Build and install pgModeler
A quick step-by-step on how to build, install and run the tool

This page gives some essential instructions about building pgModeler from source, installing, and running it on all supported platforms. Please, read it carefully and avoid skipping any steps below even if you're an experienced user in compiling softwares from the source. If you stumble on any problem just ask for help at Github issues page by posting as many as possible details about it so the correct support can be provided. Finally, if you find any error in this document, please report it so the proper fixes can be applied. All suggestions or constructive criticisms to make the building steps easier to understand are welcome!

Requirements overview

On all supported platforms, the first requirement is the Qt framework. The latest version of the series 5 is the recommended, anyway, all versions between 5.9.x and 5.15.x should work. Bear in mind that failing to observe this first requirement in most cases will cause the compilation to fail due to incompatibilities between the pgModeler's source code and the Qt framework, or even the deployment steps below may not be enough to make the software work after a successful build.

Second, you will need a PostgreSQL installation. In this document we are using the RDBMS in its version 14, so note that the location of headers and libraries in the settings below may vary depending on the version of the database system you've chosen.

Finally, you will need to download a fresh copy of pgModeler's source code. See the source download form for more details about retrieving the source code. Once retrieved the source code, you have to extract it (in case of using a tarball) and run all the commands in the below sections from the root folder.

Platform specific requirements

Tweaking the building script

If you are compiling pgModeler in Windows or macOS there is a preliminary step before run the main compilation command. You need to configure the location of the dependency headers and libraries by editing the file pgmodeler.pri. Assuming that you've already got the source code open the mentioned file in your favorite text editor and locate the following lines:

windows {
  !defined(PGSQL_LIB, var): PGSQL_LIB = C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/libpq.dll
  !defined(PGSQL_INC, var): PGSQL_INC = C:/msys64/mingw64/include
  !defined(XML_INC, var): XML_INC = C:/msys64/mingw64/include/libxml2
  !defined(XML_LIB, var): XML_LIB = C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/libxml2-2.dll
  ...
}

macx {
  PGSQL_LIB = /Library/PostgreSQL/14/lib/libpq.dylib
  PGSQL_INC = /Library/PostgreSQL/14/include
  XML_INC = /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include/libxml2
  XML_LIB = /usr/lib/libxml2.dylib
  ...
}

Building the software

We are now able to run the main building process. This step differs a bit on each operating system and it is described below. All the commands must be executed inside the console and from the root of the pgModeler's source code folder. In Windows system remember to run the commands from the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit console available under MSYS2 group at start menu.

In the following procedures, to shorten the commands, we are assuming that $QT_ROOT is the full path to the Qt installation which varies from system to system, so remember to replace the variable with the real path according to your system. The variable $INSTALLATION_ROOT is the path where pgModeler should be installed after the building process is complete. Again, don't forget to replace the variables by the respective full path according to the running operating system.

On Windows system, if you're building pgModeler 0.9.4-alpha or above replace the filename pgmodeler_ui.dll by gui.dll in step (5). On macOS system, the installation root is always the path to the bundle created after running make install command: /Applications/pgmodeler.app. Currently, there's no support to change the installation folder on that operating system.

Resolving dependencies

After successfully compiling the source code and installing the binaries we need to copy some dependencies into the pgModeler's installation folder and run some commands to make the binaries locate them properly. As the previous section, in the steps below replace the variable $INSTALLATION_ROOT by the path were pgModeler is now installed. The variable $PGSQL_ROOT must be replaced by the full path to PostgreSQL's installation folder. The variable $PGMODELER_SOURCE must be replaced by the full path to pgModeler's source code directory, and $MSYS2_ROOT must be replaced by the full path to MSYS2 installation (only for Windows).

Note to Windows users: Since pgModeler building relies on MSYS2 infrastructure, depending on the version of the latter in your system the DLL to be copied in the steps below may not be enough. So, the recommendation is that you run the copy command below as is and try to run pgModeler in the destination folder. If any error regarding to a missing DLL is reported you can copy that one DLL from MSYS2 folder to pgModeler's installation path. This procedure must be repeated until the software runs without errors. Please, don't forget to report which DLLs are missing so this step-by-step can be updated accordingly.

Running pgModeler

Finally, pgModeler can be started. Just open the installation folder and double click the application pgmodeler.exe (Windows), pgmodeler (Linux) or pgmodeler.app (macOs) and have fun. On Linux, if the software didn't start after double clicking it then there's the need to change a few environment variables to make the tool run properly. As a facility there are two scripts that may be used to tweak environment variables without affect the whole system settings.

The first file is the pgmodeler.vars which contains template configuration for the variables referenced by pgModeler during runtime. Open the file in your favorite text editor and change the variables according to the location of the referenced files or folders in your system (the script is well comment so all details are described in that file). Anyway, if you followed this document correctly there's no need to edit it. The second file is a startup script called start-pgmodeler.sh that just loads the environment variables and calls the main executable. Once all the settings are done open a terminal instance and run the startup script start-pgmodeler.sh from the installation folder.

Enjoy!

Custom parameters

This optional section describes how the build process can be customized in such way that the files are generated in different directories other than the default ones. This way pgModeler introduces eleven custom parameters that can be passed to qmake in order to configure the custom output folders. The use of custom build parameters is a good mechanism for package maintainers (in case of Linux distros) to create custom releases that better suits each system's requirements. The details of these parameters and how they can be used is shown in the table below. Note that if you modify the value of any custom parameter you'll need to reflect these changes on the building steps above.

$QT_ROOT/bin/qmake pgmodeler.pro PREFIX=[PATH] BINDIR=[PATH] CONFDIR=[PATH]

** pgModeler build details **

PREFIX = /home/user/pgmodeler/build 
BINDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build 
PRIVATEBINDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build 
PRIVATELIBDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build 
PLUGINSDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build/plugins 
SHAREDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build 
CONFDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build/conf 
DOCDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build 
LANGDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build/lang 
SAMPLESDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build/samples 
SCHEMASDIR = /home/user/pgmodeler/build/schemas 

* To change a variable value run qmake again setting the desired value e.g.:
> qmake PREFIX+=/usr/local -­r pgmodeler.pro 

* Proceed with build process by running: 
> make && make install