I successfully compiled and installed the latest version of PostgreSQL (17.4) on Ubuntu ARM32.

The commands in this article are mainly derived from the official PostgreSQL documentation. I have actually tested every command in this article.

You can see the systems that can be successfully installed here PostgreSQL Buildfarm

Compile and Install PostgreSQL 17.4

1. Create a directory and enter the directory

mkdir postgresql && cd postgresql
  • mkdir postgresql: Creates a new directory named postgresql.
  • cd postgresql: Enters the postgresql directory that was just created.

2. Download the PostgreSQL source code

wget https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/source/v17.4/postgresql-17.4.tar.bz2
  • wget: Downloads a file from the specified URL.
  • https://..../postgresql-17.4.tar.bz2: Download link for the compressed source code package of PostgreSQL version 17.4. If the link is invalid, you can find a new link yourself.

3. Unzip the source code package

tar xjf postgresql-17.4.tar.bz2

  • tar: Used to process .tar compressed files.

  • xjf: Options for decompressing tar files:

    • x: Decompress the file.
    • j: Use bzip2 compression format (.bz2).
    • f: Specify the file to decompress.

  • postgresql-17.4.tar.bz2: The name of the file to decompress.

4. Enter the decompressed source code directory

cd postgresql-17.4
  • Enter the decompressed PostgreSQL 17.4 source code directory.

5. Install dependencies

sudo apt install libssl-dev libsystemd-dev libxml2-dev libreadline-dev
  • sudo apt install: Use the apt package manager to install packages.
  • libssl-dev, libsystemd-dev, libxml2-dev, libreadline-dev: Install the development libraries required for PostgreSQL compilation, which are SSL library, Systemd library, XML library, and Readline library respectively.

6. Configure compilation options

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/pgsql --with-openssl --with-libxml --with-systemd
  • ./configure: Prepare the compilation environment for PostgreSQL.
  • --prefix=/usr/local/pgsql: Specify the PostgreSQL installation directory as /usr/local/pgsql.
  • --with-openssl: Enable OpenSSL support.
  • --with-libxml: Enable XML support.
  • --with-systemd: Enable Systemd support.

7. Compile the source code

make -j$(nproc)
  • make: Start the compilation process.
  • -j$(nproc): Use nproc (the number of CPU cores in the system) to execute compilation tasks in parallel, accelerating the compilation process.

8. Install PostgreSQL

sudo make install
  • sudo make install: Use sudo to execute the installation with administrator privileges. make install installs the compiled files into the system, installing them into the /usr/local/pgsql directory specified in the previous ./configure command.

9. Set environment variables

Use a text editor to 1. Edit the /etc/profile file:

sudo nano /etc/profile
  • sudo: Indicates that the command is run with superuser (administrator) privileges. Because modifying the /etc/profile file requires administrator privileges.
  • nano: This is a text editor, often used to edit files in a terminal environment.
  • /etc/profile: This is a global configuration file used to set system-wide environment variables and startup configurations. All users will execute the settings in this file when logging into the system.
  1. Add environment variables:
export PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH
  • export: Used to set an environment variable to be available in the current and child processes.
  • PATH: This is an environment variable that contains a list of directories of executable files in the system. When executing commands, the system will look for commands based on the directories listed in the PATH variable.
  • /usr/local/pgsql/bin: This is the executable file directory of the PostgreSQL database. Adding it means that the executable files in this directory (such as psql) will be recognized by the system.
  • :$PATH: Here $PATH represents the original path, and the new path /usr/local/pgsql/bin is added to the front of the original PATH. This way, the system will check the new directory first and then check the original path.

The function of this command is to add the PostgreSQL executable file directory to the system environment variable PATH, ensuring that PostgreSQL commands (such as psql) can be run directly in the command line without providing the full path. The modified settings will take effect for all users

Initialize the PostgreSQL database

These commands are mainly used to manually configure the PostgreSQL database server on a Linux server, including creating a PostgreSQL system user, initializing the database, starting the database service, and registering it as a systemd service for automatic startup at boot.

1. Create a PostgreSQL user

sudo useradd -m -U -r -d /var/lib/postgresql -s /bin/bash postgres
  • sudo: Execute the command with superuser privileges.
  • useradd: Create a new user.
  • -m: Create a home directory for the user.
  • -U: Create a user group with the same name as the username at the same time.
  • -r: Create a system user (system user UID is less than 1000, not used for login).
  • -d /var/lib/postgresql: Specify the home directory as /var/lib/postgresql.
  • -s /bin/bash: Specify the shell as /bin/bash.
  • postgres: Username.

This command creates a PostgreSQL-specific system user postgres.

2. Change the owner of the PostgreSQL directory

sudo chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql
  • chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql: Change the owner of the /usr/local/pgsql directory to the postgres user, allowing it to read and write to the directory.

3. Set the password for the PostgreSQL user

sudo passwd postgres
  • passwd postgres: Modify the password of the postgres user.

4. Switch to the PostgreSQL user

su postgres
  • su postgres: Switch to the postgres user in order to use PostgreSQL related commands.

5. Initialize the database

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
  • initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data: Initialize the database storage in the /usr/local/pgsql/data directory.

6. Start the PostgreSQL database

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
  • postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data: Start the database as the postgres process, with data stored in the /usr/local/pgsql/data directory.

7. In another terminal session, enter the database

su postgres

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql
  • psql: PostgreSQL’s command-line interactive tool, enter the database shell.

8. Set the password for the database user

ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'your_new_password';
  • Modify the password of the database user postgres.

9. Create a systemd service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/postgresql.service
  • nano /etc/systemd/system/postgresql.service: Edit the systemd configuration file to allow PostgreSQL to run as a service.

Configuration file content:

[Unit]
Description=PostgreSQL server
#Documentation=man:postgres(1)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=notify
User=postgres
ExecStart=/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
KillMode=mixed
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutSec=infinity

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
  • Description=PostgreSQL server: Describes that the service is a PostgreSQL server.
  • After=network-online.target: Wait for the network connection to be available before starting PostgreSQL.
  • User=postgres: Run as the postgres user.
  • ExecStart=/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data: Start the PostgreSQL server.
  • ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID: Send the HUP signal when reloading.
  • KillMode=mixed: Mixed termination mode.
  • KillSignal=SIGINT: The signal to terminate the PostgreSQL process.
  • TimeoutSec=infinity: Timeout is set to infinity.

10. Enable the systemd service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl status postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql
  • daemon-reload: Reload the systemd configuration to make the new postgresql.service take effect.
  • start postgresql: Start the PostgreSQL service.
  • status postgresql: Check the PostgreSQL running status.
  • enable postgresql: Automatically start PostgreSQL at boot.

The purpose of these commands is:

  1. Create a postgres user specifically for running PostgreSQL.
  2. Initialize the database storage directory.
  3. Start the PostgreSQL database and enter the psql interactive command line.
  4. Configure systemd to run PostgreSQL as a system service and support automatic startup at boot.

This way the PostgreSQL server can run normally and can be started automatically when the system starts.

References

PostgreSQL: Documentation: 17: Chapter 17. Installation from Source Code

This article was translated from Chinese (Simplified) to English by AI.