Re: Versioning policy and pg_upgrade

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> > On Mon, 2010-08-16 at 13:59 +0100, Thom Brown wrote:
> > 
> > > But I propose expanding it to read:
> > > 
> > > "Major releases usually change the internal format of system tables
> > > and data files. These changes are often complex, so we don't maintain
> > > backward compatibility for data files. A dump/reload of the database
> > > cluster is required for major upgrades for upgrading from 8.2 or
> > > earlier.  For upgrading from version 8.3 and later, there is the
> > > option to use pg_upgrade (also known as pg_migrator prior to version
> > > 9.0), capable of in-place upgrades.  This means, for example, you can
> > > upgrade any minor version of 8.3 to 8.4 without having to perform a
> > > full backup and restore, resulting in a significantly faster upgrade."
> > > 
> > > Too wordy?
> > 
> > Yes :D (well I think so):
> > 
> > "A Major release changes the internal data format of the cluster.
> > Due to this change a dump/reload of the cluster is required for major
> > upgrades for upgrading from 8.2 or earlier.  
> > 
> > If upgrading from version 8.3 and later, certain installs may be able to
> > use pg_upgrade (previously named pg_migrator). If pg_upgrade is
> > compatible with your cluster (see the docs) you will able to perform an
> > in-place upgrades. Although downtime is still required, this is much
> > quicker than a dump/restore."
> 
> Based on this discussion from August, I suggest the following patch be
> applied to versioning.html.  It mentions pg_upgrade as an major upgrade
> option and links to the pg_upgrade page that has all the details.

FYI, I am still waiting for someone to apply this patch.

--  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB
http://enterprisedb.com
 + It's impossible for everything to be true. +