If you run 6.5 pg_dump against a 7.0 database, or vice versa,
you get very obscure error messages:
	parseNumericArray: too many numbers
	getInherits(): SELECT failed.  Explanation from backend: 'ERROR:  Attribute 'inhrel' not found
(Quick, guess which is which ... you'll probably guess wrong.)

It's too late to do anything about the behavior of 6.5 pg_dump,
but we could change 7.0 and later pg_dump to check the database
version at startup and refuse to run if it's not the expected value.

A downside is that a pg_dump might refuse to dump a DB that it actually
would work with; that could be a pain in the neck, particularly in
development scenarios where you might not have kept the previous
compilation of pg_dump lying around.  Yet I think I prefer that to the
risk of an insidious incompatibility that causes pg_dump to run without
complaint yet generate a bogus dump.

Comments anyone?

			regards, tom lane

Responses

• Re: Should pg_dump refuse to run if DB has different version? at 2000-04-03 19:02:31 from The Hermit Hacker
• Re: Should pg_dump refuse to run if DB has different version? at 2000-04-03 19:32:51 from Alfred Perlstein
• Re: Should pg_dump refuse to run if DB has different version? at 2000-04-04 05:23:47 from Tom Lane

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