Problem with DEB packages

On Tue, 30 Sept 2025 at 09:12, Stefanie Janine Stölting
<stefanie@proopensource.eu> wrote:

Hi there,

I installed a fresh Debian 13 and added the packages from https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/debian/.

Afterwards I wanted to install PostgreSQL 17, but I ended up with PostgreSQL 18.
I named 17, the installation messages said it is 17.

I copied commands and output from the terminal. As that system is in German, all messages are in German, too.

/Stefanie

________________________________

sudo apt install postgresql-17

Installiere:
postgresql-17

Installiere Abhängigkeiten:
postgresql-client-17

Vorgeschlagene Pakete:
postgresql-doc-17

Zusammenfassung:
Aktualisiere: 0, Installiere: 2, Entferne: 0, Aktualisiere nicht: 0
Herunterlade-Größe: 18,6 MB
Benötigter Platz: 69,4 MB / 90,4 GB verfügbar

Fortfahren? [J/n]
Holen:1 https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt trixie-pgdg/main amd64 postgresql-client-17 amd64 17.6-2.pgdg13+1 [2.031 kB]
Holen:2 https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt trixie-pgdg/main amd64 postgresql-17 amd64 17.6-2.pgdg13+1 [16,6 MB]
Es wurden 18,6 MB in 4 s geholt (4.962 kB/s).
Vorkonfiguration der Pakete ...
Vormals nicht ausgewähltes Paket postgresql-client-17 wird gewählt.
(Lese Datenbank ... 101091 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Vorbereitung zum Entpacken von .../postgresql-client-17_17.6-2.pgdg13+1_amd64.de
b ...
Entpacken von postgresql-client-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) ...
Vormals nicht ausgewähltes Paket postgresql-17 wird gewählt.
Vorbereitung zum Entpacken von .../postgresql-17_17.6-2.pgdg13+1_amd64.deb ...
Entpacken von postgresql-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) ...
postgresql-client-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) wird eingerichtet ...
postgresql-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) wird eingerichtet ...
Trigger für postgresql-common (283.pgdg13+1) werden verarbeitet ...
Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages...
de_at
de_ch
de_de
en_us

________________________________

Then I became postgres and started psql:

________________________________

sudo su postgres

psql
psql (18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3))
Geben Sie »help« für Hilfe ein.

postgres=# select version();

version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PostgreSQL 18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 14.2.0-19) 14.2.0, 64-bit

How strange.

What do you get with:

/usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/psql -V
/usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/postgres -V

I'm wondering whether this is a pg_wrapper issue.

Thom Brown
Data Egret (https://dataegret.com)

Am 30.09.25 um 10:50 schrieb Thom Brown:

On Tue, 30 Sept 2025 at 09:12, Stefanie Janine Stölting
<stefanie@proopensource.eu> wrote:

Hi there,

I installed a fresh Debian 13 and added the packages fromhttps://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/debian/.

Afterwards I wanted to install PostgreSQL 17, but I ended up with PostgreSQL 18.
I named 17, the installation messages said it is 17.

I copied commands and output from the terminal. As that system is in German, all messages are in German, too.

/Stefanie

________________________________

sudo apt install postgresql-17

Installiere:
postgresql-17

Installiere Abhängigkeiten:
postgresql-client-17

Vorgeschlagene Pakete:
postgresql-doc-17

Zusammenfassung:
Aktualisiere: 0, Installiere: 2, Entferne: 0, Aktualisiere nicht: 0
Herunterlade-Größe: 18,6 MB
Benötigter Platz: 69,4 MB / 90,4 GB verfügbar

Fortfahren? [J/n]
Holen:1https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt trixie-pgdg/main amd64 postgresql-client-17 amd64 17.6-2.pgdg13+1 [2.031 kB]
Holen:2https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt trixie-pgdg/main amd64 postgresql-17 amd64 17.6-2.pgdg13+1 [16,6 MB]
Es wurden 18,6 MB in 4 s geholt (4.962 kB/s).
Vorkonfiguration der Pakete ...
Vormals nicht ausgewähltes Paket postgresql-client-17 wird gewählt.
(Lese Datenbank ... 101091 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Vorbereitung zum Entpacken von .../postgresql-client-17_17.6-2.pgdg13+1_amd64.de
b ...
Entpacken von postgresql-client-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) ...
Vormals nicht ausgewähltes Paket postgresql-17 wird gewählt.
Vorbereitung zum Entpacken von .../postgresql-17_17.6-2.pgdg13+1_amd64.deb ...
Entpacken von postgresql-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) ...
postgresql-client-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) wird eingerichtet ...
postgresql-17 (17.6-2.pgdg13+1) wird eingerichtet ...
Trigger für postgresql-common (283.pgdg13+1) werden verarbeitet ...
Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages...
de_at
de_ch
de_de
en_us

________________________________

Then I became postgres and started psql:

________________________________

sudo su postgres

psql
psql (18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3))
Geben Sie »help« für Hilfe ein.

postgres=# select version();

version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PostgreSQL 18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 14.2.0-19) 14.2.0, 64-bit

How strange.

