<envar>LD_RUN_PATH</envar> <emphasis>before</emphasis>
    building.
   </para>

   <para>
    On <systemitem class="osname">Cygwin</systemitem>, put the library
    directory in the <envar>PATH</envar> or move the
    <filename>.dll</filename> files into the <filename>bin</filename>
    directory.
   </para>

   <para>
    If in doubt, refer to the manual pages of your system (perhaps
    <command>ld.so</command> or <command>rld</command>). If you later
    get a message like:
<screen>
psql: error in loading shared libraries
libpq.so.2.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
</screen>
    then this step was necessary.  Simply take care of it then.
   </para>

   <para>
    <indexterm>
     <primary>ldconfig</primary>
    </indexterm>
    If you are on <systemitem class="osname">Linux</systemitem> and you have root
    access, you can run:
<programlisting>
/sbin/ldconfig /usr/local/pgsql/lib
</programlisting>
    (or equivalent directory) after installation to enable the
    run-time linker to find the shared libraries faster.  Refer to the
    manual page of <command>ldconfig</command> for more information.  On
    <systemitem class="osname">FreeBSD</systemitem>, <systemitem
    class="osname">NetBSD</systemitem>, and <systemitem
    class="osname">OpenBSD</systemitem> the command is:
<programlisting>
/sbin/ldconfig -m /usr/local/pgsql/lib
</programlisting>
    instead.  Other systems are not known to have an equivalent
    command.
   </para>
  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="install-post-env-vars">
   <title>Environment Variables</title>

   <indexterm>
    <primary><envar>PATH</envar></primary>
   </indexterm>

   <para>
    If you installed into <filename>/usr/local/pgsql</filename> or some other
    location that is not searched for programs by default, you should
    add <filename>/usr/local/pgsql/bin</filename> (or whatever you set
    <option><literal>--bindir</literal></option> to in <xref linkend="configure"/>)
    into your <envar>PATH</envar>.  Strictly speaking, this is not
    necessary, but it will make the use of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
    much more convenient.
   </para>

   <para>
    To do this, add the following to your shell start-up file, such as
    <filename>~/.bash_profile</filename> (or <filename>/etc/profile</filename>, if you
    want it to affect all users):
<programlisting>
PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH
export PATH
</programlisting>
    If you are using <command>csh</command> or <command>tcsh</command>, then use this command:
<programlisting>
set path = ( /usr/local/pgsql/bin $path )
</programlisting>
   </para>

   <para>
    <indexterm>
     <primary><envar>MANPATH</envar></primary>
    </indexterm>
    To enable your system to find the <application>man</application>
    documentation, you need to add lines like the following to a
    shell start-up file unless you installed into a location that is
    searched by default:
<programlisting>
MANPATH=/usr/local/pgsql/share/man:$MANPATH
export MANPATH
</programlisting>
   </para>

   <para>
    The environment variables <envar>PGHOST</envar> and <envar>PGPORT</envar>
    specify to client applications the host and port of the database
    server, overriding the compiled-in defaults. If you are going to
    run client applications remotely then it is convenient if every
    user that plans to use the database sets <envar>PGHOST</envar>.  This
    is not required, however; the settings can be communicated via command
    line options to most client programs.
   </para>
  </sect2>
 </sect1>

 <sect1 id="supported-platforms">
  <title>Supported Platforms</title>

  <para>
   A platform (that is, a CPU architecture and operating system combination)
   is considered supported by the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> development
   community if the code contains provisions to work on that platform and
   it has recently been verified to build and pass its regression tests
   on that platform.  Currently, most testing of platform