Re: trouble caused by change in 7.3 handling of ''

Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
> I have another interesting idea. What if we create a postgresql.conf
> param called prev_compatible that exists in every release. We default
> it to false/0. If it always exists, we can add features under its
> control even in minor releases. Most interesting would be to have it be
> an int and make a bitmask for up to 32 features that could be made
> backward compatible to the previous release.

Including the definition of the individual bits' behavior?

That strikes me as a mess. No one could ever be very sure what behavior
they were getting or not getting by setting such a thing. But they
could be quite sure that their code would break in interesting ways in
the next release.

If we're going to have compatibility flags, they should be clearly
defined, clearly named, and control just one feature apiece (cf.
transform_null_equals).

regards, tom lane