Re: initdb failure with Postgres 8.4.4

On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 10:54 AM, Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> wrote:
> Here's my understanding.
>
> It's not initdb that's really complaining. The timezone files are not inputs
> to initdb. It's the postgres that initdb invokes that's complaining.

>> Postges will look for the share file in two places: the configured install
>> directory or a share directory whose path is calculated relative to its own location

>.initdb's -L flag doesn't override that, it only overrides where
> initdb itself looks for files (such as the BKI file). The bottom line I
> think is that if you intend to use a non-standard layout you need to specify
> the paths for everything and then not move them after installation. If you
> want the installation to be movable, just specify --prefix, but then if you
> move it you have to move the whole thing together. You can't just relocate
> one directory and expect it to work. It won't.

I'm not sure if our current approach would work with v8.4. This is what we do in the nutshell:
- build Postgres
- do not run install
- collect all generated libraries, executables and input files and pack them along with other app
- distribute the tar-ball to the customer
- untar and install the app
the installation script at some point calls initdb, create database, createlang, create user,
it creates config files... done.

I guess this eliminates option 1 - using "the configured install directory"

I tried to figure out the second option "share directory whose path is calculated relative to its own location"
and ran initdb with "strace". Chances are I overlooked something, but I only saw Postgres trying to open the
timezone files in the original build path.

Do you see some way to support remote deployment with the approach I described?
Thanks,
Michael.

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