=====================================================
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgresSQL V6.0
Linux Specific
TO BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE NORMAL FAQ
=====================================================
last updated: Wed Jan 29 20:16:00 GMT 1997
current maintainer: Andrew C.R. Martin (martin@biochem.ucl.ac.uk)
original author: Andrew C.R. Martin (martin@biochem.ucl.ac.uk)
Changes in this version (* = modified, + = new, - = removed):
*1.1) What changes do I need to make to src/Makefile.global or
src/Makefile.custom?
*1.2) Why do I get problems with missing libreadline?
*1.6) GCC complains about an ignored option -fpic
*1.7) I get warnings of the form
warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
*1.8) [SuSE-Linux 4.2] Where is curses and termcap?
*1.11) How do I compile PostgreSQL on an a.out system?
*1.12) Why does make fail with:
yacc -d /disk2/PostgreSQL/src/backend/parser/gram.y
make: /usr/bin/make: cannot execute binary file
*1.14) [DEBIAN] Where is libtermcap?
*2.1) The linker fails to find libX11 when compiling pgtclsh
+3.6) Why does psql fail with:
psql: can't load library 'libpq.so.1'
-4.*) Spurious problems
This file is divided approximately as follows:
1.*) Installing PostgreSQL
2.*) Compiling accessory programs
3.*) Runtime Problems
Questions answered:
1.1) What changes do I need to make to src/Makefile.global or
src/Makefile.custom?
1.2) Why do I get problems with missing libreadline?
1.3) [REDHAT] Why do I get problems with missing libdl and dlfcn.h?
1.4) [SLACKWARE 3.1] Why do I get problems with missing libdl and dlfcn.h?
1.5) My compile of the backend dies complaining about the include file
dlfcn.h missing
1.6) GCC complains about an ignored option -fpic
1.7) I get warnings of the form
warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
1.8) [SuSE-Linux 4.2] Where is curses and termcap?
1.9) Why do I get problems with ld.so?
1.10) Why do I get `yy_flush_buffer undefined' errors?
1.11) How do I compile PostgreSQL on an a.out system?
1.12) Why does make fail with:
yacc -d /disk2/PostgreSQL/src/backend/parser/gram.y
make: /usr/bin/make: cannot execute binary file
1.13) What are the references in X11_LIB to libsocket and libnsl in
src/Makefile.global?
1.14) [DEBIAN] Where is libtermcap?
2.1) The linker fails to find libX11 when compiling pgtclsh
3.1) I get an error reporting _fUnKy_POSTPORT_sTuFf_ undefined when
running scripts like createuser
3.2) I run postmaster and after that system says 'Bad system call(Core
dumped)'
3.3) When I try to start the Postmaster, why do I get an error of the form
Failed Assertion("!(file != 0):(null)", File:
"/usr/local/PostgreSQL/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c", Line: 257)
!(file != 0) (0)
initdb: could not create template database
initdb: cleaning up.
3.4) Why doesn't createuser work?
3.5) Why do I get an error like:
IpcMemoryCreate: memKey=155356396 , size=760632 ,
permission=384IpcMemoryCreate: shmget(..., create, ...)
failed: Invalid argument
3.6) Why does psql fail with:
psql: can't load library 'libpq.so.1'
4.1) Why doesn't the postmaster start the first time?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1: Compiling PostgreSQL
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1) What changes do I need to make to src/Makefile.global or
src/Makefile.custom?
These changes are most easily made by running the customize
shell script in the src directory which will write a
Makefile.custom for you.
If you do it by hand, you *must* set the following variable:
PORTNAME= linux
You will also need to change the following to match your own
installation:
POSTGRESDIR
If you switch on the USE_TCL option, you will need to set these:
TCL_INCDIR=
TCL_LIBDIR=
TCL_LIB=
TK_INCDIR=
TK_LIBDIR=
TK_LIB=
X11_INCDIR=
X11_LIBDIR=
X11_LIB=
On my Slackware3.0 system, these are:
TCL_INCDIR= /usr/include/tcl
TCL_LIBDIR= /usr/lib
TCL_LIB= -ltcl
TK_INCDIR= /usr/include/tcl
TK_LIBDIR= /usr/lib
TK_LIB= -ltk
X11_INCDIR= /usr/include/X11
X11_LIBDIR= /usr/X386/lib
X11_LIB= -lX11
You may also make any other changes you need as documented in
the INSTALL file and in Makefile.global
1.2) Why do I get problems with missing libreadline?
