From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
cc: Isaac Morland <isaac.morland@gmail.com>,
        "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>,
        Dutch Glory <dutch.glory@yahoo.com>,
        "pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org"
 <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: Postgresql 18 Linux (all flavors) - with installation,
 create new instance/main database
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Comments: In-reply-to Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
	message dated "Thu, 07 May 2026 09:35:29 -0400"
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Date: Thu, 07 May 2026 10:07:00 -0400
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Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net> writes:
> On 2026-05-07 Th 8:44 AM, Isaac Morland wrote:
>> No, make/ninja install should not create a database. That is
>> outside its appropriate responsibilities. Installing from source
>> stops once the binaries are installed.  Using the installed
>> product is up to the user.
>> 
>> Also there are lots of reasons to install Postgres without creating an 
>> instance. This is actually one of the things I don't like about the 
>> Ubuntu installer, which defaults to creating an instance (although 
>> this behaviour can be suppressed by creating a config file with an 
>> appropriate directive first).

> +1 It's annoyed me many times.

Yeah.  When I was with Red Hat, there was a pretty nearly ironclad
rule that simply installing a package shouldn't cause it to do
anything.  The argument for this was that you should be able to
select fairly large package sets at system install time and not
worry about half-configured servers starting up on you.  Exceptions
were made for services that were (a) essential to system functionality
and (b) having default configurations that were both secure and
widely useful as-is.  It's impossible to argue that Postgres meets
either condition.

			regards, tom lane