Sun Solaris specific

to be read in conjunction with the installation instructions

============================================================

last updated: $Date: 2006/10/02 23:01:17 $

current maintainer: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>

last updated: $Date: 2006/10/04 22:03:22 $

Contents:

3) Why does configure complain about a failed test program?

4) Why does my 64-bit build sometimes crash?

5) How can I compile for optimum performance?

6) How to compile PostgreSQL with Sun Studio?

7) Where I can download prepared Solaris packages?

8) How to tune PostgreSQL and Solaris for best performance?

9) Can I use dtrace for tracing PostgreSQL?

1) What tools do I need to build and install PostgreSQL on Solaris?

- GNU zip (for installing the documentation)

- GNU make

- GNU readline library (optional)

- GCC (if you don't have Sun's compiler)

- Sun Studio CC or GCC

You can download Sun Studio from:

http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/downloads/index.jsp

If you like Solaris packages, you can find these tools here:

http://www.sunfreeware.com

Many of GNU tools are integrated into the Solaris 10 or they are

present on the Solaris companion CD.

If you like packages for older version of Solaris, you can find these

tools here:

http://www.sunfreeware.com or http://www.blastwave.org

If you prefer sources, look here:

http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

You can build with either GCC or Sun's compiler suite. We have heard

reports of problems when using gcc 2.95.1; gcc 2.95.3 or later is

recommended. If you are using Sun's compiler, be careful *not* to

select /usr/ucb/cc; use /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc.

You can build with either GCC or Sun's compiler suite. For better

code optimalization Sun's compiler is strongly recommended on the

SPARC architecture. We have heard reports of problems when using

gcc 2.95.1; gcc 2.95.3 or later is recommended. If you are using

Sun's compiler, be careful *not* to select /usr/ucb/cc;

use /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc.

2) Why do I get problems when building with OpenSSL support?

Upgrading your OpenSSL installation to version 0.9.6a fixes this

problem.

Solaris 9 and above already newer version of OpenSSL.

3) Why does configure complain about a failed test program?

This is probably a case of the run-time linker being unable to find

to the right location, set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable,

e.g.,

non-standard library, such as libssl. To point it to the right location,

set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable,e.g.,

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/ssl/lib

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/sfw/lib:/opt/sfw/lib:/usr/local/lib

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

and restart configure. You will also have to keep this setting

does not matter.)

Then build as usual.

5) How can I compile for optimum performance?

On SPARC architecture Sun Studio is strongly recommended for compilation.

Try using -xO5 optimalization flag to generate significantly faster binaries.

Do not use any flags which modify behavior of floating point operations and

errno processing (e.g. -fast). These flags should raise some nonstandard

PostgreSQL behavior for example in the date/time computing.

If you do not reason to use 64-bit binaries on SPARC, prefer 32-bit version.

The 64-bit operations are slower and 64-bit binaries are slower then 32-bits.

And on other side a 32-bit code on the AMD64 CPU family is not native and

that is why 32-bit code is significant slower on this CPU family.

6) How to compile PostgreSQL with Sun Studio?

On Solaris 10 you can performed following steps:

export CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc

export CFLAGS=-xO5

export LDFLAGS=-lm

./configure --without-readline

gmake

7) Where I can download prepared Solaris packages?

The PostgreSQL is bundled with Solaris 10 (from update 2). Official packages

are too available on http://pgfoundry.org/projects/solarispackages/.

Packages for older Solaris version (8,9) you can download from:

http://www.sunfreeware.com or http://www.blastwave.org

8) How to tune PostgreSQL and Solaris for best performance?

Some tuning tricks can be found here:

http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/tnb/applications_postgresql.jsp

This article is primary focused on T2000 platform, however, many of

recommendations are general for other hardware with Solaris.

9) Can I use dtrace for tracing PostgreSQL?

The PostgreSQL 8.2 has implemented dtrace support. You can enable it by

the --enable-dtrace configure switch. If you want to compile a 64-bit code

with dtrace you must specify DTRACEFLAGS='-64', e.g.

Using gcc compiler:

$ ./configure CC='gcc -m64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFLAGS='-64' ...

Using Sun compiler:

$ configure CC='/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xtarget=native64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFLAGS='-64'

If you have some problem with postgres linking, looks like:

Undefined first referenced

symbol in file

AbortTransaction utils/probes.o

CommitTransaction utils/probes.o

ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to postgres

collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

gmake: *** [postgres] Error 1

, check if you have Solaris 10u3 or newer installed on your box.

You can also find more information here:

http://blogs.sun.com/robertlor/entry/user_level_dtrace_probes_in