In my last post I detailed my process for building PostgreSQL and PostGIS on Leopard. Problem is, it didn’t work. I was getting a strange crash when importing shape data. I’m not positive what the problem is but I would bet it was the liconv trickery…

In any case, I discovered that there are pre-built binaries for OS-X (Leopard compatible!) referenced from the PostGIS website. The maintainer has also packaged some require frameworks (GEOS and PROJ).

I’ve now got everything working (I think!) using the pre-compiled binaries. The steps are somewhat similar to those detailed in the other post. Here’s what I did:

PostgreSQL

• Download the PostgreSQL dmg and run the installer. (I also installed the startup item)

PostGIS

• Download the GEOS and PROJ images and run the installers.
• Download the PostGIS dmg and run the installer

Initial DB Setup

• Initialize the default db. (The installer readme says that it does this but it didn’t seem to…)
  $ sudo su postgres -c '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data'
• Create a new superuser:
  $ createdb -U postgres <user-name>

• Create a postgis template database:

  • Connect to the template database
    $ psql template1

    • Execute the following commands:
      template1=# create database template_postgis with template = template1;
template1=# UPDATE pg_database SET datistemplate = TRUE where datname = 'template_postgis';

    • Connect to the new template_postgis database:
      template1=# c template_postgis

    • Add PostGIS extensions and grant access to everyone to spatial tables:
      template_postgis=# CREATE LANGUAGE plpgsql;
template_postgis=# i /usr/local/pgsql/share/lwpostgis.sql;
template_postgis=# i /usr/local/pgsql/share/spatial_ref_sys.sql;
template_postgis=# GRANT ALL ON geometry_columns TO PUBLIC;
template_postgis=# GRANT ALL ON spatial_ref_sys TO PUBLIC;

    • Prevent further modifications to the template_postgis database:
      template_postgis=# VACUUM FREEZE;

Ruby

• Install postgres nativ extensions
  • Get the gem sources
    $ sudo gem install postgres
  • The build will fail. Go to /usr/lib/ruby/user-gems/1.8/gems/postgres-0.7.1 and execute:
    $ sudo ruby extconf.rb --with-pgsql-dir=/usr/local/pgsql/
$ sudo make && sudo make install
$ sudo gem install postgres
• Install GeoRuby
  $ sudo gem install GeoRuby