Subject: [Pljava-dev] Pl/Java package in Ubuntu

From: p.brewer at ltrr.arizona.edu (Peter Brewer)
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2015 12:13:58 -0700

Hi all,

I'm one of those leeches that uses PL/Java but doesn't have the 
expertise to contribute directly.  So first of all, thanks for the great 
work!

I'm the lead developer for a scientific server/client database 
application (www.tellervo.org) that uses PL/Java.  The server portion is 
distributed as an Ubuntu package and used by a number of labs around the 
world.  The average user of my product is therefore a scientist rather 
than hard core techie.  As such I need to give them a package that can 
be easily installed and configured without them getting their hands dirty.

My last release was aimed at Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and worked fine as 
Postgres 9.1 and compatible pljava packages were available in the main 
repos.

I'm now looking at releasing the next version but see that pljava has 
been removed from the Debian repository primarily to 64 bit issues:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=743364

There is currently a pljava package for PG9.3 in the Ubuntu 14.04 
repositories but once installed even on 32bit OS it fails to run with 
the following error:

ERROR:  could not load library "/usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/lib/pljava.so": 
/usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/lib/pljava.so: undefined symbol: HeapTupleGetOid

So in summary, pljava won't work "out-of-the-box" on Ubuntu beyond 12.04 
and with the end-of-life date rapidly approaching I'm beginning to panic 
a bit!

Is anyone working on this?  Are there substantial technical issues that 
need solving or is it just a matter of the packaging?  A PPA package for 
32bit pljava PG9.3 would be great or even a roadmap as to when such a 
package might be available!

Many thanks

Peter