download an add-on package from
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/. If you are using the Gettext
implementation in the GNU C library then you will additionally need
the GNU Gettext package for some utility programs. For any of the
other implementations you will not need it.
* You need Kerberos, OpenSSL, OpenLDAP, and/or PAM, if you want to
support authentication or encryption using those services.
* To build the PostgreSQL documentation, there is a separate set of
requirements; see the main documentation's appendix on
documentation.
If you are building from a Git tree instead of using a released source
package, or if you want to do server development, you also need the
following packages:
* GNU Flex and Bison are needed to build from a Git checkout, or if
you changed the actual scanner and parser definition files. If you
need them, be sure to get Flex 2.5.31 or later and Bison 1.875 or
later. Other lex and yacc programs cannot be used.
* Perl 5.8 or later is needed to build from a Git checkout, or if you
changed the input files for any of the build steps that use Perl
scripts. If building on Windows you will need Perl in any case.
Perl is also required to run some test suites.
If you need to get a GNU package, you can find it at your local GNU
mirror site (see http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html for a list) or at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/.
Also check that you have sufficient disk space. You will need about 100
MB for the source tree during compilation and about 20 MB for the
installation directory. An empty database cluster takes about 35 MB;
databases take about five times the amount of space that a flat text
file with the same data would take. If you are going to run the
regression tests you will temporarily need up to an extra 150 MB. Use
the "df" command to check free disk space.
__________________________________________________________________
Installation Procedure
1. Configuration
The first step of the installation procedure is to configure the
source tree for your system and choose the options you would like.
This is done by running the "configure" script. For a default
installation simply enter:
./configure
This script will run a number of tests to determine values for
various system dependent variables and detect any quirks of your
operating system, and finally will create several files in the
build tree to record what it found. You can also run "configure" in
a directory outside the source tree, if you want to keep the build
directory separate. This procedure is also called a VPATH build.
Here's how:
mkdir build_dir
cd build_dir
/path/to/source/tree/configure [options go here]
make
The default configuration will build the server and utilities, as
well as all client applications and interfaces that require only a
C compiler. All files will be installed under "/usr/local/pgsql" by
default.
You can customize the build and installation process by supplying
one or more of the following command line options to "configure":
--prefix=PREFIX
Install all files under the directory "PREFIX" instead of
"/usr/local/pgsql". The actual files will be installed
into various subdirectories; no files will ever be
installed directly into the "PREFIX" directory.
If you have special needs, you can also customize the
individual subdirectories with the following options.
However, if you leave these with their defaults, the
installation will be relocatable, meaning you can move the
directory after installation. (The man and doc locations
are not affected by this.)
For relocatable installs, you might want to use
"configure"'s --disable-rpath option. Also, you will need
to tell the operating system how to find the shared
libraries.
--exec-prefix=EXEC-PREFIX
You can install architecture-dependent files under a
different prefix, "EXEC-PREFIX", than what "PREFIX" was
set to. This can be useful to share
architecture-independent files between hosts. If you omit
this, then "EXEC-PREFIX" is set equal to "PREFIX" and both
architecture-dependent and independent files will be
installed under the same tree, which is probably what you
want.
--bindir=DIRECTORY
Specifies the directory for executable programs. The
default is "EXEC-PREFIX/bin", which normally means
"/usr/local/pgsql/bin".
--sysconfdir=DIRECTORY
Sets the directory for various configuration files,
"PREFIX/etc" by default.
--libdir=DIRECTORY
Sets the location to install libraries and dynamically
loadable modules. The default is "EXEC-PREFIX/lib".
--includedir=DIRECTORY
Sets the directory for installing C and C++ header files.
The default is "PREFIX/include".
--datarootdir=DIRECTORY
Sets the root directory for various types of read-only
data files. This only sets the default for some of the
following options. The default is "PREFIX/share".
--datadir=DIRECTORY
Sets the directory for read-only data files used by the
installed programs. The default is "DATAROOTDIR". Note
that this has nothing to do with where your database files
will be placed.
--localedir=DIRECTORY
Sets the directory for installing locale data, in
particular message translation catalog files. The default
is "DATAROOTDIR/locale".
--mandir=DIRECTORY
The man pages that come with PostgreSQL will be installed
under this directory, in their respective "manx"
subdirectories. The default is "DATAROOTDIR/man".
--docdir=DIRECTORY
Sets the root directory for installing documentation
files, except "man" pages. This only sets the default for
the following options. The default value for this option
is "DATAROOTDIR/doc/postgresql".
--htmldir=DIRECTORY
The HTML-formatted documentation for PostgreSQL will be
installed under this directory. The default is
"DATAROOTDIR".
Note: Care has been taken to make it possible to install PostgreSQL
into shared installation locations (such as "/usr/local/include")
without interfering with the namespace of the rest of the system.
First, the string "/postgresql" is automatically appended to
datadir, sysconfdir, and docdir, unless the fully expanded directory
name already contains the string "postgres" or "pgsql". For example,
if you choose "/usr/local" as prefix, the documentation will be
installed in "/usr/local/doc/postgresql", but if the prefix is
"/opt/postgres", then it will be in "/opt/postgres/doc". The public
C header files of the client interfaces are installed into
includedir and are namespace-clean. The internal header files and
the server header files are installed into private directories under
includedir. See the documentation of each interface for information
about how to access its header files. Finally, a private
subdirectory will also be created, if appropriate, under libdir for
dynamically loadable modules.
--with-extra-version=STRING
Append "STRING" to the PostgreSQL version number. You can
use this, for example, to mark binaries built from
unreleased Git snapshots or containing custom patches with
an extra version string such as a "git describe"
identifier or a distribution package release number.
--with-includes=DIRECTORIES
"DIRECTORIES" is a colon-separated list of directories
that will be added to the list the compiler searches for
header files. If you have optional packages (such as GNU
Readline) installed in a non-standard location, you have
to use this option and probably also the corresponding
"--with-libraries" option.
Example:
--with-includes=/opt/gnu/include:/usr/sup/include.
--with-libraries=DIRECTORIES
"DIRECTORIES" is a colon-separated list of directories to
search for libraries. You will probably have to use this
option (and the corresponding "--with-includes" option) if
you have packages installed in non-standard locations.
