Having just installed a few times, and being new to it, I've
fallen in some holes the rest of you may not notice.

For one thing, has anybody recently read the stuff that
prints
at the end of a 'make install'?  It gives three or so
pointers
to pages at postgresql.org, which pages do not exist, or at
least cannot be reached as described.

For another the INSTALL document is a bit coy about what
happens when you install as root.  If you have Perl
configured,
the process creates at least one file that will cause
problems
if you later try a 'make' as non-root.  You won't have
permission to proceed.  And I don't like to be root more
than
I have to, so I don't like this.

Moreover, I think the INSTALL instructions should be a bit
more careful about the bits where you have to be the
Postgress
root rather than your usual user name.  I found it a bit
frustrating going through the dump/restore process till I
figured that out.

Finally, there may be a real bug in the dumpall/restore
business.
I had a database created with a version I got from some RPM
packages somewhere.  I don't remember where, and I surely
didn't
know how they were configured.  When I built a new version,
I did NOT configure multibyte support.  This caused restore
to
fail because one of the very early commands was setting the
US-ASCII encoding.  PostgreSQL barked at me that multibyte
was not supported, and the process stopped.  This seems
extreme,
since I'm guessing that no multibyte means I'm locked in
US-ASCII.  In any event, this seems an unnecessary gotcha
for the inexperienced, and it may mean that I'm locked into
multibyte suppport that I don't want or need.


-- 
Kevin O'Gorman  (805) 650-6274  mailto:kogorman@pacbell.net
Permanent e-mail forwarder: 
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Web: http://trixie.kosman.via.ayuda.com/~kevin/index.html

"There is a freedom lying beyond circumstance,
derived from the direct intuition that life can
be grounded upon its absorption in what is
changeless amid change" 
   -- Alfred North Whitehead

Sun, 22 Oct 2000 19:43:22 -0700
"Kevin O'Gorman" <kogorman@pacbell.net>
Holes in the install process
"Kevin O'Gorman" <kogorman@pacbell.net> writes:
> For one thing, has anybody recently read the stuff that prints at the
> end of a 'make install'?

Yeah, it's pretty out-of-date.  Someone or other had promised to update
it (Peter E. I think).

> For another the INSTALL document is a bit coy about what happens when
> you install as root.  If you have Perl configured, the process creates
> at least one file that will cause problems if you later try a 'make'
> as non-root.

"At least one file" isn't very helpful.  If you want these things fixed,
how about *specifics*?  Patches would be even better ;-).  (The same
goes for documentation shortcomings, btw.)

> I did NOT configure multibyte support.  This caused restore to fail
> because one of the very early commands was setting the US-ASCII
> encoding.  PostgreSQL barked at me that multibyte was not supported,
> and the process stopped.

Hmm, I suppose CREATE DATABASE WITH ENCODING 'US-ASCII' had better be
accepted even when multibyte isn't enabled.  (Tatsuo, any comment here?)

			regards, tom lane

Sun, 22 Oct 2000 23:30:05 -0400
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Re: Holes in the install process 