Les Mikesell wrote:
Jeff Johnson wrote:
On Jan 22, 2009, at 2:00 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
I'd just like to see a realistic approach to updates via packages.
Reality check:
You have a postgres upstream devel with years of experience packaging postgres and me both saying Don't attempt postgres database upgrades in packaging.
But create your own virtuality reality approach if you want.
I think you missed my point, which is that RPM packaging doesn't provide facilities for what needs to be done. Postgres upstream is just more honest than most in recognizing the problem. It's not the only thing that ever has non-backward-compatible updates.
It's not hard to rebuild (some, at least) packages to use rpm's prefix option. It allows to relocate the package at install time.
Doubtless Jeff will comment on the practicality of this, it's a feature that's been around for years and years, but I've not seen it used much.
Best, though to have a complete test system where the entire application - OS, database, webserver and anything else required is tested as an integrated whole.
It's getting easier with so many virtualisation choices, but even that aside most organisations of any size should be able to find an old Pentium IV or better to test on.