Re: [GENERAL] libpq on win32 & postgresql on linux

Otavio Exel wrote:
>
> hello list,
>
> note: postgres-newbie here!

Me, too, pretty much.

>
> I have:
> - a linux box with postgresql 6.3.2 installed;
> - a win95 box with postgresql-win32-client-6.4.2 (from
> ftp://ftp.postgresql.org) installed;
>
> the win32 client can't connect due to a backward-incompatible change in
> the protocol; AFAIK I have 3 choices:
>
> 1. upgrade the postgresql on the linux box;
> 2. downgrade the win32 client on the win32 box;
> 3. use odbc;
>
> but I'm facing the following problems when choosing among the 3 above
> mentioned options:
>
> 1. the stable release of debian comes with 6.3.2 and I don't feel
> confortable enough to compile my own installation; I tried to install
> the package for the unstable version but it is not compatible;

Why not compatible? I'm running Slink, and just upgraded apache,
postgresql, and perl from Potato. The main thing, besides libraries
specific to those products, was glibc going from 2.0 to 2.1. Everything
is still working so far. I don't run much else on my system. The
postgresql upgrade went without a hitch; postgresql-dump easily
reimported my old data into the new format. There was very little data,
however, all of it non-critical, since I am just in the initial stages
of prototyping at this point.

One reason I did it is that I wanted to try pgaccess from Win32, and the
libraries for use with it have moved beyond 6.3.2. I wanted to stay a
little further ahead with apache and Perl, too, than Slink has afforded
me. Debian's getting a little behind with this stuff, but I can see why
they don't want to hurt Slink sites that are running fine, by forcing
them to upgrade glibc.

Why not join me on the cutting edge? :-) Unless it's a production
machine. =:-0
>
> 2. the only port of win32-client available from ftp.postgresql.org is
> 6.4.2; is there a postgresql-win32-client based of 6.3.2 somewhere?
>
> 3. I've never used odbc and I think of it as an unnecessary layer of
> complexity for my needs; am I wrong?

It will make it easier if you ever start using a different database;
almost all of them have ODBC drivers. You could use tools like Access
and Visual Basic, presumably.
>
> would someone please comment on my comments?
>
Happy to see someone else trying to run this stuff on Debian. Are you
doing any web stuff?