Example: --with-libraries=/opt/gnu/lib:/usr/sup/lib.
--enable-nls[=LANGUAGES]
Enables Native Language Support (NLS), that is, the
ability to display a program's messages in a language
other than English. "LANGUAGES" is an optional
space-separated list of codes of the languages that you
want supported, for example --enable-nls='de fr'. (The
intersection between your list and the set of actually
provided translations will be computed automatically.) If
you do not specify a list, then all available translations
are installed.
To use this option, you will need an implementation of the
Gettext API; see above.
--with-pgport=NUMBER
Set "NUMBER" as the default port number for server and
clients. The default is 5432. The port can always be
changed later on, but if you specify it here then both
server and clients will have the same default compiled in,
which can be very convenient. Usually the only good reason
to select a non-default value is if you intend to run
multiple PostgreSQL servers on the same machine.
--with-perl
Build the PL/Perl server-side language.
--with-python
Build the PL/Python server-side language.
--with-tcl
Build the PL/Tcl server-side language.
--with-tclconfig=DIRECTORY
Tcl installs the file "tclConfig.sh", which contains
configuration information needed to build modules
interfacing to Tcl. This file is normally found
automatically at a well-known location, but if you want to
use a different version of Tcl you can specify the
directory in which to look for it.
--with-gssapi
Build with support for GSSAPI authentication. On many
systems, the GSSAPI (usually a part of the Kerberos
installation) system is not installed in a location that
is searched by default (e.g., "/usr/include", "/usr/lib"),
so you must use the options "--with-includes" and
"--with-libraries" in addition to this option. "configure"
will check for the required header files and libraries to
make sure that your GSSAPI installation is sufficient
before proceeding.
--with-krb-srvnam=NAME
The default name of the Kerberos service principal used by
GSSAPI. postgres is the default. There's usually no reason
to change this unless you have a Windows environment, in
which case it must be set to upper case POSTGRES.
--with-openssl
Build with support for SSL (encrypted) connections. This
requires the OpenSSL package to be installed. "configure"
will check for the required header files and libraries to
make sure that your OpenSSL installation is sufficient
before proceeding.
--with-pam
Build with PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) support.
--with-ldap
Build with LDAP support for authentication and connection
parameter lookup (see the documentation about client
authentication and libpq for more information). On Unix,
this requires the OpenLDAP package to be installed. On
Windows, the default WinLDAP library is used. "configure"
will check for the required header files and libraries to
make sure that your OpenLDAP installation is sufficient
before proceeding.
--without-readline
Prevents use of the Readline library (and libedit as
well). This option disables command-line editing and
history in psql, so it is not recommended.
--with-libedit-preferred
Favors the use of the BSD-licensed libedit library rather
than GPL-licensed Readline. This option is significant
only if you have both libraries installed; the default in
that case is to use Readline.
--with-bonjour
Build with Bonjour support. This requires Bonjour support
in your operating system. Recommended on OS X.
--with-uuid=LIBRARY
Build the uuid-ossp module (which provides functions to
generate UUIDs), using the specified UUID library.
"LIBRARY" must be one of:
o "bsd" to use the UUID functions found in FreeBSD, NetBSD,
and some other BSD-derived systems
o "e2fs" to use the UUID library created by the e2fsprogs
project; this library is present in most Linux systems
and in OS X, and can be obtained for other platforms as
well
o "ossp" to use the OSSP UUID library
--with-ossp-uuid
Obsolete equivalent of --with-uuid=ossp.
--with-libxml
Build with libxml (enables SQL/XML support). Libxml
version 2.6.23 or later is required for this feature.
Libxml installs a program "xml2-config" that can be used
to detect the required compiler and linker options.
PostgreSQL will use it automatically if found. To specify
a libxml installation at an unusual location, you can
either set the environment variable XML2_CONFIG to point
to the "xml2-config" program belonging to the
installation, or use the options "--with-includes" and
"--with-libraries".
--with-libxslt
Use libxslt when building the xml2 module. xml2 relies on
this library to perform XSL transformations of XML.
--disable-integer-datetimes
Disable support for 64-bit integer storage for timestamps
and intervals, and store datetime values as floating-point
numbers instead. Floating-point datetime storage was the
default in PostgreSQL releases prior to 8.4, but it is now
deprecated, because it does not support microsecond
precision for the full range of timestamp values. However,
integer-based datetime storage requires a 64-bit integer
type. Therefore, this option can be used when no such type
is available, or for compatibility with applications
written for prior versions of PostgreSQL. See the
documentation about datetime datatypes for more
information.
--disable-float4-byval
Disable passing float4 values "by value", causing them to
be passed "by reference" instead. This option costs
performance, but may be needed for compatibility with old
user-defined functions that are written in C and use the
"version 0" calling convention. A better long-term
solution is to update any such functions to use the
"version 1" calling convention.
--disable-float8-byval
Disable passing float8 values "by value", causing them to
be passed "by reference" instead. This option costs
performance, but may be needed for compatibility with old
user-defined functions that are written in C and use the
"version 0" calling convention. A better long-term
solution is to update any such functions to use the
"version 1" calling convention. Note that this option
affects not only float8, but also int8 and some related
types such as timestamp. On 32-bit platforms,
"--disable-float8-byval" is the default and it is not
allowed to select "--enable-float8-byval".
--with-segsize=SEGSIZE
Set the segment size, in gigabytes. Large tables are
divided into multiple operating-system files, each of size
equal to the segment size. This avoids problems with file
size limits that exist on many platforms. The default
segment size, 1 gigabyte, is safe on all supported
platforms. If your operating system has "largefile"
support (which most do, nowadays), you can use a larger
segment size. This can be helpful to reduce the number of
file descriptors consumed when working with very large
tables. But be careful not to select a value larger than
is supported by your platform and the file systems you
intend to use. Other tools you might wish to use, such as
tar, could also set limits on the usable file size. It is
recommended, though not absolutely required, that this
value be a power of 2. Note that changing this value
requires an initdb.