Linux systems generally don't come with the GNU readline library
installed. Either ensure you do not activate the readline options
in src/Makefile.global or src/Makefile.custom or install the GNU
readline library.
Note that Debian Linux (like FreeBSD) does come with readline
installed.
1.3) [REDHAT] Why do I get problems with missing libdl and dlfcn.h?
The libdl library is used for dynamic linking of user-supplied
functions at run-time. For some reason this library was missed out
from the Redhat distribution. It seems that the latest Redhat 4.0
(Colgate) fixes this.
RedHat now have a new ld.so RPM package on their FTP site.
Simply grab:
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/devel/i386/RedHat/RPMS/ld.so-1.7.14-4.i386.rpm
Install the RPM file in the usual way and off you go!
There has been one report of a corrupted system resulting from
programs accessing these libraries while updating them (not
altogether surprising). Consequently it is a good idea to reboot
the system before installing the new libraries and to
have as little running as possible during this upgrade. Going
into single-user mode is probably a good idea!
If you want to do it the hard way, you can obtain the library and the
header file from:
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/ld.so-1.7.14.tar.gz
Alternatively, you may find precompiled binaries in
distributions/debian/buzz/binary-i386/base/ld.so-1.7.14-4.deb
on the same site, or follow the instructions given for question 1.2 for
correcting the same error with early releases of Slackware 3.1.
Don't use this method unless you know what you are doing!
1.4) [SLACKWARE 3.1] Why do I get problems with missing libdl and dlfcn.h?
See the answer to question 1.3. Slackware up to version 3.0 was
supplied with this library and include file and they seem to be
back in again in the latest versions of 3.1, but the early 3.1
releases (before 9th September 1996) had them missing and many
CD-ROM versions will have been pressed from the first 3.1 releases.
There has been one report of a corrupted system resulting from
programs accessing these libraries while updating them (not
altogether surprising). Consequently it is a good idea to reboot
the system before installing the new libraries and to
have as little running as possible during this upgrade. Going
into single-user mode is probably a good idea!
The easiest fix is to obtain the file ldso.tgz from the a4 disk of
a more recent Slackware 3.1 distribution and unpack this file
from the root (/) directory, then do
sh install/doinst.sh
to complete the installation. Follow this with
ldconfig
If you want to install manually, you must first install the file
dlfcn.h in /usr/include.
Second, install the file libdl.so.1.7.14 (or whatever the latest
release is) in /lib, then do:
cd /lib
ln -sf libdl.so.1.7.14 libdl.so.1
ln -sf libdl.so.1 libdl.so
On some systems (depending on your GCC configuration) it may be
necessary to do:
cd /usr/lib
ln -sf /lib/libdl.so .
Finally
ldconfig
1.5) My compile of the backend dies complaining about the include file
dlfcn.h missing
See the answer to question 1.3/1.4. Don't forget that if you are using
an a.out system you must first have installed the dld package
(which is not supplied with most a.out systems) to have dlfcn.h
at all. See Question 1.11.
1.6) GCC complains about an ignored option -fpic
Earlier versions of GCC accepted either -fpic or -fPIC.
It appears that more recent versions (V2.7.2?) require -fPIC.
If you are using an ELF version of Linux, this can safely be
ignored as -fPIC is the default.
You can correct this by editing src/Makefile.global and
changing CFLAGS_SL
1.7) I get warnings of the form
warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
These were seen in earlier versions of Postgres95 and could
safely be ignored. PostgreSQL V6.0 should compile with no warnings
except those related to system header files (which can also
be safely ignored).
1.8) [SuSE-Linux 4.2] Where is curses and termcap?
SuSE-Linux has ncurses but not curses. Set the value of CURSES_LIB
in src/Makefile.custom to -lncurses (or do this through the
customize script).
SuSE-Linux has the termcap library is in /usr/lib/termcap instead of
in /usr/lib. If you have a problem, you need to add the following
line to src/Makefile.custom:
LDADD_BE+= -L/usr/lib/termcap
You may need to edit src/bin/psql/Makefile and comment out the
change:
ifeq ($(PORTNAME), linux)
LD_ADD+= -ltermcap
to:
ifeq ($(PORTNAME), linux)
LD_ADD+=
1.9) Why do I get problems with ld.so?
