Обсуждение: clarification for pg_basebackup and major versions

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/app-pgbasebackup.html
Description:

Hi, Team !

Could we pls. clarify the following statement on the documentation page
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/app-pgbasebackup.html:
'pg_basebackup works with servers of the same or older major version, down
to 9.1.'

What does it exactly mean 'works with servers of the same or older major
version' ?

Most probably it means the possibility to use pg_basebackup binary of
version PG 17 to take backup of PG 14 server. Or something else ?

But it's definitely not ability to use pg_basebackup for PostgreSQL major
version upgrade, since pg_basebackup is not listed among the supported
options in https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/upgrading.html

So, pls. let me propose two things:
- to clarify how pg_basebackup works with servers of the same or older major
version
- to clearly specify pg_basebackup cannot be used for PostgreSQL major
version upgrade

It could be done on the same page
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/app-pgbasebackup.html

Thanks !

best regards
Alexey Shishkin

- to clarify how pg_basebackup works with servers of the same or older major
version

- to clearly specify pg_basebackup cannot be used for PostgreSQL major
version upgrade

Hi, Team !

Some more clarification about pg_basebackup which should be available in the documentation:

- if pg_basebackup works between different versions of the same OS (ex. RHEL8 and RHEL9)

- if pg_basebackup works between different types of OS Linux (ex. RHEL10 and Debian13) or OS Windows (ex. Windows 2016 and Windows 2019)

- if pg_basebackup works between different types of OS (ex. Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows 2022)

- if pg_basebackup works between different platforms (ex. Linux on amd64 and Linux on arm64)

- if pg_basebackup works between 32-bit OS and 64-bit OS