Re: Unable to compile postgresql-18.1

As already requested, please answer following questions with lots of details;

What are exact build commands you've executed?

I have manually directed the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to /usr/lib64 but I get the same error message.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Ibrahim Shaame

On Wed, Jan 21, 2026 at 9:49 AM Ibrahim Shaame <ishaame@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Erik,

Thank you for the response. As for LIBRARY_PATH, I have always manually compiled postgresql and I don't explicitly mention the LIBRARY_PATH directory. That's why I am surprised why this time with this subversion doesn't work just as it worked in the last version.

Thanks

Ibrahim

On Sun, Jan 18, 2026 at 7:29 PM Erik Wienhold <ewie@ewie.name> wrote:

On 2026-01-02 19:23 +0100, Ibrahim Shaame wrote:
> I have tried to compile from source postgresql-18.1 but it fails and I get
> the following error:
>
> gcc: fatal error: cannot read spec file ‘./specs’: Is a directory
> compilation terminated.
> make[2]: *** [<builtin>: isolationtester.o] Error 1
> make[2]: Leaving directory
> '/data/dwnlds/dwnld_slack/postgresql-18.1/src/test/isolation'
> make[1]: *** [Makefile:42: all-test/isolation-recurse] Error 2
> make[1]: Leaving directory '/data/dwnlds/dwnld_slack/postgresql-18.1/src'
> make: *** [GNUmakefile:11: all-src-recurse] Error 2
>
> Last compilation of postgresql-18.0 worked perfectly without issue and on
> the same laptop
> Any suggestions?
>
> I am on : Slackware64 Linux 15.0 (Current)
> Acer E5-771 laptop

What are exact build commands you've executed?

Could be that LIBRARY_PATH contains an empty path.  For example, I can
reproduce it with:

        export LIBRARY_PATH=
        make clean world-bin

--
Erik Wienhold