What do you get with:

/usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/psql -V
/usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/postgres -V

I'm wondering whether this is a pg_wrapper issue.

Thom Brown
Data Egret (https://dataegret.com)

[Google Mail Message-ID:
<CAA-aLv655bh_rCO_iiqMfNj7Pjp+Os8_E1E3pHFfGuq3QWXXSg@mail.gmail.com>]

Hi, Thom,

here they are:

/usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/psql -V

psql (PostgreSQL) 17.6 (Debian 17.6-2.pgdg13+1)

/usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/postgres -V

postgres (PostgreSQL) 17.6 (Debian 17.6-2.pgdg13+1)

/Stefanie

Hi,

On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:17:07AM +0200, Stefanie Janine St�lting wrote:

Am 30.09.25 um 10:50 schrieb Thom Brown:

On Tue, 30 Sept 2025 at 09:12, Stefanie Janine St�lting
<stefanie@proopensource.eu> wrote:

Hi there,

I installed a fresh Debian 13 and added the packages fromhttps://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/debian/.

Afterwards I wanted to install PostgreSQL 17, but I ended up with PostgreSQL 18.
I named 17, the installation messages said it is 17.

It seems you ended up with both; it is a bit unclear why PostgreSQL 18
got installed as Debian 13 has 17 by default. Maybe an apt upgrade
pulled in a new postgresql meta-package that depends on postgresql-18.

sudo su postgres

psql

If you have multiple versions of the client package installed, you need
to specify the version explicitly, like Thom showed.

psql (18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3))
Geben Sie �help� f�r Hilfe ein.

postgres=# select version();

version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PostgreSQL 18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 14.2.0-19) 14.2.0, 64-bit

If you want to connect to a particular instance, you need to pass the
port or the PGCLUSTER environment variable or the pg_wrapper --cluster
option, like "psql --cluster 17/main". pg_lsclusters will show you which
instances are around and which ports they have. It seems you have at
least a 18/main and a 17/main cluster.

Michael

Am 30.09.25 um 11:36 schrieb Michael Banck:

Hi,

On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:17:07AM +0200, Stefanie Janine Stölting wrote:

Am 30.09.25 um 10:50 schrieb Thom Brown:

On Tue, 30 Sept 2025 at 09:12, Stefanie Janine Stölting
<stefanie@proopensource.eu> wrote:

Hi there,

I installed a fresh Debian 13 and added the packages fromhttps://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/debian/.

Afterwards I wanted to install PostgreSQL 17, but I ended up with PostgreSQL 18.
I named 17, the installation messages said it is 17.

It seems you ended up with both; it is a bit unclear why PostgreSQL 18
got installed as Debian 13 has 17 by default. Maybe an apt upgrade
pulled in a new postgresql meta-package that depends on postgresql-18.

sudo su postgres

psql

If you have multiple versions of the client package installed, you need
to specify the version explicitly, like Thom showed.

psql (18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3))
Geben Sie »help« für Hilfe ein.

postgres=# select version();

version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PostgreSQL 18.0 (Debian 18.0-1.pgdg13+3) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 14.2.0-19) 14.2.0, 64-bit

If you want to connect to a particular instance, you need to pass the
port or the PGCLUSTER environment variable or the pg_wrapper --cluster
option, like "psql --cluster 17/main". pg_lsclusters will show you which
instances are around and which ports they have. It seems you have at
least a 18/main and a 17/main cluster.

Michael

Hi Michael,

There is only one local installation of PostgreSQL, that thing was
installed from scratch as mentioned in my first mail.

/Stefanie

Hi,

On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:39:03AM +0200, Stefanie Janine St�lting wrote:

There is only one local installation of PostgreSQL, that thing was installed
from scratch as mentioned in my first mail.

Turns out (via off-list discussion) that there was a PG18 instance
installed and due to a recent behaviour change in postgresql-common,
after installing PostgreSQL 17, no main cluster for 17 was created as
one already exists for 18.

Why 18 got installed in the first place is unclear, I can only reproduce
that 'apt install postgresql' after activating the PGDG APT repo will
install it, but it looks like this was not done here.

Michael

Re: Michael Banck

Why 18 got installed in the first place is unclear, I can only reproduce
that 'apt install postgresql' after activating the PGDG APT repo will
install it, but it looks like this was not done here.

I updated https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/debian/ to
recommend "apt install postgresql-18" instead of plain "postgresql".
That might have prevented that problem.

Christoph

Am 30.09.25 um 16:53 schrieb Christoph Berg:

Re: Michael Banck

Why 18 got installed in the first place is unclear, I can only reproduce
that 'apt install postgresql' after activating the PGDG APT repo will
install it, but it looks like this was not done here.

I updated https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/debian/ to
recommend "apt install postgresql-18" instead of plain "postgresql".
That might have prevented that problem.

Christoph

Thank you very much Christoph, having the packages and the installation
separated is IMHO a very good solution.

/Stefanie