How to use pgxn?

Question

The simplest command, to check a package, for example pgxn check json_fdw, is not working:

INFO: best version: json_fdw 1.0.0
INFO: saving /tmp/tmpwblehzox/json_fdw-1.0.0.zip
INFO: unpacking: /tmp/tmpwblehzox/json_fdw-1.0.0.zip
INFO: checking extension
/usr/lib/postgresql/12/lib/pgxs/src/makefiles/../../src/test/regress/pg_regress --inputdir=./ --bindir='/usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin'    --dbname=contrib_regression basic_tests customer_reviews hdfs_block invalid_gz_file
(using postmaster on Unix socket, default port)
============== dropping database "contrib_regression" ==============
psql: error: could not connect to server: FATAL:  role "myUser" does not exist
command failed: "/usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin/psql" -X -c "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS \"contrib_regression\"" "postgres"
/usr/lib/postgresql/12/lib/pgxs/src/makefiles/pgxs.mk:420: recipe for target 'installcheck' failed
make: *** [installcheck] Error 2
INFO: copying regression.out
INFO: copying regression.diffs
ERROR: command returned 2: make PG_CONFIG=/usr/bin/pg_config installcheck

I need to express user, password, database, etc.

PS: the Guide link not exists, http://pgxnclient.projects.postgresql.org/

Usual for my env is to use psql connectionString (e.g. connectionString="postgres://postgres:passwd@localhost/byBase"), but pgxn not accepts it.

---

Other error example

sudo pgxn install json_fdw

INFO: best version: json_fdw 1.0.0
INFO: saving /tmp/tmpinndxvp9/json_fdw-1.0.0.zip
INFO: unpacking: /tmp/tmpinndxvp9/json_fdw-1.0.0.zip
INFO: building extension
gcc -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Werror=vla -Wendif-labels -Wmissing-format-attribute -Wformat-security -fno-strict-aliasing -fwrapv -fexcess-precision=standard -g -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fPIC -pie -fno-omit-frame-pointer -fPIC -I. -I./ -I/usr/include/postgresql/12/server -I/usr/include/postgresql/internal -I/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -D_GNU_SOURCE -I/usr/include/libxml2  -I/usr/include/mit-krb5  -c -o json_fdw.o json_fdw.c
In file included from json_fdw.c:15:0:
json_fdw.h:22:28: fatal error: nodes/relation.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
<builtin>: recipe for target 'json_fdw.o' failed
make: *** [json_fdw.o] Error 1
ERROR: command returned 2: make PG_CONFIG=/usr/bin/pg_config all

ENV details

• old server UBUNTU 16 LTS

• psql --version = 12.2

• pgxn installed by sudo easy_install pgxnclient. pgxn --version = pgxnclient 1.3

• on psql "postgres://postgres:passwd@localhost/myBase" -c "select version()" = PostgreSQL 10.12

• for json_fdw package prepared, before pgxn install, with sucess sudo apt install zlib1g-dev libyajl-dev.

Answer 1

The documentation is here. It says:

pgxn check

Run a distribution’s unit test.

Usage:

pgxn check [--help] [--stable | --testing | --unstable]
           [--pg_config PROG] [--make PROG]
           [-d DBNAME] [-h HOST] [-p PORT] [-U NAME]
           SPEC

The command takes a package specification identifying the distribution to work with, which can also be a local file or directory or an URL. The distribution is unpacked if required and the installcheck make target is run.

make installcheck is documented in the PostgreSQL documentation:

The scripts listed in the REGRESS variable are used for regression testing of your module, which can be invoked by make installcheck after doing make install. For this to work you must have a running PostgreSQL server.

So you need to have a PostgreSQL database running, and you have to specify database name, host, port and user if you don't want to use the defaults. Since the user will typically create an extension, it will usually have to be a superuser.