Getting ProvSQL

There are two ways to run ProvSQL:

Installing from source (recommended) – full-featured, suitable for production use and development.
Docker container – no installation required, ideal for quickly trying ProvSQL without modifying your system.

Installing from Source

This is the recommended approach. It gives full access to all features, including external knowledge-compilation tools.

Getting the Source

Releases are available on the ProvSQL website and on the GitHub releases page. The source repository is hosted at https://github.com/PierreSenellart/provsql.

To clone the development version directly:

git clone https://github.com/PierreSenellart/provsql.git

Prerequisites

PostgreSQL ≥ 10. ProvSQL has been tested with versions 10–18 under Linux, macOS (x86-64 and ARM), and Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Build tools. make, a C/C++ compiler supporting C++17, and PostgreSQL development headers (e.g., postgresql-server-dev-XX on Debian-based systems, or the postgresql Homebrew formula on macOS).
uuid-ossp PostgreSQL extension (included with most PostgreSQL packages; compile contrib/ when building from source).
Boost libraries – libboost-dev and libboost-serialization-dev (Debian/Ubuntu), or equivalent.
(Optional) Knowledge-compilation tools for probability computation:
- c2d
- d4
- dsharp
- minic2d (also requires hgr2htree)
- weightmc
Each tool must be installed as an executable reachable in the PATH of the PostgreSQL server process (e.g., /usr/local/bin/).
(Optional) graph-easy for circuit visualisation (libgraph-easy-perl on Debian-based systems, or CPAN).

Installation

Compile:
```
make
```
To select a specific PostgreSQL installation, adjust the pg_config path in Makefile.internal.
Install (as a user with write access to the PostgreSQL directories):
```
make install
```
Enable the extension hook. Add the following line to postgresql.conf (typically /etc/postgresql/VERSION/main/postgresql.conf on Linux):
```
shared_preload_libraries = 'provsql'
```
Then restart the PostgreSQL server:
```
service postgresql restart
```
Important

The shared_preload_libraries step is mandatory. ProvSQL installs a planner hook that rewrites queries transparently; without it the extension loads but provenance tracking is silently disabled.
In each database where you want to use ProvSQL, load the extension:
```
CREATE EXTENSION provsql CASCADE;
```
The CASCADE keyword automatically installs the required uuid-ossp extension if it is not already present.

Testing Your Installation

Run the full regression suite as a PostgreSQL superuser:

make test

If tests fail, the pager (usually less) is launched on the diff between expected and actual output.

Note

To run the tests as a non-default user, grant yourself superuser rights first:

ALTER USER your_login WITH SUPERUSER;

This assumes your_login is already a PostgreSQL user; on Debian-based systems you can create it by running createuser your_login as the postgres system user.

If your PostgreSQL server does not listen on the default port (5432), add --port=xxxx to the EXTRA_REGRESS_OPTS line of Makefile.internal.

Tests that depend on optional external tools (c2d, d4, dsharp, minic2d, weightmc, graph-easy) will fail if no executable of that name can be found.

Uninstalling

make uninstall

Then remove the provsql entry from shared_preload_libraries in postgresql.conf and restart the server.

Docker Container

For a quick trial without any local installation, a demonstration Docker container is available. It is full-featured except for c2d and minic2d support:

docker run inriavalda/provsql

Follow the on-screen instructions to connect to the PostgreSQL server inside the container with a PostgreSQL client.

License

ProvSQL is open-source software distributed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file at the root of the repository or view it on GitHub.