--with-blocksize=BLOCKSIZE
Set the block size, in kilobytes. This is the unit of
storage and I/O within tables. The default, 8 kilobytes,
is suitable for most situations; but other values may be
useful in special cases. The value must be a power of 2
between 1 and 32 (kilobytes). Note that changing this
value requires an initdb.
--with-wal-segsize=SEGSIZE
Set the WAL segment size, in megabytes. This is the size
of each individual file in the WAL log. It may be useful
to adjust this size to control the granularity of WAL log
shipping. The default size is 16 megabytes. The value must
be a power of 2 between 1 and 64 (megabytes). Note that
changing this value requires an initdb.
--with-wal-blocksize=BLOCKSIZE
Set the WAL block size, in kilobytes. This is the unit of
storage and I/O within the WAL log. The default, 8
kilobytes, is suitable for most situations; but other
values may be useful in special cases. The value must be a
power of 2 between 1 and 64 (kilobytes). Note that
changing this value requires an initdb.
--disable-spinlocks
Allow the build to succeed even if PostgreSQL has no CPU
spinlock support for the platform. The lack of spinlock
support will result in poor performance; therefore, this
option should only be used if the build aborts and informs
you that the platform lacks spinlock support. If this
option is required to build PostgreSQL on your platform,
please report the problem to the PostgreSQL developers.
--disable-thread-safety
Disable the thread-safety of client libraries. This
prevents concurrent threads in libpq and ECPG programs
from safely controlling their private connection handles.
--with-system-tzdata=DIRECTORY
PostgreSQL includes its own time zone database, which it
requires for date and time operations. This time zone
database is in fact compatible with the IANA time zone
database provided by many operating systems such as
FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris, so it would be redundant to
install it again. When this option is used, the
system-supplied time zone database in "DIRECTORY" is used
instead of the one included in the PostgreSQL source
distribution. "DIRECTORY" must be specified as an absolute
path. "/usr/share/zoneinfo" is a likely directory on some
operating systems. Note that the installation routine will
not detect mismatching or erroneous time zone data. If you
use this option, you are advised to run the regression
tests to verify that the time zone data you have pointed
to works correctly with PostgreSQL.
This option is mainly aimed at binary package distributors
who know their target operating system well. The main
advantage of using this option is that the PostgreSQL
package won't need to be upgraded whenever any of the many
local daylight-saving time rules change. Another advantage
is that PostgreSQL can be cross-compiled more
straightforwardly if the time zone database files do not
need to be built during the installation.
--without-zlib
Prevents use of the Zlib library. This disables support
for compressed archives in pg_dump and pg_restore. This
option is only intended for those rare systems where this
library is not available.
--enable-debug
Compiles all programs and libraries with debugging
symbols. This means that you can run the programs in a
debugger to analyze problems. This enlarges the size of
the installed executables considerably, and on non-GCC
compilers it usually also disables compiler optimization,
causing slowdowns. However, having the symbols available
is extremely helpful for dealing with any problems that
might arise. Currently, this option is recommended for
production installations only if you use GCC. But you
should always have it on if you are doing development work
or running a beta version.
--enable-coverage
If using GCC, all programs and libraries are compiled with
code coverage testing instrumentation. When run, they
generate files in the build directory with code coverage
metrics. This option is for use only with GCC and when
doing development work.
--enable-profiling
If using GCC, all programs and libraries are compiled so
they can be profiled. On backend exit, a subdirectory will
be created that contains the "gmon.out" file for use in
profiling. This option is for use only with GCC and when
doing development work.
--enable-cassert
Enables assertion checks in the server, which test for
many "cannot happen" conditions. This is invaluable for
code development purposes, but the tests can slow down the
server significantly. Also, having the tests turned on
won't necessarily enhance the stability of your server!
The assertion checks are not categorized for severity, and
so what might be a relatively harmless bug will still lead
to server restarts if it triggers an assertion failure.
This option is not recommended for production use, but you
should have it on for development work or when running a
beta version.
--enable-depend
Enables automatic dependency tracking. With this option,
the makefiles are set up so that all affected object files
will be rebuilt when any header file is changed. This is
useful if you are doing development work, but is just
wasted overhead if you intend only to compile once and
install. At present, this option only works with GCC.
--enable-dtrace
Compiles PostgreSQL with support for the dynamic tracing
tool DTrace.
To point to the "dtrace" program, the environment variable
DTRACE can be set. This will often be necessary because
"dtrace" is typically installed under "/usr/sbin", which
might not be in the path.
Extra command-line options for the "dtrace" program can be
specified in the environment variable DTRACEFLAGS. On
Solaris, to include DTrace support in a 64-bit binary, you
must specify DTRACEFLAGS="-64" to configure. For example,
using the GCC compiler:
./configure CC='gcc -m64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFLAGS='-64' ...
Using Sun's compiler:
./configure CC='/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xtarget=native64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFL
AGS='-64' ...
--enable-tap-tests
Enable tests using the Perl TAP tools. This requires a
Perl installation and the Perl module IPC::Run.
If you prefer a C compiler different from the one "configure"
picks, you can set the environment variable CC to the program of
your choice. By default, "configure" will pick "gcc" if available,
else the platform's default (usually "cc"). Similarly, you can
override the default compiler flags if needed with the CFLAGS
variable.
You can specify environment variables on the "configure" command
line, for example:
./configure CC=/opt/bin/gcc CFLAGS='-O2 -pipe'
Here is a list of the significant variables that can be set in this
manner:
BISON
Bison program
CC
C compiler
CFLAGS
options to pass to the C compiler
CPP
C preprocessor
CPPFLAGS
options to pass to the C preprocessor
DTRACE
location of the "dtrace" program
DTRACEFLAGS
options to pass to the "dtrace" program
FLEX
Flex program
LDFLAGS
options to use when linking either executables or shared
libraries
LDFLAGS_EX
additional options for linking executables only
LDFLAGS_SL
additional options for linking shared libraries only
MSGFMT
"msgfmt" program for native language support
PERL
Full path to the Perl interpreter. This will be used to
determine the dependencies for building PL/Perl.
PYTHON
Full path to the Python interpreter. This will be used to
determine the dependencies for building PL/Python. Also,
whether Python 2 or 3 is specified here (or otherwise
implicitly chosen) determines which variant of the
PL/Python language becomes available. See the PL/Python
documentation for more information.
