Re: Win32 users? - Mailing list pgsql-general

-cut-

It is correct that the installer does not put the PosgtgreSQL directory
in the system PATH. This is intended behaviour - but mainly because we
didn't have time to do a "proper fix" for the 8.0 release.

We hope to give a choice to the user on what to do (where to put the
shared DLLs, and what to put in the system PATH) in the next version of
the installer.

If you wish to track th eprogress on this, see our feature request
tracker on
http://pgfoundry.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1000160&group_id=
1000007&atid=129 that talks about this specific thing.
(Not much happening on the installer right now as the developers are
focusing their time on the backend up to the feature freeze, but it'll
pick up)


> What I am surprised is that this is (apparently) not
> discussed in the manual or the FAQ.  The only indirect
> reference I found is in section 14.6.2 where it states --in a
> Unix context-- that "you should add [the PostgreSQL bin
> directory] into your PATH".

This is probably a good thing to put in the installer FAQ. If you
provide a good text, I'll be happy to put it in (or a diff against the
FAQ source - it's in the pginstaller cvs tree)

There are probably several parts of the documentation that are lacking
in win32 specific information - simply because the port is new. Much of
this is addressed in the FAQ, but certainly not everything (yet).


> The lack of such a reference gives me the impression that, at
> this time, native
> Win32 users are technically knowledgeable, because a real
> newbie may not figure out how to address the "unrecognized
> command" createdb problem.

I think you'll find two kinds of pgsql-win32 today:

* Technically knowledgeable users who know how to fix this problem
without any problems

* "Windows only people (=Commandline Newbies)" and "Total newbies".
These people use pgAdmin to do almost everything they do. They may fire
up a psql if required, but that's about it. This is the group that the
8.0 installer was primarily targeted at.

This leaves the "in-betweens" fairly uncovered for, which is something
you have found out about the hard way. We hope to address this in the
8.1 installer, and anything we can do on the docs of course. Suggestions
(or even better, documentation text or code) is always welcome!


> A related issue that I thought would be mentioned in the
> manuals/FAQ is where to add the bin directory in the PATH.
> The 14.6.2 section, only by example, implies it should be
> prepended to the PATH.  However, you suggest it should be appended.

In most situations, this realy shouldn't matter. Unless you have
muptiple pg installations with different versions on the same system.


>   I know of one other database that has a 'createdb' command
> so if I were to append it, it would still not find the
> PostgreSQL version.  This again may indicate the tech-savvy
> expected of PostgreSQL users.

This highlights exactly the reason why we do *NOT* prepend the
postgresql directory to the path by default: If we did, this *other*
tools "createdb" command would *stop working*.
This has to be an informed decision by the user, which is what we hope
to put into 8.1.

//Magnus