Re: PG 18 relnotes and RC1

On Sun, Aug 31, 2025 at 08:51:40PM +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On 31.08.25 16:34, Tom Lane wrote:
> > I think our past practice has been to list any one item either in
> > Migration or the following sections, not in both places. This item
> > seems to adhere to that too: I don't see that commit hash anywhere
> > else. So I'm not clear why you're finding this duplicative?
>
> I don't have the complete picture of how the release notes are composed. I
> just wanted to add some helpful advice relevant to the migration to PG18,
> and the Migration section seemed the right place for it.
>
> Looking at it closer, I think this practice you are describing is inferior.
> For one thing, it makes the "Changes" section incomplete: It should be
> labeled, "Changes except the ones already listed above". More importantly,
> it constrains how the advice in the Migration section can be structured. It
> has to be a change description tied to specific commits and credit, whereas
> as someone doing the migration, I'm looking for differently-structured
> advice.
>
> For example, looking at the item in the Migration section
>
> * Remove column pg_backend_memory_contexts.parent (Melih Mutlu) §
>
> This is no longer needed since pg_backend_memory_contexts.path was
> added.
>
> This might be ok as a summary of a description of a code change. But as
> someone doing a migration, I don't know what to do with that. If I'm using
> PG17 and I'm using the old column, now what?
>
> As another example, the advice on how to handle the change to checksum
> enable by default in pg_upgrade is very terse and barely useful.
>
> The Migration section should be written like "If you are using ... then you
> should be doing ... {before|after} upgrading."
>
> This can be inferred from many of the items, but several of them not.

My initial reaction to this is to move "Migration" under "Changes", and
change the "Migration" title to "Changes Affecting Migration".

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

Do not let urgent matters crowd out time for investment in the future.