Re: Trouble with RPM

Gilles DAROLD wrote:
> Please don't use RPM if you don't want to have a Win$ based install.
> It's remember me a very old question: Where are the DLL ?

> The better way is to get the tarball and do a fresh compilation, you will
> learn more about postgres (see the INSTALL file and other documentation).
> And then all your files will go in /usr/local/pgsql by default !

You know, it's responses like this that make me think... why do I pour
so much energy in trying to get the RPM's right? And then I remember
all those folks that have thanked me for the good RPMs.

RPMs are in no way comparable to Win. But, then again, if you want to
really learn X, or the linux kernel, you should really go do the
'roll-your-own-distribution' thing -- not use RedHat at all.

The RPM's have been built to simply and easily allow things that are not
easily possible with the standard tarball installation -- such as not
having the postmaster/backend on a client-only system. Or picking and
choosing amongst the clients. Or not having to have the source taking
up space after the system is built. Some folks actually want to run
PostgreSQL on secure boxen that won't even have a compiler installed --
such as my production database server.

And, if you build from source, and put everything in /usr/local/pgsql,
you have all that added work to get everything working right. If you
just simply want to _use_ PostgreSQL to get some work done, then there
is nothing at all wrong with using the RPM set.

To answer the original question, refer to the
/usr/doc/postgresql-7.0.2/README.rpm file -- then install
postgresql-server RPM.

As to 'DLL Hell' -- thanks to the way rpm works, you are never in danger
of this -- rpm -ql package-name gives you a complete list of files in a
particular rpm. The companion 'rpm -qf /some/file/some/where' gives you
the inverse, showing what package a file belongs to. Of course, you do
need a recent RedHat distribution -- but you need that anyway. (I am
working on getting the source RPM to build on other
distributions/OS's....)

Comparing the RPM installation to Win is a low blow -- so, yes, it does
strike a nerve.

--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11