If you run 6.5 pg_dump against a 7.0 database, or vice versa,
you get very obscure error messages:parseNumericArray: too many numbersgetInherits(): 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?
regards, tom lane
