pglogical for Windows

Unofficial Windows x64 packages of the pglogical PostgreSQL logical replication extension, built with CMake + MSVC against official EnterpriseDB PostgreSQL Windows installations.

This is an unofficial packaging project. The packages are produced by an independent, out-of-tree build of the upstream pglogical source, which is not forked or vendored here: every build clones the exact upstream release tag, and Windows-specific patches, when needed, are applied only to the ephemeral build checkout. The packages are not published, endorsed, or supported by EnterpriseDB, 2ndQuadrant, the PostgreSQL Global Development Group, or the upstream pglogical maintainers.

Why this repository exists

Upstream pglogical does not provide Windows binary packages. This repository provides an independent out-of-tree Windows x64 build and release pipeline for pglogical using CMake, the Visual Studio toolchain (clang-cl/MSVC), and PowerShell — no MSYS2/MinGW, no Meson, no source-built PostgreSQL, no Docker — without maintaining a permanent fork of upstream pglogical.

The pipeline runs on GitHub Actions:

• ci.yml — validation and a real Windows build + smoke test.
• upstream-watch.yml — daily discovery of new upstream releases.
• release.yml — the full build matrix and release publication.
• pg-versions-sync.yml — daily PostgreSQL version matrix sync.

Quick Install

1. Go to GitHub Releases and download the ZIP matching your PostgreSQL build line, e.g. pglogical-2.4.8-pg18-w1-x64.zip. The exact PostgreSQL minor and EDB packaging revision used by that package are recorded in BUILD-INFO.json.

2. Verify the SHA-256 checksum against SHA256SUMS.txt.

3. Extract the ZIP into the root of your PostgreSQL installation (for a standard EDB installation: C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\<major>) so that its lib\, share\extension\, and bin\ directories merge into the existing layout.

4. Configure PostgreSQL as required by upstream pglogical — at minimum:

   shared_preload_libraries = 'pglogical'
   wal_level = logical

   PostgreSQL 14.24, 15.19, 16.15, 17.11, and 18.6 introduced the output_plugin_libraries security whitelist. On those versions and later, add pglogical_output on every node that can create pglogical logical replication slots (normally the provider):

   output_plugin_libraries = 'pgoutput, test_decoding, pglogical_output'

   Preserve any existing trusted entries when extending a custom whitelist; do not replace it blindly. Older PostgreSQL minors that do not expose this setting should omit the line. The setting is required because PostgreSQL now rejects unlisted logical decoding output plugins (CVE-2026-6471).

5. Restart PostgreSQL.

6. Run CREATE EXTENSION pglogical; on each database that needs it.

Install the package on both the provider and the subscriber node, for the matching PostgreSQL major. For the full node / subscription setup and any additional required settings (worker / slot limits), follow the upstream pglogical documentation.

Compatibility

PostgreSQL	pglogical	Platform
14	2.4.8	Windows x64
15	2.4.8	Windows x64
16	2.4.8	Windows x64
17	2.4.8	Windows x64
18	2.4.8	Windows x64

The matrix is driven by .github/pg-versions.json: the build matrix for an upstream release is the intersection of the configured majors and the PostgreSQL versions the upstream source supports (its compat<major> directories). PostgreSQL 19 (prerelease) is not included and can only be enabled deliberately via .github/pg-versions.json.

The exact build version of every package — PostgreSQL minor and EDB packaging revision — is recorded in the asset filename, the release provenance table, and the embedded BUILD-INFO.json. That minor is a build-input identifier, not a compatibility claim: each package runs on any minor of its PostgreSQL major, because PostgreSQL guarantees binary compatibility within a major version (the server's module magic-block check is major-granular).

Architecture: x64 only. Configuration: Release only. The extension is only as compatible with your PostgreSQL version as the upstream source is.

