Re: The Contrib Roundup (long)

a few comments scattered inline...

On Tue, Jun 07, 2005 at 02:53:32PM -0300, Josh Berkus wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I had a lot of time to kill on airplanes recently so I've gone
> digging through /contrib in an effort to sort out what's in
> there and try to apply some consistent rules to it. Before
> people read further, please understand that this is just an
> initial discussion on what will and won't be in contrib for
> 8.1; nobody has made any decisions yet.
>
> What Should Be In Contrib?
> -------------------------------
> Looking over what's in there most of the reasonable contrib
> options fall into 3 groups: extra data types, extra functions
> and backend utilities. These all seem reasonable things to put
> into contrib, with the addition of other code being
> tested for inclusion in the core. These categories also
> pretty much cover things that need to be inside the PostgreSQL
> source to build.
>
> What Shouldn't Be In Contrib?
> -------------------------------
> The things I think we should exclude from contrib are rather
> more varied. Based on examples:
>
> a) Code with major external dependencies other than a
> programming language. Partly this is because this means they
> are useful to less users; more importantly, this is because the
> external dependencies mean that the release cycle for these
> tools is likely to be determined by the external dependency and
> not by PostgreSQL's release cycle. Further, the external
> dependencies mean that it's less likely that the postgresql
> core programmers can maintain them in the event that the
> original developer goes away. The Mysql conversion scripts are
> a good example of this; I don't believe that my2pg even works
> with MySQL 4.
>
> b) Alpha-quality code and unfinished projects. Shipping
> something with the PostgreSQL source code implies a certain
> level of stability, completeness and quality. We shouldn't be
> including scripts which took 2 hours to write and have only
> been tested on one platform. This stuff can get developed on
> pgFoundry and moved to contrib when it's close to mature.
>
> c) Differently licensed code. I'm not an attorney: I won't
> pretend to know which licenses it's legal to bundle in our
> tarballs and which are not. But I do know that most users and
> redistributors aren't going to grep contrib looking for other
> licenses, and putting differently licensed stuff in there is
> bad pr at best, and a legal booby trap at worst.
> (Particularly, there are 3 contrib modules by Massimo del Zotto,
> which are GPL licensed. According to the FSF's licensing admin,
> installing any these contrib modules will instantly make that
> copy of PostgreSQL GPL.)

I agree that anything that is not BSD licensed should not go
into contrib.

>
> d) Application code and example code. Contrib is *not* a good
> place for "here's how you do this in an application" kind of
> code. It's not visible enough to be documentation, and such
> examples aren't generally useful to the majority of users as
> code.
>
> Moving to PgFoundry is NOT "Demotion"
> ----------------------------------------
> I know that I'm going to get a lot of resistance for the idea
> of moving some project to pgFoundry, because authors feel that
> it's a "demotion" for their code not to be shipped with the
> PostgreSQL source. However, being on pgFoundry increases the
> visibility of your code and allows a wider array of people to
> contribute to it -- and even find it. And for items of
> particularly broad utility, stuff can always go from pgFoundry
> into the core when mature or when utility is demonstrated.
>
> Contrib Subdirectories?
> -------------------------------------
> I think it would also be helpful to users if we could create
> subdirectories to organize contrib into categories. This would
> help users and packagers find what they want. These
> directories would be:
> data_types/
> functions/
> utilities/
> I've noted below which contrib code I think should go in those
> subdirs.

These directories are misleading since all data types include functions.
If we are paring down contrib, I see no reason to reorganize them.

>
> Contrib Build Options?
> ---------------------------
> I'll point out that several people (including one of our
> RPM builders) spoke up in favor of the idea of adding ./contrib
> command line options for individual contrib items. Discussion
> was dropped without a decision being reached. That would work
> like:
> ./configure --with-perl --prefix=/usr/pgsql --with-tsearch2
> --with-fuzzystrmatch
>
> Documentation
> --------------------------
> As previously mentioned, all contrib modules need to have
> documentation in the main postgreSQL docs. Probably their own
> section, called "Optional Modules".
>
> Contrib Item Listing
> --------------------------------
> What follows is my notes on individual contrib projects. Many
> contain questions because I don't know enough about the item.
> Please read through them an provide what feedback you can.
> Especially, provide feedback on the items I'm suggesting
> eliminating or moving out. I've noted the author contact info
> where I'm thinking of moving modules, and will be attempting to
> contact those authors if we decide to change status.
>
> adddepend: is this still needed, or would a proper
> dump-and-reload from 7.2 add the dependancy information anyway?
>
> array: placeholder for old array module; contains only a
> readme. Should probably be dropped for 8.2.
>
> btree_gist: data_types/

Actually this is an index, not a datatype

>
> chkpass: data_types/
>
> cube: README needs documentation on what the module is *for*.
>
> dbmirror: should be on pgfoundry/gborg with other replication
> systems. Stephen Singer (ssinger(at)navtechinc(dot)com)
>
> dbsize: functions/
>
> earthdistance: data_types/

Isn't this just a function?

