Thread: 8.0: Absolute path required for INITDB?
8.0 beta CVS of 8/8/2004: If a relative path is used for the -L option in initdb, the following fatal error happens: ./initdb -D ../data -L ../share/postgresql/ <snip> creating system views ... ok loading pg_description ... ERROR: could not open file "../share/postgresql/postgres.description" for reading: No such file or directory child process exited with exit code 1 Is this intentional? The first dozen or so commands work fine with a relative path, and this executes fine with an absolute path for both -D and -L. SuSE 9.1, GCC 3.3.3 -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:
> If a relative path is used for the -L option in initdb, the following fatal
> error happens:
7.4 fails in the same way, and probably every prior release too.
The problem is that the backend has done a chdir into the template1
subdirectory, so paths that are relative from your perspective
no longer apply.
It might be worth absolut-izing this path in initdb before it's
passed down, but I can't get exceedingly excited about it.
regards, tom lane
Tom, > It might be worth absolut-izing this path in initdb before it's > passed down, but I can't get exceedingly excited about it. Well, once again let me check the docs to make sure people are warned about this .... -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:
>> It might be worth absolut-izing this path in initdb before it's
>> passed down, but I can't get exceedingly excited about it.
> Well, once again let me check the docs to make sure people are warned about
> this ....
Why would it matter? I don't think I've ever once had occasion to use
the -L switch in initdb, because it figures it out just fine for itself.
People who are using it should be wizardly enough to know about the
chdir.
regards, tom lane
Tom, > Why would it matter? I don't think I've ever once had occasion to use > the -L switch in initdb, because it figures it out just fine for itself. > People who are using it should be wizardly enough to know about the > chdir. Oh. Then I have a different bug to report, because INITDB for Sunday's CVS would not run without the -L option. -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:
> Oh. Then I have a different bug to report, because INITDB for Sunday's CVS
> would not run without the -L option.
Well, that does deserve investigation. But I've been initdb'ing
frequently and not noticed any problems. What configure switches
did you use exactly? Did you try to move the installation tree
after configure?
regards, tom lane
Tom, > Well, that does deserve investigation. But I've been initdb'ing > frequently and not noticed any problems. What configure switches > did you use exactly? Did you try to move the installation tree > after configure? My only configure switch was --prefix=/usr/local/pg80b I did not move the tree. I will drop the data directory and re-run it so I can cut and paste the error this afternoon. -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Tom, > Well, that does deserve investigation. But I've been initdb'ing > frequently and not noticed any problems. What configure switches > did you use exactly? Did you try to move the installation tree > after configure? Here's the issue: if you start initdb from a directory other than PGBASE, you can run into trouble: postgres@mole:/usr/local/pg80b/bin> ./initdb -D ../data initdb: file "/usr/local/pg80b/bin/share/postgresql/postgres.bki" does not exist This means you have a corrupted installation or identified the wrong directory with the invocation option -L. postgres@mole:/usr/local/pg80b/bin> I don't recall having this issue with 7.4. -- -Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:
> Here's the issue: if you start initdb from a directory other than PGBASE, you
> can run into trouble:
> postgres@mole:/usr/local/pg80b/bin> ./initdb -D ../data
> initdb: file "/usr/local/pg80b/bin/share/postgresql/postgres.bki" does not
> exist
Actually, the problem seems to be specific to the use of "." or ".." in
the invocation path. I have applied a patch that seems to fix it for
me.
> I don't recall having this issue with 7.4.
All that path-hacking logic is new in 8.0, I believe. Before we were
using some shell utilities to do it for us.
regards, tom lane
Why don't we just throw an error if it isn't an abolute path name, rather than failing in a weird way? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Berkus wrote: > Tom, > > > Well, that does deserve investigation. But I've been initdb'ing > > frequently and not noticed any problems. What configure switches > > did you use exactly? Did you try to move the installation tree > > after configure? > > Here's the issue: if you start initdb from a directory other than PGBASE, you > can run into trouble: > > postgres@mole:/usr/local/pg80b/bin> ./initdb -D ../data > initdb: file "/usr/local/pg80b/bin/share/postgresql/postgres.bki" does not > exist > This means you have a corrupted installation or identified > the wrong directory with the invocation option -L. > postgres@mole:/usr/local/pg80b/bin> > > I don't recall having this issue with 7.4. > > -- > -Josh Berkus > Aglio Database Solutions > San Francisco > > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly > -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 359-1001 + If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
hi, Josh Berkus wrote, On 8/9/2004 21:20: > Tom, > >> Well, that does deserve investigation. But I've been initdb'ing >> frequently and not noticed any problems. What configure switches >> did you use exactly? Did you try to move the installation tree >> after configure? > > Here's the issue: if you start initdb from a directory other than PGBASE, you > can run into trouble: > > postgres@mole:/usr/local/pg80b/bin> ./initdb -D ../data > initdb: file "/usr/local/pg80b/bin/share/postgresql/postgres.bki" does not > exist > This means you have a corrupted installation or identified > the wrong directory with the invocation option -L. > postgres@mole:/usr/local/pg80b/bin> same problem here, but I did a trick, changed the $libdir in share/conversion_create.sql to full path to lib dir, and I did a symlink in bin to share. C.
What was the resolution of this? Can we make relative -L work or do we add error checks for relative -L paths? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Berkus wrote: > 8.0 beta CVS of 8/8/2004: > > If a relative path is used for the -L option in initdb, the following fatal > error happens: > > ./initdb -D ../data -L ../share/postgresql/ > <snip> > creating system views ... ok > loading pg_description ... ERROR: could not open file > "../share/postgresql/postgres.description" for reading: No such file or > directory > child process exited with exit code 1 > > Is this intentional? The first dozen or so commands work fine with a relative > path, and this executes fine with an absolute path for both -D and -L. > > SuSE 9.1, GCC 3.3.3 > > -- > Josh Berkus > Aglio Database Solutions > San Francisco > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command > (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to majordomo@postgresql.org) > -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 359-1001 + If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> What was the resolution of this? Can we make relative -L work or do we
> add error checks for relative -L paths?
We fixed the problem that was requiring Josh to use -L. I think -L is a
wizard's switch and need not be user-friendly, so I feel no need to do
either of the above.
regards, tom lane
Tom Lane wrote: > Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes: > > What was the resolution of this? Can we make relative -L work or do we > > add error checks for relative -L paths? > > We fixed the problem that was requiring Josh to use -L. I think -L is a > wizard's switch and need not be user-friendly, so I feel no need to do > either of the above. Yea, but it is so easy to fix, so why not do it. Patch attached. -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 359-1001 + If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073 Index: src/bin/initdb/initdb.c =================================================================== RCS file: /cvsroot/pgsql-server/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c,v retrieving revision 1.49 diff -c -c -r1.49 initdb.c *** src/bin/initdb/initdb.c 11 Aug 2004 23:28:54 -0000 1.49 --- src/bin/initdb/initdb.c 16 Aug 2004 03:22:38 -0000 *************** *** 2234,2240 **** share_path = xmalloc(MAXPGPATH); get_share_path(backend_exec, share_path); } ! canonicalize_path(share_path); if ((short_version = get_short_version()) == NULL) --- 2234,2245 ---- share_path = xmalloc(MAXPGPATH); get_share_path(backend_exec, share_path); } ! else if (!is_absolute_path(share_path)) ! { ! fprintf(stderr, _("%s: input file location must be an absolute path\n"), progname); ! exit(1); ! } ! canonicalize_path(share_path); if ((short_version = get_short_version()) == NULL)