Illegal instruction (SIGILL) error when loading pgvector extension

Fix Illegal instruction (SIGILL) error when loading pgvector extension

Problem

By default, the pgvector makefile implicitly applies host-specific CPU optimizations (often translating to -march=native) when compiling the extension from source. While this creates a highly optimized binary for the machine where the Docker image is built, it breaks portability. If the resulting Docker image is executed on a different host with a less capable or different CPU architecture (missing specific instructions like AVX-512 or AVX2), PostgreSQL immediately crashes with a signal 4: Illegal instruction error when attempting to run CREATE EXTENSION vector;.

Solution

This commit overrides the default behavior by passing OPTFLAGS="" directly to the make and make install commands. This disables hardware-specific compiler optimizations, ensuring that the generated pgvector binary remains generic and safely portable across any standard CPU architecture supported by the base image.
Replace line 27 & 28 with:
&& make OPTFLAGS="" PG_CONFIG=/usr/local/bin/pg_config
&& make install OPTFLAGS="" PG_CONFIG=/usr/local/bin/pg_config; \

Inspect the Docker image build commands at lines 27–28, focusing on how pgvector is compiled and installed. Rebuild the image, run CREATE EXTENSION vector; in a less capable environment, and verify that the extension loads without an illegal-instruction crash.