Re: Thoughts on maintaining 7.3

On Wed, 2003-10-01 at 10:49, Neil Conway wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-10-01 at 09:14, Robert Treat wrote:
> > Maybe I've mis-read Joshua's intentions, but I got the impression that
> > this 7.3 maintainer would follow the patches list and backport patches
> > whenever possible. This way folks coding for 7.4/7.5 can stay focused on
> > that, but folks who can't upgrade to 7.4 for whatever reason can still
> > get some features / improvements.
>
> I don't think there's a need for a formalized "7.3 maintainer" -- if
> individuals would like to see particular fixes backported to 7.3, they
> can read pgsql-patches and post backported patches themselves. If
> someone wants to go ahead and do that, I wouldn't complain. (Similarly,
> if there is enough demand for a commercial company to do something
> similar for their customers, that might also be a good idea).

ok

>
> However, I think it's a bad idea to backport any features into older
> releases. The reason 7.3.x is really stable is precisely that it has had
> a lot of testing and bugfixing work done, but no new features.

eh.. i could see some things, like tsearch2 or pg_autovacuum, which
afaik are almost if not completely compatible with 7.3, which will not
get back ported. Also fixes in some of the extra tools like psql could
be very doable, I know I had a custom psql for 7.2 that back patched the
\timing option and some of the pager fixes. now, weather that could be
done with stuff closer to core, i don't know...

btw personally i'm fine with these things not being packpatched, though
if someone came out with a 7.3 pg_autovacuum rpm, or a 7.3 psql rpm, i'm
sure a lot of people would use it.

> Furthermore, adding more features to 7.3.x reduces the incentive to
> upgrade to 7.4, worsening the support problem: the more people using old
> releases, the more demand there will be for backported features, leading
> to more people using 7.3, leading to more demand for ...
>
> (FWIW, I think that any energy we might spend on a 7.3 maintainer would
> be better directed at improving the upgrade story...)
>

<homer>mmm. in place upgrade</homer>

Robert Treat
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