PostgreSQL Installation Instructions
Table of Contents
Short Version
Requirements
If You Are Upgrading
Installation Procedure
Post-Installation Setup
Getting Started
What Now?
Supported Platforms
Short Version
./configure
gmake
gmake install
adduser postgres
su - postgres
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster -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 explicit 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.
Compiler. You need a Standard ("ANSI") C compiler. Recent versions of GCC
are recommendable, but PostgreSQL is known to build with a wide variety of
compilers from different vendors.
Make. Building PostgreSQL requires GNU make; it will not work with other
make programs. GNU make is often installed under the name gmake. This
document will always refer to it by that name. (On GNU/Linux systems GNU
make is the default tool with the name make.) To test for GNU make enter
gmake --version
If at all possible you should try to use version 3.76.1 or later. If you
need to get GNU make, you can find it at your local GNU mirror site (see
http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html) or at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make.
Resources. Check that you have sufficient disk space. You will need about 30
MB for the source tree during compilation and about 5 MB for the
installation directory. An empty database takes about 1 MB, later it takes
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 an extra 20 MB. Use the df command to check for disk space.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If You Are Upgrading
The internal data storage format changes with new releases of PostgreSQL.
Therefore, if you are upgrading an existing installation that does not have
a version number "7.1.x", you must back up and restore your data as shown
here. These instructions assume that your existing installation is under the
/usr/local/pgsql directory, and that the data area is in
/usr/local/pgsql/data. Substitute your paths appropriately.
1. Make sure that your database is not updated during or after the backup.
This does not affect the integrity of the backup, but the changed data
would of course not be included. If necessary, edit the permissions in
the file /usr/local/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf (or equivalent) to disallow
access from everyone except you.
2. To dump your database installation, type:
pg_dumpall > outputfile
If you need to preserve the oids (such as when using them as foreign
keys), then use the -o option when running pg_dumpall.
Make sure that you use the pg_dumpall command from the version you are
currently running. 7.1's pg_dumpall should not be used on older
databases.
3. If you are installing the new version at the same location as the old
one then shut down the old server, at the latest before you install the
new files:
kill -INT `cat /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid`
Versions prior to 7.0 do not have this postmaster.pid file. If you are
using such a version you must find out the process id of the server
yourself, for example by typing ps ax | grep postmaster, and supply it
to the kill command.
On systems which have PostgreSQL started at boot time, there is
probably a startup file that will accomplish the same thing. For
example, on a Redhat Linux system one might find that
/etc/rc.d/init.d/postgres.init stop
works.
4. If you are installing in the same place as the old version then it is
also a good idea to move the old installation out of the way, in case
you still need it later on. Use a command like this:
mv /usr/local/pgsql /usr/local/pgsql.old
After you have installed PostgreSQL 7.1, create a new database directory and
start the new server. Remember that you must execute these commands while
logged in to the special database user account (which you already have if
you are upgrading).
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/bin
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster -D /usr/local/pgsql/bin
Finally, restore your data with
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql -d template1 -f outputfile
using the new psql.
You can also install the new version in parallel with the old one to
decrease the downtime. These topic are discussed at length in the
Administrator's Guide, which you are encouraged to read in any case. The
pg_upgrade utility can also often be used.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installation Procedure
1. Configuration
The first step of the installation procedure 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 type
./configure
This script will run a number of tests to guess values for various
system dependent variables and detect some quirks of your operating
system, and finally creates several files in the build tree to record
what it found.
The default configuration will build the server and utilities, as well
as all client applications and interfaces that only require a C
compiler. All files will be installed under /usr/local/pgsql by
default.
You can customize the build and installation process by giving 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.
--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.
--datadir=DIRECTORY
Sets the directory for read-only data files used by the installed
programs. The default is PREFIX/share. Note that this has nothing
to do with where your database files will be placed.
--sysconfdir=DIRECTORY
The directory for various configuration files, PREFIX/etc by
default.
--libdir=DIRECTORY
The location to install libraries and dynamically loadable
modules. The default is EXEC-PREFIX/lib.
--includedir=DIRECTORY
The directory for installing C and C++ header files. The default
is PREFIX/include.
--docdir=DIRECTORY
Documentation files, except "man" pages, will be installed into
this directory. The default is PREFIX/doc.