If you get problems with ld.so, another library required under
ELF for dynamic loading, then you have messed up your installation
or (more likely) upgrade of Linux.
See the answers to Question 1.3/1.4. You may need to install
ld.so.x.y.z in /lib and run ldconfig.
The most recent stable release of the ld package is 1.7.14
At the time of writing, 1.8.x versions of ld are experimental.
1.10) Why do I get `yy_flush_buffer undefined' errors?
This isn't really Linux specific, but is common on older Linux
installations. You must have a recent version of flex (2.5.2 or later)
to compile PostgreSQL. Note that flex 2.5.3 has a bug: see
Question 3.4.
1.11) How do I compile PostgreSQL on an a.out system?
First, you must install the dld library. This may be obtained
from Sunsite as:
Linux/libs/dld.3.2.7.tar.gz
Second, add the following line to src/Makefile.custom:
LINUX_ELF=
(or use the customize script)
1.12) Why does make fail with:
yacc -d /disk2/PostgreSQL/src/backend/parser/gram.y
make: /usr/bin/make: cannot execute binary file
This was a problem in earlier versions of Postgres95. The default
for PostgreSQL is to use bison -y rather than yacc.
yacc is generally implemented as a script which invokes bison -y
For some reason (certain versions of make? certain versions of
bash?) make is unable to execute this script file.
To correct this, simply edit src/mk/port/postgres.mk.linux
and, at the end of the file, change:
# YACC = bison -y
to
YACC = bison -y
1.13) What are the references in X11_LIB to libsocket and libnsl in
src/Makefile.global?
This was a problem in 1.08 (they are Sun Solaris specific).
It is fixed in 1.09 and 6.0
1.14) [DEBIAN] Where is libtermcap?
Debian Linux comes without the termcap library and uses ncurses
(which uses terminfo instead). There is no need to change the
CURSES_LIB variable in src/bin/psql/Makefile since Debian provides
a link from libncurses to libcurses (unlike SuSE-Linux --- see
Question 1.8).
You may need to edit src/bin/psql/Makefile and comment out the
change:
ifeq ($(PORTNAME), linux)
LD_ADD+= -ltermcap
to:
ifeq ($(PORTNAME), linux)
LD_ADD+=
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Compiling accessory programs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1) The linker fails to find libX11 when compiling pgtclsh
Add the following to src/Makefile.custom
X11_LIBDIR = /usr/X11R6/lib
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 3: Runtime Problems
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1) I get an error reporting _fUnKy_POSTPORT_sTuFf_ undefined when
running scripts like createuser
This is a bug in V1.06-V1.07 of Postgres and is fixed in V1.08
and above.
3.2) I run postmaster and after that system says 'Bad system call(Core
dumped)'
This indicates that you have not compiled shared memory support
into your kernel. You need to recompile the Linux kernel to add this
feature.
3.3) When I try to start the Postmaster, why do I get an error of the form
Failed Assertion("!(file != 0):(null)", File:
"/usr/local/PostgreSQL/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c", Line: 257)
!(file != 0) (0)
initdb: could not create template database
initdb: cleaning up.
Your permissions on the file /dev/null are wrong.
ls -l /dev/null should give you something like:
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 2, 2 Oct 8 18:41 /dev/null
Correct the permissions using:
chmod a+rw /dev/null
3.4) Why doesn't createuser work?
There is a problem with Version 2.5.3 of GNU flex and createuser.
Your options are to downgrade flex to V2.5.2, apply a patch to
V2.5.3 (supplied in doc/README.flex) or wait for V2.5.4 which
will fix the bug.
3.5) Why do I get an error like:
IpcMemoryCreate: memKey=155356396 , size=760632 ,
permission=384IpcMemoryCreate: shmget(..., create, ...)
failed: Invalid argument
You haven't build IPC support into your Linux kernel. You
will have to rebuild the kernel and switch on this option.
3.6) Why does psql fail with:
psql: can't load library 'libpq.so.1'
Psql has been compiled to link dynamically with the libpq
library.
To solve this, you should log in as root and edit the file
/etc/ld.so.conf
Add a single line at the end which gives the name of the
PostgreSQL library directory (the lib subdirectory of your
PostgreSQL installation) and run
/sbin/ldconfig