Re: [HACKERS] Installation procedure.

> > You people are harsh.
> Ooh, a compliment. We live for those... ;)

Heh.

> > - initdb complained that it couldn't find a user.  I gave it -u postgres.
> 
> This is the only report of this I can remember (others might remind me
> otherwise, but...). The best I can tell you somehow didn't have a USER
> environment variable or mucked around with accounts between building
> software and trying to initdb.

Aha.  Come to think of it, I'm sure that I was actually root su'd to
postgres.  That was probably the problem.  I hadn't even thought of that.

> > - I needed to install flex (no surprise) -- the instructions are quite
> >   explicit, but, well, wrong: flex depends on bison.
> Thanks. Can you give a suggestion for a more helpful phrasing for
> this, or a better choice of content?

Will do.  Um, "soon."  Actually, I was very heartened by the explicit
detail.

> > - Being only halfway a sysadmin, I was a little worried about making a
> >   postgres "superuser".  I just made a postgres user and didn't worry
> >   about the super part, and it seems to work.  Am I missing a point?
> 
> Only sort of. The "postgres superuser" is a normal user as far as the
> OS is concerned, but is a superuser as far as the Postgres
> installation is concerned. Ya done good.

IMHO that should probably be more explicit in INSTALL.  I'll update it.

> Your OS is being wimpy imho, but the workaround is pretty easy.
> 
> Do you have a specific suggestion for a change here in the docs?
> Probably no need to change the build procedure, but perhaps a warning
> about possible startup problems?

Yeah, that would be a good idea.  Again, sounds like it's up to me to
revise INSTALL a bit.

> Have fun with the new toy...

Toy, schmoy.  This is going to back up several web sites.  After the
recent glowing description on this mailing list of v6.5.1, I decided to
take the plunge and junk Illustra (the total lack of support and
documentation and tuning and licensing freedom and so on have finally
taken their toll on my confidence...)  Wish me luck.