--mandir=DIRECTORY
The man pages that come with PostgreSQL will be installed under
this directory, in their respective manx subdirectories.
PREFIX/man.
--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 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-locale
Enables locale support. There is a performance penalty associated
with locale support, but if you are not in an English-speaking
environment you will most likely need this.
--enable-recode
Enables character set recode support. See doc/README.Charsets for
details on this feature.
--enable-multibyte
Allows the use of multibyte character encodings. This is primarily
for languages like Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Read
doc/README.mb for details.
--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.
--with-CXX
Build the C++ interface library. configure will automatically pick
the C++ compiler that goes with the C compiler you are using. It
is not recommended or supported to use C and C++ compilers of
different origin in the same build.
--with-perl
Build the Perl interface module. The Perl interface will be
installed at the usual place for Perl modules (typically under
/usr/lib/perl), so you must have root access to perform the
installation step (see step 4). You need to have Perl 5 installed
to use this option.
--with-python
Build the Python interface module. You need to have root access to
be able to install the Python module at its default place
(/usr/lib/pythonx.y). To be able to use this option, you must have
Python installed and your system needs to support shared
libraries. If you instead want to build a new complete interpreter
binary, you will have to do it manually.
--with-tcl
Builds components that require Tcl, which are libpgtcl, pgtclsh,
and PL/Tcl.
--with-x
Use the X Window System. If you specified --with-tcl then this
will enable the build of modules requiring Tcl/Tk, that is, pgtksh
and pgaccess.
--with-tclconfig=DIRECTORY, --with-tkconfig=DIRECTORY
Tcl/Tk installs the files tclConfig.sh and tkConfig.sh which
contain certain configuration information that is needed to build
modules interfacing to Tcl or Tk. These files are normally found
automatically at their well-known location, but if you want to use
a different version of Tcl or Tk you can specify the directory
where to find them.
--enable-odbc
Build the ODBC driver package.
--with-odbcinst=DIRECTORY
Specifies the directory where the ODBC driver will expect its
odbcinst.ini configuration file. The default is
/usr/local/pgsql/etc or whatever you specified as --sysconfdir. A
default file will be installed there.
--with-krb4=DIRECTORY, --with-krb5=DIRECTORY
Build with suppport for Kerberos authentication. You can use
either Kerberos version 4 or 5, but not both. The DIRECTORY
argument specifies the root directory of the Kerberos
installation; /usr/athena is assumed as default. If the relevant
headers files and libraries are not under a common parent
directory, then you must use the --with-includes and
--with-libraries options in addition to this option. If, on the
other hand, the required files are in a location that is searched
by default (e.g., /usr/lib), then you can leave off the argument.
configure will check for the required header files and libraries
to make sure that your Kerberos installation is sufficient before
proceeding.
--with-krb-srvnam=NAME
The name of the Kerberos service principal. "postgres" is the
default. There's probably no reason to change this.
--with-krb-srvtab=FILE
Specifies the location of the Kerberos server shared key file
("srvtab"). If you are using Kerberos 4, this defaults to
/etc/srvtab, with Kerberos 5 to
FILE:/usr/local/pgsql/etc/krb5.keytab, or equivalent, depending on
what you set --sysconfdir to above.
--enable-syslog
Enables the PostgreSQL server to use the syslog logging facility.
(Using this option does not mean that you have to log with syslog
or even that it will be done by default, it simply makes it
possible to turn this option on at run time.)
--enable-debug
Compiles all programs and libraries with debugging symbols. This
means that you can run the programs through a debugger to analyze
problems. This option is not recommended for production use.
Environment variables. You can set the CC environment variable to
choose the C compiler to use. If you don't then configure will look for
one. For example:
CC=/opt/bin/gcc ./configure
2. Build
To start the build, type
gmake
(Remember to use GNU make.) The build can take anywhere from 5 minutes
to half an hour. The last line displayed should be
All of PostgreSQL is 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
gmake -C src/test/regress all runcheck
It is possible that some tests fail, due to differences in error
message wording or floating point results. The file
src/test/regress/README and the Administrator's Guide 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 and are going
to install the new files over the old ones then you should
have backed up your data and shut down the old server by now,
as explained in the section called If You Are Upgrading
above.
To install PostgreSQL enter
gmake 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 could create the target directories in advance and arrange for
appropriate permissions to be granted.
