Installing Postgresql 7.1 on Red Hat 7.1
			   Dennis G. Allard
			     May 7, 2002
 http://oceanpark.com/notes/postgres71_install_on_RedHat71_020507.txt
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I noticed posts to muc.lists.postgres.questions asking how to install
Postgres 7.1 on RH 7.1. (including one by bens@benjamindsmith.com).

I tried to post a reply via GoogleGroups but some kind of bounce message
came back owing to the newsgroup being moderated and the moderator not
being known or something like that.

Here is my 'post'...

I achieved this by downloading RPMs from:

  ftp://ftp.us.postgresql.org/binary/v7.1.3/RPMS/redhat-7.1/

Then I installed the RPMs as follows:

[root@oceanpark /]# ls /home/mirror/*postgres*
/home/mirror/postgresql-7.1.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
/home/mirror/postgresql-libs-7.1.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
/home/mirror/postgresql-server-7.1.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
[root@oceanpark /]# 
[root@oceanpark /]# rpm --install
/home/mirror/postgresql-libs-7.1.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
[root@oceanpark /]# rpm --install
/home/mirror/postgresql-7.1.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
[root@oceanpark /]# rpm --install
/home/mirror/postgresql-server-7.1.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
[root@oceanpark /]# 

I then more or less followed guidelines in the online PostgreSQL 7.2.1
Administrator's Guide:

(e.g., http://www.postgresql.org/idocs/index.php?admin.html)

[root@oceanpark /]# useradd postgres
[root@oceanpark /]#
[root@oceanpark /]# su - postgres
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ pwd
/home/postgres
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ mkdir database
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ ls -l
total 8
drwxrwxr-x    2 postgres postgres     4096 May  7 13:26 database
drwxr-xr-x    2 postgres postgres     4096 May  7 08:44 Desktop
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ export PGDATA=/home/postgres/database
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ printenv | grep -i pg
PGDATA=/home/postgres/database
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ initdb
This database system will be initialized with username "postgres".
This user will own all the data files and must also own the server
process.

Fixing permissions on existing directory /home/postgres/database
Creating directory /home/postgres/database/base
Creating directory /home/postgres/database/global

<blah blah blah>

Success. You can now start the database server using:

    /usr/bin/postmaster -D /home/postgres/database
or
    /usr/bin/pg_ctl -D /home/postgres/database -l logfile start

[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ export PGLOG=/home/postgres/log
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ printenv | grep -i pg
PGLOG=/home/postgres/log
PGDATA=/home/postgres/database
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ /usr/bin/pg_ctl -D $PGDATA -l $PGLOG
start
postmaster successfully started
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ 
[postgres@oceanpark postgres]$ createdb mf
CREATE DATABASE

(you are on your own from here).

Note, I also noticed that the RPMs had left the Red Hat standard
SysV startup script but it failed to start:

[root@oceanpark /]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql start
Starting postgresql service: FAILED

I was not in the mood to debug that script, especially since
the Postgres documentation describes startup in terms of direct
invocation of the above pg_ctl program.

I'm sure that when I next upgrade Red Hat (say to 7.3), I will be sure
to install Postgres out of the box so that the init.d style startup
works.

If fact, the best way to install and maintain software on Red Hat is
simply to always 'Install Everything' and keep things up to date via
the excellent up2date Red Hat network tool.



-- 
Dennis G. Allard                               telephone: 1.310.399.4740
Ocean Park Software                                 http://oceanpark.com
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