Re: One-click postgres install without needing cygwin

Carl,

On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 09:17:39AM -0600, Carl Youngblood wrote:
> After going through the installation process for postgres under
> windows I've been thinking that this process could be simplified
> considerably. I am thinking about making a one-click install for
> postgres under windows...

You may want to wait for Win32 PostgreSQL before attempting the above...

> ...that uses the cygwin dll and any other necessary cygwin files, but
> embeds them in its own directory so that they will only be visible to
> itself. It would also need to work if the user already had cygwin
> installed by making sure that postgres used its own versions of the
> cygwin files and not ones in the path.

Unfortunately, the above is not possible. Only *one* version of Cygwin
can be used on a system at a time. All Cygwin processes connect to a
common shared memory segment and will abort if there is a version
mis-match.

> I have experience with making installshield-like executables, but I'm
> not sure what cygwin files need to be included for it to work. Is
> there anyone out there who is willing to make a list of necessary
> files for me?

The above has been asked before and only partially answered. Search the
archives for the details.

> Even better would be a list of full paths as they occur in a default
> cygwin installation.

Ditto.

> I can then make sure that the install goes through the steps listed in
> the installation instructions (setting up the postgres user,
> permissions etc.). I can also make sure that the install uses
> different steps depending on the user's version of Windows.

You will have difficulties implementing the "initdb as postgres" step
because Cygwin currently lacks a functional su. There are workarounds
(e.g., ssh), but it will make your installer dependent on other tools
being previously set up.

Jason

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