Could not install `uuid-ossp` extension (or `uuid_ossp`)

[yeroc-sebrof]

I found the following issue when attempting to install uuid_ossp:

$ psql -X "postgresql://$POSTGRES_SERVER_ADMIN_USERNAME:$POSTGRES_SERVER_ADMIN_PASSWORD@$POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL/$POSTGRES_DATABASE_NAME"  -1 -c "CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS uuid_ossp;"
ERROR:  extension "uuid_ossp" is not available
DETAIL:  Could not open extension control file "/usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp.control": No such file or directory.
HINT:  The extension must first be installed on the system where PostgreSQL is running.

And when I tried to install it as uuid-ossp I would get this issue:

$ psql -X "postgresql://$POSTGRES_SERVER_ADMIN_USERNAME:$POSTGRES_SERVER_ADMIN_PASSWORD@$POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL/$POSTGRES_DATABASE_NAME"  -1 -c "CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS uuid-ossp;"
ERROR:  syntax error at or near "-"
LINE 1: CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS uuid-ossp;

After some digging I went into a shell on the running container and ran the following moves:

    5  mv /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid-ossp.control /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp.control
    6  mv /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid-ossp--1.0--1.1.sql /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp--1.0--1.1.sql
    7  mv /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid-ossp--1.1.sql /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp--1.1.sql

After I done this:
$ psql -X "postgresql://$POSTGRES_SERVER_ADMIN_USERNAME:$POSTGRES_SERVER_ADMIN_PASSWORD@$POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL/$POSTGRES_DATABASE_NAME" -1 -c "CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS uuid_ossp;" worked.

No idea how I would implement a proper fix for this so I'm submitting as a Issue instead. Please let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

For anyone else suffering this issue here's the janky dockerfile I use to temporarily fix this:

FROM postgres

RUN mv /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid-ossp.control /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp.control && \
    mv /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid-ossp--1.0--1.1.sql /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp--1.0--1.1.sql && \
    mv /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid-ossp--1.1.sql /usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp--1.1.sql


EXPOSE 5432
CMD ["postgres"]

[ImreSamu]

@yeroc-sebrof

try CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";

$ docker run --name pg15 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword -d postgres:15
ff18c1ef1cd4d75cd05a2962f7296c3d7a6cdf9b8b52c90c23ae8448b239acd6

$ docker exec -ti pg15 psql -U postgres
psql (15.1 (Debian 15.1-1.pgdg110+1))
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";
CREATE EXTENSION
postgres=# \dx
                            List of installed extensions
   Name    | Version |   Schema   |                   Description                   
-----------+---------+------------+-------------------------------------------------
 plpgsql   | 1.0     | pg_catalog | PL/pgSQL procedural language
 uuid-ossp | 1.1     | public     | generate universally unique identifiers (UUIDs)
(2 rows)

EDIT:

• nesting quote: https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/DM6PR13MB39880CD8E721A9A0C23EB76FCF9D0%40DM6PR13MB3988.namprd13.prod.outlook.com

[yeroc-sebrof]

I tried with single and double quotes now:

ERROR:  syntax error at or near "'uuid_ossp'"
LINE 1: CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS 'uuid_ossp';
                                       ^
...
ERROR:  extension "uuid_ossp" is not available
DETAIL:  Could not open extension control file "/usr/share/postgresql/15/extension/uuid_ossp.control": No such file or directory.
HINT:  The extension must first be installed on the system where PostgreSQL is running.

However, my janky fixed container does run the doubled quoted uuid_ossp install sucessfully.

I've been using postgres:latest but also tried postgres:15 both on the ARM platform. I get the same error from postgres:15 on platform linux/amd64 which makes zero sense to me because I run the container in nearly the same way as you do:

docker run --rm -it --platform linux/amd64 -e POSTGRES_USER=user -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=local -p 5432:5432 postgres:15

[ImreSamu]

@yeroc-sebrof :

extension "uuid_ossp" is not available

• It is correct uuid_ossp not exists in Postgres https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F15%2F&q=uuid_ossp
  • Is this a typo in your code, or is it intentional?
• Check the uuid-ossp in the doc ; I see 9 results : https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F15%2F&q=uuid-ossp
  • And it is used in my example
  • and it is used in the official test code

Please, try to replicate my test code and copy/ paste the full logs.

However, my janky fixed container does run the doubled quoted uuid_ossp install successfully.

try CREATE EXTENSION "uuid-ossp";
https://github.com/postgres/postgres/blob/f8ba1bf4e48369450cdc71b5bf12d8f7bdaf10f3/contrib/uuid-ossp/expected/uuid_ossp.out#L1

[yeroc-sebrof]

I ran exactly what you did and it worked:

 13:16:03 ~ 
$ docker run --name pg15 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword -d postgres:15
fd786994504876bd69bbde6439abd1b43d77f8047ccf0b3be23f2839aea8048c

