path: root/INSTALL

                    PostgreSQL Installation Instructions
                                      
   This document describes the installation of PostgreSQL from the source
   code distribution.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                               Short Version
                                      
./configure
gmake
su
gmake 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/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 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 is required; other make programs will *not* work. GNU
       make is often installed under the name "gmake"; this document will
       always refer to it by that name. (On some systems GNU make is the
       default tool with the name "make".) To test for GNU make enter
gmake --version
       It is recommended to use version 3.76.1 or later.
     * You need an ISO/ANSI C compiler. Recent versions of GCC are
       recommendable, but PostgreSQL is known to build with a wide
       variety of compilers from different vendors.
     * gzip is needed to unpack the distribution in the first place. If
       you are reading this, you probably already got past that hurdle.
     * The GNU Readline library (for comfortable line editing and command
       history retrieval) will be used by default. If you don't want to
       use it then you must specify the "--without-readline" option for
       "configure". (On NetBSD, the "libedit" library is
       Readline-compatible and is used if "libreadline" is not found.)
     * To build on Windows NT or Windows 2000 you need the Cygwin and
       cygipc packages. See the file "doc/FAQ_MSWIN" for details.
       
   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 general it is the choice of whomever
       installed Perl at your site.
       If you don't have the shared library but you need one, a message
       like this will appear during the build to point out this fact:
*** Cannot build PL/Perl because libperl is not a shared library.
*** You might have to rebuild your Perl installation.  Refer to
*** the documentation for details.
       (If you don't follow the on-screen output you will merely notice
       that the PL/Perl library object, "plperl.so" or similar, will not
       be installed.) If you see this, 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.
     * To build the PL/Python server programming language, you need a
       Python installation, including the header files. 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.
       If after building and installing you have a file called
       "plpython.so" (possibly a different extension), then everything
       went well. Otherwise you should have seen a notice like this
       flying by:
*** Cannot build PL/Python because libpython is not a shared library.
*** You might have to rebuild your Python installation.  Refer to
*** the documentation for details.
       That means you have to rebuild (part of) your Python installation
       to supply this shared library.
       The catch is that the Python distribution or the Python
       maintainers do not provide any direct way to do this. The closest
       thing we can offer you is the information in Python FAQ 3.30. On
       some operating systems you don't really have to build a shared
       library, but then you will have to convince the PostgreSQL build
       system of this. Consult the "Makefile" in the "src/pl/plpython"
       directory for details.
     * If you want to build Tcl or Tk components (clients and the PL/Tcl
       language) you of course need a Tcl installation.
     * To build the JDBC driver, you need Ant 1.5 or higher and a JDK.
       Ant is a special tool for building Java-based packages. It can be
       downloaded from the Ant web site.
       If you have several Java compilers installed, it depends on the
       Ant configuration which one gets used. Precompiled Ant
       distributions are typically set up to read a file ".antrc" in the
       current user's home directory for configuration. For example, to
       use a different JDK than the default, this may work:
JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/sun-jdk1.3
JAVACMD=$JAVA_HOME/bin/java
       
     Note: Do not try to build the driver by calling "ant" or even
     "javac" directly. This will not work. Run "gmake" normally as
     described below.
     * 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 here:
       http://www.postgresql.org/~petere/gettext.html. 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.
     * Kerberos, OpenSSL, or PAM, if you want to support authentication
       using these services.
       
   If you are building from a CVS tree instead of using a released source
   package, or if you want to do development, you also need the following
   packages:
   
     * Flex and Bison are needed to build a CVS checkout or if you
       changed the actual scanner and parser definition files. If you
       need them, be sure to get Flex 2.5.4 or later and Bison 1.875 or
       later. Other yacc programs can sometimes be used, but doing so
       requires extra effort and is not recommended. Other lex programs
       will definitely not work.
       
