Re: Proposal: allow installation of any contrib module simultaneously with Postgres itself

"Nikolay Samokhvalov" <samokhvalov(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> 1. Change default behaviour of <MODULE_NAME>.sql file so it will be
> installed in <MODULE_NAME> schema instead of "public" (e.g., "hstore"
> schema will contain all hstore relations and functions).

This might be a good idea, but it's hardly transparent; it can be
counted on to break the applications of just about everyone using those
modules today.

> 2. Allow running configure with "--with-<MODULE_NAME>" (or
> "--enable-<MODULE_NAME>") to include compilation of module's libraries
> simultaneously with Postgres itself and including running of module's
> registration SQLs (from that .sql files) simultaneously with cluster
> creation (in other words, with inidb invocation -- this will add
> "<MODULE_NAME>" schema to template0).

> This will simplify the procedure of starting to use contrib modules
> and will help to promote the modules themselves (and, as a result,
> some PostgreSQL's advanced features). I think many projects have
> similar behaviour with regard to their extensions. And ISPs will
> install PostgreSQL with a bundle of useful and "trusted" extensions,
> simply running "./configure --with-tsearch2 --with-hstore
> --with-dblink" (actually, I hope that tsearch2 will be in core, but
> this is really good example at the moment ;-) ) - like they do with
> PHP, Apache and other software.

The problem with this proposal is that the ISPs aren't the ones running
configure --- these days, most people are running prebuilt packages
(RPMs or DEBs or what have you). So what you are hoping is that the
packagers will choose to do this and thereby force these modules into
the "standard" configuration for everybody using their packages. I'm
not sure that the packagers will change ... well maybe Gentoo will,
but not anyone with more conservative policies ... and I'm pretty sure
any who do will get push-back from people who still won't trust contrib.

regards, tom lane