Apples and Oranges: A Linux DBMS Comparison - page 2

Introducing the Series

At the software section of the PostgreSQL Web site there is a list of FTP and HTTP mirrors to download distributions from, as well as the option to order the DBMS on CD. Building and installing it is a multistep process.

1. First of all, if you want PostgreSQL's Perl bindings to be built, the Perl 5 executable on your system must be known under the name of perl5. Usually, that means you need to make a symbolic link.
   
2. Perhaps the most important thing to do is create a postgres user. On my system, this command worked:

   useradd -c "PostgreSQL Administrator" -d /opt/postgresql -g users postgres
   

   On other systems, the command might be different. Note that I assume postgres is in the users group. You might prefer to give the database administrator its own group.
3. Allother steps of the installation need to be done as user postgres if not otherwise mentioned.
4. Untar the PostgreSQL download and change into the source directory tree:

   tar -xvzf postgresql-6.5.2.tar.gz
   cd postgresql-6.5.2
   

5. As root, create the PostgreSQL directory and give it to postgres:

   mkdir /opt/pgsql
   chown postgres.users /opt/pgsql
   

6. Go to the source directory and configure the package. I used the following options:
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   ./configure --prefix=/opt/pgsql --with-perl
   

7. Do the building and installation process:

   cd ../doc
   make install
   cd ../src
   make all
   make install
   

Now it's time to perform some additional system configuration.

1. As root, add the line

   /opt/pgsql/lib
   

   to /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig.
2. Install Perl bindings. When logged in as root, do:

   cd interfaces/perl5
   make install
   

3. Set the postgres account up. Add to the following to the .profile file:

   PATH=$PATH:/opt/pgsql/bin
   MANPATH=$MANPATH:/opt/pgsql/man
   PGLIB=/opt/pgsql/lib
   PGDATA=/opt/pgsql/data
   export PATH MANPATH PGLIB PGDATA
   LC_COLLATE=C
   LC_CTYPE=C
   export LC_COLLATE LC_CTYPE
   

   The last three lines are necessary for the init process and maybe some tests. For actual users, they should of course be set to the appropriate locale, but everyone who uses PostgreSQL needs to have at least PGLIB and PGDATA set.
4. Source the .profile file:

   source .profile
   

5. Run the post-installation:

   initdb