TCLSH
Full path to the Tcl interpreter. This will be used to
determine the dependencies for building PL/Tcl, and it
will be substituted into Tcl scripts.
XML2_CONFIG
"xml2-config" program used to locate the libxml
installation.
Note: When developing code inside the server, it is recommended to
use the configure options "--enable-cassert" (which turns on many
run-time error checks) and "--enable-debug" (which improves the
usefulness of debugging tools).
If using GCC, it is best to build with an optimization level of at
least "-O1", because using no optimization ("-O0") disables some
important compiler warnings (such as the use of uninitialized
variables). However, non-zero optimization levels can complicate
debugging because stepping through compiled code will usually not
match up one-to-one with source code lines. If you get confused
while trying to debug optimized code, recompile the specific files
of interest with "-O0". An easy way to do this is by passing an
option to make: "make PROFILE=-O0 file.o".
2. Build
To start the build, type:
make
(Remember to use GNU make.) The build will take a few minutes
depending on your hardware. The last line displayed should be:
All of PostgreSQL is successfully made. Ready to install.
If you want to build everything that can be built, including the
documentation (HTML and man pages), and the additional modules
("contrib"), type instead:
make world
The last line displayed should be:
PostgreSQL, contrib and HTML documentation successfully made. Ready to install.
3. Regression Tests
If you want to test the newly built server before you install it,
you can run the regression tests at this point. The regression
tests are a test suite to verify that PostgreSQL runs on your
machine in the way the developers expected it to. Type:
make check
(This won't work as root; do it as an unprivileged user.) The file
"src/test/regress/README" and the documentation contain detailed
information about interpreting the test results. You can repeat
this test at any later time by issuing the same command.
4. Installing the Files
Note: If you are upgrading an existing system be sure to read the
documentation, which has instructions about upgrading a cluster.
To install PostgreSQL enter:
make install
This will install files into the directories that were specified in
step 1. Make sure that you have appropriate permissions to write
into that area. Normally you need to do this step as root.
Alternatively, you can create the target directories in advance and
arrange for appropriate permissions to be granted.
To install the documentation (HTML and man pages), enter:
make install-docs
If you built the world above, type instead:
make install-world
This also installs the documentation.
You can use make install-strip instead of make install to strip the
executable files and libraries as they are installed. This will
save some space. If you built with debugging support, stripping
will effectively remove the debugging support, so it should only be
done if debugging is no longer needed. install-strip tries to do a
reasonable job saving space, but it does not have perfect knowledge
of how to strip every unneeded byte from an executable file, so if
you want to save all the disk space you possibly can, you will have
to do manual work.
The standard installation provides all the header files needed for
client application development as well as for server-side program
development, such as custom functions or data types written in C.
(Prior to PostgreSQL 8.0, a separate make install-all-headers
command was needed for the latter, but this step has been folded
into the standard install.)
Client-only installation: If you want to install only the client
applications and interface libraries, then you can use these
commands:
make -C src/bin install
make -C src/include install
make -C src/interfaces install
make -C doc install
"src/bin" has a few binaries for server-only use, but they are
small.
Uninstallation: To undo the installation use the command "make
uninstall". However, this will not remove any created directories.
Cleaning: After the installation you can free disk space by removing
the built files from the source tree with the command "make clean".
This will preserve the files made by the "configure" program, so that
you can rebuild everything with "make" later on. To reset the source
tree to the state in which it was distributed, use "make distclean". If
you are going to build for several platforms within the same source
tree you must do this and re-configure for each platform.
(Alternatively, use a separate build tree for each platform, so that
the source tree remains unmodified.)
If you perform a build and then discover that your "configure" options
were wrong, or if you change anything that "configure" investigates
(for example, software upgrades), then it's a good idea to do "make
distclean" before reconfiguring and rebuilding. Without this, your
changes in configuration choices might not propagate everywhere they
need to.
__________________________________________________________________
Post-Installation Setup
Shared Libraries
On some systems with shared libraries you need to tell the system how
to find the newly installed shared libraries. The systems on which this
is *not* necessary include FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and
Solaris.
The method to set the shared library search path varies between
platforms, but the most widely-used method is to set the environment
variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH like so: In Bourne shells ("sh", "ksh",
"bash", "zsh"):
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
or in "csh" or "tcsh":
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/pgsql/lib
Replace /usr/local/pgsql/lib with whatever you set "--libdir" to in
step 1. You should put these commands into a shell start-up file such
as "/etc/profile" or "~/.bash_profile". Some good information about the
caveats associated with this method can be found at
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/_/ldpath.html.
On some systems it might be preferable to set the environment variable
LD_RUN_PATH *before* building.
On Cygwin, put the library directory in the PATH or move the ".dll"
files into the "bin" directory.
If in doubt, refer to the manual pages of your system (perhaps "ld.so"
or "rld"). If you later get a message like:
psql: error in loading shared libraries
libpq.so.2.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
then this step was necessary. Simply take care of it then.
If you are on Linux and you have root access, you can run:
/sbin/ldconfig /usr/local/pgsql/lib
(or equivalent directory) after installation to enable the run-time
linker to find the shared libraries faster. Refer to the manual page of
"ldconfig" for more information. On FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD the
command is:
/sbin/ldconfig -m /usr/local/pgsql/lib
instead. Other systems are not known to have an equivalent command.
__________________________________________________________________
Environment Variables
If you installed into "/usr/local/pgsql" or some other location that is
not searched for programs by default, you should add
"/usr/local/pgsql/bin" (or whatever you set "--bindir" to in step 1)
into your PATH. Strictly speaking, this is not necessary, but it will
make the use of PostgreSQL much more convenient.
To do this, add the following to your shell start-up file, such as
"~/.bash_profile" (or "/etc/profile", if you want it to affect all
users):
PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH
export PATH
If you are using "csh" or "tcsh", then use this command:
set path = ( /usr/local/pgsql/bin $path )
To enable your system to find the man documentation, you need to add
lines like the following to a shell start-up file unless you installed
into a location that is searched by default:
MANPATH=/usr/local/pgsql/man:$MANPATH
export MANPATH
The environment variables PGHOST and PGPORT specify to client
applications the host and port of the database server, overriding the
compiled-in defaults. If you are going to run client applications
remotely then it is convenient if every user that plans to use the
database sets PGHOST. This is not required, however; the settings can
be communicated via command line options to most client programs.
