Jim Archer wrote:

> Hi Christopher...
>
> --On Wednesday, November 30, 2005 6:16 PM -0500 Christopher Browne
> <cbbrowne at ca.afilias.info> wrote:
>
>>> Will older versions of Postgres continue to be supported by Slony?
>>
>>
>> Until we have compelling reason to break off compatibility.
>>
>> I'd like to drop 7.3, as its namespace handling and name quoting
>> handling is too often painfully different from the later releases.  But
>> nothing has been *so* compelling as to make it really worthwhile to
>> do so.
>
>
> Thanks for the reply.  The reason I ask is because the packaged
> version of Postgres on the currently stable Debian release (Sarge
> Debian 1:3.3.5-12) is version 7.4.7.  It is possible to run a newer
> Postgres on Sarge of course, but doing so can complicate maintenance
> and future upgrads of the operating system.  Debian is pretty popular
> due to its stability, which of course often leave it a bit behind the
> curve.
>
> Is supporting all the 7.x series releases difficult, or just 7.3.x?

It's somewhat 7.3.x; there were considerable changes between 7.3 and 7.4
in terms of:
 a) Name space handling
 b) Quoting of names

Rod Taylor reported on having hacked Slony-I into a form that let him do
an upgrade from 7.2 to 7.4; he only kept it working in that form long
enough to get the upgrade done, at which point he killed off the "scary
hack" and dropped out the 7.2 nodes.  It seems to me that that is a
highly appropriate way to treat 7.3, as well; if you're on 7.3, today,
you should be planning to upgrade to something *WAY* newer, likely 8.1,
and plan to use Slony-I as a way to get off of it.

I'll disagree a little bit with Jan in one regard...  It is desirable
for Slony-I to support some old versions of PostgreSQL longer than PGDG
does in order to give people on those versions an upgrade path.  But to
be sure, once there is a compelling reason (and to my mind, it should be
one of functionality that we want that isn't supportible in 7.3) to drop
7.3, we will do so.

But as I mentioned in the earlier email, there IS an upgrade path, by
using the "mature" versions of Slony-I that might not still be
supported, but that will still work, to get from a "no longer supported"
version of PostgreSQL to one that is supported (both by PGDG and by the
Slony-I team).  So I won't feel any IMMENSE guilt whatever is the point
in time that Slony-I desupports 7.3...