On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 4:13 AM Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net> wrote:
It's kind of strange that if you start your PostgreSQL journey by reading our instructions, you get nothing useful about installing PostgreSQL from binary packages other than "go ask somebody else about it". Yet we have pretty good step by step instructions on our *website* for it.
Attached patch adds a chapter to the docs about installing from binaries, and refers those users to the website download instructions (and updates the Windows instructions to include an actual link to the website).
It also adds mention of it in a few other places - -there are probably more that could use some help with that in the future. But I've seen a lot of people get confused by our documentation assuming everything is from source when it comes to initdb and pg_ctl that I think it's worth specially mentioning it there.
Dang, I forgot to add this to the cf page, so I forgot about it myself :)
Thanks. Adding tips calling out common package-specific/handled pieces seems ok.
One typo for the patch as-is:
+ When PostgreSQL is installed using binary packages, starting and stopping
+ of the system is normally integrated with the service management on the + platform. Refer to the documentation for the documentation for these + packages and the platform for more information.
Remove "for the documentation"
Hah, yeah, that's cute.
However, maybe we should avoid repeated use of the passive "When PostgreSQL is installed using binary packages". Consider just: "PostgreSQL binary packages". e.g.,
PostgreSQL binary packages normally include platform-appropriate service management (starting and stopping). Consult the package documentation for more information.
(the other two can be rewording similarly if this is deemed better - all three should be consistent).
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. How about like this?