PostgreSQL 7.2.1 Documentation
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# 1.2. Requirements

In general, a modern Unix-compatible platform should be able to run PostgreSQL. The platforms that had received specific testing at the time of release are listed in Section 1.7 below. In the `doc` subdirectory of the distribution there are several platform-specific FAQ documents you might wish to consult if you are having trouble.

The following prerequisites exist for building PostgreSQL:

- GNU make is required; other make programs will not work. GNU make is often installed under the name `gmake`; this document will always refer to it by that name. (On some systems GNU make is the default tool with the name `make`.) To test for GNU make enter

      gmake --version

  It is recommended to use version 3.76.1 or later.

- You need an ISO/ANSI C compiler. Recent versions of GCC are recommendable, but PostgreSQL is known to build with a wide variety of compilers from different vendors.

- gzip is needed to unpack the distribution in the first place. If you are reading this, you probably already got past that hurdle.

- The GNU Readline library (for comfortable line editing and command history retrieval) will automatically be used if found. You might wish to install it before proceeding, but it is not essential. (On NetBSD, the `libedit` library is readline-compatible and is used if `libreadline` is not found.)

- GNU Flex and Bison are needed to build from scratch, but they are not required when building from a released source package because pre-generated output files are included in released packages. You will need these programs only when building from a CVS tree or if you changed the actual scanner and parser definition files. If you need them, be sure to get Flex 2.5.4 or later and Bison 1.28 or later. Other yacc programs can sometimes be used, but doing so requires extra effort and is not recommended. Other lex programs will definitely not work.

- To build on Windows NT or Windows 2000 you need the Cygwin and cygipc packages. See the file `doc/FAQ_MSWIN` for details.

If you need to get a GNU package, you can find it at your local GNU mirror site (see http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html for a list) or at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/.

Also check that you have sufficient disk space. You will need about 30 MB for the source tree during compilation and about 10 MB for the installation directory. An empty database cluster takes about 20 MB, databases take about five times the amount of space that a flat text file with the same data would take. If you are going to run the regression tests you will temporarily need an extra 20 MB. Use the df command to check for disk space.

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