If you built the Perl or Python interfaces and you were not the root
user when you executed the above command then that part of the
installation probably failed. In that case you should become the root
user and then do
gmake -C src/interfaces/perl5 install
gmake -C src/interfaces/python install
Due to a quirk in the Perl build environment the first command will
actually rebuild the complete interface and then install it. This is
not harmful, just unusual. If you do not have superuser access you are
on your own: you can still take the required files and place them in
other directories where Perl or Python can find them, but how to do
that is left as an exercise.
Client-only installation. If you want to install only the client
applications and interfaces, then you can use these commands:
gmake -C src/bin install
gmake -C src/interfaces install
gmake -C doc install
To undo the installation use the command gmake uninstall. However, this
will not remove the Perl and Python interfaces and it will not remove
any directories.
Cleanup. After the installation you can make room by removing the built
files from the source tree with the gmake clean command. This will preserve
the choices made by the configure program, so that you can rebuild
everything with gmake later on. To reset the source tree to the state in
which it was distributed, use gmake distclean. If you are going to build for
several platforms from the same source tree you must do this and
re-configure for each build.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post-Installation Setup
Shared Libraries
On most systems that have shared libraries (which most systems do) you need
to tell your system how to find the newly installed shared libraries. How to
do this varies between platforms, but the most widely usable 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 startup file such as /etc/profile
or ~/.bash_profile.
On Linux systems the following is the preferred method, but you must have
root access. Edit the file /etc/ld.so.conf to add a line
/usr/local/pgsql/lib
Then run command /sbin/ldconfig.
If in doubt, refer to the manual pages of your system. If you later on 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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Environment Variables
If you installed into /usr/local/pgsql or some other location that is not
searched for programs by default, you need to add /usr/local/pgsql/bin (or
what you set --bindir to in step 1) into your PATH. To do this, add the
following to your shell startup file, such as ~/.bash_profile (or
/etc/profile, if you want it to affect every user):
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/pgsql/bin
If you are using csh or tcsh, then use this command:
set path = ( /usr/local/pgsql/bin path )
To enable your system to find the man documentation, you need to add a line
like the following to a shell startup file:
MANPATH=$MANPATH:/usr/local/pgsql/man
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, but it
is not required and 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 Administrator's Guide contains more information.
1. Create the PostgreSQL server account. 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 therefore not
allowed.
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. The previous 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/postmaster -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/postmaster -D /usr/local/pgsql/data \
</dev/null >>server.log 2>&1 </dev/null &
To stop a server running in the background you can type
kill `cat /usr/local/psgql/data/postmaster.pid`
In order to allow TCP/IP connections (rather than only Unix domain
socket ones) you need to pass the -i option to postmaster.
4. 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 Tutorial should be your first reading if you are completely new to
SQL databases. It should have been installed at
/usr/local/pgsql/doc/tutorial/index.html unless you changed the
installation directories.
* If you are familiar with database concepts then you want to proceed
with the Administrator's Guide, which contains information about how to
set up the database server, database users, and authentication. It can
be found at /usr/local/pgsql/doc/admin/index.html.
* 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 Administrator's Guide.
* Run the regression tests against the installed server (using the
sequential test method). If you didn't run the tests before
installation, you should definitely do it now. This is also explained
in the Administrator's Guide.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supported Platforms
At the time of release, PostgreSQL 7.1 has been verified by the developer
community to work on the following platforms. A supported platform generally
means that PostgreSQL builds and installs according to these instructions
and that the regression tests pass, except for minor differences.
Note: If you are having problems with the installation on a
supported platform, please write to <pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org> or
<pgsql-ports@postgresql.org>, not to the people listed here.
OS Processor Version Reported Remarks
AIX 4.3.2 RS6000 7.0 2000-04-05, Andread Zeugswetter See also
(<Andreas.Zeugswetter@telecom.at>) doc/FAQ_AIX
BSDI 4.01 x86 7.0 2000-04-04, Bruce Momjian
(<pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>)
Compaq Tru64 Alpha 7.0 2000-04-11, Andrew McMurry
5.0 (<andrew.mcmurry@astro.uio.no>)
FreeBSD 4.0 x86 7.0 2000-04-04, Marc Fournier
(<scrappy@hub.org>)
HPUX 9.0x andPA-RISC 7.0 2000-04-12, Tom Lane
10.20 (<tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
IRIX 6.5.6f MIPS 6.5.3 2000-02-18, Kevin Wheatley MIPSPro
(<hxpro@cinesite.co.uk>) 7.3.1.1m N32
build
Linux 2.0.x Alpha 7.0 2000-04-05, Ryan Kirkpatrick with published
(<pgsql@rkirkpat.net>) patches
Linux 2.2.x armv4l 7.0 2000-04-17, Mark Knox Regression
(<segfault@hardline.org>) test needs
work.