__________________________________________________________________
Getting Started
The following is a quick summary of how to get PostgreSQL up and
running once installed. The main documentation contains more
information.
1. Create a user account for the PostgreSQL server. This is the user
the server will run as. For production use you should create a
separate, unprivileged account ("postgres" is commonly used). If
you do not have root access or just want to play around, your own
user account is enough, but running the server as root is a
security risk and will not work.
adduser postgres
2. Create a database installation with the "initdb" command. To run
"initdb" you must be logged in to your PostgreSQL server account.
It will not work as root.
root# mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data
root# chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
root# su - postgres
postgres$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
The "-D" option specifies the location where the data will be
stored. You can use any path you want, it does not have to be under
the installation directory. Just make sure that the server account
can write to the directory (or create it, if it doesn't already
exist) before starting "initdb", as illustrated here.
3. At this point, if you did not use the "initdb" -A option, you might
want to modify "pg_hba.conf" to control local access to the server
before you start it. The default is to trust all local users.
4. The previous "initdb" step should have told you how to start up the
database server. Do so now. The command should look something like:
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
This will start the server in the foreground. To put the server in
the background use something like:
nohup /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data \
>server.log 2>&1 To stop a server running in the background you can type:
kill `cat /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid`
5. Create a database:
createdb testdb
Then enter:
psql testdb
to connect to that database. At the prompt you can enter SQL
commands and start experimenting.
__________________________________________________________________
What Now?
* The PostgreSQL distribution contains a comprehensive documentation
set, which you should read sometime. After installation, the
documentation can be accessed by pointing your browser to
"/usr/local/pgsql/doc/html/index.html", unless you changed the
installation directories.
The first few chapters of the main documentation are the Tutorial,
which should be your first reading if you are completely new to SQL
databases. If you are familiar with database concepts then you want
to proceed with part on server administration, which contains
information about how to set up the database server, database
users, and authentication.
* Usually, you will want to modify your computer so that it will
automatically start the database server whenever it boots. Some
suggestions for this are in the documentation.
* Run the regression tests against the installed server (using "make
installcheck"). If you didn't run the tests before installation,
you should definitely do it now. This is also explained in the
documentation.
* By default, PostgreSQL is configured to run on minimal hardware.
This allows it to start up with almost any hardware configuration.
The default configuration is, however, not designed for optimum
performance. To achieve optimum performance, several server
parameters must be adjusted, the two most common being
shared_buffers and work_mem. Other parameters mentioned in the
documentation also affect performance.
__________________________________________________________________
Supported Platforms
A platform (that is, a CPU architecture and operating system
combination) is considered supported by the PostgreSQL development
community if the code contains provisions to work on that platform and
it has recently been verified to build and pass its regression tests on
that platform. Currently, most testing of platform compatibility is
done automatically by test machines in the PostgreSQL Build Farm. If
you are interested in using PostgreSQL on a platform that is not
represented in the build farm, but on which the code works or can be
made to work, you are strongly encouraged to set up a build farm member
machine so that continued compatibility can be assured.
In general, PostgreSQL can be expected to work on these CPU
architectures: x86, x86_64, IA64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, S/390, S/390x,
Sparc, Sparc 64, ARM, MIPS, MIPSEL, M68K, and PA-RISC. Code support
exists for M32R and VAX, but these architectures are not known to have
been tested recently. It is often possible to build on an unsupported
CPU type by configuring with "--disable-spinlocks", but performance
will be poor.
PostgreSQL can be expected to work on these operating systems: Linux
(all recent distributions), Windows (Win2000 SP4 and later), FreeBSD,
OpenBSD, NetBSD, OS X, AIX, HP/UX, Solaris, and UnixWare. Other
Unix-like systems may also work but are not currently being tested. In
most cases, all CPU architectures supported by a given operating system
will work. Look in the the Section called Platform-specific Notes below
to see if there is information specific to your operating system,
particularly if using an older system.
If you have installation problems on a platform that is known to be
supported according to recent build farm results, please report it to
PostgreSQL to a new platform,
appropriate place to discuss that.
__________________________________________________________________
Platform-specific Notes
This section documents additional platform-specific issues regarding
the installation and setup of PostgreSQL. Be sure to read the
installation instructions, and in particular the Section called
Requirements as well. Also, check the file "src/test/regress/README"
and the documentation regarding the interpretation of regression test
results.
Platforms that are not covered here have no known platform-specific
installation issues.
__________________________________________________________________
AIX
PostgreSQL works on AIX, but getting it installed properly can be
challenging. AIX versions from 4.3.3 to 6.1 are considered supported.
You can use GCC or the native IBM compiler "xlc". In general, using
recent versions of AIX and PostgreSQL helps. Check the build farm for
up to date information about which versions of AIX are known to work.
The minimum recommended fix levels for supported AIX versions are:
AIX 4.3.3
Maintenance Level 11 + post ML11 bundle
AIX 5.1
Maintenance Level 9 + post ML9 bundle
AIX 5.2
Technology Level 10 Service Pack 3
AIX 5.3
Technology Level 7
AIX 6.1
Base Level
To check your current fix level, use "oslevel -r" in AIX 4.3.3 to AIX
5.2 ML 7, or "oslevel -s" in later versions.
Use the following "configure" flags in addition to your own if you have
installed Readline or libz in /usr/local:
--with-includes=/usr/local/include --with-libraries=/usr/local/lib.
__________________________________________________________________
GCC Issues
On AIX 5.3, there have been some problems getting PostgreSQL to compile
and run using GCC.
You will want to use a version of GCC subsequent to 3.3.2, particularly
if you use a prepackaged version. We had good success with 4.0.1.
Problems with earlier versions seem to have more to do with the way IBM
packaged GCC than with actual issues with GCC, so that if you compile
GCC yourself, you might well have success with an earlier version of
GCC.
