Re: [PATCH] Rename pg_switch_xlog to pg_switch_wal

On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 3:37 PM, Stephen Frost <sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net> wrote:

> If they're maintained, then they'll be updated. I don't have any
>
sympathy if they aren't maintained.
>

Updating may be non-trivial effort even if they are maintained. E.g. some
project may need to support both 9.6 and 10.0, and a lot of them written in
a way that makes conditionals on function names non-trivial (e.g. there's
just flat .sql file that is expected to work everywhere).

*document* them, and treat them as full functions just like the regular
> ones.

In my next WIP version of the patch (
https://github.com/vrusinov/postgres/tree/rename-xlog) I keep references to
old names in the description for the new names. This makes it
searchable/greppable and does not encourage their usage. Exact format may
change, but I'd certainly not like to treat them exactly like full
functions and I'd like them to be mentioned so it's possible to search.

Overall, I don't feel super-strong either way. Adding aliases does not seem
like a lot of effort or burden and I also see arguments for dropping them
sooner than later. As a compromise I propose keep aliases with hard
deadline for removal in 11.0.
This way we are nicer to people who maintain their tools and read release
notes via giving them more time, and nicer to ourselves via cleaning legacy
stuff relatively soon.

--
Vladimir Rusinov
Storage SRE, Google Ireland

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