"CREATE EXTENSION postgis" fails on Greenplum 6.4 - 6.7

Products

• VMware Tanzu Greenplum

Issue/Introduction

When you try to perform "CREATE EXTENSION postgis" before Greenplum version 6.8, it fails with the following error after you have successfully installed the corresponding PostGIS Greenplum Package Manager (gppkg) utility:

[gpadmin@smdw postgis-2.1]$ psql test -c "CREATE EXTENSION postgis"
ERROR:  could not open extension control file "/usr/local/greenplum-db-6.4.0/share/postgresql/extension/postgis.control": No such file or directory

Environment

Product Version: 6.4

Resolution

It is working as designed. It is not necessary to perform "CREATE EXTENSION postgis" before Greenplum version 6.8, because lower versions have a script "postgis_manager.sh" which will install functions/schema/view/system references to the database. This script servers the same purpose as "CREATE EXTENSION".

"CREATE EXTENSION postgis" should be regarded as a replacement of "postgis_manager.sh" after Greenplum 6.8. See the following release notes for more information: https://gpdb.docs.pivotal.io/6-8/relnotes/gpdb-68-release-notes.html