Robby on Rails

Thanks Robby for your post. Some of us have been looking forward to your comments (since you are a PostgreSQL – Ruby guru) about exactly which version of ruby-postgres to use (since there is confusion in the market and different Ruby PostgreSQL adapters are starting to emerge such as Jeff Davis’ fork called “ruby-pg” and older ones are not totally deprecated such as postgres-pr).

What I don’t understand with your instructions is why won’t this work for you? It works for me (and I’m also using MacPorts):

$ sudo gem install -y ruby-postgres

Robby,

Thanks for the note about postgres (pure C) gem because I didn’t know about it. I learned about the ruby-postgres gem from the 2nd Edition of the Rails Book (Agile Web Development with Rails) which states verbatim on page 293:

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——

Postgres Adapter

Requires: The ruby-postgres gem, installed using

depot> gem install ruby-postgres

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——

Considering your knowledge and expertise using Rails with PostgreSQL, I think I will try to use the pure C gem instead of the older ruby-postgres gem (which seems to have been last updated a few years ago).

Thanks dude!

Robby,

Just did some more investigation. I think the postgres and ruby-postgres gem might be the same beast, no? Check this out …

1.) Get a list of gems relating to databases for Ruby here:

http://rubyforge.org/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=66

2.) URL above returns a page that includes “postgres” (#13). Click on “postgres” and get (notice the URL contains the name “ruby-postgres” at the end of the URL:

http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-postgres/

3.) The page returned from the URL in #2 above now has this content:

postgres 2006-04-06 Snapshot April 6, 2006 – Download

Click Download and get this URL:

http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=636&release_id=4809

4.) The page returned by the URL in #3 above yields:

2006-04-06 Snapshot 2006-04-06 13:32

ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06.gem 46 KB 772 Any .gem (RubyGem)

5.) So what gives? Is the “ruby-postgres” gem the same as the merely “postgres” gem? Do we have a namespace confusion issue? It would be great to avoid namespace confusion if at all possible.

Cheers,

Hydro

Sweet! I just ordered a new MacBook Pro from Apple yesterday so that I could learn Ruby on Rails over the summer. This article has great timing. =)

Robby,

I think you should take a second look at your instructions and consider using the ruby-postgres gem instead of just “postgres” because as best I can tell (and I just went through the steps again to test it myself), you can save yourself trouble by merely doing:

$ sudo gem install -y ruby-postgres

I am nearly certain that the source of “ruby-postgres” is the same as that of “postgres” but for some reason “ruby-postgres” installs with no need for a workaround.

From my machine (Intel iMac running OS X 10.4.9) check it out:

-

$ sudo gem install -y ruby-postgres

Select which gem to install for your platform (i686-darwin8.9.1)

1. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.06 (ruby)

2. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.06 (mswin32)

3. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.05 (mswin32)

4. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.05 (ruby)

5. Skip this gem

6. Cancel installation

> 1

Building native extensions. This could take a while…

Successfully installed ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06

Installing ri documentation for ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06…

Installing RDoc documentation for ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06…

-

$cd /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems

$ls -p | grep postgres

ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06/

$ cd ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06

$ ls -altr

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 1562 Jun 19 16:23 type-oids.h

drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Jun 19 16:23 tests/

drwxr-xr-x 8 root admin 272 Jun 19 16:23 sample/

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 1119 Jun 19 16:23 ruby-postgres.gemspec

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 66822 Jun 19 16:23 postgres.c

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 6102 Jun 19 16:23 libpq-compat.c

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 941 Jun 19 16:23 extconf.rb

drwxr-xr-x 4 root admin 136 Jun 19 16:23 doc/

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 4347 Jun 19 16:23 README.ja

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 2980 Jun 19 16:23 README

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 198 Jun 19 16:23 MANIFEST

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 875 Jun 19 16:23 Contributors

