Error installing node-postgres on Amazon Linux. Missing pg_config.h file

Question

This error seems common on windows boxes, but my Amazon Linux EC2 instance is throwing this error when I npm install pg:

../src/binding.cc:1:23: fatal error: pg_config.h: No such file or directory
 #include <pg_config.h>
                       ^
compilation terminated.
make: *** [Release/obj.target/binding/src/binding.o] Error 1
make: Leaving directory `/home/ec2-user/macros/test/stateHash/node_modules/pg/build'
gyp ERR! build error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: `make` failed with exit code: 2
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onExit (/usr/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/build.js:267:23)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:807:12)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.4.82-69.112.amzn1.x86_64
gyp ERR! command "node" "/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /home/ec2-user/macros/test/stateHash/node_modules/pg
gyp ERR! node -v v0.10.28
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.10.6
gyp ERR! not ok

I'm on Amazon Linux 2014.03, and it's a micro instance running node 0.10.28.

Postgres 9.2.7 is installed from the Amazon repos. Specifically, the postgresql9* packages.

On a fresh updatedb, locate pg_config returns

/usr/bin/pg_config
/usr/share/locale/cs/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/es/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/it/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/ja/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/ko/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/nb/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/pl/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/pt_BR/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/ro/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/ru/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/sv/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/ta/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/tr/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/zh_CN/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/locale/zh_TW/LC_MESSAGES/pg_config-9.2.mo
/usr/share/man/man1/pg_config.1.gz

But locate pg_config.h returns nothing.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

The postgresql9, postgresql9-libs, and postgresql9-server were installed by default, but not postgresql9-devel.

The header files required by node-postgres are in the missing development package. The following steps fixed my problem:

1. Remove the node-postgres directory:

   $ rm -rf node_modules/pg

2. Install the postgres development package from the repos (match your version carefully - the Amazon repos are a mess when it comes to postgres):

   $ sudo yum install postgresql9-devel

3. Reinstall node-postgres (I'm doing it locally, you might be using the -g option):

   $ npm install pg

The pg_config.h file should be there, so the installation should work fine!