Re: Enable data checksums by default

On Thu, Aug 08, 2024 at 12:11:38PM +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> So I think we need to think through the upgrade experience a bit more.
> Unfortunately, pg_checksums hasn't gotten to the point that we were perhaps
> once hoping for that you could enable checksums on a live system. I'm
> thinking pg_upgrade could have a mode where it adds the checksum during the
> upgrade as it copies the files (essentially a subset of pg_checksums). I
> think that would be useful for that middle tier of users who just want a
> good default experience.

Well that, or, as a first less ambitious step, pg_upgrade could carry
over the data_checksums setting from the old to the new instance by
essentially disabling it via pg_checksums -d (which is fast) if it the
current default (off) is set on the old instance and the new instance
was created with the new onw (checksums on).

Probably should include a warning or something in that case, though I
guess a lot of users will read just past it. But at least they are not
worse off than before.

Michael