   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 65
   MB for the source tree during compilation and about 15 MB for the
   installation directory. An empty database cluster takes about 25 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 90 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 "7.4.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 back up your database installation, type:
pg_dumpall > outputfile
       If you need to preserve OIDs (such as when using them as foreign
       keys), then use the "-o" option when running "pg_dumpall".
       "pg_dumpall" does not save large objects. Check the documentation
       if you need to do this.
       To make the backup, you can use the "pg_dumpall" command from the
       version you are currently running. For best results, however, try
       to use the "pg_dumpall" command from PostgreSQL 7.4beta4, since
       this version contains bug fixes and improvements over older
       versions. While this advice might seem idiosyncratic since you
       haven't installed the new version yet, it is advisable to follow
       it if you plan to install the new version in parallel with the old
       version. In that case you can complete the installation normally
       and transfer the data later. This will also decrease the downtime.
    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 that have PostgreSQL started at boot time, there is
       probably a start-up file that will accomplish the same thing. For
       example, on a Red Hat Linux system one might find that
/etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql stop
       works. Another possibility is "pg_ctl stop".
    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 have trouble and need to revert to it. Use a command
       like this:
mv /usr/local/pgsql /usr/local/pgsql.old
       
   After you have installed PostgreSQL 7.4beta4, 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/data
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster -D /usr/local/pgsql/data

   Finally, restore your data with
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql -d template1 -f outputfile

   using the *new* psql.
   
   These topics are discussed at length in the documentation, which you
   are encouraged to read in any case.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                           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 guess values for various
       system dependent variables and detect some 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.)
       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.
                
        --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. The default is "PREFIX/man".
                
     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 get at the its header
     files. Finally, a private subdirectory will also be created, if
     appropriate, under libdir for dynamically loadable modules.
       
        --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 a 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 components that require Tcl/Tk, which are libpgtcl,
                pgtclsh, pgtksh, and PL/Tcl. But see below about
                "--without-tk".
                
        --without-tk
                If you specify "--with-tcl" and this option, then the
                program that requires Tk (pgtksh) will be excluded.
                
        --with-tclconfig=DIRECTORY, --with-tkconfig=DIRECTORY
                Tcl/Tk installs the files "tclConfig.sh" and
                "tkConfig.sh", which contain configuration information
                needed to build modules interfacing to Tcl or Tk. These
                files are normally found automatically at their
                well-known locations, but if you want to use a different
                version of Tcl or Tk you can specify the directory in
                which to find them.
                
        --with-java
                Build the JDBC driver and associated Java packages.
                
        --with-krb4[=DIRECTORY], --with-krb5[=DIRECTORY]
                Build with support 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 header 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-openssl[=DIRECTORY]
                Build with support for SSL (encrypted) connections. This
                requires the OpenSSL package to be installed. The
                "DIRECTORY" argument specifies the root directory of the
                OpenSSL installation; the default is "/usr/local/ssl".
                
                "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.
                
        --without-readline
                Prevents the use of the Readline library. This disables
                command-line editing and history in psql, so it is not
                recommended.
                
        --with-rendezvous
                Build with Rendezvous support.
                
        --disable-spinlocks
                Allows source builds to succeed without CPU spinlock
                support. Lack of spinlock support will produce poor
                performance. This option is to be used only by platforms
                lacking spinlock support.
                
        --enable-thread-safety
                Allow separate libpq and ecpg threads to safely control
                their private connection handles.
                
        --without-zlib
                Prevents the use of the Zlib library. This disables
                compression support in pg_dump. 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 through
                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
                may 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-cassert
                Enables assertion checks in the server, which test for
                many "can't happen" conditions. This is invaluable for
                code development purposes, but the tests slow things down
                a little. 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.
                Currently, 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 will work only if
                you use GCC.
                
       If you prefer a C compiler different from the one "configure"
       picks then you can set the environment variable CC to the program
       of your choice. By default, "configure" will pick "gcc" unless
       this is inappropriate for the platform. Similarly, you can
       override the default compiler flags with the CFLAGS variable.
       You can specify environment variables on the "configure" command
       line, for example:
./configure CC=/opt/bin/gcc CFLAGS='-O2 -pipe'
    2. Build
       To start the build, type
gmake
       (Remember to use GNU make.) The build may take anywhere from 5
       minutes to half an hour depending on your hardware. 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 check
       (This won't work as root; do it as an unprivileged user.) 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 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 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.
       You can use gmake install-strip instead of gmake 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 only the header files needed
       for client application development. If you plan to do any
       server-side program development (such as custom functions or data
       types written in C), then you may want to install the entire
       PostgreSQL include tree into your target include directory. To do
       that, enter
gmake install-all-headers
       This adds a megabyte or two to the installation footprint, and is
       only useful if you don't plan to keep the whole source tree around
       for reference. (If you do, you can just use the source's include
       directory when building server-side software.)
       Client-only installation: If you want to install only the client
       applications and interface libraries, then you can use these
       commands:
gmake -C src/bin install
gmake -C src/include install
gmake -C src/interfaces install
gmake -C doc install
       
   Uninstallation: To undo the installation use the command "gmake
   uninstall". However, this will not remove any created directories.
   
