Thread: Limits of backwards compatibility for psql's \d commands
I'm fooling around with Guillaume Lelarge's patch to make psql's \d
commands work with older server versions. The patch as submitted
works with servers back to 7.4 (modulo a small bug or two). I tried
to see what it'd take to make it work with 7.3. I count about a dozen
trivial diffs and about three nontrivial ones --- nontrivial meaning
I didn't see a simple fix right away. This seems a bit more work than
is justified for a server version that the community has officially
dropped support for, but I wonder if anyone feels hot about it?
Pre-7.3 server versions seem entirely out of the realm of reason because
they lack schema support, meaning all of those "pg_catalog." prefixes
break, not to mention the joins to pg_namespace and the "schema" output
columns. So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I think.
regards, tom lane
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160 > I didn't see a simple fix right away. This seems a bit more work than > is justified for a server version that the community has officially > dropped support for, but I wonder if anyone feels hot about it? > > Pre-7.3 server versions seem entirely out of the realm of reason because > they lack schema support, meaning all of those "pg_catalog." prefixes > break, not to mention the joins to pg_namespace and the "schema" output > columns. So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I think. As a huge long-time supporter of backwards compatibility in psql, I say abandon 7.3 support completely, and good riddance. - -- Greg Sabino Mullane greg@turnstep.com PGP Key: 0x14964AC8 200807012354 http://biglumber.com/x/web?pk=2529DF6AB8F79407E94445B4BC9B906714964AC8 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iEYEAREDAAYFAkhq/CgACgkQvJuQZxSWSsh9OgCgrmUZKOQbQEdkXddPTDrvNFzu 1f4An0mtoAvt4VGFTjfn8Qoyy1JEIrju =oSyR -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Tue, 2008-07-01 at 22:33 -0400, Tom Lane wrote: > Pre-7.3 server versions seem entirely out of the realm of reason > because they lack schema support, meaning all of those "pg_catalog." > prefixes break, not to mention the joins to pg_namespace and the > "schema" output columns. So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I > think. We already abandoned 7.3 , so IMHO we should not worry about compatibility with it anymore, unless we are strongly forced to. Regards, -- Devrim GÜNDÜZ devrim~gunduz.org, devrim~PostgreSQL.org, devrim.gunduz~linux.org.tr http://www.gunduz.org
Tom Lane wrote: > I'm fooling around with Guillaume Lelarge's patch to make psql's \d > commands work with older server versions. The patch as submitted > works with servers back to 7.4 (modulo a small bug or two). I tried > to see what it'd take to make it work with 7.3. I count about a dozen > trivial diffs and about three nontrivial ones --- nontrivial meaning > I didn't see a simple fix right away. This seems a bit more work than > is justified for a server version that the community has officially > dropped support for, but I wonder if anyone feels hot about it? > > Pre-7.3 server versions seem entirely out of the realm of reason because > they lack schema support, meaning all of those "pg_catalog." prefixes > break, not to mention the joins to pg_namespace and the "schema" output > columns. So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I think. EOL is EOL, why is the question even being asked? Joshua D. Drake > > regards, tom lane >
"Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com> writes:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>> ... So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I think.
> EOL is EOL, why is the question even being asked?
Well, pg_dump still supports servers back to 7.0 (and yes I do test that
now and again). psql probably doesn't need to support interactive query
operations quite so far back, but I think the boundary of what's needed
is pretty squishy. Hence my query about what people really want.
regards, tom lane
Tom Lane a écrit : > I'm fooling around with Guillaume Lelarge's patch to make psql's \d > commands work with older server versions. The patch as submitted > works with servers back to 7.4 (modulo a small bug or two). I tried > to see what it'd take to make it work with 7.3. I count about a dozen > trivial diffs and about three nontrivial ones --- nontrivial meaning > I didn't see a simple fix right away. This seems a bit more work than > is justified for a server version that the community has officially > dropped support for, but I wonder if anyone feels hot about it? > I don't think we should add support for pre-7.4 releases. I even didn't try to look at 7.3 release because it's not maintained anymore. Anyways, if someone thinks it should be done, I can work on it. > Pre-7.3 server versions seem entirely out of the realm of reason because > they lack schema support, meaning all of those "pg_catalog." prefixes > break, not to mention the joins to pg_namespace and the "schema" output > columns. So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I think. > -- Guillaume. http://www.postgresqlfr.org http://dalibo.com
At 2008-07-02 09:16:30 +0200, guillaume@lelarge.info wrote: > > I don't think we should add support for pre-7.4 releases. I agree. It's not worth the effort. -- ams
On Jul 2, 2008, at 1:23 AM, Tom Lane wrote: > "Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com> writes: >> Tom Lane wrote: >>> ... So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I think. > >> EOL is EOL, why is the question even being asked? > > Well, pg_dump still supports servers back to 7.0 (and yes I do test > that > now and again). psql probably doesn't need to support interactive > query > operations quite so far back, but I think the boundary of what's > needed > is pretty squishy. Hence my query about what people really want. Being able to get your data out of 7.3 is a lot more important than \d commands... :) -- Decibel!, aka Jim C. Nasby, Database Architect decibel@decibel.org Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828
On Wed, 2008-07-02 at 18:39 -0500, Decibel! wrote: > On Jul 2, 2008, at 1:23 AM, Tom Lane wrote: > > "Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com> writes: > >> Tom Lane wrote: > >>> ... So it's just 7.3 that's worth debating, I think. > > > >> EOL is EOL, why is the question even being asked? > > > > Well, pg_dump still supports servers back to 7.0 (and yes I do test > > that > > now and again). psql probably doesn't need to support interactive > > query > > operations quite so far back, but I think the boundary of what's > > needed > > is pretty squishy. Hence my query about what people really want. > > > Being able to get your data out of 7.3 is a lot more important than > \d commands... :) It may seem peculiar but I would consider adding support for \d commands to 8.4 for 7.3 a feature for 7.3 not 8.4. Let's stick with upgrade support on that one, not backward compatibility :) Joshua D. Drake