Re: 8.5 TODO: Add comments to output indicating version of pg_dump and of the database server

On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 11:02:55PM +0300, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-09-25 at 16:59 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> > "shakahshakah(at)gmail(dot)com" <shakahshakah(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > > From pg_dump/pg_restore section (9.2 of the Todo page on the
> > > PostgreSQL Wiki), is the following item "Add comments to output
> > > indicating version of pg_dump and of the database server" simply
> > > asking for a change to the pg_dump header from:
> >
> > I think so, but what's not clear is whether this is a good idea to
> > do in the default output. It might only be appropriate in
> > "verbose" mode, so as not to introduce unnecessary diffs between
> > logically identical dumps.
>
> Well, a diff of the same database made by different (major) versions
> of pg_dump will already be different in most situations, so adding
> the pg_dump version number in it is essentially free from this
> perspective.
>
> What is the use case for adding the server version?

There have been cases where pg_restore doesn't fix infelicities. For
example, there was a time when it was a good idea to run adddepend
after the reload. Knowing what server version the dump came from
could be handy for this kind of case.

> I can imagine something like wanting to know exactly where the dump
> came from, but then host name and such would be better. (And then
> you can infer the server version from that.)

You can infer the server version until the next upgrade, at which
point the information is lost.

Cheers,
David.
--
David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> http://fetter.org/
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