[postgis-tickets] [PostGIS] #5306: Function to display to user what versions of libs PostGIS was compiled against

[PostGIS]

#5306: Function to display to user what versions of libs PostGIS was compiled
against
---------------------+---------------------------
 Reporter:  robe     |      Owner:  pramsey
     Type:  defect   |     Status:  new
 Priority:  medium   |  Milestone:  PostGIS 3.4.0
Component:  postgis  |    Version:  master
 Keywords:           |
---------------------+---------------------------
 For primarily GEOS and sometimes PROJ, the features we enable are
 dependent on what version of these dependencies PostGIS is compiled
 against.

 Many users get their PostGIS and PostgreSQL from pgdg (apt.postgresql.org)
 , (yum.postgresql.org).  They may on occasion, supplement these by
 compiling their own GEOS or getting it from a GIS dedicated repo (e.g.
 ubuntu-gis).

 As far as PGDG is concerned, this is generally not an issue for
 yum.postgresql.org since that ships it's own GEOS/GDAL/PROJ. For
 apt.postgresql.org, their compiles are against upstream debian/ubuntu
 shipped packages.  This means even if you have the newest PostGIS you
 might end up with a GEOS 3.10 on a Jammy, and a GEOS 3.9 on a Focal.  Then
 if you use ubuntugis, your PostGIS was compiled against a GEOS 3.10 but
 running with a GEOS 3.11.

 When someone does


 {{{
 SELECT postgis_full_version();
 }}}


 They are informed of the runtime library, which is important, to know
 patch level fixes and many performance enhancements, but is misleading
 when it comes to new features.

 You might be running with a GEOS 3.11, but if your postgis is compiled
 with GEOS 3.10, then those new features exposed for GEOS 3.11, are not
 available to you.

 So solution, at least for GEOS

 I think


 {{{
 SELECT postgis_full_version();
 }}}

 should state both the runtime and the compiled version in cases where they
 are different.  For cases where they are the same (which is probably
 most), we can keep the message same as before.

 For Proj since we have removed support for Proj < 6.2 in PostGIS and most
 of the issues we've had are around PROJ 4 - 7 probably not too important
 to state that, though may be in the future
-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/postgis/ticket/5306>
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