TITLE : PGXN

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The PostgreSQL Extension Network (PGXN) is a central distribution system for open-source PostgreSQL extension libraries. It is inspired by the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN).

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We've seen that PostgreSQL 9.1 allows developers to create extensions. With PGXN, extensions authors can submit their work together with metadata describing them: the packages and their documentation are indexed and distributed across several servers. The system can be accessed through a web interface or command line clients thanks to a simple API.

A comprehensive PGXN client is being developed. It can be installed with:

$ easy_install pgxnclient
Searching for pgxnclient
...
Best match: pgxnclient 0.2.1
Processing pgxnclient-0.2.1-py2.6.egg
...
Installed pgxnclient-0.2.1-py2.6.egg

Among other commands, it allows to search for extensions on the website:

$ pgxn search pair
pair 0.1.3
  ... Usage There are two ways to construct key/value *pairs*: Via the
  *pair*() function: % SELECT *pair*('foo', 'bar'); *pair* ------------
  (foo,bar) Or by using the ~> operator: % SELECT 'foo' ~> 'bar';
  *pair*...

semver 0.2.2
    *pair* │ 0.1.0 │ Key/value *pair* data type Note that "0.35.0b1" is less
    than "0.35.0", as required by the specification. Use ORDER BY to get
    more of a feel for semantic version ordering rules: SELECT...

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SUBHEADER: The new site PGXN.org offers a repository for contributing and downloading extensions.

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To build and install them on the system:

$ pgxn install pair
INFO: best version: pair 0.1.3
INFO: saving /tmp/tmpezwyEO/pair-0.1.3.zip
INFO: unpacking: /tmp/tmpezwyEO/pair-0.1.3.zip
INFO: building extension
...
INFO: installing extension
[sudo] password for piro: 
/bin/mkdir -p '/usr/local/pg91b1/share/postgresql/extension'
...

And to load them as database extensions:

$ pgxn load -d mydb pair
INFO: best version: pair 0.1.3
CREATE EXTENSION

What can be easier than this ?