Re: changing the endianness of a database

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 4:02 PM, Chris Saldanha
<postgres(at)cfs(dot)parliant(dot)com> wrote:
> We'd like to ship PostgreSQL as part of a product that runs on both PPC and
> Intel Macs, but the database files are tied to the build settings and
> endianness of the computer that the database was initialized on.
>
> Is there any way to cause the server to modify the database files in-place
> for endianness issues? I know that a backup-then-restore process would fix
> the data, but on Macs, many users use Apple's computer migration tools to
> copy all their programs/data/users/etc.. to new Macs.
>
> If the user moves from a PPC to an Intel Mac, for instance, the database
> would be copied over, but the data would be for the old computer, and the
> database won't start. The backup/restore process is hard for end users,
> since they don't understand it -- and they won't contact us until after the
> migration is done, and often not until they've discarded the old computer.
>
> It would be nice if there was a way to recover the data from the existing
> database files.
>
> I found this old thread on a related topic, and it seems that this cannot be
> done...
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2008-01/msg00635.php

Surely it's easier just to have your application dump on schedule and
add some front end GUI import feature to your app? It looks like you
are maybe trying to solve the wrong problem...namely that it is too
difficult for your users to do backup/restore themselves.

merlin