last updated: $Date: 2006/10/04 22:03:22 $

6) How to compile PostgreSQL with Sun Studio?

7) Where I can download prepared Solaris packages?

8) How to tune PostgreSQL and Solaris for best performance?

9) Can I use dtrace for tracing PostgreSQL?

- Sun Studio CC or GCC

You can download Sun Studio from:

http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/downloads/index.jsp

Many of GNU tools are integrated into the Solaris 10 or they are

present on the Solaris companion CD.

If you like packages for older version of Solaris, you can find these

tools here:

http://www.sunfreeware.com or http://www.blastwave.org

You can build with either GCC or Sun's compiler suite. For better

code optimalization Sun's compiler is strongly recommended on the

SPARC architecture. We have heard reports of problems when using

gcc 2.95.1; gcc 2.95.3 or later is recommended. If you are using

Sun's compiler, be careful *not* to select /usr/ucb/cc;

use /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc.

Solaris 9 and above already newer version of OpenSSL.

non-standard library, such as libssl. To point it to the right location,

set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, e.g.,

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/sfw/lib:/opt/sfw/lib:/usr/local/lib

5) How can I compile for optimum performance?

On SPARC architecture Sun Studio is strongly recommended for compilation.

Try using -xO5 optimalization flag to generate significantly faster binaries.

Do not use any flags which modify behavior of floating point operations and

errno processing (e.g. -fast). These flags should raise some nonstandard

PostgreSQL behavior for example in the date/time computing.

If you do not reason to use 64-bit binaries on SPARC, prefer 32-bit version.

The 64-bit operations are slower and 64-bit binaries are slower then 32-bits.

And on other side a 32-bit code on the AMD64 CPU family is not native and

that is why 32-bit code is significant slower on this CPU family.

6) How to compile PostgreSQL with Sun Studio?

On Solaris 10 you can performed following steps:

export CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc

export CFLAGS=-xO5

export LDFLAGS=-lm

./configure --without-readline

gmake

7) Where I can download prepared Solaris packages?

The PostgreSQL is bundled with Solaris 10 (from update 2). Official packages

are too available on http://pgfoundry.org/projects/solarispackages/.

Packages for older Solaris version (8,9) you can download from:

http://www.sunfreeware.com or http://www.blastwave.org

8) How to tune PostgreSQL and Solaris for best performance?

Some tuning tricks can be found here:

http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/tnb/applications_postgresql.jsp

This article is primary focused on T2000 platform, however, many of

recommendations are general for other hardware with Solaris.

9) Can I use dtrace for tracing PostgreSQL?

The PostgreSQL 8.2 has implemented dtrace support. You can enable it by

the --enable-dtrace configure switch. If you want to compile a 64-bit code

with dtrace you must specify DTRACEFLAGS='-64', e.g.

Using gcc compiler:

$ ./configure CC='gcc -m64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFLAGS='-64' ...

Using Sun compiler:

$ configure CC='/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xtarget=native64' --enable-dtrace DTRACEFLAGS='-64'

If you have some problem with postgres linking, looks like:

Undefined first referenced

symbol in file

AbortTransaction utils/probes.o

CommitTransaction utils/probes.o

ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to postgres

collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

gmake: *** [postgres] Error 1

, check if you have Solaris 10u3 or newer installed on your box.

You can also find more information here:

http://blogs.sun.com/robertlor/entry/user_level_dtrace_probes_in