[postgis-devel] PSC Vote: Drop the minor in the postgis lib files

[Regina Obe]

> > They'd need symlinks only until they properly upgrade all databases.
> > Again, is this done automatically by Debian packagers ?
> > Otherwise we could provide a script ourselves to do it.
> > The script would:
> >
> >    1. Create symlinks if needed
> >    2. Run pg_upgrade
> >    3. Update postgis in all databases [*]
> >    4. Drop the symlinks
> 
> A wrapper around pg_upgrade is an option to support postgis databases, but
> not having to do so in the first place is preferable. Why does postgis not play
> nice with postgresql database upgrades like other extensions do? That's a big
> pain point for users.
> 
> > What concerns me is the handling of failures in step 3, both in the
> > manual case and (worst?) in the automatic case.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Bas
[Regina Obe] 

Well with not adding on the minor version, anymore we'll play much nicer.
We do want to keep the Major version just in case we do have a situation where we change the on disk format in such a fashion that a simple upgrade is not feasible.

In such cases a dump/restore would be required.

We will never play quite as nicely as other extensions for the following reasons:

1) We have a ton more functions and at the very least always add new functions in each minor release
2) We do during major upgrades sometimes change on-disk format - though hopefully for 3.0 I think we can make it seamless, though we do plan to change the storage to extended.
2) That said - you always have to do an ALTER EXTENSION .. postgis ..

Or our new SELECT postgis_upgrade_extensions();

To get all the new functions

In the new world, not running an upgrade on each database won't be a disaster even if packagers uninstall the old version, because worst case is, you will only get the same old functions you had before, with performance improvements/bug fixes

And if per chance you happened to run a function where we removed the function, you'd get a notice that you need to upgrade the extension to use it.
These will be clearly noted in release notes as breaking changes.


Thanks,
Regina