In short:

  • Buildkits encapsulate metadata about the package-building process.
  • When a buildkit sees creation or updates within the buildkit GitHub repo, GitHub Actions builds the package and subsequently publishing it to a designated repository.
  • Invoking pgxman install adds pgxman’s repository to your system, followed by package installations through your system’s native package manager.

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System Compatibility

The backbone of pgxman’s build system is your system’s package manager. At present, only apt-driven systems of Debian and Ubuntu are supported. pgxman currently builds packages for Debian Bookworm and Ubuntu Jammy.

In the future, other package managers and operating systems will be supported. Currently, we plan to target:

  • apt
  • brew
  • rpm

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Extension Installation

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Apt

During the extension installation phase, pgxman adds its Apt repository to your system, enabling the installation of extension packages. pgxman handles dependency management, installation, and uninstallation through apt.

All pgxman packages are marked as “held back” with apt-mark hold, which prevents them from accidential installations, upgrades, or removals outside of pgxman.

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Buildkits

pgxman uses a repository of buildkits to know what extensions are available. When you use search or install, the buildkit metadata is used to obtain information about that extension. A cached copy of this repository is stored in the pgxman folder in your user config directory.

Each buildkit specifies how to build each extension, and the buildkit build system builds it for each package manager. When a buildkit is added or updated, a build is conducted automatically (using Github Actions) and the packages are stored in pgxman’s repository.

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Building a buildkit

pgxman build uses Docker to build the buildkit packages locally. The result is placed into the out/ directory in your current working directory.