Re: schema diffing tool?

Selena Deckelmann wrote:
>
> On Jan 11, 2008, at 7:39 AM, Mark Wong wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:40:58 -0800
>> Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 2008-01-10 at 15:21 -0800, Selena Deckelmann wrote:
>>>> Anyone had a need for or used a schema diffing tool? (for postgresql,
>>>> but if for some other DB might be interested)
>>>>
>>>> Example: comparing two databases (dev & production) and then having a
>>>> look at the results. Extra credit for pretty output (like ALTER
>>>> statements? oh that would be sweet).
>>>>
>>>
>>> I would like such a tool.
>>
>> Is PostgreSQL Autodoc (http://www.rbt.ca/autodoc/ worth any points? It
>> won't do a diff, but at least you can visualize it.
>
> Interesting! Thanks.
>
> I was thinking more about something that would provide context, and
> whose output could be directly applied to a database.

There's also apgdiff (java) and pgdiff (tcl). I've heard that pgdiff is
pretty well dead though.

> Hrm... after I finish my backlog for ptop, I will hack something up in
> Perl.

The Perl SQLFairy toolkit could be a good place to start. It has
cross-db reflection / parsing & the infrastructure for comparisons.

Pretty cool tool, actually. I've used it quite a bit in the past for
things like programmatically updating trigger definitions in sync with
schema changes. Using it was a breeze.