Installing PostgreSQL on Windows Using Cygwin FAQ ================================================= $Date: 2007/10/09 01:28:24 $ PostgreSQL requires the appropriate subset of Cygwin DLLs to be installed in order that it functions under Windows. This document assumes that you do not have Cygwin already installed on your system. If that is not the case, then you will need to adjust these instructions accordingly. 1. Download and run the Cygwin installer. Visit http://cygwin.com/ and click on the "Install Cygwin now' link. This will prompt you to download a "setup.exe". Save this file somewhere on your system and then execute it. 2. Proceed through the Cygwin install wizard. Choose 'Install from Internet', specify a Local Package Directory and choose a mirror site that's close to you. Answer the other installer questions appropriately for your configuration. When you come to the point of choosing which packages to install, expand the 'Database' section and click 'Skip' next to PostgreSQL to change it to the latest version of PostgreSQL available for Cygwin. 3. Once the download and install process is complete, open a Cygwin shell and do the following for a basic installation: 3a. Start cygserver for shared memory support. To do this, enter the command "/usr/sbin/cygserver &". This program needs to be running anytime you start the Postgres server or initialize a database (initdb). 3b. Use the initdb command to create a new database cluster. An example command would be: initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -W -E LATIN1 Which will create a cluster in the /usr/local/pgsql/data directory, will prompt for a superuser password and will set the default database encoding to LATIN1. 3c. Start up the Postgres server. Use a command similar to the following: postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data This will start the server, and if successful you will see some initial log entries, and an entry "LOG: database system is ready". 4. You are now running a PostgreSQL server on your Windows machine. 5. It is possible to install cygserver and the Postgres server as Windows NT services. For information on how to do this, please refer to the README document included with Cygwin PostgreSQL. It is installed in the /usr/share/doc/Cygwin directory. Building from source -------------------- There are some points that are only relevant if you are building Cygwin PostgreSQL from source: 1. Set your path to use the Cygwin bin directory before the Windows utilities. This will help prevent problems with compilation. 2. Proceed according to the INSTALL file (i.e., ./configure; make; etc.) noting the following Cygwin specific differences: o The GNU make command is called "make" not "gmake". o The adduser command is not supported -- use the appropriate user management application on Windows NT, 2000, or XP. Otherwise, skip this step. o The su command is not supported -- use ssh to simulate su on Windows NT, 2000, or XP. Otherwise, skip this step. Alternatively, proceed according to the README file supplied with the Cygwin PostgreSQL package. Known issues ------------ 1. Cygwin's AF_UNIX sockets are really implemented as AF_INET sockets so they are inherently insecure. 2. "make check" can generate spurious regression test failures due to overflowing the listen() backlog queue which causes connection refused errors or hangs. You can limit the number of connections using the MAX_CONNECTIONS option thus: make MAX_CONNECTIONS=5 check (On some systems you can have up to about 10 simultaneous connections). 3. The default cygserver configuration may need to be changed (e.g., increase SEMMNS) to prevent PostgreSQL from failing due to a lack of system resources. Problem reports can be sent to pgsql-cygwin@postgresql.org.