Re: Python 2.5 vs the buildfarm

Am Tuesday, 29. July 2008 schrieb Greg Sabino Mullane:
> > Why would anyone running PostgreSQL 8.1 in production upgrade their
> > stable server to Python 2.5, and remove Python 2.4 in the process?
>
> Because the keep their operating system up to date, and because we still
> do not have any sort of in-place upgrade.

And neither does Python.  Someone taking the step from Python 2.4 to 2.5 might 
as well do a major upgrade of PostgreSQL as well.

> > What is the use case, except "build farm maintainers can't keep their
> > environments stable"?
>
> What's not stable about having Python 2.5?

I mean "stable" to mean "does not change (unnecessarily)".  When PostgreSQL 
8.1 was released, Python 2.5 was not yet out.  So whoever was installing 
PostgreSQL 8.1 must have done it on a system that had Python 2.4.  Why not 
keep that?

In fact, someone upgrading such a system would have to *rebuild* PostgreSQL.  
Who does that on a production system?

> The buildfarm is meant to test many different combinations of
> factors that may or may not be seen in the field, and in this case it is
> doing that job admirably.

Yes indeed.  The test results say: This combination doesn't work; use some of 
these other alternatives.  Why not leave it at that?