Re: Direction for test frameworks: Perl TAP vs. Python/pytest - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Thu, Jun 18, 2026 at 2:38 PM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> Another thing to think about: it's not just "make Python a hard
> requirement".  It's "make Python >= some-version a hard requirement".
> If we intend to be able to back-patch the test framework, that will
> constrain our ability to use bleeding-edge Python features in it.

Right.

If we don't allow our minor version requirements to slide up from the
OS base version that was originally shipped, and we don't decouple the
Python language version we write our tests in from the Python (ABI?)
version that Postgres is built against, we will forever be writing
tests in Pythons that have been end-of-life for 7-10 years. (Python
3.9, which is what RHEL 9 ships and therefore PG20 must support when
it releases in 2027, was EOL last year.)

So I'd like to put work into solving one or both of those. See also [1, 2].

Thanks,
--Jacob

[1] https://postgr.es/m/CAOYmi%2Bkw0RrOYsFto_Wd2TQ36NbYrT6MAk-fAZsiBdR6Qb5E-A%40mail.gmail.com
[2] https://postgr.es/m/5391e576-d44c-4d02-80ea-a50b8047ce75%40eisentraut.org