Re: Some suggestions for the non Linux installers

>> Now when doing this on Windows this is *bound* to fail because the "Program
>> Files" are usually not writeable for non-admin users. The directory is
>> created during installation by the user running the installation (which is
>> usually an admin user). The PG service runs under a regular user account and
>> thus fails to write to the data directory. The sympton is that the service
>> simply fails, but you can't see any errors because PG can't write to the log
>> file as well.
>
> It's not bound to fail because part of the installation process is to
> grant the require permissions on whatever directory is chosen for the
> data. In the case of the one-click installers, this is tested
> extensively before every release on a range of clean and dirty virtual
> machines including XP, Vista, 2K3 and 2K8, and on the Mac on Leopard,
> Tiger and Leopard Server.

OK, that's good news, but then those failures need to have a different source.
But interesting enough the problems were all caused by wrong permissions (just
look at the thread I pointed to in dbforums).

> If you can supply an installation log that would help diagnose the
> problem.
I'll ask them, but I doubt I can get hold of them.
Where would the log be stored?

>> If it's hard to find a good default for the datadir I suggest to leave it
>> completely empty and actively ask the user to specify a directory and give a
>> big hint that this directory must be writeable for the postgres user
>> account.
>
> In the majority of installations the postgres account is created by
> the installer so it's not feasible to grant the permissions in
> advance.
Yes, but the data dir is created *after* the acount is created, correct?

But still: I think it is a much better strategy to *not* put the data dir into
the program directory.

>> Additionally when creating the data dir from within the installer, it should
>> set the permissions of that directory to make sure the postgres user can
>> really write to it.
>
> As I said above, they all do. I can point you at the code if you're interested.
I believe you :)

>> The installer(s) should also ask some question for the default configuration
>> so that pg_hba.conf and postgres.conf can be pre-configured to e.g. accept
>> connections from other computers. A simple checkbox during the installation
>> wizard would be enough for this, which would then adjust listen_address in
>> postgresql.conf and the host entries in pg_hba.conf
>
> Well, we intentionally don't do that in the one-click installers for
> precisely the reason you give above!
You mean for security reasons?
Hmm. But isn't that essential to a DBMS to be able to be contacted from the
outside?

Thanks for the feedback. I finally see some people understanding the advantages
Postgres has over other choices, but these situations surely weren't ideal to
promote Postgres which is a bit sad..

Cheers
Thomas