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 6082 Jun 19 16:23 ChangeLog

drwxr-xr-x 8 root admin 272 Jun 19 16:23 ../

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 8279 Jun 19 16:23 mkmf.log

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 4324 Jun 19 16:23 Makefile

rw-r-r— 1 root admin 43332 Jun 19 16:23 postgres.o

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 40160 Jun 19 16:23 postgres.bundle

drwxr-xr-x 19 root admin 646 Jun 19 16:23 ./

-

Welcome to Darwin!

iMac:~ me$ irb

irb(main):001:0> require ‘rubygems’

=> true

irb(main):002:0> require ‘postgres’

=> true

-

I have yet to test it out with a fresh Rails app against a fresh install of PostgreSQL 8.1.9 from MacPorts but that’s next. All indications are, from the above, that we’re talking about the same C-based gem (ruby-postgres == postgres) and that using the name “postgres” in the gem install process causes the need for a work around but using the name “ruby-postgres” does not.

Wow! That’s eerily similar to a post I wrote a few weeks ago: http://rid.onkulo.us/archives/18-installing-ruby-on-rails-on-mac-os-x

Wow! That’s eerily similar to a post I wrote a few weeks ago: http://rid.onkulo.us/archives/18-installing-ruby-on-rails-on-mac-os-x

From what I understand, ‘ruby-postgres’ is the updated version of the ‘postgres’ library and is the one to use.

The ‘pg-ruby’ library doesn’t look like it’s had any activity.

Michael Air wrote:

-

From what I understand, ‘ruby-postgres’ is the updated version of the ‘postgres’ library and is the one to use.

The ‘pg-ruby’ library doesn’t look like it’s had any activity.

-

Thanks Michael. If what you assert is true, then tsk tsk to Robby on Rails for not being aware of this and thus posting unnecessary workarounds!

Robby wrote:

“I hadn’t seen the ruby-postgres gem before. I was only aware of the postgres (pure C) and postgres-rb gems.”

Robby just keeping you on your toes ;-)

robby, if you use rubygems from port, why didn’t you encourage to use rails and other gems from port as well?

sayang:~ arie$ port search rubygems rails
rb-rubygems                    ruby/rb-rubygems 0.9.2        a package management framework for Ruby
rb-rails                       ruby/rb-rails  1.1.6        Ruby web-application framework for the MVC pattern.
sayang:~ arie$ which gem
/opt/local/bin/gem
sayang:~ arie$ gem -v
0.9.4
sayang:~ arie$ 

Sorry, I’m just curious as I always build my rubygems from source (ruby setup.rb) not port.

Postgresql question: how do you guys do high availability with postgres? I hear it’s a lot easier with mysql.

I believe the postgres cli tools aren’t in bin for avoiding name clashes (having, say, postgres74 and 82 installed at the same time), if you noticed, there is symlink psql82 available, if you don’t need the rest.

Also even if you don’t need workarounds with ruby-postgres, if you ever have gem that can’t find libs, you can also do

gem install foobar -- --with-foo-lib=/opt/local/lib --with-foo-include=/opt/local/include

But great writeup!

Thanks for the great update on a classic post, Robby. I don’t know about others, but one thing I’d love to know more about is how to properly use PostgreSQL’s constraints in tandem with Rails model validations. You know, kind of a ‘defense in depth’ approach. There seems to be precious little documentation about this. For example, every time I try to give my DB the power to enforce data integrity (with or without model validation), when it trips up, I don’t know how to rescue the exception in Ruby if it’s a PostgreSQL exception, rather than a AR exception. Maybe I’m just missing something and need to put on the Rails white belt once again… oh wait, I’m still wearing it ;)

Thanks man. The day after we use your blog to install Postgres :-)

Yes, we have come over to the dark site ;-)

Seriously, thanks for the blogumentation.

-Joe

Stephen, yeah same here. That would be a great article—how to leverage postgresql’s strength in Rails apps.

Thanks for the tutorial. Actually didn’t need the Postgresql part, though I realize it’s why everyone reads it.

From our perspective as publishers of legacy/mainframe integration software, I’m wondering whether it might be worth it to add Ruby on Rails support. Right now, we support Java and .NET.

Legacy integration certainly isn’t considered cool, though it’s clearly relevant to the “enterprise”.

