Re: Versioning policy and pg_upgrade

On 16 August 2010 13:39, Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 10:39, Thom Brown <thom@linux.com> wrote:
>> I noticed that the versioning policy page
>> (http://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning) mentions that for
>> upgrading between major versions, a dump/reload of the database is
>> needed.  Might we want to add a note in there about the use of
>> pg_upgrade when upgrading from 8.3+ to 8.4+?  I think some potential
>> users might see a dump/reload as a deal-breaker.
>
> Definitely. Care to suggest a wording or even a patch? ;)
>

Tsk.. I forgot that I had started writing minor changes for the site
before.  I'll revisit it this evening.

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?

--
Thom Brown
Registered Linux user: #516935