postgresql/doc/src/sgml/install-win32.sgml

<chapter id="install-win32">
 <title>Installation on <productname>Windows</productname></title>

 <abstract>
  <para>
   Build, installation, and use instructions for
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> client libraries on
   <productname>Windows</productname>
  </para>
 </abstract>

 <para>
  Although <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> is written for
  Unix-like operating systems, the C client library
  (<application>libpq</application>) and the interactive terminal
  (<application>psql</application>) can be compiled natively under
  Windows.  The makefiles included in the source distribution are
  written for <productname>Microsoft Visual C++</productname> and will
  probably not work with other systems.  It should be possible to
  compile the libaries manually in other cases.
 </para>

 <tip>
  <para>
   If you are using Windows NT/2000 you can build and use all of
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> <quote>the Unix way</quote>
   if you install the <productname>Cygwin</productname> toolkit first.
   In that case see <xref linkend="installation">.
  </para>
 </tip>

 <para>
  To build everything that you can on
  <productname>Windows</productname>, change into the
  <filename>src</filename> directory and type the command
<screen>
<userinput>nmake /f win32.mak</userinput>
</screen>
  This assumes that you have <productname>Visual C++</productname> in
  your path.
 </para>

 <para>
  The following files will be built:

  <variablelist>
   <varlistentry>
    <term><filename>interfaces\libpq\Release\libpq.dll</filename></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      The dynamically linkable frontend library
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
  
   <varlistentry>
    <term><filename>interfaces\libpq\Release\libpqdll.lib</filename></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      Import library to link your program to <filename>libpq.dll</filename>
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><filename>interfaces\libpq\Release\libpq.lib</filename></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      Static library version of the frontend library
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><filename>bin\psql\Release\psql.exe</filename></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      The <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> interactive terminal
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>
 </para>

 <para>
  The only file that really needs to be installed is the
  <filename>libpq.dll</filename> library.  This file should in most
  cases be placed in the <filename>WINNT\SYSTEM32</filename> directory
  (or in <filename>WINDOWS\SYSTEM</filename> on a Windows 95/98/ME
  system).  If this file is installed using a setup program, it should
  be installed with version checking using the
  <symbol>VERSIONINFO</symbol> resource included in the file, to
  ensure that a newer version of the library is not overwritten.
 </para>

 <para>
  If you plan to do development using libpq on this machine, you will
  have to add the <filename>src\include</filename> and
  <filename>src\interfaces\libpq</filename> subdirectories of the
  source tree to the include path in your compilers settings.
 </para>

 <para>
  To use the libraries, you must add the
  <filename>libpqdll.lib</filename> file to your project.  (In Visual
  C++, just right-click on the project and chose to add it.)
 </para>

</chapter>

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