>
> findoidjoins: again, it's not clear what this module is for.
> Bruce?
>
> fulltextindex: Obsolesced by Tsearch2. Also rather a
> brute-force technique for FTI possibly more useful as an
> illustration of advance trigger use than as an index. Move to
> pgfoundry or techdocs? Maarten Boekhold
> (maartenb(at)dutepp0(dot)et(dot)tudelft(dot)nl)
>
> fuzzystrmatch: functions/
>
> intagg: what does this module do which is not already available
> through the built-in array functions and operators? Maybe I
> don't understand what it does. Unnatributed in the README. Move
> to pgfoundry?
>
> intarray: data_types/

what does this do that arrays do not?

>
> ipc_check: nice idea, possibly useful but works only on FreeBSD.
> Needs to be vastly expanded to support multiple platforms.
> Work on replacing with "Configurator" project at pgfoundry.
> Author unattributed. Recommend removal.
>
> isbn_issn: more data types. Has anyone tested this one lately?
> It appears not to have been modified since 7.2. data_types/
>
> lo: another special data type. Is its functionality required
> anymore? It appears to be a workaround to some limitations of
> our large object interface which may no longer exist. Author
> Peter Mount ( peter(at)retep(dot)org(dot)uk ) data_types/
>
> ltree: data_types/
>
> msql_interface: does anyone use mSQL anymore? In any case,
> conversion and foriegn-database-connection tools definitely
> belong on pgFoundry. Author Aldrin Leal (
> aldrin(at)americasnet(dot)com ).
>
> mac: A special purpose script which I doubt works on all
> platforms. Belongs on pgFoundry so that maybe someone will
> take an interest in expanding it.
>
> misc_utils: I believe that all of these utils are obsolesced by
> builtin system commands or easily written userspace functions
> (like max(x,y)). Also, is under the GPL (see above). Author
> Massimo Dal Zotto (dz(at)cs(dot)unitn(dot)it)
>
> mysql: these utilities have been moved to project sites (such as
> GBorg), and I believe that my2pg is broken with current versions
> of MySQL. Can we remove this from contrib?
>
> noupdate: this is a cool example of a simple C trigger and would
> be lovely to have in a doc somewhere. However, its
> functionality is easily replicated through a simple PL/pgSQL
> trigger so it seems unnecessary as a contrib module. Author
> unattributed.
>
> oid2name: a useful backend utility which is used by a number of
> external tools. What would it take to make this a builtin
> binary? utilities/
>
> oracle: again, very useful and I wish to move it to pgFoundry
> and take over maintenance of it. Author Gilles Darold
> (gilles(at)darold(dot)net).
>
> pg_autovaccuum: moving into the backend.
>
> pg_buffercache: another useful backend utility. Seems perfect
> for contrib. utilities/
>
> pg_dumplo: is this still required for pg large objects? If
> so, can't we integrate it into the core? utilities/
>
> pg_trgm: data_types/
>
> pg_upgrade: what's the status of this, Bruce? Does it work at
> all? Shouldn't this be moved to the pgfoundry project of the
> same name until it's stable?
>
> pgbench: I see repeated complaints on -performance about how
> pgbench results are misleading. Why are we shipping it with
> PostgreSQL then? Shouldn't this be on pgFoundry, maybe in the
> testperf project? Shouldn't all performance tests be on
> pgFoundry instead of in the code, unless they're part of
> regression tests?
>
> pgcrypto: more for /functions. And a good reason to keep the
> main PostgreSQL ftp servers outside the US :-b
>
> pgstattuple: utilities/
>
> reindexdb: now obsolete per the REINDEX {database} command.
> Remove from contrib.
>
> rtree_gist: data_types/
>
> seg: data_types/
>
> spi: contains TimeTravel functions. Do these actually still
> work? The spi stuff is good for documentation purposes anyway
> ... but if the functions aren't working, should be in the docs
> and not /contrib.
>
> start-scripts: utilities/. Needs to be expanded and
> checked against more oses.
>
> string: data_types/ Same problem as Massimo's
> other library; it's GPL. Also, is it really needed at this
> point? Massimo (dz(at)cs(dot)unitn(dot)it).
>
> tablefunc: functions/
>
> tips: this is a proto-apache-log-slurping project, in *alpha*.
> As such, it really needs to be on pgFoundry. Author Terry
> Mackintosh (terry(at)terrym(dot)com)
>
> tools: Two of these are emacs scripts, and would be better
> on pgFoundry if not on Savannah. The find-sources shell
> script is again GPL and should probably be removed, and moreover
> appears to have nothing to do with PostgreSQL.
>
> tsearch: obsolesced by tsearch2. Should be moved to pgfoundry
> where it can be maintained by users needing backwards
> compatibility.
>
> userlocks: another GPL script, with the problems that entails.
> Also problematic as it relies heavily on per-record OIDs,
> something we tell users not to do. Overall, should be removed.
> Author: Massimo.
>
> vacuumlo: is this still required? If utilities/.
>
> xml and xml2: both by John Gray (jgray(at)azuli(dot)co(dot)uk). John, why
> do we have two of these? Otherwise, data_types/.
> --
> --Josh
>
> Josh Berkus
> Aglio Database Solutions
> San Francisco
>
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