Re: moving from contrib to bin

Robert Haas wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Alvaro Herrera
> <alvherre(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:

> > So let's put the whole bunch under src/bin/ and be done with it.
>
> I'm not really convinced this is a very good idea. What do we get out
> of moving everything, or even anything, from contrib?

We show that it's no longer "contrib" (== possibly low quality) stuff
anymore. At the beginning of pg_upgrade, for example, we didn't want it
in src/bin because it wasn't stable enough, it was full of bugs, there
were always going to be scenarios it wouldn't handle. Now that is all
gone, so we promote it to the next status level.

> It will make back-patching harder,

Yes. We can deal with that. It's not that hard anyway.

> but more importantly, it will possibly create the false impression
> that everything we distribute is on equal footing.

Stuff in contrib is of lower quality. Some items have improved enough
that we can let them out of that sack now. What we're doing is create
the correct impression that stuff that's no longer in contrib is of
better quality than what remains in contrib.

> Right now, we've got stuff like vacuumlo in contrib which is
> useful but, let's face it, also a cheap hack.

Then we don't move vacuumlo. I agree we shouldn't move it. (And
neither oid2names.)

> If we decide that executables can no longer live in contrib,

Nobody is saying that.

--
Álvaro Herrera http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
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