Re: RISC-V support in the PostgreSQL PGDG APT repository

Re: Cary Huang
> Hi Christoph,
>
> Hope all is well. This is Cary Huang from Highgo Software, based in Vancouver, Canada.
>
> I am reaching out to ask whether there are any current or future plans to support
> RISC-V (riscv64) in the PostgreSQL PGDG APT repository.
>
> Are there any major blockers to adding such support today?

Hi Cary,

thanks for reaching out.

The obvious blocker is availability of hardware. We don't have build
hosts. The other question would be if those build hosts could keep up
with the speed of the other architectures. Currently all supported
architectures are about the same speed, so we can build all packages
synchronously, which has helped a lot with keeping repository quality
up. Looking at Debian's riscv64 build hosts, they are often much
slower than the others.

> I noticed that Debian 13 already provides PostgreSQL 17 and a number of PostgreSQL
> extensions for riscv64, which seems to indicate that PostgreSQL and much of the
> ecosystem can already build and run on the architecture. However, PGDG does not
> currently provide riscv64 packages, so Debian RISC-V users who need a PostgreSQL
> version other than the one shipped by Debian don't really have an official package
> source.
>
> RISC-V adoption is growing, and Canonical's Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and
> Debian now have some initiatives in supporting the RISC-V architecture. I think
> having PGDG support could therefore become increasingly useful. HighGo has also
> been an active contributor to the PostgreSQL community for many years, and we
> would be interested in helping with this initiative. We have connections with the
> RISC-V community in China and could potentially help procure suitable hardware or
> coordinate other resources if that would be helpful.
>
> I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and what would be required to make riscv64
> support possible.
>
> Cary Huang
> -------------
> HighGo Software Inc. (Canada)
> cary(dot)huang(at)highgo(dot)ca
> www.highgo.ca

Christoph