Installation Procedure

To install all files under the directory PREFIX instead of /usr/local/pgsql, use the option --prefix=PREFIX. The actual files are installed into various subdirectories; no files are installed directly into the PREFIX directory.

If you have special needs, you can also customize the individual subdirectories with the following options.

To install architecture-dependent files under a different directory (EXEC-PREFIX) rather than PREFIX, use the option --exec-prefix=EXEC-PREFIX. This can be useful to share architecture-independent files between hosts. If you omit this, then EXEC-PREFIX is set to PREFIX and both architecture-dependent and architecture-independent files are installed under the same tree, which is probably what you want.

To install the executable programs under a different directory, use the option --bindir=DIRECTORY. The default is EXEC-PREFIX/bin, which normally resolves to /usr/local/pgsql/bin.

To install the read-only data files used by the installed programs under a different directory, use the option --datadir=DIRECTORY. The default is PREFIX/share. Note that this has nothing to do with where your database files will be placed.

To install the various configuration files under a different directory, use the option --sysconfdir=DIRECTORY. The default is PREFIX/etc.

To install libraries and dynamically loadable modules under a different directory, use the option --libdir=DIRECTORY. The default is EXEC-PREFIX/lib.

To install C and C++ header files under a different directory, use the option --includedir=DIRECTORY. The default is PREFIX/include.

To install documentation files, except for "man" pages, under a different directory, use the option --docdir=DIRECTORY. The default is PREFIX/doc.

To install the man pages that come with PostgreSQL under a different directory, use the option --mandir=DIRECTORY. By default, man pages are installed in their respective manx subdirectories under PREFIX/man.

To add a list of directories to the list the compiler searches for header files, use --with-includes=DIRECTORIES where DIRECTORIES is a colon-separated list of directories. 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.

To add a list of directories to the list the compiler searches for libraries, use --with-libraries=DIRECTORIES where DIRECTORIES is a colon-separated list of directories. 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.

To enable locale support, use --enable-locale. 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.

To enable single-byte character set recode support, use --enable-recode. See the Administrator and User's Guide for details.

To enable the use of multibyte-character encodings, use --enable-multibyte. This is primarily for languages such as Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. See the Administrator and User's Guide for details.

To set NUMBER as the default port number for server and clients, use --with-pgport=NUMBER. 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.

To build the C++ interface library, use --with-CXX.

To build the Perl interface module, use --with-perl. 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 Red Hat Database). You need to have Perl 5 installed to use this option.

To build the Python interface module, use --with-python. 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.

To build components that require Tcl/Tk, which are libpgtcl, pgtclsh, pgtksh, pgaccess, and PL/Tcl, use --with-tcl, but see below about the option --without-tk.

If you specify --with-tcl and --without-tk, programs that require Tk (that is, pgtksh and pgaccess) will be excluded.

The files tclConfig.sh and tkConfig.sh 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. Use --with-tclconfig=DIRECTORY and --with-tkconfig=DIRECTORY.

To build the ODBC driver package, use --enable-odbc.

To specify the directory where the ODBC driver searches for its odbcinst.ini configuration file, use --with-odbcinst=DIRECTORY. The default is /usr/local/pgsql/etc (or whatever you specified as --sysconfdir). A default file will be installed there. If you intend to share the odbcinst.ini file between several ODBC drivers, you may want to use this option.

To build with support for Kerberos authentication, use --with-krb4=DIRECTORY or --with-krb5=DIRECTORY. 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 the 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 (for example, /usr/lib), you can omit the argument.

configure will check for the required header files and libraries to make sure that your Kerberos installation is sufficient before proceeding.

To set the name of the Kerberos service principal, use --with-krb-srvnam=NAME. The default is "postgres". There is probably no reason to change this.

To build with support for SSL (encrypted) connections, use --with-openssl=DIRECTORY. This requires that the OpenSSL package 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.

To build the JDBC driver and associated Java packages, use --with-java. This option requires Ant to be installed (as well as a JDK, of course).

To enables the PostgreSQL server to use the syslog logging facility, use --enable-syslog. (Using this option does not mean that you must 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.)

To compile all programs and libraries with debugging symbols, use --enable-debug. 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 considered of marginal value for production installations, but you should have it on if you are doing development work. You should not use this option on production systems.

To enable assertion checks in the server, which test for many "cannot happen" conditions, use --enable-cassert. This is invaluable for code development purposes, but the tests slow performance a little. Also, having the tests turned on may decrease 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 postmaster 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.