__________________________________________________________________
Unix-Domain Sockets Broken
AIX 5.3 has a problem where sockaddr_storage is not defined to be large
enough. In version 5.3, IBM increased the size of sockaddr_un, the
address structure for Unix-domain sockets, but did not correspondingly
increase the size of sockaddr_storage. The result of this is that
attempts to use Unix-domain sockets with PostgreSQL lead to libpq
overflowing the data structure. TCP/IP connections work OK, but not
Unix-domain sockets, which prevents the regression tests from working.
The problem was reported to IBM, and is recorded as bug report
PMR29657. If you upgrade to maintenance level 5300-03 or later, that
will include this fix. A quick workaround is to alter _SS_MAXSIZE to
1025 in "/usr/include/sys/socket.h". In either case, recompile
PostgreSQL once you have the corrected header file.
__________________________________________________________________
Internet Address Issues
PostgreSQL relies on the system's getaddrinfo function to parse IP
addresses in listen_addresses, "pg_hba.conf", etc. Older versions of
AIX have assorted bugs in this function. If you have problems related
to these settings, updating to the appropriate AIX fix level shown
above should take care of it.
One user reports:
When implementing PostgreSQL version 8.1 on AIX 5.3, we periodically
ran into problems where the statistics collector would "mysteriously"
not come up successfully. This appears to be the result of unexpected
behavior in the IPv6 implementation. It looks like PostgreSQL and IPv6
do not play very well together on AIX 5.3.
Any of the following actions "fix" the problem.
* Delete the IPv6 address for localhost:
(as root)
# ifconfig lo0 inet6 ::1/0 delete
* Remove IPv6 from net services. The file "/etc/netsvc.conf" on AIX
is roughly equivalent to "/etc/nsswitch.conf" on Solaris/Linux. The
default, on AIX, is thus:
hosts=local,bind
Replace this with:
hosts=local4,bind4
to deactivate searching for IPv6 addresses.
Warning
This is really a workaround for problems relating to immaturity of IPv6
support, which improved visibly during the course of AIX 5.3 releases.
It has worked with AIX version 5.3, but does not represent an elegant
solution to the problem. It has been reported that this workaround is
not only unnecessary, but causes problems on AIX 6.1, where IPv6
support has become more mature.
__________________________________________________________________
Memory Management
AIX can be somewhat peculiar with regards to the way it does memory
management. You can have a server with many multiples of gigabytes of
RAM free, but still get out of memory or address space errors when
running applications. One example is "createlang" failing with unusual
errors. For example, running as the owner of the PostgreSQL
installation:
-bash-3.00$ createlang plperl template1
createlang: language installation failed: ERROR: could not load library "/opt/d
bs/pgsql748/lib/plperl.so": A memory address is not in the address space for the
process.
Running as a non-owner in the group possessing the PostgreSQL
installation:
-bash-3.00$ createlang plperl template1
createlang: language installation failed: ERROR: could not load library "/opt/d
bs/pgsql748/lib/plperl.so": Bad address
Another example is out of memory errors in the PostgreSQL server logs,
with every memory allocation near or greater than 256 MB failing.
The overall cause of all these problems is the default bittedness and
memory model used by the server process. By default, all binaries built
on AIX are 32-bit. This does not depend upon hardware type or kernel in
use. These 32-bit processes are limited to 4 GB of memory laid out in
256 MB segments using one of a few models. The default allows for less
than 256 MB in the heap as it shares a single segment with the stack.
In the case of the "createlang" example, above, check your umask and
the permissions of the binaries in your PostgreSQL installation. The
binaries involved in that example were 32-bit and installed as mode 750
instead of 755. Due to the permissions being set in this fashion, only
the owner or a member of the possessing group can load the library.
Since it isn't world-readable, the loader places the object into the
process' heap instead of the shared library segments where it would
otherwise be placed.
The "ideal" solution for this is to use a 64-bit build of PostgreSQL,
but that is not always practical, because systems with 32-bit
processors can build, but not run, 64-bit binaries.
If a 32-bit binary is desired, set LDR_CNTRL to MAXDATA=0xn0000000,
where 1 <= n <= 8, before starting the PostgreSQL server, and try
different values and "postgresql.conf" settings to find a configuration
that works satisfactorily. This use of LDR_CNTRL tells AIX that you
want the server to have MAXDATA bytes set aside for the heap, allocated
in 256 MB segments. When you find a workable configuration, "ldedit"
can be used to modify the binaries so that they default to using the
desired heap size. PostgreSQL can also be rebuilt, passing configure
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-bmaxdata:0xn0000000" to achieve the same effect.
For a 64-bit build, set OBJECT_MODE to 64 and pass CC="gcc -maix64" and
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-bbigtoc" to "configure". (Options for "xlc" might
differ.) If you omit the export of OBJECT_MODE, your build may fail
with linker errors. When OBJECT_MODE is set, it tells AIX's build
utilities such as "ar", "as", and "ld" what type of objects to default
to handling.
By default, overcommit of paging space can happen. While we have not
seen this occur, AIX will kill processes when it runs out of memory and
the overcommit is accessed. The closest to this that we have seen is
fork failing because the system decided that there was not enough
memory for another process. Like many other parts of AIX, the paging
space allocation method and out-of-memory kill is configurable on a
system- or process-wide basis if this becomes a problem.
References and Resources
"Large Program Support", AIX Documentation: General Programming
Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs.
"Program Address Space Overview", AIX Documentation: General
Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs.
"Performance Overview of the Virtual Memory Manager (VMM)", AIX
Documentation: Performance Management Guide.
"Page Space Allocation", AIX Documentation: Performance Management
Guide.
"Paging-space thresholds tuning", AIX Documentation: Performance
Management Guide.
Developing and Porting C and C++ Applications on AIX, IBM Redbook.
__________________________________________________________________
Cygwin
PostgreSQL can be built using Cygwin, a Linux-like environment for
Windows, but that method is inferior to the native Windows build and
running a server under Cygwin is no longer recommended.
When building from source, proceed according to the normal installation
procedure (i.e., ./configure; make; etc.), noting the following-Cygwin
specific differences:
* Set your path to use the Cygwin bin directory before the Windows
utilities. This will help prevent problems with compilation.
