[Pkg-postgresql-public] Dropping postgresql 8.3 for squeeze

[Dimitri Fontaine]

Stephen Frost <sfrost at snowman.net> writes:
> * Dimitri Fontaine (dfontaine at hi-media.com) wrote:
>> So ideally the extensions packaging should not have to be edited at all
>> and produce binaries for all supported PostgreSQL version. Supported by
>> the debian release which is building the package and by the extension
>> itself, of course.
>
> That's a wonderful goal, but it's also pie-in-the-sky unless you've got
> a solution which can actually do this.  Perhaps it could be solved, but
> I don't believe it'd be at all trivial to do.  If you're willing to put
> the effort into solving it, great.  Perhaps having a virtual package
> which is then used in build-depends to pull in "whatever is available in
> this release" and then having the extensions able to dynamically build
> their control files, etc, etc, based on what's available might work.
>
> Asking that this already be implemented and working or you're not going
> to maintain your packages strikes me as pretty horrible.

I proposed a solution and I'm willing to spend effort on it, as soon as
Martin Pitt says it's something he wants to see happen.

  http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-postgresql-public/2009-December/000490.html

  Wow, sorry for the bad quoting there.

> I seriously doubt Debian would be able to properly maintain PG packages
> after they've been EOL'd upstream.

So do I. I guess some other software ends up in debian stable and
reaches EOL before debian stable does, and still nobody in debian is
able to fix it. Or is PostgreSQL really unique there?

> I think you have a better chance of arguing this point- that 8.3 and 8.4
> will be maintained upstream until our support of the next Debian release
> is done, but I don't see how that changes the problem for you at all.
> You still have to adjust your packages as the major versions change and
> depending on what's available in what release.

I'd like not too. The build process is the same for each major version
of PostgreSQL, it's all possible to automate, except for debian/control,
I believe.

So I proposed to have a single binary package containing the necessary
files (.so). You could even install the .so for 8.4 on squeeze and not
have postgresql-8.4 there, or invent dh_pgstrip for extension packages.

Regards,
-- 
dim

PS: If that's not clear, I'm also volunteering to help implement better
ideas than mine. If you know how to solve my problem, tell me. If you
don't have the time to implement the right solution, I'll try doing so.

PPS: I succeeded in avoiding perl up until now... and would appreciate
continuing :)