Steampipe Postgres Foreign Data Wrapper (FDW)

Overview

The Steampipe Postgres Foreign Data Wrapper (FDW) is a PostgreSQL 14.0 extension that is used by Steampipe plugins to interface with Postgres. Similar to Multicorn for Python, the Steampipe FDW simplifies writing foreign data wrappers in Go for use in plugins.

Steampipe uses a Postgres Foreign Data Wrapper to present data from external systems and services as database tables. The Steampipe Foreign Data Wrapper (FDW) provides a Postgres extension that allows Postgres to connect to external data in a standardized way. The Steampipe FDW does not directly interface with external systems, but instead relies on plugins to implement the API/provider specific code and return it in a standard format via gRPC. This approach simplifies extending Steampipe as the Postgres-specific logic is encapsulated in the FDW, and API and service specific code resides only in the plugin.

See the Writing Plugins guide to get started writing Steampipe plugins.

Get involved

Community

The Steampipe community can be found on Slack, where you can ask questions, voice ideas, and share your projects.

Our Code of Conduct applies to all Steampipe community channels.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Building the FDW

Make sure that you have the following installed in your system:

1. Postgresql v14
2. go
3. gcc for Linux

For instructions on how to install PostgreSQL, please visit: https://www.postgresql.org/download/

For instruction on how to install golang, please visit: https://go.dev/dl/

Steps:

1. Clone this repository onto your system
2. Change to the cloned directory
3. Run the following commands:

$ make

This will compile the FDW (steampipe_postgres_fdw.so) along with the control and sql file in the build-$PLATFORM directory. This will install the compiled FDW into the default Steampipe installation directory (~/.steampipe) - if it exists.

License

This open source library is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.