postgresql/doc/FAQ_HPUX

=======================================================
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL 7.1
HP-UX Specific
TO BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE NORMAL FAQ
=======================================================
last updated:           $Date: 2000/08/26 19:34:24 $

current maintainer:     Tom Lane (tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us)
original author:        Tom Lane (tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us)


Questions covered here:
1.1)	What do I need to install PostgreSQL on HP-UX?
1.2)	Anything special about the build/install procedure?
1.3)	yacc dies trying to process src/backend/parser/gram.y.
1.4)	Linking the main postgres executable fails, complaining that
	there's no "alloca" function. 
1.5)	OK, it seemed to build and install, but the regression test fails.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1:      Installing PostgreSQL
----------------------------------------------------------------------

1.1)	What do I need to install PostgreSQL on HP-UX?

PostgreSQL 6.5 is known to build and pass regression test on HPUX 9.03,
9.05, and 10.20, given appropriate system patch levels and build tools.
It should work on other HPUX 9.* and 10.* releases for Series 700/800
machines, too.  I have heard nonspecific reports of problems on HPUX 11;
more info and/or patches would be appreciated!

Aside from the PostgreSQL source distribution, you will need GNU make
(HP's make will not do), and either GNU gcc or HP's full ANSI C compiler.
You must also get flex (GNU lex) 2.5.4 or later --- all versions of
HP's lex fail on the Postgres lexer files.

I'd also recommend making sure you are fairly up-to-date on HP patches,
particularly if you are using HPUX 9.  At a minimum, if you are on HPUX 9,
you *must* have PHSS_4630 (libm update) or a successor patch; otherwise
Postgres' date/time functions will misbehave.  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.  (The only other presently known failure
from out-of-date system libraries is that on HPUX 10.10, the backend will
crash after the second error message in a session unless you have upgraded
libc to PHCO_16722 or later.)

See HP's support websites, such as http://us-support.external.hp.com/,
for free copies of their latest patches.

PostgreSQL 6.3.2 and earlier required quite a few small tweaks to
install on HPUX, so I recommend you not bother with anything older
than 6.4.


1.2)	Anything special about the build/install procedure?

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':
	CC=cc ./configure
for HP's C compiler, or
	CC=gcc ./configure
for GCC.  If you omit this setting then configure will pick gcc.

The default install target location is /usr/local/pgsql, which
(particularly on HPUX 10) you might want to change to something under
/opt.  If so, use the --prefix switch to configure.

If you want to build the C++ client library (libpq++) then you need
to use a C++ compiler from the same source as the C compiler; mixing
HP and GNU compilers doesn't work. If you have both C++ compilers
in your PATH, keep an eye on whether configure picks the right one.
To override the choice, set the environment variable CXX:
	CC=gcc CXX=g++ ./configure
or
	CC=cc CXX=aCC ./configure


1.3)	yacc dies trying to process src/backend/parser/gram.y.

HP's yacc doesn't create its tables large enough to handle the Postgres
grammar (a lot of other vendors' yaccs have this problem too).  There
are three possible workarounds:

1. The quickest answer is just to "touch" src/backend/parser/gram.c
and src/backend/parser/parse.h and repeat the build.  Any PostgreSQL
distribution file should have up-to-date copies of those files included,
so you shouldn't need to run yacc on gram.y at all ... but sometimes
gram.y mistakenly has a newer timestamp in the distribution than the
derived files do.  (If you fetched the PostgreSQL sources from the CVS
server, then you won't have these files anyway; see next choices.)

2. Increase yacc's table sizes enough to cope.  With a pre-6.4
PostgreSQL grammar, I was able to get HPUX 9's yacc to work by
setting YFLAGS to
	-d -Np2000 -Ns3000 -Nm100000 -Nl2000 -Na30000 -Nc10000
(You can edit YFLAGS either in the template file before running
configure, or in src/Makefile.global afterwards.)  Future PostgreSQL
releases might require even larger tables, but this should do for
a starting point.

3. Install "bison" (GNU yacc) and reconfigure.  Bison doesn't have a
problem with large grammars.  Note this is not the right choice if you
are using HP's cc on HPUX 9 --- see next item.


1.4)	Linking the main postgres executable fails, complaining that
	there's no "alloca" function. 

If you're using HP's cc on HPUX 9, it's right: there's no alloca function.
The only places in PostgreSQL that use alloca are the parser files, and
those do so only if they were generated with GNU bison.  Unfortunately the
prebuilt copies of gram.c and preproc.c are made with bison.  There are
several possible answers:

  1. Remake the files with HP's yacc: configure to use yacc with the
     above-mentioned switch settings, and remove these files before
     starting the build:
          src/backend/parser/gram.c
	  src/interfaces/ecpg/preproc/preproc.c

  2. Build with gcc, which treats alloca as a compiled-in-line function.

  3. Install HPUX 10, which has alloca.  You're gonna have to do that
     before Y2K anyway...


1.5)	OK, it seemed to build and install, but the regression test fails.

There are several "expected failures" due to differences between HPUX
and the regression test reference platform used by the PostgreSQL group.
A look at the textual differences between the expected and actual
outputs will usually reveal that the differences are minor.  You should
expect these differences:

TEST(S)			COMMENTS

int2, int4:		pg_atoi generates a differently worded error
			message for integer overflow.

float8, geometry:	Lots of differences in the last digit or two
			because of different roundoff errors in floating
			arithmetic.  Also, HPUX does not distinguish
			-0 from 0 during printout, but the reference
			platform does.

float8:			In 6.4, float8 shows some differences due to
			different handling of overflow/underflow errors in
			exp() and pow().  This is fixed in 6.4.1 and later.

horology:		HPUX time library does not know about daylight
			savings time before 1970, so there are some
			places in horology where a time will be shown
			in PST instead of PDT.

The int8 regression test will fail massively on HPUX 9 with Postgres 6.4,
because sprintf/sscanf don't cope with long long int.  This is fixed in
Postgres 6.5 by not depending on the system versions of those routines.

Any other error is cause for suspicion.  In particular, if you see
failures in the datetime test on HPUX 9, you probably forgot to
install the libm patch PHSS_4630 --- see item 1.1 above.