Re: Versioning policy and pg_upgrade

Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-08-16 at 13:59 +0100, Thom Brown wrote:
>
> > But I propose expanding it to read:
> >
> > "Major releases usually change the internal format of system tables
> > and data files. These changes are often complex, so we don't maintain
> > backward compatibility for data files. A dump/reload of the database
> > cluster is required for major upgrades for upgrading from 8.2 or
> > earlier. For upgrading from version 8.3 and later, there is the
> > option to use pg_upgrade (also known as pg_migrator prior to version
> > 9.0), capable of in-place upgrades. This means, for example, you can
> > upgrade any minor version of 8.3 to 8.4 without having to perform a
> > full backup and restore, resulting in a significantly faster upgrade."
> >
> > Too wordy?
>
> Yes :D (well I think so):
>
> "A Major release changes the internal data format of the cluster.
> Due to this change a dump/reload of the cluster is required for major
> upgrades for upgrading from 8.2 or earlier.
>
> If upgrading from version 8.3 and later, certain installs may be able to
> use pg_upgrade (previously named pg_migrator). If pg_upgrade is
> compatible with your cluster (see the docs) you will able to perform an
> in-place upgrades. Although downtime is still required, this is much
> quicker than a dump/restore."

Based on this discussion from August, I suggest the following patch be
applied to versioning.html. It mentions pg_upgrade as an major upgrade
option and links to the pg_upgrade page that has all the details.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +