Installation

There are four ways to install VectorChord.

Docker

The easiest way to try VectorChord is to run it from a ready-to use Docker image.

docker run \
  --name pgvecto-rs-demo \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  -d tensorchord/vchord-postgres:pg17-v0.1.0

Then you can connect to the database using the psql command line tool. The default username is postgres, and the default password is mysecretpassword.

psql postgresql://postgres:mysecretpassword@localhost:5432/postgres

Run the following SQL to ensure the extension is enabled.

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vchord CASCADE;

And make sure to add vchord.so to the shared_preload_libraries in postgresql.conf.

-- Add vchord and pgvector to shared_preload_libraries --
ALTER SYSTEM SET shared_preload_libraries = 'vchord.so';

To create the VectorChord RaBitQ(vchordrq) index, you can use the following SQL.

CREATE INDEX ON gist_train USING vchordrq (embedding vector_l2_ops) WITH (options = $$
residual_quantization = true
[build.internal]
lists = [4096]
spherical_centroids = false
$$);

From Debian package

TIP

Installation from the Debian package requires a dependency on GLIBC >= 2.35, e.g:

• Ubuntu 22.04 or later
• Debian Bullseye or later

Debian packages(.deb) are used in distributions based on Debian, such as Ubuntu and many others. They can be easily installed by dpkg or apt-get.

1. Download the deb package in the release page, and type sudo apt install vchord-pg15-*.deb to install the deb package.

2. Configure your PostgreSQL by modifying the shared_preload_libraries and search_path to include the extension.

psql -U postgres -c 'ALTER SYSTEM SET shared_preload_libraries = "vchord.so"'
psql -U postgres -c 'ALTER SYSTEM SET search_path TO "$user", public, vchord'
# You need restart the PostgreSQL cluster to take effects.
sudo systemctl restart postgresql.service   # for vectorchord running with systemd

3. Connect to the database and enable the extension.

DROP EXTENSION IF EXISTS vchord;
CREATE EXTENSION vchord CASCADE;

From ZIP package

TIP

Installation from the ZIP package requires a dependency on GLIBC >= 2.35, e.g:

• RHEL 9 or later

For systems that are not Debian based and cannot run a Docker container, please follow these steps to install:

1. Before install, make sure that you have the necessary packages installed, including PostgreSQL, pg_config, unzip, wget.

# Example for RHEL 9 dnf
# Please check your package manager
sudo dnf install -y unzip wget libpq-devel
sudo dnf module install -y postgresql:15/server
sudo postgresql-setup --initdb
sudo systemctl start postgresql.service
sudo systemctl enable postgresql.service

2. Verify whether $pkglibdir and $shardir have been set by PostgreSQL.

pg_config --pkglibdir
# Print something similar to:
# /usr/lib/postgresql/15/lib or
# /usr/lib64/pgsql

pg_config --sharedir
# Print something similar to:
# /usr/share/postgresql/15 or
# /usr/share/pgsql

3. Download the zip package in the release page and extract it to a temporary directory.

wget https://github.com/tensorchord/VectorChord/releases/download/0.1.0/vchord-pg15_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu_0.1.0.zip -O vchord.zip
unzip vchord.zip -d vchord

4. Copy the extension files to the PostgreSQL directory.

# Copy library to `$pkglibdir`
sudo cp vchord/vchord.so $(pg_config --pkglibdir)/
# Copy schema to `$shardir`
sudo cp vchord/vchord--* $(pg_config --sharedir)/extension/
sudo cp vchord/vchord.control $(pg_config --sharedir)/extension/

5. Configure your PostgreSQL by modifying the shared_preload_libraries and search_path to include the extension.

psql -U postgres -c 'ALTER SYSTEM SET shared_preload_libraries = "vchord.so"'
psql -U postgres -c 'ALTER SYSTEM SET search_path TO "$user", public, vchord'
# You need restart the PostgreSQL cluster to take effects.
sudo systemctl restart postgresql.service   # for vectorchord running with systemd

6. Connect to the database and enable the extension.

DROP EXTENSION IF EXISTS vchord;
CREATE EXTENSION vchord CASCADE;

From source

TODO