Re: Re: Sure enough, the lock file is gone

teg(at)redhat(dot)com (Trond Eivind =?iso-8859-1?q?Glomsr=F8d?=) writes:
> Not to sound scheptical, but since when did postgresql care about
> backwards compatiblity? Upgrading is already demanding a lot of
> knowledge from the user (including needing such information, which
> almost no other package do), this is just a minor change (the files
> are mostly used by bundled tools - any exceptions?)

It is not a minor change. Pay attention now: moving the socket files
BREAKS THE CLIENT/SERVER PROTOCOL. Got that? If you do this, then
no old client program will work against your new server until you
recompile/relink it.

Don't forget, also, that clients built using the standard distribution
won't talk to your server either. Unless you have *sole* control of
Postgres and Postgres clients on your machine, moving the socket files
is going to create problems.

We have seen enough complaints in the past due to changes in the
protocol (all of which were backwards-compatible, BTW; this isn't)
that I'm pretty hesitant to do another one on such minor grounds as
getting the socket file out of /tmp.

>> There is an option in 7.1 to support defining a different directory
>> for the socket files, but I doubt very many people will use it.

> I intend to, for the RPMs we ship.

Expect complaints.

I wouldn't be so annoyed at this, if I didn't know very well that the
resulting questions/complaints will come to the Postgres team, and not
to the perpetrator of the incompatibility. Shall I forward all future
"can't connect to server" bug reports to you to answer?

regards, tom lane