============================================================
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL
Sun Solaris specific
to be read in conjunction with the installation instructions
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last updated:        $Date: 2006/10/04 22:03:22 $


Contents:

1) What tools do I need to build and install PostgreSQL on Solaris?
2) Why do I get problems when building with OpenSSL support?
3) Why does configure complain about a failed test program?
4) Why does my 64-bit build sometimes crash?
5) How can I compile for optimum performance?
6) How to compile PostgreSQL with Sun Studio?
7) Where I can download prepared Solaris packages?
8) How to tune PostgreSQL and Solaris for best performance?
9) Can I use dtrace for tracing PostgreSQL?

1) What tools do I need to build and install PostgreSQL on Solaris?

You will need

- GNU zip (for installing the documentation)
- GNU make
- GNU readline library (optional)
- Sun Studio CC or GCC   

You can download Sun Studio from: 
http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/downloads/index.jsp

Many of GNU tools are integrated into the Solaris 10 or they are
present on the Solaris companion CD. 

If you like packages for older version of Solaris, you can find these
tools here:
http://www.sunfreeware.com or http://www.blastwave.org

If you prefer sources, look here:
http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

You can build with either GCC or Sun's compiler suite. For better 
code optimalization Sun's compiler is strongly recommended on the
SPARC architecture. We have heard reports of problems when using 
gcc 2.95.1; gcc 2.95.3 or later is recommended.  If you are using
Sun's compiler, be careful *not* to select /usr/ucb/cc; 
use /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc.


2) Why do I get problems when building with OpenSSL support?

When you build PostgreSQL with OpenSSL support you might get
compilation errors in the following files:

src/backend/libpq/crypt.c
src/backend/libpq/password.c
src/interfaces/libpq/fe-auth.c
src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c

This is because of a namespace conflict between the standard
/usr/include/crypt.h header and the header files provided by OpenSSL.

Upgrading your OpenSSL installation to version 0.9.6a fixes this
problem.

Solaris 9 and above already  newer version of OpenSSL.


3) Why does configure complain about a failed test program?

This is probably a case of the run-time linker being unable to find
some library. On solaris 8 and older it should be libz or some other
non-standard library, such as libssl.  To point it to the right location,
set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, e.g.,

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/sfw/lib:/opt/sfw/lib:/usr/local/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

and restart configure.  You will also have to keep this setting
whenever you run any of the installed PostgreSQL programs.

Alternatively, set the environment variable LD_RUN_PATH.  See the
ld(1) man page for more information.


4) Why does my 64-bit build sometimes crash?

On Solaris 7 and older, the 64-bit version of libc has a buggy vsnprintf
routine, which leads to erratic core dumps in PostgreSQL.  The simplest known
workaround is to force PostgreSQL to use its own version of vsnprintf rather
than the library copy.  To do this, after you run 'configure' edit a file
produced by configure:

In src/Makefile.global, change the line
    LIBOBJS =
to read
    LIBOBJS = snprintf.o

(There might be other files already listed in this variable.  Order
does not matter.)

Then build as usual.


5) How can I compile for optimum performance?

On SPARC architecture Sun Studio is strongly recommended for compilation.
Try using -xO5 optimalization flag to generate significantly faster binaries.
Do not use any flags which modify behavior of floating point operations and 
errno processing (e.g. -fast). These flags should raise some nonstandard
PostgreSQL behavior for example in the date/time computing. 

If you do not reason to use 64-bit binaries on SPARC, prefer 32-bit version.
The 64-bit operations are slower and 64-bit binaries are slower then 32-bits.
And on other side a 32-bit code on the AMD64 CPU family is not native and 
that is why 32-bit code is significant slower on this CPU family.


6) How to compile PostgreSQL with Sun Studio?

On Solaris 10 you can performed following steps:

export CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc
export CFLAGS=-xO5
export LDFLAGS=-lm
./configure --without-readline
gmake


7) Where I can download prepared Solaris packages?

The PostgreSQL is bundled with Solaris 10 (from update 2). Official packages
are too available on http://pgfoundry.org/projects/solarispackages/.

Packages for older Solaris version (8,9) you can download from:
http://www.sunfreeware.com or http://www.blastwave.org


8) How to tune PostgreSQL and Solaris for best performance?

Some tuning tricks can be found here:
http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/tnb/applications_postgresql.jsp

This article is primary focused on T2000 platform, however, many of
recommendations are general for other hardware with Solaris.


9) Can I use dtrace for tracing PostgreSQL?

The PostgreSQL 8.2 has implemented dtrace support. You can enable it by 
the --enable-dtrace configure switch. If you want to compile a 64-bit code
with dtrace you must specify DTRACEFLAGS='-64', e.g.

Using gcc compiler:
$ ./configure CC='gcc -m64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFLAGS='-64' ...
            
Using Sun compiler:
$ configure CC='/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xtarget=native64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFLAGS='-64'


If you have some problem with postgres linking, looks like:

Undefined                       first referenced
 symbol                             in file
AbortTransaction                    utils/probes.o
CommitTransaction                   utils/probes.o
ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to postgres
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
gmake: *** [postgres] Error 1

, check if you have Solaris 10u3 or newer installed on your box.

You can also find more information here:
http://blogs.sun.com/robertlor/entry/user_level_dtrace_probes_in