Re: Versioning policy and pg_upgrade

On 16 August 2010 15:28, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> Thom Brown <thom(at)linux(dot)com> writes:
>> 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?
>
> I don't really think that pg_upgrade should be recommended for 8.3 to
> 8.4 upgrades.  There are too many limitations and it's not been well
> tested.  I don't even trust it very much yet for 8.4 to 9.0 updates...
>

Okay, rather than a recommendation, we could present it as an option
some may wish to consider? Then link it to the pg_upgrade page in the
documentation.

--
Thom Brown
Registered Linux user: #516935