Just a quick note that I had to do a

sudo port selfupdate

before installing ruby, as I got this error:

Error: Dependency 'libiconv' not found.
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

Thanks It’s a really good guide.

Thanks It’s a really good guide.

Thanks for the guide. It works great. I was wondering if you’ve tried to get PostgreSQL up and running on Leopard. I’m doing some other development in the seed and would like to be able to move some of my RoR projects over to 10.5 as well, but every approach to install PostgreSQL I’ve tried has failed. Have you tried/had any luck?

Feel free to contact me offline.

Cheers for the guide. I’ve followed it through but I encounter problems at the end!

Once I’ve installed Postgres, this bit goes ok;

—-—-—-—-—-- $ sudo mkdir -p /opt/local/var/db/postgresql82/defaultdb $ sudo chown postgres:postgres /opt/local/var/db/postgresql82/defaultdb $ sudo su postgres -c ’/opt/local/lib/postgresql82/bin/initdb -D /opt/local/var/db/postgresql82/defaultdb’ —-—-—-—-—-—-—-

and ‘whichpsql’ returns the correct string.

Then, when I try and create myself as a superuser I get

—-—-—-—-—-—-—— createuser: could not connect to database postgres: could not connect to server: No such file or directory Is the server running locally and accepting connections on Unix domain socket ”/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432”? —-—-—-—-—-—-——

Any ideas? I’ve been messing around for a while now and I’m pretty flummoxed!

If I’ve done something foolishly wrong and it’s obvious, please ridicule me!

Cracking tutorial, even better that it also includes Postgres.

Thanks Robby.

@Chris – It looks like you haven’t started Postgres. You’ll probably find it works when you reboot, but if like me you don’t start Postgres on boot, then try this:

sudo /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql82-server/postgresql82-server.wrapper start

Hi

Thanks ! ! !

It’s a really good guide!

When I execute: sudo gem install -y rails

I receive this message: sudo gem install -y rails Password: /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require’: no such file to load—sources (LoadError) from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `require’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/source_info_cache.rb:6 from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `require’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/remote_installer.rb:12 from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `require’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems.rb:112:in `manage_gems’ from /opt/local/bin/gem:10

Why?

Thank you.

Bobby and everyone,

thanks for your tutorial and your advices. But – I’ve got a problem.. ruby-postgres doesn’t install..

This is what happens:

clxxii:~ j82018$ sudo gem install -y ruby-postgres Password: Select which gem to install for your platform (universal-darwin8.0) 1. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.06 (ruby) 2. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.06 (mswin32) 3. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.05 (mswin32) 4. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.05 (ruby) 5. Skip this gem 6. Cancel installation > 1 Building native extensions. This could take a while… ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError) ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

• extconf.rb failed * Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may need configuration options.

Provided configuration options: —with-opt-dir —without-opt-dir —with-opt-include —without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include —with-opt-lib —without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib —with-make-prog —without-make-prog —srcdir=. —curdir —ruby=/usr/local/bin/ruby —with-pgsql-dir —without-pgsql-dir —with-pgsql-include —without-pgsql-include=${pgsql-dir}/include —with-pgsql-lib —without-pgsql-lib=${pgsql-dir}/lib —with-pqlib —without-pqlib Could not find PostgreSQL build environment (libraries & headers): Makefile not created

Gem files will remain installed in /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06 for inspection. Results logged to /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2006.04.06/gem_make.out clxxii:~ j82018$

...could anyone please say what I should do? thanks for help!

@Tuomas

I’m getting the same error. I’ve done this whole install a couple of times now, but for some reason I’m getting the error now.

What version of postgresql are you running and what OS?

I’m on debian and postgres 1.8

Hi Robby,

Thanks for this tutorial! I ran into a problem with postgres not installing properly (the no such file to load problem). I just updated my ruby installation and it worked great!