 13:16:19 ~ 
$ docker exec -ti pg15 psql -U postgres
psql (15.1 (Debian 15.1-1.pgdg110+1))
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";
CREATE EXTENSION
postgres=# \dx
                            List of installed extensions
   Name    | Version |   Schema   |                   Description                   
-----------+---------+------------+-------------------------------------------------
 plpgsql   | 1.0     | pg_catalog | PL/pgSQL procedural language
 uuid-ossp | 1.1     | public     | generate universally unique identifiers (UUIDs)
(2 rows)

postgres=# exit

I then ran the same commands via psql and it also worked:

 13:25:38 ~ 
$ docker run --name pg15 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword -p 5555:5432 -d postgres:15 
2d000fd1deefcd4f5153a6a359fc9e62b5d46a0b33eb4e1099428474b838084f

 13:26:42 ~ 
$ psql -X "postgresql://postgres:mysecretpassword@localhost:5555/postgres" -1 -c 'CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";'
CREATE EXTENSION

 13:26:51 ~ 
$ psql -X "postgresql://postgres:mysecretpassword@localhost:5555/postgres" -1 -c '\dx'                                 
                            List of installed extensions
   Name    | Version |   Schema   |                   Description                   
-----------+---------+------------+-------------------------------------------------
 plpgsql   | 1.0     | pg_catalog | PL/pgSQL procedural language
 uuid-ossp | 1.1     | public     | generate universally unique identifiers (UUIDs)
(2 rows)

Thank you for correcting my use of double quotes. I'll close this issue now

[tuanbh-itomo]

@yeroc-sebrof :

extension "uuid_ossp" is not available

* It is correct `uuid_ossp` not exists in Postgres https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F15%2F&q=uuid_ossp
  
  * Is this a typo in your code, or is it intentional?

* Check the `uuid-ossp`  in the doc  ; I see 9 results : https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F15%2F&q=uuid-ossp
  
  * And it is used [in my example](https://github.com/docker-library/postgres/issues/1045#issuecomment-1424740062)
  * and it is used in the [official test code](https://github.com/postgres/postgres/blob/f8ba1bf4e48369450cdc71b5bf12d8f7bdaf10f3/contrib/uuid-ossp/expected/uuid_ossp.out#L1)

Please, try to replicate my test code and copy/ paste the full logs.

However, my janky fixed container does run the doubled quoted uuid_ossp install successfully.

try CREATE EXTENSION "uuid-ossp"; https://github.com/postgres/postgres/blob/f8ba1bf4e48369450cdc71b5bf12d8f7bdaf10f3/contrib/uuid-ossp/expected/uuid_ossp.out#L1

i got the same issue with unaccent extenstion. i try above solution but it stills not work. can u give me some suggestions, please..

[ImreSamu]

@tuanbh-itomo :

. i try above solution but it stills not work

Honestly, I'm not sure what the issue could be on your side since I don't know exactly what you've tried.

However, if you're using a non-Latin keyboard, please make sure that the hyphen (-) is a standard ASCII character
and not a different Unicode character, which may look similar but is technically different.

If you're copy-pasting the SQL command, it should work.

 CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";

If it still doesn't, then the problem might be something completely different.

$ date
Fri 03 Jan 2025 12:58:43 PM CET

$ echo '"uuid-ossp"' | hexdump -C
00000000  22 75 75 69 64 2d 6f 73  73 70 22 0a              |"uuid-ossp".|
0000000c

$ docker pull postgres:17
17: Pulling from library/postgres
Digest: sha256:888402a8cd6075c5dc83a31f58287f13306c318eaad016661ed12e076f3e6341
Status: Image is up to date for postgres:17
docker.io/library/postgres:17

$ docker run --name pg17 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword -d postgres:17
c4055daab59e0a618613a35b97fbff48ec72b0579e623de09d58adacf72ac7cb

$ docker exec -ti pg17 psql -U postgres
psql (17.2 (Debian 17.2-1.pgdg120+1))
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";
CREATE EXTENSION
postgres=# \dx
                            List of installed extensions
   Name    | Version |   Schema   |                   Description                   
-----------+---------+------------+-------------------------------------------------
 plpgsql   | 1.0     | pg_catalog | PL/pgSQL procedural language
 uuid-ossp | 1.1     | public     | generate universally unique identifiers (UUIDs)
(2 rows)

[tuanbh-itomo]

thanks for replying. i don't use docker for my project. And i tried and copied CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp"; but it shows ERROR: extension "uuid-ossp" is not available
DETAIL: Could not open extension control file "/www/server/pgsql/share/extension/uuid-ossp.control": No such file or directory.
HINT: The extension must first be installed on the system where PostgreSQL is running.

[ImreSamu]

@tuanbh-itomo :

i don't use docker for my project.

This github repository specifically focuses on the docker-based postgres. ( https://hub.docker.com/_/postgres )
And if you are not using docker, your issue might be related to a general postgresql installation problem.

So I recommend checking PostgreSQL-related support forums, such as Stack Overflow -postgresql ,
where you can search for similar error messages:
https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%5Bpostgresql%5D+create+extension+uuid-ossp+Could+not+open+extension+control+file+
Alternatively, you can post your question there. --> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/postgresql

[tuanbh-itomo]

@ImreSamu Thank you for your suggestions