Re: Using pre-configured vs building Postgres

Armin Resch <reschab(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> Yet, now, we switch to a more modern distro (OpenSuse 12.1), which does
> have the RPM for Perl 5.14.2 pre-installed with the option to install more
> RPMs such as

> perl-DBI-1.616-7.1.3
> perl-DBD-Pg-2.18.0-3.1.4
> postgresql-9.1.1-3.1.4

> Once our custom applications are tested and behave, the idea is to freeze
> all prerequisites until we go to a different generation (potentially
> different distro altogether in >= 5 years).

> Before I try to obtain a handful of CPAN modules which are missing or
> 'unsupported' in OpenSuse, my question to this admin forum is what pro's
> and con's to consider when deciding whether to use a pre-configured
> postgresql versus building it ourselves.

Well, if you're starting deployment now with a five-year plan, it's
pretty dumb not to be using the latest major release (ie 9.2). 9.1
will be out of support in four years.

But even if 9.1 is the release series you want to freeze on, it does
not speak well at all for OpenSUSE's update practices if they're still
shipping 9.1.1. That's more than a year out of date, and has assorted
known security and data-loss issues, cf
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/release.html

If that's actually the latest version available from them, you'd be
very well advised to use your own build of PG instead, and pay attention
to our update releases.

I can't speak to the question of whether their Perl packages are equally
out of date --- you might be all right using those.

regards, tom lane