From: Greg Troxel <gdt@lexort.com>
Subject: PostGIS 3.7.0rc2 released
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:45:08 -0400
Message-ID: <rmiwlsuy4ob.fsf@s1.lexort.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <000001dd3ffb$fb0f5490$f12dfdb0$@pcorp.us>
References: <001101dd3fda$7c978c70$75c6a550$@pcorp.us>
<rmimrtr1dsr.fsf@s1.lexort.com>
<000001dd3ffb$fb0f5490$f12dfdb0$@pcorp.us>
"Regina Obe" <lr at pcorp.us> writes:
> The compile error is just bogus. Stems from the fact that visual-examples
> aren't built.
> On my system I get this now from building from the tarball and running
> commands:
>
> make -C doc html
>
> wrote /projects/postgis/postgis-3.7.0rc2/doc/html/postgis-ref-index.json and
> /projects/postgis/postgis-3.7.0rc2/doc/html/postgis-ref-index.js;
> commands=1, functions=630, operator pages=37, SQL keywords=63
> Makefile:626: *** Visual examples are missing. Run 'make -C regress
> visual-examples' first.. Stop.
> make: Leaving directory '/projects/postgis/postgis-3.7.0rc2/doc'
>
> Which I felt was much clearer than it recursing on each step and failing
> cause it couldn't find the images.
This follows from the bug that make docs doesn't build them.
> Not sure why yours continues to recurse on. Before I made the change to the
> steps to just exit, I was getting the same results you were.
I don't think it does continue.
>> Reading NEWS:
>>
>> To build docs, first run visual examples and make sure you have a
> running
>> PostgreSQL instance.
>>
>> `make -C regress visual-examples`
>>
>> this is really problematic and outside the normal boundaries.
>>
>> - "run visual examples" does not parse
>> - "make sure you have a running postgresql instance" is not ok. When
>> building packages, they're in a sandbox and while package building
>> machines do run build tools, but requiring someone to start up a
>> database is way too much for this kind of environment
>> - "build docs" and "regress" do not belong together
>>
>
> You need a running PostgreSQL to regress test don't you? I fail to see the
> issue here.
Yes, to run regression tests. But we are not talking about running
regression tests; we are talking about building documentation.
>> I'll look into this before, but I wanted to test/write quickly that
>> rc2 is not suitable for release. I hope these issues are relatively
>> easy to address.
>
> Yah I was debating that but I feared trying to change that would just break
> things in more vulnerable ways.
> Do you agree the best course of action is just to advice people to NOT try
> to build docs unless they are contributing to the project
> and just make it very clear where they can download them pre-built?
No, I don't think that's reasonable. This is a regression from the
previous stable branch.
> Even if contributing I'd probably say it's not necessary as I document a lot
> and never have had a need to build the docs myself. Always relied on the CI
> to do that.
That's the slippery slope to thinking telling people to run docker
containers is ok. Seriously, I see a lot of projects that claim to be
open source and then say "This is too hard to build. Just use our
docker container", and seem to not perceive that as a serious project
bug.
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To: postgis-users@lists.osgeo.org
Cc: gdt@lexort.com
Subject: Re: PostGIS 3.7.0rc2 released
In-Reply-To: <rmiwlsuy4ob.fsf@s1.lexort.com>
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