Re: extension_control_path

On Jan 30, 2014, at 10:06 AM, Sergey Muraviov <sergey(dot)k(dot)muraviov(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> Now it looks fine for me.

Just as another data point, I recently submitted pgTAP to the Homebrew project This is the build-from-source system for OS X, used by a lot of web developers. In my build script, I originally had

depends_on :postgresql

Which means, “require any version of PostgreSQL.” But then tests failed on OS X Server, which includes a system-distributed PostgreSQL. Homebrew installs everything in /usr/local, and not only does it disallow installing anything outside of that directory, it doesn’t have any permissions to do so. The install failed, of course, because extensions want to install in $PGROOT/share/extensions. For now, I had to change it to

depends_on 'postgresql'

A subtle difference that means, “require the latest version of the Homebrew-built PostgreSQL in /usr/local.”

However, if extension_control_path was supported, I could change it back to requiring any Postgres and install pgTAP somewhere under /usr/local, as required for Homebrew. Then all the user would have to do to use it with their preferred Postgres would be to set extension_control_path.

In other words, I am strongly in favor of this patch, as it gives distribution systems a lot more flexibility (for better and for worse) in determining where extensions should be installed.

My $0.02.

Best,

David