Hello everyone,

I'm running two postgresql servers on linux redhat.
(pgsql versions : 7.2 and 8.2).
I compiled postgresql from source and installed it in the /opt
directory.

The servers are in production state.

Now i would like to add PL/Perl support. (It's not urgent,
but I sart considering it). I don't want to upgrade
the postgresql version, i just want to add PL/perl support.

I intend to do this on both servers :

1. stop postgresql
2. backup the binary directory, (just in case)
backup the $PGDATA directory
3. uninstall postgresql ( #make uninstall )
4. configure postgresql with --with-perl support
5. run #make and #make install
6. start postgresql
7. check everything runs fine

Is it safe to do so, or am I missing something ?


.... Or is it safe to :
1. configure --with-perl
2. #make
2. stop postgresql
3. #make install
3. restart postgresql ?

I just want to make sure... I want to minimize the downtime
of my servers, and of course I can't afford to mess up something.


Thanks in advance for your comments.


Tanguy

news <tanguy (AT) nowhere (DOT) fr> wrote:
The second version is perfectly safe.

You could even install PL/Perl without restarting the server, I think.

As far as I know, all the switch does is build plperl.so.

You could just copy this file to the lib directory, and it should work.

Of course your pg_config would then reflect the wrong build flags,
and maybe the plperl entries would be missing from pg_pltemplate,
which would make CREATE LANGUAGE a little more tricky.

But unless you really cannot live without downtime, use your second option.

A backup of the old installation can never be a mistake!

Yours,
Laurenz Albe

Laurenz Albe a écrit :


Thanks very much for your reply.

I think i can afford to stop postgresql for a couple of minutes, in
order to reinstall it. I'd rather have a 'clean' setup, instead
of tweaking the server as it is now...




Of course
I think i'll also backup my data before doing this,
it can't do any harm...






Best regards,
Tanguy