* The "adduser" command is not supported; use the appropriate user
management application on Windows NT, 2000, or XP. Otherwise, skip
this step.
* The "su" command is not supported; use ssh to simulate su on
Windows NT, 2000, or XP. Otherwise, skip this step.
* OpenSSL is not supported.
* Start "cygserver" for shared memory support. To do this, enter the
command /usr/sbin/cygserver &. This program needs to be running
anytime you start the PostgreSQL server or initialize a database
cluster ("initdb"). The default "cygserver" configuration may need
to be changed (e.g., increase SEMMNS) to prevent PostgreSQL from
failing due to a lack of system resources.
* Building might fail on some systems where a locale other than C is
in use. To fix this, set the locale to C by doing "export
LANG=C.utf8" before building, and then setting it back to the
previous setting, after you have installed PostgreSQL.
* The parallel regression tests (make check) can generate spurious
regression test failures due to overflowing the listen() backlog
queue which causes connection refused errors or hangs. You can
limit the number of connections using the make variable
MAX_CONNECTIONS thus:
make MAX_CONNECTIONS=5 check
(On some systems you can have up to about 10 simultaneous
connections).
It is possible to install "cygserver" and the PostgreSQL server as
Windows NT services. For information on how to do this, please refer to
the "README" document included with the PostgreSQL binary package on
Cygwin. It is installed in the directory "/usr/share/doc/Cygwin".
__________________________________________________________________
HP-UX
PostgreSQL 7.3+ should work on Series 700/800 PA-RISC machines running
HP-UX 10.X or 11.X, given appropriate system patch levels and build
tools. At least one developer routinely tests on HP-UX 10.20, and we
have reports of successful installations on HP-UX 11.00 and 11.11.
Aside from the PostgreSQL source distribution, you will need GNU make
(HP's make will not do), and either GCC or HP's full ANSI C compiler.
If you intend to build from Git sources rather than a distribution
tarball, you will also need Flex (GNU lex) and Bison (GNU yacc). We
also recommend making sure you are fairly up-to-date on HP patches. At
a minimum, if you are building 64 bit binaries on HP-UX 11.11 you may
need PHSS_30966 (11.11) or a successor patch otherwise "initdb" may
hang:
PHSS_30966 s700_800 ld(1) and linker tools cumulative patch
On general principles you should be current on libc and ld/dld patches,
as well as compiler patches if you are using HP's C compiler. See HP's
support sites such as http://itrc.hp.com and
ftp://us-ffs.external.hp.com/ for free copies of their latest patches.
If you are building on a PA-RISC 2.0 machine and want to have 64-bit
binaries using GCC, you must use GCC 64-bit version. GCC binaries for
HP-UX PA-RISC and Itanium are available from http://www.hp.com/go/gcc.
Don't forget to get and install binutils at the same time.
If you are building on a PA-RISC 2.0 machine and want the compiled
binaries to run on PA-RISC 1.1 machines you will need to specify
"+DAportable" in CFLAGS.
If you are building on a HP-UX Itanium machine, you will need the
latest HP ANSI C compiler with its dependent patch or successor
patches:
PHSS_30848 s700_800 HP C Compiler (A.05.57)
PHSS_30849 s700_800 u2comp/be/plugin library Patch
If you have both HP's C compiler and GCC's, then you might want to
explicitly select the compiler to use when you run "configure":
./configure CC=cc
for HP's C compiler, or
./configure CC=gcc
for GCC. If you omit this setting, then configure will pick "gcc" if it
has a choice.
The default install target location is "/usr/local/pgsql", which you
might want to change to something under "/opt". If so, use the
"--prefix" switch to "configure".
In the regression tests, there might be some low-order-digit
differences in the geometry tests, which vary depending on which
compiler and math library versions you use. Any other error is cause
for suspicion.
__________________________________________________________________
MinGW/Native Windows
PostgreSQL for Windows can be built using MinGW, a Unix-like build
environment for Microsoft operating systems, or using Microsoft's
Visual C++ compiler suite. The MinGW build variant uses the normal
build system described in this chapter; the Visual C++ build works
completely differently and is described in the documentation. It is a
fully native build and uses no additional software like MinGW. A
ready-made installer is available on the main PostgreSQL web site.
The native Windows port requires a 32 or 64-bit version of Windows 2000
or later. Earlier operating systems do not have sufficient
infrastructure (but Cygwin may be used on those). MinGW, the Unix-like
build tools, and MSYS, a collection of Unix tools required to run shell
scripts like "configure", can be downloaded from http://www.mingw.org/.
Neither is required to run the resulting binaries; they are needed only
for creating the binaries.
To build 64 bit binaries using MinGW, install the 64 bit tool set from
http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net/, put its bin directory in the PATH,
and run "configure" with the "--host=x86_64-w64-mingw" option.
After you have everything installed, it is suggested that you run psql
under "CMD.EXE", as the MSYS console has buffering issues.
__________________________________________________________________
Collecting Crash Dumps on Windows
If PostgreSQL on Windows crashes, it has the ability to generate
minidumps that can be used to track down the cause for the crash,
similar to core dumps on Unix. These dumps can be read using the
Windows Debugger Tools or using Visual Studio. To enable the generation
of dumps on Windows, create a subdirectory named "crashdumps" inside
the cluster data directory. The dumps will then be written into this
directory with a unique name based on the identifier of the crashing
process and the current time of the crash.
__________________________________________________________________
SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare
PostgreSQL can be built on SCO UnixWare 7 and SCO OpenServer 5. On
OpenServer, you can use either the OpenServer Development Kit or the
Universal Development Kit. However, some tweaking may be needed, as
described below.
__________________________________________________________________
Skunkware
You should locate your copy of the SCO Skunkware CD. The Skunkware CD
is included with UnixWare 7 and current versions of OpenServer 5.
Skunkware includes ready-to-install versions of many popular programs
that are available on the Internet. For example, gzip, gunzip, GNU
Make, Flex, and Bison are all included. For UnixWare 7.1, this CD is
now labeled "Open License Software Supplement". If you do not have this
CD, the software on it is available from http://www.sco.com/skunkware/.
Skunkware has different versions for UnixWare and OpenServer. Make sure
you install the correct version for your operating system, except as
noted below.
