PostGIS compilation error on Windows - missing libpq

Question

I have built PostgreSQL source using MSVC2015 compiler for 64bit support and installed on Windows. Now, I want to build PostGIS also from source (I am referencing from this documentation). I am using MinGW. First, I had problems with a missing PGXS makefile which I have solved by installing the PostgreSQL server development package (from Debian). Now, the configure file is complaining about missing libpq:

checking for PQserverVersion in -lpq... no

configure:error: could not find libpq

Upon closer inspection at the config.log file, this stands out:

error C:/PostgreSQL/9.6/lib/libpq.dll: file not recognized: File format not recognized

I have found this which suggests either an incompatibility between compilers or trying to combine a 64bit version with a 32bit one. Well, I made sure to compile in 64bit throughout - maybe I can somehow verify this?

Otherwise, if it is a problem with compilers, the PostgreSQL compilation was only working with MSVC and I cannot use this for PostGIS to my knowledge.

I am trying to make a contribution to PostGIS so there is no point using the binary installation. I understand it is not ideal to use Windows, however I would very much like the solution to work on Windows at the end of the day.

Answer 1

I build the PostGIS packages for windows.

Here is my tip.

1) Compile PostgreSQL under mingw64 as well. It will save you a lot of grief. Stay away from compiling under VC++. The packages you create will work just fine under VC++ as well as mingw64.

2) Then build postgis against the mingw64 compiled PostgreSQL.

My scripts for building PostGIS dependencies, including PostgreSQL are here:

https://gist.github.com/robe2/5942642

You can also download my build chain (which is listed in the gist). I think I already have PostgreSQL built under mingw as part of my chain.

I'll update it in a bit to include PostGIS 2.4 stuff (the protobuf stuff coming) and also the newer dependencies I ship with PostGIS windows builds.

For running PostgreSQL, I use a launch script that has the paths:

@ECHO ON
REM The script sets environment variables helpful for PostgreSQL
SET OS_BUILD=64
SET GCC_TYPE=gcc48
SET MINGW=C:\ming%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\mingw%OS_BUILD%
SET PROJECTS=C:\ming%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\projects
SET GDAL_VER=2.1.1
SET GEOS_VER=3.6.1
SET PGDATA=%~dp0\data
SET PGDATABASE=postgres
SET PGUSER=postgres
SET PGPORT=5446
SET ICONV_VER=1.13.1
SET PROJ_VER=4.9.1
SET LIBXML_VER=2.7.8
SET CURL_VER=7.44.0
SET EXPAT_VER=2.1.0
SET FREEXL_VER=1.0.1
SET OPENSSL_VER=1.0.1p
SET V8_VER=3.14.5
SET PCRE_VER=8.33
SET PROTOBUF_VER=3.2.0
@SET SFCGAL_VER=1.3.0
@SET CGAL_VER=4.6.1
@SET SQLite_VER=3
@SET PROJSO=libproj-9.dll
@SET ORACLE_HOME=C:\app\Administrator\product\11.2.0\client_1
@SET TNS_ADMIN=C:\app\Administrator\product\11.2.0\client_1\network\admin


@SET GDAL_DATA=%PROJECTS%\gdal\rel-%GDAL_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\share\gdal
@SET PATH=%PROJECTS%\CGAL\rel-cgal-%CGAL_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\cgal\rel-sfcgal-%SFCGAL_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%MINGW%\bin;%~dp0bin;%PROJECTS%\gdal\rel-%GDAL_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\geos\rel-%GEOS_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\rel-libiconv-%ICONV_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\proj\rel-%PROJ_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\libxml\rel-libxml2-%LIBXML_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\curl\rel-curl-%CURL_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\expat\rel-expat-%EXPAT_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\freexl\rel-freexl-%FREEXL_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\v8\%V8_VER%;%PROJECTS%\ssl\rel-openssl-%OPENSSL_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\sqlite\rel-sqlite%SQLite_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%PROJECTS%\protobuf\rel-%PROTOBUF_VER%w%OS_BUILD%%GCC_TYPE%\bin;%~dp0\bin

echo %GDAL_DATA%
echo %PATH%

@REM SET POSTGIS_GDAL_ENABLED_DRIVERS=EHdr GTiff PNG JPEG GIF XYZ
REM SET POSTGIS_GDAL_ENABLED_DRIVERS=ENABLE_ALL

REM @SET GDAL_DATA="%PROJECTS%\gdal\rel-1.9.2\share\gdal"
@SET PGLOCALEDIR=%~dp0\share\locale
"%~dp0\bin\initdb" -E UTF8 -U postgres -A trust
"%~dp0\bin\pg_ctl" -D "%~dp0/data" -l logfile start
ECHO "Click enter to stop"
pause
"%~dp0\bin\pg_ctl" -D "%~dp0/data" stop -m fast

The Oracle stuff and V8 stuff you can ignore. I added PROTOBUF since that's a new dependency for PostGIS 2.4 coming up. https://trac.osgeo.org/postgis/ticket/3661

The launch script will work fine for both mingw64 PostgreSQL as well as PostgreSQL VC++ build. I usually test against PostgreSQL VC++ since that's what is used in StackBuilder.