Re: Should pg_dump refuse to run if DB has different version?

On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Tom Lane wrote:

> If you run 6.5 pg_dump against a 7.0 database, or vice versa,
> you get very obscure error messages:
>     parseNumericArray: too many numbers
>     getInherits(): SELECT failed.  Explanation from backend: 'ERROR:  Attribute 'inhrel' not found
> (Quick, guess which is which ... you'll probably guess wrong.)
> 
> It's too late to do anything about the behavior of 6.5 pg_dump,
> but we could change 7.0 and later pg_dump to check the database
> version at startup and refuse to run if it's not the expected value.
> 
> A downside is that a pg_dump might refuse to dump a DB that it actually
> would work with; that could be a pain in the neck, particularly in
> development scenarios where you might not have kept the previous
> compilation of pg_dump lying around.  Yet I think I prefer that to the
> risk of an insidious incompatibility that causes pg_dump to run without
> complaint yet generate a bogus dump.
> 
> Comments anyone?

Sounds reasonable to me ...