agora inbox for postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu
help / color / mirror / Atom feedFrom: claire@postgres.berkeley.edu
To: postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: postgres mailing list
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 08:50:13 -0700
Message-ID: <9210131550.AA20474@postgres.Berkeley.EDU> (raw)
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
557 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
Marc Teitelbaum Postgres Chief Programmer
marc@postgres.berkeley.edu
(510) 643-6448
Elisa Kwon Secretary to the Postgres group
elisa@postgres.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-3417
reply
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Reply to all the recipients using the --to and --cc options:
reply via email
To: postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu
Cc: claire@postgres.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: postgres mailing list
In-Reply-To: <9210131550.AA20474@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
This inbox is served by agora; see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox