Setting up Postgresql in Linux

[phil campaigne]

Phil Campaigne wrote:

Hi Ron,
I had a couple of questions on your instructions:
1. what is this for?

#make install-all-headers

According to the docs you need it if you are going to create your own
functions, however the documentation is a bit *vague*. "If you plan to
do any server-side program development (such as custom functions or data
types written in C), then you may want to install the entire PostgreSQL
include tree into your target include directory." I am working under the
assumption that "custom functions" include any functions you create in
plpgsql, sql, c, etc and not just C functions. I would recommend using
this if you will be working with the database a lot, because you will
probably eventually want to create some of your own functions.


2. is it advisable for me to use UNICODE for defalt encoding?

initdb -E UNICODE -D /usr/local/psql/data

Some of our databases were originally encoded using SQL-ASCII and we
still occasionally have problems when someone enters a character with an
accent (eg in cafe). The jdbc driver won't convert it and the app
'breaks' wrt that data set. So I would recommend that you UNICODE, I
don't believe that it really adds much in the way of overhead, etc.


3. My version of postgresql's linux script file instructs me to create
symbolic links to:
/etc/rc.d/rc2.d/K02postgresql
/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S98postgresql
However the init script file for starting up the PostgreSQL server
that I have is K15postgresql.

Is it ok that I substitute a link to K15postgresql for rc2.d and rc3.d?

I suppose that's okay. My very limited understanding of these
directories is that they are used during startup/shutdown to ensure that
services are started and stopped correctly and in the proper order.

thanks,
Phil

Please respond to the list for more questions and cc me (or vice versa)
if you have more questions. This way if anyone else is in a similar
predicament they can read this, and others can contribute and/or correct
me.

Ron

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