Build and install latest PostGIS in Ubuntu Linux

If you need to stick with the latest PostGIS version for your PostgreSQL-database, you either have to find a suitable PPA or simply build the extension yourself, because Ubuntu's PostGIS version is out-of-date. Instead of using 3rd party PPAs, I recommend to build it yourself the following way:

1. Install the prerequisite packages:
   
   sudo apt-get install packaging-dev postgresql postgresql-server-dev-9.1 libxml2-dev libgeos-dev libproj-dev libgdal-dev
   
   
2. Download the sources (e.g. for PostGIS 2.1.0):
   
   wget http://download.osgeo.org/postgis/source/postgis-2.1.0.tar.gz
   
   
3. Extract the sources and go into extraction folder:
   
   tar xvzf postgis-2.1.0.tar.gz; cd postgis-2.1.0
   
   
4.  Configure the sources
   
   ./configure
   
   
5. Compile PostGIS
   
   make
   
   
6. Install the compiled PostGIS extension
   
   sudo make install
   
   
7. Use PostGIS within PostgreSQL:
   
   CREATE EXTENSION postgis;
    

Now you can build and control the update of your PostGIS versions by yourself.