Hi, We have been having a short talk with Devrim this evening about the pgnixInstaller[1] project he started[2] a while ago.
I have briefly read over the thread following the project announce, particularly comments on issues about package systems of distributions and integration with them.
I believe the project will add some value to the PostgreSQL community, so I'd like to join and add my grain of salt.
Main goal of the project appears to be making installation and configuration of PostgreSQL server a no-brainer, not easier. Any moron you can get to the /mouse/[3] should be able to get PostgreSQL up and running in some short time period. And that moron should be able to do it in some fashion that's not so good, but the installation should work.
Fortunately we're not alone in the universe, several other projects suffered from the very same problem. Including the much larger OpenOffice.org project. I think some of you have installed it on your favorite Unix-alike OS using it's click-click-and-go installer, when distributions did not have packages of it -- ancient times.
We'll be doing that for PostgreSQL, I think it's a fantastic way for me to get involved.
In order to achieve this *properly*, I intend to make PostgreSQL relocatable, that is, PostgreSQL should be able to run if you `copy` it's binaries somewhere else -- no matter where you `./configure --prefix`ed it. I took a very quick look at some parts of the codebase and it seems doable to me.
Apparently we'll be avoiding package systems integration and development-packages-requirement issues mentioned in the thread.
Next step would be a simple, possibly shell-script and xdialog/zenity[4] based prototype installer. I personally can't afford the Python thing, Solaris and possibly others don't have it yet and embedding Python in a shell script is not the brightest idea obviously.
Now the question, would you accept patches for this, or are we going to maintain some set of patches?
May you have suggestions about any other direction, I'd be more than happy to know.
Cheers, [1] http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pgnixinstaller/ [2] http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-01/msg00943.php [3] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000024.html -- Enver ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org
