Roadmap (Wheres All My Stuff?)

Roadmap (Where s All My Stuff?)

I find it much easier to administer a product if I know where every component is located. With that in mind, let's explore the directory structure for a "standard" PostgreSQL installation.

When you install PostgreSQL, whether from an RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) or from source, it will be configured to install into a particular set of directories. The exact location for any given set of PostgreSQL files is determined when the package is built from source code.

When you build a copy of PostgreSQL from source code (more on that a little later), the prefix= directory-name flag determines the installation directory. The default value for prefix is /usr/local/pgsql. You can change this by supplying a different prefix directory when you run the configure program:

$ ./configure prefix=/home/bruce/pg801

If you want more control over the location of each component, you can add some more options to the configure command line. Table 21.1 shows the location of each component. The leftmost column shows the name of a configure option, the second column lists PostgreSQL components, and the last column shows the component type.

Table 21.1. PostgreSQL Executable, Library, and Header Locations

Directory Name	Filename	File Type
bindir	clusterdb	shell script
	createdb	shell script
	createlang	shell script
	createuser	shell script
	dropdb	shell script
	droplang	shell script
	dropuser	shell script
	ecpg	executable
	initdb	shell script
	initlocation	shell script
	ipcclean	shell script
	pg_config	shell script
	pg_controldata	executable
	pg_ctl	shell script
	pg_dump	executable
	pg_dumpall	executable
	pg_encoding	executable
	pg_id	executable
	pg_resetxlog	executable
	pg_restore	executable
	postgres	executable
	postmaster	symbolic link
	psql	executable
	vacuumdb	shell script
	sbindir	Not used
	libexecdir	Not used
datadir	conversion_create.sql	SQL script
/postgresql	pg_hba.conf.sample	example
	pg_ident.conf.sample	example
	postgres.bki	server bootstrap
	postgres.description	server bootstrap
	postgresql.conf.sample	example
docdir	postgresql/html/*	Documentation in HTML form
sysconfdir	Not used
sharedstatedir	Not used
localstatedir	Not used
libdir	libecpg.a	ECPG - library
	libecpg.so	ECPG - shared
	libpq.a	libpq - library
	libpq.so	libpq - shared
	postgresql/plpgsql.so	PL/PGSQL - shared
	postgresql/*	Character mappings
includedir	ecpgerrno.h	CPP include file
	ecpglib.h	CPP include file
	ecpgtype.h	CPP include file
	libpq-fe.h	CPP include file
	pg_config.h	CPP include file
	pg_config_os.h	CPP include file
	postgres_ext.h	CPP include file
	sql3types.h	CPP include file
	sqlca.h	CPP include file
	libpq/libpq-fs.h	CPP include file
	postgresql/*	CPP include file
oldincludedir	Not used
infodir	Not used
mandir	man1/*	Manual pages
	man7/*	Manual pages

If you want, for example, to place the PostgreSQL shared libraries in a particular directory, you would add libdir= location to the configure command line.

The directories marked as not used are described when you run configure help (configure is a commonly used generic configuration program), but are not used by PostgreSQL.

Table 21.1 shows where PostgreSQL will install the content of a basic configuration. You also can configure PostgreSQL to install optional packages (such as PL/Perl). Tables 21.2 and 21.3, later in the chapter, show where PostgreSQL will install each of the optional packages.

Table 21.2. Source Package Contents

Package Name	Package Contents
base	server (postgres, postmaster)
	contributed software (contrib)
	include files
	initdb
	ipcclean
	pg_config
	pg_controldata
	pg_ctl
	pg_dump
	pg_resetxlog
	psql
	clusterdb
	createdb
	createlang
	createuser
	dropdb
	droplang
	dropuser
	vacuumdb
	cli client interface
	ecpg client interface
	libpq client interface
	PL/pgSQL server-side language
docs	Documentation in SGML form (converted to HTML and man page format during build process)
opt	src/tools (misc. tools for use by PostgreSQL authors)
	CORBA interface
	Tutorial
	PL/Perl server-side language
	PL/Tcl server-side language
	PL/Python server-side language
test	Regression tests

Table 21.3. RPM Package Contents

RPM Package Name	Package Contents
postgresql	clusterdb
	createdb
	createlang
	createuser
	dropdb
	droplang
	dropuser
	pg_dump
	pg_dumpall
	pg_restore
	psql
	vacuumdb
	documentation
postgresql-server	initdb
	ipcclean
	pg_controldata
	pg_ctl
	pg_resetxlog
	server (postgres, postmaster)
	PL/pgSQL
	server locale files
	timezone information
postgresql-libs	ecpg library
	libpq library
	client locale files
postgresql-contrib	contributed software
postgresql-docs	documentation
postgresql-jdbc	JDBC (Java) interface
postgresql-pl	PL/Perl
	PL/Python
postgresql-python	Python client interface
postgresql-devel	ecpg (embedded SQL C preprocessor)
	pg_config
	header files (for C development)
	ecpg library
	libpq library
	ecpg and pg_config documentation
postgresql-test	regression test suite