Chapter 6. Installing PostgreSQL

To work with PostgreSQL, you need to find out whether your operating system is supported. In general, every system on which an ANSI C compiler is available should be able to run PostgreSQL. The list of platforms supported by PostgreSQL is constantly growing. Table 6.1 contains a list of all platforms supported by PostgreSQL 7.2.

Table 6.1. Platforms Supported by PostgreSQL 7.2

OS	Processor
AIX 4.3.3	RS6000
BeOS 5.0.4	x86
BSD/OS 4.01	x86
FreeBSD 4.4	x86
HP-UX	PA-RISC
IRIX 6.5.11	MIPS
Linux 2.2.x	Alpha
Linux 2.2.x	armv4l
Linux 2.0.x	MIPS
Linux 2.2.18	PPC74xx
Linux	S/390
Linux 2.2.15	Sparc
Linux	x86
MacOS X	PPC
NetBSD 1.5	Alpha
NetBSD 1.5E	arm32
NetBSD	m68k
NetBSD	PPC
NetBSD	Sparc
NetBSD 1.5	VAX
NetBSD 1.5	x86
OpenBSD 2.8	Sparc
OpenBSD 2.8	x86
SCO UnixWare 7.1.1	x86
Solaris 2.7-8	Sparc
Solaris 2.8	x86
SunOS 4.1.4	Sparc
Tru64 Unix	Alpha
Windows NT/2000 with Cygwin	x86

These platforms have been tested with the most recent version of PostgreSQL. However, additional platforms, as shown in Table 6.2, are also capable of running PostgreSQL, but not all of them are officially supported.

Table 6.2. Platforms Not Officially Supported by PostgreSQL 7.2

OS	Processor
DGUX 5.4R4.11	m88k
MkLinux DR1	PPC750
NextStep	x86
QNX 4.25	x86
SCO OpenServer 5	x86
System V R4	m88k
System V R4	MIPS
Ultrix	MIPS
Ultrix	VAX
Windows 9x, Me, NT, 2000, OS/2 (native)	x86; native mode only applied to the C-Client library (libpq) and the interactive terminal (psql). There was also a build of libpq and psql for OS/2 Warp in 6.3.x or 6.4.x.

These platforms are not officially supported but will most likely work with PostgreSQL 6.3.x or later.

After you have found out whether your system is capable of running PostgreSQL, you can start installing the database.