Hi
I've just noticed that the EDB-produced installer for Pg omits a number
of components required to build things that're fully compatible with
libpq if they also use some of the same libs as libpq, like libintl,
openssl, etc.
The specific case of interest to me is psqlODBC, which I've been doing
some work on recently. I just realised that a crash I've been
encountering is caused by linking to the OpenSSL binaries from
http://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html when libpq is using its
own different OpenSSL. libeay32.lib is not in the Pg binary distribution
for Windows so it's not possible to link directly to the same
libeay32.dll that libpq uses.
Ideally, every .dll that's shipped should be accompanied by the
corresponding .lib, so people compiling against PostgreSQL can use the
same OpenSSL, libintl, etc that were used when compiling Pg. The headers
for those libraries should really also be bundled, e.g. have an
include\openssl dir.
That might add a little weight to the installer package, but probably
not much - and that's clearly not a huge concern given that it already
includes some fat .pdb debug symbols. If trimming the installer is a
concern, it'd be reasonable to split the .lib files, includes, and pdb
files into a separate "PostgreSQL development" component.
The biggest issue - the missing libintl.h - was fixed a while ago, so
it's possible to compile simple programs against libpq and have them
work properly. Now it's only an issue if your app also needs to use
OpenSSL, gettext, etc its self.
Thoughts?
--
Craig Ringer http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services