2 32.22. Building libpq Programs #
4 To build (i.e., compile and link) a program using libpq you need to do
5 all of the following things:
6 * Include the libpq-fe.h header file:
9 If you failed to do that then you will normally get error messages
10 from your compiler similar to:
11 foo.c: In function `main':
12 foo.c:34: `PGconn' undeclared (first use in this function)
13 foo.c:35: `PGresult' undeclared (first use in this function)
14 foo.c:54: `CONNECTION_BAD' undeclared (first use in this function)
15 foo.c:68: `PGRES_COMMAND_OK' undeclared (first use in this function)
16 foo.c:95: `PGRES_TUPLES_OK' undeclared (first use in this function)
18 * Point your compiler to the directory where the PostgreSQL header
19 files were installed, by supplying the -Idirectory option to your
20 compiler. (In some cases the compiler will look into the directory
21 in question by default, so you can omit this option.) For instance,
22 your compile command line could look like:
23 cc -c -I/usr/local/pgsql/include testprog.c
25 If you are using makefiles then add the option to the CPPFLAGS
27 CPPFLAGS += -I/usr/local/pgsql/include
29 If there is any chance that your program might be compiled by other
30 users then you should not hardcode the directory location like
31 that. Instead, you can run the utility pg_config to find out where
32 the header files are on the local system:
33 $ pg_config --includedir
36 If you have pkg-config installed, you can run instead:
37 $ pkg-config --cflags libpq
40 Note that this will already include the -I in front of the path.
41 Failure to specify the correct option to the compiler will result
42 in an error message such as:
43 testlibpq.c:8:22: libpq-fe.h: No such file or directory
45 * When linking the final program, specify the option -lpq so that the
46 libpq library gets pulled in, as well as the option -Ldirectory to
47 point the compiler to the directory where the libpq library
48 resides. (Again, the compiler will search some directories by
49 default.) For maximum portability, put the -L option before the
50 -lpq option. For example:
51 cc -o testprog testprog1.o testprog2.o -L/usr/local/pgsql/lib -lpq
53 You can find out the library directory using pg_config as well:
57 Or again use pkg-config:
58 $ pkg-config --libs libpq
59 -L/usr/local/pgsql/lib -lpq
61 Note again that this prints the full options, not only the path.
62 Error messages that point to problems in this area could look like
64 testlibpq.o: In function `main':
65 testlibpq.o(.text+0x60): undefined reference to `PQsetdbLogin'
66 testlibpq.o(.text+0x71): undefined reference to `PQstatus'
67 testlibpq.o(.text+0xa4): undefined reference to `PQerrorMessage'
69 This means you forgot -lpq.
70 /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lpq
72 This means you forgot the -L option or did not specify the right