   Cleaning: After the installation you can make room by removing the
   built files from the source tree with the command "gmake clean". This
   will preserve the files 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.
   
   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 "gmake
   distclean" before reconfiguring and rebuilding. Without this, your
   changes in configuration choices may not propagate everywhere they
   need to.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                          Post-Installation Setup
                                      
                                   Tuning
                                      
   By default, PostgreSQL is configured to run on minimal hardware. This
   allows it to start up with almost any hardware configuration. However,
   the default configuration is not designed for optimum performance. To
   achieve optimum performance, several server variables must be
   adjusted, the two most common being shared_buffers and sort_mem
   mentioned in the documentation . Other parameters in the documentation
   also affect performance.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                              Shared Libraries
                                      
   On some systems that have shared libraries (which most systems do) you
   need to tell your system how to find the newly installed shared
   libraries. The systems on which this is *not* necessary include
   BSD/OS, FreeBSD, HP-UX, IRIX, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Tru64 UNIX
   (formerly Digital UNIX), and Solaris.
   
   The method to set the shared library search path 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 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://www.visi.com/~barr/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 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.
   
   If you are on BSD/OS, Linux, or SunOS 4 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 every
   user):
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. 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/pgsql/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 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 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 documentation.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                            Supported Platforms
                                      
   PostgreSQL has been verified by the developer community to work on the
   platforms listed below. A supported platform generally means that
   PostgreSQL builds and installs according to these instructions and
   that the regression tests pass.
   
