What is Apache AGE
AGE is an acronym for A Graph Extension - an extension built on the top of already existing object relational database management system (ORDBMS)PostgreSQL. AGE is a multi-model database which means that it supports the following
graph database and cypher queries
relational database and SQL queries
JSON
Key value database
SQL and/or cypher Hybrid Querying
In this article we will look into the following
Installation of PostgreSQL 11.18 from source code
Installation of AGE from source code
Prerequisites
This article uses the commands for Linux Operating System. You should have Linux installed either on the virtual machine or dual boot alongside Windows/MacOS
You should also have git installed on your system. To check if git is installed, type into terminal
git --version
If it returns the version of git, you are good to go else see the installation guide on Git Doc
Installing postgres
Step 1 Make a directory and a subdirectory where you will install postgres
mkdir postgres_age
cd postgres_age
mkdir postgres
cd postgres
Step 2 Install the Linux libraries before the actual installation. The commands may vary for different OS. Check this link out if you are not Ubuntu.
sudo apt-get install build-essential libreadline-dev zlib1g-dev flex bison
Step 3 Install the development files for postres from postgresql-server-dev-xx package. This command will vary according to the version of Linux. Check out the compatible command for your version here. Note: Install postgres 11 or 12 as these are the versions AGE is compatible with. I am on Jammy(22.04 LTS), so I use the following command
sudo apt install postgresql-server-dev-all
Step 4 Download the tar file to install postgres which will extract to the directory /postgres_age/postgres
wget https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/source/v11.18/postgresql-11.18.tar.gz && tar -xvf postgresql-11.18.tar.gz && rm -f postgresql-11.18.tar.gz
Step 5 Installing psql. While running ./configure, enable debugging flag. To read more on the flags, read Doc. pwd will install postgres in the current directory
cd postgresql-11.18
./configure --enable-debug --enable-cassert --prefix=$(pwd) CFLAGS="-ggdb -Og -fno-omit-frame-pointer"
make install
cd ../../
Installing AGE
Step 6 Clone the AGE GitHub Repository
git clone https://github.com/apache/age.git
Step 7 Installing and configuring AGE with psql
cd age
sudo make PG_CONFIG=/home/zainab/postgres_age/postgres/postgresql-11.18/bin/pg_config install
make PG_CONFIG=/home/zainab/postgres_age/postgres/postgresql-11.18/bin/pg_config installcheck
If you see that all the tests have passed as shown in the image below, then AGE is installed successfully
Database Initialization
Step 8 Initialize a database cluster. You can think of database cluster as The collection of databases which will be managed by single instance of running server.
cd ..
cd postgres/postgresql-11.18
bin/initdb pg_age
Step 9 Start server
bin/pg_ctl -D pg_age -l logfile start
Now create a database named practicedb
bin/createdb practicedb
Step 10 Launch the postgres command line client psql
bin/psql practicedb
Create and Load AGE
Step 11 Create and Load AGE extension in order to start using it
CREATE EXTENSION age;
LOAD 'age';
SET search_path = ag_catalog, "$user", public;
Step 12 Start querying using cypher commands
SELECT create_graph('people');
SELECT * FROM cypher('people', $$ CREATE (n: Person {name : "Zainab", bornIn : "Pakistan"}) $$ ) AS (a agtype);
SELECT * FROM cypher ('people', $$ CREATE (n : Person {name : "John", bornIn : "US"}) $$ ) AS (a agtype);
SELECT * FROM cypher('people', $$ MATCH (v) RETURN v $$) as (v agtype);
The output is shown below
To get more information about Apache AGE, explore the website
References
If you find any ambiguity or incorrect statement, let me know in comment section
Happy learning!
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