I'm running Postgres in containers, and recently did some analysis of the total container sizes. I posted some analysis over on the debian packaging mailing list [1] [2]. The TLDR is that LLVM alone makes up 33% of a postgres container's bytes (143MB / 434MB) [1].
Per the details in the referenced emails, dpkg Installed-Size: libllvm16 120542 KB libz3-4 22767 KB (Note that libz3 is a dependency of libllvm.) For plperl, plpython and pltcl we are able to split those into separate debian packages because Postgres' extension framework enables us to install the files separately without a recompile, and Postgres can be compiled with these configure flags but still works fine if the files aren't present. I haven't yet looked closely, but my assumption is that the --with-llvm flag may not work the same. I'm going to spend some time taking a look, but if someone knows off the top of their head and can give me a head start that would be appreciated! Given the large number of bytes that LLVM pulls into a postgres build, I think it would be a good idea to have the ability to split it into a separate [recommended, but optional] package. There are use cases like embedded and IoT - in addition to containers - where some postgres users value this level of space savings over JIT. Thanks -Jeremy Schneider