Linux 2.2.x x86 7.0 2000-03-26, Lamar Owen
(<lamar.owen@wgcr.org>)
Linux 2.0.x MIPS 7.0 2000-04-13, Tatsuo Ishii Cobalt Qube
(<t-ishii@sra.co.jp>)
Linux 2.2.5 Sparc 7.0 2000-04-02, Tom Szybist
(<szybist@boxhill.com>)
LinuxPPC R4 PPC603e 7.0 2000-04-13, Tatsuo Ishii
(<t-ishii@sra.co.jp>)
mklinux PPC750 7.0 2000-04-13, Tatsuo Ishii
(<t-ishii@sra.co.jp>)
NetBSD 1.4 arm32 7.0 2000-04-08, Patrick Welche
(<prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk>)
NetBSD 1.4U x86 7.0 2000-03-26, Patrick Welche
(<prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk>)
NetBSD m68k 7.0 2000-04-10, Henry B. Hotz Mac 8xx
(<hotz@jpl.nasa.gov>)
NetBSD Sparc 7.0 2000-04-13, Tom I. Helbekkmo
(<tih@kpnQwest.no>)
QNX 4.25 x86 7.0 2000-04-01, Dr. Andreas Kardos
(<kardos@repas-aeg.de>)
SCO x86 6.5 1999-05-25, Andrew Merrill
OpenServer 5 (<andrew@compclass.com>)
SCO UnixWare x86 7.0 2000-04-18, Billy G. Allie See also
7 (<Bill.Allie@mug.org>) doc/FAQ_SCO
Solaris x86 7.0 2000-04-12, Marc Fournier
(<scrappy@hub.org>)
Solaris Sparc 7.0 2000-04-12, Peter Eisentraut
2.5.1-2.7 (<peter_e@gmx.net>), Marc Fournier
(<scrappy@hub.org>)
SunOS 4.1.4 Sparc 7.0 2000-04-13, Tatsuo Ishii
(<t-ishii@sra.co.jp>)
Windows/Win32x86 7.0 2000-04-02, Magnus Hagander Client-side
(<mha@sollentuna.net>) libraries or
ODBC/JDBC, no
server-side
WinNT/Cygwin x86 7.0 2000-03-30, Daniel Horak with
(<horak@sit.plzen-city.cz>) RedHat/Cygnus
Cygwin toolset
Unsupported Platforms. The following platforms have not been verified to
work. Platforms listed for version 6.3.x and later should also work with
7.1, but we did not receive explicit confirmation of such at the time this
list was compiled. We include these here to let you know that these
platforms could be supported if given some attention.
OS Processor Version Reported Remarks
BeOS x86 7.0 2000-05-01, Adam Haberlach Client-side
(<adam@newsnipple.com>) coming soon?
DGUX m88k 6.3 1998-03-01, Brian E Gallew 6.4 probably
5.4R4.11 (<geek+@cmu.edu>) OK. Needs new
maintainer.
NetBSD 1.3VAX 6.3 1998-03-01, Tom I Helbekkmo 7.0 should
(<tih@kpnQwest.no>) work.
System V m88k 6.2.1 1998-03-01, Doug Winterburn Needs new TAS
R4 4.4 (<dlw@seavme.xroads.com>) spinlock code
System V MIPS 6.4 1998-10-28, Frank Ridderbusch No 64-bit
R4 (<ridderbusch.pad@sni.de>) integer
Ultrix MIPS, VAX 6.x 1998-03-01 No recent
reports.
Obsolete?
MacOS all 6.x 1998-03-01 Not library
compatible;
use ODBC/JDBC.
NextStep x86 6.x 1998-03-01, David Wetzel Client-only
(<dave@turbocat.de>) support