PostgreSQL 8.0.0rc2 Documentation
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# Chapter 15. Installation on Windows

Although PostgreSQL is written for Unix-like operating systems and compiles under MinGW, the C client library (libpq) and the interactive terminal (psql) can be compiled using other Windows tool sets. Makefiles are included in the source distribution for Microsoft Visual C++ and Borland C++. It should be possible to compile the libraries manually for other configurations.

> Tip: If you are using a Windows NT-based operating system or newer you can build and use all of PostgreSQL "the Unix way" if you install the MinGW toolkit first. In that case see Chapter 14.

To build everything that you can on Windows using Microsoft Visual C++, change into the `src` directory and type the command

    nmake /f win32.mak

This assumes that you have Visual C++ in your path.

To build everything using using Borland C++, change into the `src` directory and type the command

    make -DCFG=Release /f bcc32.mak

The following files will be built:

`interfaces\libpq\Release\libpq.dll`

  The dynamically linkable frontend library

`interfaces\libpq\Release\libpqdll.lib`

  Import library to link your programs to `libpq.dll`

`interfaces\libpq\Release\libpq.lib`

  Static library version of the frontend library

`bin\psql\Release\psql.exe`

  The PostgreSQL interactive terminal

The only file that really needs to be installed is the `libpq.dll` library. This file should in most cases be placed in the `WINNT\SYSTEM32` directory (or in `WINDOWS\SYSTEM` on a Windows 95/98/ME system). If this file is installed using a setup program, it should be installed with version checking using the `VERSIONINFO` resource included in the file, to ensure that a newer version of the library is not overwritten.

If you plan to do development using libpq on this machine, you will have to add the `src\include` and `src\interfaces\libpq` subdirectories of the source tree to the include path in your compilers settings.

To use the library, you must add the `libpqdll.lib` file to your project. (In Visual C++, just right-click on the project and choose to add it.)

psql is compiled as a "console application". As the Windows console windows use a different encoding than the rest of the system, you must take special care when using 8-bit characters at the psql prompt. When psql detects a problematic console code page, it will warn you at startup. To change the console code page, two things are neccessary:

- Set the code page by entering `cmd.exe /c chcp 1252`. (1252 is a code page that is appropriate for German; replace it with your value.) If you are using Cygwin, you can put this command in `/etc/profile`.

- Set the console font to "Lucida Console", because the raster font does not work with the ANSI code page.

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