Re: pg_migrator issue with contrib

Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:
> > Let me list the problems with pg_migrator:
> 
> >     o  /contrib and plugin migration (not unique to pg_migrator)
> >     o  you must read/follow the install instructions
> >     o  might require post-migration table/index rebuilds
> >     o  new so serious bugs might exist
> 
> I think that #1 and #4 could be substantially alleviated if the
> instructions recommended doing a trial run with a schema-only dump
> of the database.  That is,
> 
> * pg_dumpall -s
> * load that into a test installation (of the *old* PG version)
> * migrate the test installation to new PG version
> * do the same sorts of applications compatibility checks you'd want to
>   do anyway before a major version upgrade

But you have no data in the database --- can any meaningful testing be
done?

FYI, pg_migrator will do the schema load pretty early (even before the
file copy) and fail on errors.  Retrying pg_migrator is pretty easy and
is now well documented in the INSTALL file.

> This would certainly catch migration-time failures caused by plugins,
> and the followup testing would probably catch any large post-migration
> issue.
> 
> Somebody who is not willing to do this type of testing should not be
> using pg_migrator (yet), and probably has not got a database large
> enough to need it anyway.

Agreed.

--  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB
http://enterprisedb.com
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