Re: Avoiding upgrade backlash

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007, Leif B. Kristensen wrote:

> The bug id is [https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=199142].

First off, they're already working on this problem. Installing multiple
versions of PostgreSQL at the same time is called "slotting" by them, and
an outline of the project is at
http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/postgresql/wiki/ExperimentalFAQ

What I expect will happen to you is that your bug will be "resolved" by
marking it a duplicate of https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42894
which, as you can see from its history, has been lingering around since
this class of problem was first reported during the 7.3->7.4 upgrade.
That was early in 2004 and I don't see any progress since about a year
ago, maybe somebody is still working on it.

A quick look through the PostgreSQL-related bug reports for Gentoo
suggests multiple serious issues that haven't been resolved in years;
another is https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44468 where the logging
interface is not quite right. That one people keep reporting, no progress
has been made even though it's really simple to fix--far simpler than
getting support for multiple versions at once.

I wouldn't anticipate a quick response here; the resources Gentoo is
devoting to PostgreSQL appear minimal. I'd suggest your time would be
better spent learning how to manually install PostgreSQL yourself rather
than expecting that the official packaging will fix this for you. It's
not that difficult to do.

--
* Greg Smith gsmith(at)gregsmith(dot)com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD