What is the difference between postgresql and postgresql-server-dev packages. What are the purposes served by installing different packages and what are the use-cases of these?
2 Answers
postgresql-server-dev
contains the header files and other components required to compile PostgreSQL extensions. Extensions are add-ons that get loaded into the PostgreSQL server. The majority of people only use extensions from postgresql-contrib or those like PostGIS that're already packaged, so you probably don't need this package. It's harmless if installed though.
postgresql is a metapackage that installs the latest version of postgresql, but there seems to be no such package as postgresql-server.