Re: Improving test coverage of extensions with pg_dump

Euler Taveira wrote:
> On 17-09-2015 14:21, Michael Paquier wrote:
> >pg_dump relies on attnum to define the column ordering, so one
> >possibility would be to do things more consistently at backend level.

We discussed this in some other thread, not long ago. I looked briefly
in the archives but couldn't find it. I think the conclusion was
something along the lines of "hmm, tough".

> Someone can say that we could assign an attnum for column "d" considering
> all of the inheritance tree. However, attnum is used as an index to arrays
> (we could bloat some of those) and some logic rely on it to count the number
> of columns. It would become tablecmds.c into an spaghetti.

We don't need any more spaghetti there, thanks!

> IMHO a possible way to solve it is adding support for logical column
> ordering. An ALTER TABLE command (emitted if a parameter was informed)
> during dump could handle it. BTW, last thread [1] about logical column
> ordering seems to have died a few months ago. Alvaro?

Tomas Vondra also worked a bit on this patch, and we eventually gave up
on it due to lack of time. We might be able to get back on it someday,
but do not hold your breath. If you want the current bug fixed, do not
wait for logical column numbering.

--
Álvaro Herrera http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services