Jordan

Can you comment on the available replication options for PG?

failed here… and i don’t know what to do anymore…

macs-computer:~ bernard$ sudo gem install -y ruby-postgres Select which gem to install for your platform (universal-darwin8.0) 1. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.06 (ruby) 2. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.06 (mswin32) 3. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.05 (mswin32) 4. ruby-postgres 0.7.1.2006.04.05 (ruby) 5. Skip this gem 6. Cancel installation > 1 Building native extensions. This could take a while… ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError) ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

• extconf.rb failed * Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may need configuration options.

I had the same problem.

extconf.rb is using ENV[“POSTGRES_INCLUDE”] and ENV[“POSTGRES_LIB”]. So if you define those in your environment, it should work.

I couldn’t install ruby-postgres either. I then figured that for some reason /opt/local/bin wasn’t in my path. This broke installing the gem as it was using the 1.8.2 version in /usr/bin instead. Once the path was in, everything worked fine.

I would add this to adding to the path in the main article as I needed to read the old one to figure what was different.

I couldn’t install ruby-postgres either. I then figured that for some reason /opt/local/bin wasn’t in my path. This broke installing the gem as it was using the 1.8.2 version in /usr/bin instead. Once the path was in, everything worked fine.

I would add this to adding to the path in the main article as I needed to read the old one to figure what was different.

I just wanted the postgres part, and that worked fine, until I tried to install pgsql_perl5-1.9.0. That thing said I needed the libpq.so file, but when I looked in the lib dir, I only saw libpq.a instead of the .so file. I’m installing on an Intel Mac running 10.4

Is there an easy way for me to create a libpq.so file?

Thanks mate . It worked perfect for me .

Alas, I too still have my trusty PowerBook G4, although mine is not on the fritz yet. However, it is showing it’s age with slowness. Right now I’m running Ruby/Rails/Mongrel inside of Locomotive and am noticing it’s quite slow. Would you know if installing it according to above would yield a faster set up? The lines blur to me between installing the “ruby” version of gems, yet it does a “Building native extensions.”, yet I have all the source to the gems installed and modifying them shows instant results. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

“Could not find PostgreSQL build environment (libraries & headers): Makefile not created”

I had this problem too, then I found that what was missing (on my Ubuntu 7.04 box) was the postgresql-server-dev-8.2 package from apt.

sudo apt-get install postgresql-server-dev-8.2

After that, ruby-postgres from gems installed without problems.

I am trying a fresh install under Leopard. I’ve installed postgres from www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8561/postgresql
Initially, I was having the same install error mentioned several times above regarding extconf.rb when installing either of the gems (ruby-postgres or postgres). I fixed this problem on ruby-postgres by defining the following two environment variables (as hinted above)...

export POSTGRES_INCLUDE=/Library/PostgreSQL8/include
export POSTGRES_LIB=/Library/PostgreSQL8/lib

However, the postgres gem still fails.

Was it ever determined which gem should be used?

Also, I now note that the ruby-postgres gem will STiLL install if I remove those lines from my .bashrc file. - strange -

sjf

There seems to be a lot of failures with the above method. There is a much easier way to install PostgreSQL on OS X Leopard without using the MacPort or compiling yourself – and one that maintains Apple’s established pathing conventions in OS X.

And if you want to use MySQL for RoR on Leopard, here is a great and simple guide.

Thank you so much!!

Thank you so much!!

That was helpful! Thanks ;)

I translate and adapt your guide to french : http://fabien.jakimowicz.com/articles/2008/05/09/rails-sur-postgresql-pour-leopard

I was experiencing the same problems with extconf.rb and pg_config:

“(...)extconf.rb:13: command not found: pg_config(...)”

Everything was solved after I install the package postgresql82-dev with fink.

I was experiencing the same problems with extconf.rb and pg_config:

“(...)extconf.rb:13: command not found: pg_config(...)”

Everything was solved after I install the package postgresql82-dev with fink.

ruby-pg is now the official postgres ruby gem: http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-interfaces/2007-12/msg00003.php

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With postgresql83, the user postgres is added with no shell, so you get the error “su: /dev/null: Permission denied” when you try to create the default database. The solution is to add a shell to that user, using the Mac command: “sudo dscl . -create /Users/postgres UserShell /bin/sh”