Release and asset naming

Each GitHub release contains one ZIP per supported PostgreSQL major. The release tag identifies one unified pglogical/Windows packaging revision (<version>-w<revision>), and the release title follows <version> for Windows (W<revision>). PostgreSQL compatibility remains in each asset filename:

GitHub release tag: 2.4.8-w1
Release title:      2.4.8 for Windows (W1)
Package asset:      pglogical-2.4.8-pg18-w1-x64.zip

The asset filename format is:

pglogical-<pglogical-version>-pg<postgres-major>-w<packaging-revision>-x64.zip

Part	Meaning
2.4.8-w1	unified pglogical version and Windows packaging revision
PostgreSQL 18	compatibility major the package targets
W1	Windows packaging revision
PostgreSQL 18.4 / EDB packaging revision 2	exact build provenance recorded in BUILD-INFO.json
Windows x64	platform / architecture

All PostgreSQL-major ZIPs and one aggregate SHA256SUMS.txt are attached to the same release. GitHub Latest therefore points to the complete unified release rather than to one PostgreSQL-major package.

Each ZIP has an installation-oriented layout:

lib/
  pglogical.dll
  pglogical_output.dll
share/
  extension/
    pglogical.control
    pglogical--*.sql
    pglogical_origin.control
    pglogical_origin--1.0.0.sql
bin/
  pglogical_create_subscriber.exe
BUILD-INFO.json

BUILD-INFO.json records the exact provenance: pglogical version, upstream repository/tag/commit SHA, PostgreSQL compatibility major, exact build version, EDB packaging revision, EDB artifact filename/URL, the EDB archive SHA-256 calculated by this project after download (never a vendor-published checksum), the Windows packaging revision, and architecture/configuration.

No PostgreSQL/EDB binaries, headers, or libraries are bundled. The upstream pglogical copyright notice is included in each package.

Security and provenance

Release builds are engineered to be verifiable:

• Upstream source is pinned. Each release build resolves the upstream pglogical release tag, resolves and records its exact upstream commit SHA, and verifies the checkout against that expected commit before building.
• No vendoring, no permanent fork. Upstream source is never committed to this repository; version-specific Windows patches are applied only to the ephemeral build checkout when such a patch exists.
• Exact PostgreSQL build input. PostgreSQL major/minor comes from PostgreSQL.org's versions.json; the exact EnterpriseDB Windows binaries artifact (including its packaging revision) is resolved by controlled availability probing of the EDB-controlled download host. This is heuristic availability discovery, not an authoritative EDB manifest.
• Pinned through the build. The resolved artifact is pinned from planning through build; the post-download SHA-256 of the EDB archive is calculated by this project and recorded — EDB does not publish the checksums used here.
• Published checksums. Every release ships a SHA256SUMS.txt and packages embed BUILD-INFO.json.
• Real testing before publication. Every release build runs a real PostgreSQL install, CREATE EXTENSION, a logical slot check, and an end-to-end provider→subscriber replication smoke test per major.
• Build provenance. Release artifacts are attested with GitHub artifact attestations (build provenance) in the publish workflow.

Published releases are immutable: existing releases and assets are never overwritten or mutated.

For more detail see SECURITY.md and RELEASING.md.

Building from source

Prerequisites:

• Windows: x64
• PowerShell: 7.x
• Visual Studio: 2022+ with the "Desktop development with C++" workload and the "C++ Clang tools for Windows" component
• CMake: >= 3.24
• PostgreSQL: a matching official Windows installation, or run scripts/Install-PostgreSql.ps1 to fetch one into an isolated directory

The build compiles with clang-cl using the Visual Studio/MSVC toolchain; see BUILDING.md for the rationale.

# One-shot: download PG 18 into .pg\installs, clone REL2_4_8,
# build with CMake+MSVC, verify exports, stage the package.
.\scripts\Build-PgLogical.ps1 `
  -PgRoot "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\18" `
  -UpstreamTag "REL2_4_8" `
  -Configuration Release

Full instructions in BUILDING.md.

Documentation

• BUILDING.md — local build, test, and packaging.
• RELEASING.md — release discovery, tagging, and automation.
• SECURITY.md — reporting and package security properties.
• CONTRIBUTING.md — what belongs here vs. upstream.
• SUPPORT.md — where to ask for help.
• Upstream pglogical documentation: https://github.com/2ndQuadrant/pglogical

License and attribution

The build tooling in this repository is licensed under the PostgreSQL License (see LICENSE). The packaged pglogical extension is copyright its upstream authors and shipped under the PostgreSQL License; the packaged PostgreSQL binaries remain under their own licenses. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.