On UnixWare 7.1.3 and beyond, the GCC compiler is included on the UDK
CD as is GNU Make.
__________________________________________________________________
GNU Make
You need to use the GNU Make program, which is on the Skunkware CD. By
default, it installs as "/usr/local/bin/make".
As of UnixWare 7.1.3 and above, the GNU Make program is the OSTK
portion of the UDK CD, and is in "/usr/gnu/bin/gmake".
__________________________________________________________________
Readline
The Readline library is on the Skunkware CD. But it is not included on
the UnixWare 7.1 Skunkware CD. If you have the UnixWare 7.0.0 or 7.0.1
Skunkware CDs, you can install it from there. Otherwise, try
http://www.sco.com/skunkware/.
By default, Readline installs into "/usr/local/lib" and
"/usr/local/include". However, the PostgreSQL "configure" program will
not find it there without help. If you installed Readline, then use the
following options to "configure":
./configure --with-libraries=/usr/local/lib --with-includes=/usr/local/include
__________________________________________________________________
Using the UDK on OpenServer
If you are using the new Universal Development Kit (UDK) compiler on
OpenServer, you need to specify the locations of the UDK libraries:
./configure --with-libraries=/udk/usr/lib --with-includes=/udk/usr/include
Putting these together with the Readline options from above:
./configure --with-libraries="/udk/usr/lib /usr/local/lib" --with-includes="/udk
/usr/include /usr/local/include"
__________________________________________________________________
Reading the PostgreSQL Man Pages
By default, the PostgreSQL man pages are installed into
"/usr/local/pgsql/man". By default, UnixWare does not look there for
man pages. To be able to read them you need to modify the MANPATH
variable in "/etc/default/man", for example:
MANPATH=/usr/lib/scohelp/%L/man:/usr/dt/man:/usr/man:/usr/share/man:scohelp:/usr
/local/man:/usr/local/pgsql/man
On OpenServer, some extra research needs to be invested to make the man
pages usable, because the man system is a bit different from other
platforms. Currently, PostgreSQL will not install them at all.
__________________________________________________________________
C99 Issues with the 7.1.1b Feature Supplement
For compilers earlier than the one released with OpenUNIX 8.0.0
(UnixWare 7.1.2), including the 7.1.1b Feature Supplement, you may need
to specify "-Xb" in CFLAGS or the CC environment variable. The
indication of this is an error in compiling "tuplesort.c" referencing
inline functions. Apparently there was a change in the 7.1.2(8.0.0)
compiler and beyond.
__________________________________________________________________
Threading on UnixWare
For threading, you*must* use "-Kpthread" on *all* libpq-using programs.
libpq uses pthread_* calls, which are only available with the
"-Kpthread"/"-Kthread" flag.
__________________________________________________________________
Solaris
PostgreSQL is well-supported on Solaris. The more up to date your
operating system, the fewer issues you will experience; details below.
__________________________________________________________________
Required Tools
You can build with either GCC or Sun's compiler suite. For better code
optimization, Sun's compiler is strongly recommended on the SPARC
architecture. We have heard reports of problems when using GCC 2.95.1;
GCC 2.95.3 or later is recommended. If you are using Sun's compiler, be
careful not to select "/usr/ucb/cc"; use "/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc".
You can download Sun Studio from
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solarisstudio/download
s/. Many of GNU tools are integrated into Solaris 10, or they are
present on the Solaris companion CD. If you like packages for older
version of Solaris, you can find these tools at
http://www.sunfreeware.com. If you prefer sources, look at
http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html.
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Problems with OpenSSL
When you build PostgreSQL with OpenSSL support you might get
compilation errors in the following files:
* "src/backend/libpq/crypt.c"
* "src/backend/libpq/password.c"
* "src/interfaces/libpq/fe-auth.c"
* "src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c"
This is because of a namespace conflict between the standard
"/usr/include/crypt.h" header and the header files provided by OpenSSL.
Upgrading your OpenSSL installation to version 0.9.6a fixes this
problem. Solaris 9 and above has a newer version of OpenSSL.
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configure Complains About a Failed Test Program
If "configure" complains about a failed test program, this is probably
a case of the run-time linker being unable to find some library,
probably libz, libreadline or some other non-standard library such as
libssl. To point it to the right location, set the LDFLAGS environment
variable on the "configure" command line, e.g.,
configure ... LDFLAGS="-R /usr/sfw/lib:/opt/sfw/lib:/usr/local/lib"
See the ld man page for more information.
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64-bit Build Sometimes Crashes
On Solaris 7 and older, the 64-bit version of libc has a buggy
vsnprintf routine, which leads to erratic core dumps in PostgreSQL. The
simplest known workaround is to force PostgreSQL to use its own version
of vsnprintf rather than the library copy. To do this, after you run
"configure" edit a file produced by "configure": In
"src/Makefile.global", change the line
LIBOBJS =
to read
LIBOBJS = snprintf.o
(There might be other files already listed in this variable. Order does
not matter.) Then build as usual.
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Compiling for Optimal Performance
On the SPARC architecture, Sun Studio is strongly recommended for
compilation. Try using the "-xO5" optimization flag to generate
significantly faster binaries. Do not use any flags that modify
behavior of floating-point operations and errno processing (e.g.,
"-fast"). These flags could raise some nonstandard PostgreSQL behavior
for example in the date/time computing.
If you do not have a reason to use 64-bit binaries on SPARC, prefer the
32-bit version. The 64-bit operations are slower and 64-bit binaries
are slower than the 32-bit variants. And on other hand, 32-bit code on
the AMD64 CPU family is not native, and that is why 32-bit code is
significant slower on this CPU family.
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Using DTrace for Tracing PostgreSQL
Yes, using DTrace is possible. See the documentation for further
information. You can also find more information in this article:
https://blogs.oracle.com/robertlor/entry/user_level_dtrace_probes_in.
If you see the linking of the "postgres" executable abort with an error
message like:
Undefined first referenced
symbol in file
AbortTransaction utils/probes.o
CommitTransaction utils/probes.o
ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to postgres
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [postgres] Error 1
your DTrace installation is too old to handle probes in static
functions. You need Solaris 10u4 or newer.