Re: Upgrade Process

On Thursday 26 April 2007 9:47 am, Rich Shepard wrote:
> Unlike my previous upgrade from the 7.4.x series to the 8.1.x series, I
> now have all data in /var/lib/pgsql/data. Currently running 8.1.4 on my
> Slackware system and want to upgrade to 8.2.4, so I'm checking my procedure
> before inadvertently creating major problems for myself.
>
> What I believe should work -- and I'd like conformation or corrections,
> please -- is the following:
>
> 1) Run 'pg_dumpall > pg8.1.4.sql' as user postgres.

Generally it is a better idea to dump the old version with the new versions
pg_dump,pg_dumpall commands. The new versions know more about the old
versions of the database than the other way around.

> 2) Stop the running postmaster as root.
> 3) Upgrade the Slackware package to 8.2.4 as root.
> 4) Restart the postmaster as root.
> 5) Run 'psql -f pg8.1.4.sql postgres' as user postgres.
>
> Have I missed a critical step? The upgrade will replace the existing
> files with the new ones in the same directories.
>
> TIA,
>
> Rich
I generally copy the old version(while it is shutdown) to another directory
and then install the new version. I modify the postgresql.conf in the
directory containing the old version so that Postgres listens on a different
port and start it up. I can then use the pg_dump(all) commands from the new
version to pull from the old version. The catch is that you need enough room
for both copies of the database.

--
Adrian Klaver
aklaver(at)comcast(dot)net