Re: Can we delete the vacuumdb.sgml notes about which version each option was added in?

On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 10:14:35PM +1200, David Rowley wrote:
> I was just looking at the vacuumdb docs and noticed that I had
> neglected to follow the tradition of adding a note to mention which
> version we added the new option in when I committed the
> --buffer-usage-limit patch.
>
> There are 3 notes there that read "This option is only available for
> servers running PostgreSQL 9.6 and later.". Since 9.6 is a few years
> out of support, can we get rid of these 3?
>
> Or better yet, can we just delete them all? Is it really worth doing
> this in case someone is using a new vacuumdb on an older server?
>
> I just tried compiling the HTML with all the notes removed, I see from
> looking at a print preview that it's now ~1 full A4 page shorter than
> it was previously. 5 pages down to 4.
>
> Does anyone think we should keep these?

I don't know if I'd support removing the notes, but I agree that they
don't need to take up anywhere near as much space as they do (especially
since the note is now repeated 10 times).

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/app-vacuumdb.html

I suggest to remove the <note> markup and preserve the annotation about
version compatibility. It's normal, technical writing to repeat the
same language like that.

Another, related improvement I suggested would be to group the
client-side options separately from the server-side options.
https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/ZBYDTrD1kyGg+HkS@telsasoft.com

--
Justin