Return-Path: mer Received: by postgres.Berkeley.EDU (5.61/1.29) id AA28453; Wed, 15 Jul 92 04:13:53 -0700 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 92 04:13:53 -0700 Message-Id: <9207151113.AA28453@postgres.Berkeley.EDU> From: Subject: postgres faq To: postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu Sender: pg_adm@postgres.berkeley.edu Frequently Asked Questions about Postgres Q: What Is Postgres? Postgres is a database research project under Prof. Michael Stonebraker at U. C. Berkeley. To facilitate research efforts, a software test-bed was created; this is the "Postgres" DBMS software. The Postgres DBMS is extended relational or object oriented, depending on the buzzword du jour. The major purpose of this software is to provide a platform and a basis for the testing of implementations of new ideas in database research. Several graduate students, staff members, as well as undergraduate programmers have been working on the implementation of the Postgres software. After this paragraph, all references to "Postgres" refer to the software itself. Postgres Is: o Relational. One of the major goals of Postgres is to show that an essentially relational DBMS can be extended to handle complex objects, rules, and be highly extensible. o Highly extensible. Postgres allows user-defined operators, user-defined objects, and user-defined functions. o While Postgres is relational, object oriented ideas have been implemented in Postgres (inheritance, etc). o Numerous other features, such as query language procedures, rules, etc. which are beyond the scope of this discussion. For more info on the Postgres research itself, you can get the Postgres technical documentation described below. Q. What is the connection between Postgres and Ingres? A. There is none, aside from Prof. Stonebraker. There is no compatibility between the two software packages, and the research projects have differing objectives. We do not support University Ingres at all; questions about it should be sent to the USENET group "comp.databases". Q. How do I get the Postgres software package? A. In one of two ways: 1. Via anonymous FTP from postgres.berkeley.edu (Internet 128.32.149.1); the important files are pub/postgres-v3r1.tar.Z (Note: should be transmitted in BINARY mode.) pub/postgres-setup.me 2. If you don't have Internet access, you can get Postgres by sending a check for US $150 payable to Regents of the University of California This should be addressed to The Postgres Project 521 Evans Hall University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 Indicate in your accompanying letter whether you want the system on a 9-track tape at 1600 BPI, at 6250 BPI, on a Sun cartridge tape (QIC 24 format), or on a TK50 DEC cartridge tape. Sorry - we cannot deliver Postgres via e-mail. Q. What is the Postgres query language? A. Postquel, which is an incompatible superset of Quel. Q. What about SQL support? A. We do not support SQL at this time. Q. What does Postgres run on? A. Postgres 3.1 is supported on Sun 4, Sparc, and DECstations running Ultrix 4.0 or higher. Ports are distributed (but not supported) for Sun 3's and Sequent Symmetry machines. We are aware of ports for Solbourne (a Sparc multiprocessor), MIPS workstations, and the Sun 386i, although we do _not_ have access to these ports and do not intend to support them. The experience of outside developers indicates that Postgres is relatively easy to port to any system that supports: 1. Berkeley-style sockets 2. System V shared memory and semaphores 3. A K & R compatible C compiler 4. Other "normal" Unix system calls Some header file problems may be encountered; these are easily fixed by a programmer knowledgable with the local OS. The most difficult part of the port is porting the dynamic object code loader, which requires interpreting object file headers. Q. How do I get papers about Postgres? A. On postgres.berkeley.edu is a file called pub/postgres-papers.tar.Z which contains troff and Postscript versions of several of the major Postgres technical reports. If you don't have Internet access, you can order hard-copies of technical reports individually; for more details, send e-mail or call Claire Mosher at (510) 642-4662; her e-mail address is claire@postgres.berkeley.edu Q. What is the status of the Postgres implementation? A. It is not up to commercial levels of reliability. I would not want _my_ payroll records in it :-) However, it is quite adaquate for managing scientific and experimental datasets and as an instructional system. Its speed on applications which stress transaction processing is not particularly good, but it is within about 50% of commercial systems on the more "report-oriented" Wisconsin benchmark, and is twice as fast as University Ingres on the Wisconsin. Q. Does Postgres have a user interface? A report generator? A. No and no, at least as shipped. The Picasso package, which is also available from postgres.berkeley.edu, provides a more graphical interface to Postgres; as shipped, a bare-bones interface is provided which allows the user to type in queries. There is no report generator. Instructions for getting Picasso are in the file pub/picasso-README on postgres.berkeley.edu. For more information about Picasso, send mail to picasso@postgres.berkeley.edu (Note that Picasso requires Lisp) Q. What about a C-callable interface for writing applications? A. There most definitiely is one, called libpq. There is also an interface for referencing Postgres data from shell scripts. Get the Postgres reference manual for details. Q. Is there a BBS/discussion group about Postgres? A. Yes - the mailing list postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu has over two hundred readers and gateways; you can subscribe to the mailing list by sending mail to postgres-request@postgres.berkeley.edu with "ADD" as the Subject. You UNsubscribe from the mailing list by sending mail to postgres-request@postgres.berkeley.edu with "DEL" as the Subject. Q. How do I make a bug report? A. If you find a bug, send a description of your database schema, queries, and a stack dump (type "where" in DBX) if possible to bug-postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu Q. How do I find out about known bugs? A. The known bug list is on Postgres in the file pub/postgres-v3r1.bugs Q. Please summarize the important files on postgres.berkeley.edu A. File Purpose pub/postgres-v3r1.tar.Z Complete Postgres distribution pub/postgres-v3r1.bugs Postgres 3.1 known bug list and workarounds pub/postgres-setup.me Postgres Installation instructions in troff pub/postgres-papers.tar.Z Postgres papers pub/picasso-README Instructions for getting Picasso Q. Please summarize the important Postgres mailing aliases A. Mailing Address Purpose postgres@postgres Postgres general discussion and announcements postgres-request@postgres Administrative requests (ADD/DEL) bug-postgres@postgres Postgres bug reports postgres-questions@postgres Questions to the developers of Postgres picasso@postgres Questions to the Picasso group Q. Please summarize the main contacts at the Postgres group A. Address/Phone Role Jeff Meredith Postgres Chief Programmer mer@postgres.berkeley.edu (510) 642-1863 Chandra Ghosh Secretary to the Postgres group chandra@postgres.berkeley.edu (510) 642-4662