Practical PostgreSQL

Chapter 2. Installing PostgreSQL

This chapter focuses on the requirements and steps involved in installing and configuring PostgreSQL. Many of the PostgreSQL capabilities are not enabled, by default. For example, support for the TCL language is a feature that must be explicitly requested during compile-time. As there are many other features that are not configured by default, we will cover the various flags and options you may use to enable them when compiling PostgreSQL. It is important that you carefully read through all the steps in this process before beginning installation.

This chapter will walk you through the installation steps on a Linux/Unix-style platform. Our installation platform is Linux, but these instructions should be compatible with most current Unix platforms.

Note

Although PostgreSQL is capable of running on a Win32 platform, this book does not cover installation on Windows. The Win32 version of PostgreSQL requires the Cygwin environment and will not operate independently within Win32. Although Cygwin can be useful in many situations, the use of PostgreSQL in a Cygwin environment is not recommended.