Installing PostgreSQL 9.0 on FreeBSD

Question

My installation of databases/postgresql90-client fails on a FreeBSD box.

The installation blocks on configure, at the following step (while CPU usage tops 100%):

checking thread safety of required library functions... 

The last lines of /usr/ports/databases/postgresql90-client/work/postgresql-9.0.4/config.log are:

... a couple of defines ... #define USE_SYSV_SEMAPHORES 1 #define USE_SYSV_SHARED_MEMORY 1 #define MEMSET_LOOP_LIMIT 1024 configure: caught signal 2 configure: exit 1 

(the exit is due to the ^C of my part).

You can find the complete file here: https://gist.github.com/1093873

The system details are:

## --------- ## ## Platform. ## ## --------- ## hostname = nsxxxxxx.ovh.net uname -m = i386 uname -r = 7.4-RELEASE uname -s = FreeBSD uname -v = FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE #0: Thu Feb 17 03:51:56 UTC 2011 [email protected]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC /usr/bin/uname -p = i386 /bin/uname -X = unknown /bin/arch = unknown /usr/bin/arch -k = unknown /usr/convex/getsysinfo = unknown /usr/bin/hostinfo = unknown /bin/machine = unknown /usr/bin/oslevel = unknown /bin/universe = unknown 

Any ideas?

Answer 1

General steps for troubleshooting FreeBSD ports

1. make clean
2. Try building the port again.
3. If it fails: Did it fail in the same place? If not, consider the possibility you may have bad RAM.
4. See if anyone else has had a similar problem
5. If not, Submit a problem report or ask on the ports mailing list/contact the port maintainer.

If you get to step 5 please read, understand and internalize these wonderful instructions on how to submit useful problem reports prior to submitting one. Following those guidelines is very helpful :-)

(You can also cop out and build Postgres from source by hand, which is what I typically do - I prefer to install Postgres in a self-contained directory like /usr/local/pgsql, which is annoying to do via ports.)