     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 RS6000 7.3 2002-11-12, Andreas Zeugswetter
   (<ZeugswetterA@spardat.at>) see also doc/FAQ_AIX
   BSD/OS x86 7.3 2002-10-25, Bruce Momjian (<pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>)
   4.2
   FreeBSD Alpha 7.3 2002-11-13, Chris Kings-Lynne
   (<chriskl@familyhealth.com.au>)
   FreeBSD x86 7.3 2002-10-29, 3.3, Nigel J. Andrews
   (<nandrews@investsystems.co.uk>), 4.7, Larry Rosenman
   (<ler@lerctr.org>), 5.0, Sean Chittenden (<sean@chittenden.org>)
   HP-UX PA-RISC 7.3 2002-10-28, 10.20 Tom Lane (<tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>),
   11.00, 11.11, 32 and 64 bit, Giles Lean (<giles@nemeton.com.au>) gcc
   and cc; see also doc/FAQ_HPUX
   IRIX MIPS 7.3 2002-10-27, Ian Barwick (<barwick@gmx.net>) Irix64 Komma
   6.5
   Linux Alpha 7.3 2002-10-28, Magnus Naeslund (<mag@fbab.net>)
   2.4.19-pre6
   Linux armv4l 7.2 2001-12-10, Mark Knox (<segfault@hardline.org>) 2.2.x
   Linux MIPS 7.2 2001-11-15, Hisao Shibuya (<shibuya@alpha.or.jp>)
   2.0.x; Cobalt Qube2
   Linux PlayStation 2 7.3 2002-11-19, Permaine Cheung
   <pcheung@redhat.com>) #undef HAS_TEST_AND_SET, remove slock_t typedef
   Linux PPC74xx 7.3 2002-10-26, Tom Lane (<tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>) bye
   2.2.18; Apple G3
   Linux S/390 7.3 2002-11-22, Permaine Cheung <pcheung@redhat.com>) both
   s390 and s390x (32 and 64 bit)
   Linux Sparc 7.3 2002-10-26, Doug McNaught (<doug@mcnaught.org>) 3.0
   Linux x86 7.3 2002-10-26, Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl>)
   2.4
   MacOS X PPC 7.3 2002-10-28, 10.1, Tom Lane (<tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>),
   10.2.1, Adam Witney (<awitney@sghms.ac.uk>)
   NetBSD Alpha 7.2 2001-11-20, Thomas Thai (<tom@minnesota.com>) 1.5W
   NetBSD arm32 7.3 2002-11-19, Patrick Welche (<prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk>)
   1.6
   NetBSD m68k 7.0 2000-04-10, Henry B. Hotz (<hotz@jpl.nasa.gov>) Mac
   8xx
   NetBSD MIPS 7.2.1 2002-06-13, Warwick Hunter (<whunter@agile.tv>)
   1.5.3
   NetBSD PPC 7.2 2001-11-28, Bill Studenmund (<wrstuden@netbsd.org>) 1.5
   NetBSD Sparc 7.2 2001-12-03, Matthew Green (<mrg@eterna.com.au>) 32-
   and 64-bit builds
   NetBSD VAX 7.1 2001-03-30, Tom I. Helbekkmo (<tih@kpnQwest.no>) 1.5
   NetBSD x86 7.3 2002-11-14, Patrick Welche (<prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk>) 1.6
   OpenBSD Sparc 7.3 2002-11-17, Christopher Kings-Lynne
   (<chriskl@familyhealth.com.au>) 3.2
   OpenBSD x86 7.3 2002-11-14, 3.1 Magnus Naeslund (<mag@fbab.net>), 3.2
   Christopher Kings-Lynne (<chriskl@familyhealth.com.au>)
   SCO OpenServer 5 x86 7.3.1 2002-12-11, Shibashish Satpathy
   (<shib@postmark.net>) 5.0.4, gcc; see also doc/FAQ_SCO
   Solaris Sparc 7.3 2002-10-28, Andrew Sullivan
   (<andrew@libertyrms.info>) Solaris 7 and 8; see also doc/FAQ_Solaris
   Solaris x86 7.3 2002-11-20, Martin Renters (<martin@datafax.com>) 5.8;
   see also doc/FAQ_Solaris
   SunOS 4 Sparc 7.2 2001-12-04, Tatsuo Ishii (<t-ishii@sra.co.jp>)
   Tru64 UNIX Alpha 7.3 2002-11-05, Alessio Bragadini
   (<alessio@albourne.com>)
   UnixWare x86 7.3 2002-11-01, 7.1.3 Larry Rosenman (<ler@lerctr.org>),
   7.1.1 and 7.1.2(8.0.0) Olivier Prenant (<ohp@pyrenet.fr>) see also
   doc/FAQ_SCO
   Windows x86 7.3 2002-10-29, Dave Page (<dpage@vale-housing.co.uk>),
   Jason Tishler (<jason@tishler.net>) with Cygwin; see doc/FAQ_MSWIN
   Windows x86 7.3 2002-11-05, Dave Page (<dpage@vale-housing.co.uk>)
   native is client-side only; see documentation
   
   Unsupported Platforms: The following platforms are either known not to
   work, or they used to work in a previous release and we did not
   receive explicit confirmation of a successful test with version 7.4 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 7.2 2001-11-29, Cyril Velter (<cyril.velter@libertysurf.fr>)
   needs updates to semaphore code
   DG/UX 5.4R4.11 m88k 6.3 1998-03-01, Brian E Gallew (<geek+@cmu.edu>)
   no recent reports
   MkLinux DR1 PPC750 7.0 2001-04-03, Tatsuo Ishii (<t-ishii@sra.co.jp>)
   7.1 needs OS update?
   NeXTSTEP x86 6.x 1998-03-01, David Wetzel (<dave@turbocat.de>) bit rot
   suspected
   QNX 4 RTOS x86 7.2 2001-12-10, Bernd Tegge (<tegge@repas-aeg.de>)
   needs updates to semaphore code; see also doc/FAQ_QNX4
   QNX RTOS v6 x86 7.2 2001-11-20, Igor Kovalenko
   (<Igor.Kovalenko@motorola.com>) patches available in archives, but too
   late for 7.2
   System V R4 m88k 6.2.1 1998-03-01, Doug Winterburn
   (<dlw@seavme.xroads.com>) needs new TAS spinlock code
   System V R4 MIPS 6.4 1998-10-28, Frank Ridderbusch
   (<ridderbusch.pad@sni.de>) no recent reports
   Ultrix MIPS 7.1 2001-03-26 TAS spinlock code not detected
   Ultrix VAX 6.x 1998-03-01