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authorBruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>2002-08-22 15:31:07 +0000
committerBruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>2002-08-22 15:31:07 +0000
commit5530b0c66699e224c6291b2b6b32484cb37364b2 (patch)
tree83eafc1e7250b9dab15e53e65e137141c0d07f9b /doc/src
parent0f1112923cf5ae8d4a3a81d5ffe78e0c866cb1ac (diff)
downloadpostgresql-5530b0c66699e224c6291b2b6b32484cb37364b2.tar.gz
postgresql-5530b0c66699e224c6291b2b6b32484cb37364b2.zip
Improve wording of upgrade section.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/src')
-rw-r--r--doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html37
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html b/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html
index 55432fa8751..84da6241687 100644
--- a/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html
+++ b/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
alink="#0000ff">
<H1>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL</H1>
- <P>Last updated: Tue Jul 30 11:05:09 EDT 2002</P>
+ <P>Last updated: Thu Aug 22 11:30:58 EDT 2002</P>
<P>Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<A href=
"mailto:pgman@candle.pha.pa.us">pgman@candle.pha.pa.us</A>)<BR>
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@
<A href="#3.9">3.9</A>) What are the <I>pg_sorttempNNN.NN</I>
files in my database directory?<BR>
<A href="#3.10">3.10</A>) Why do I need to do a dump and restore
- to upgrade PostgreSQL?<BR>
+ to upgrade PostgreSQL releases?<BR>
<H2 align="center">Operational Questions</H2>
@@ -786,24 +786,21 @@
running at the time, it is safe to delete the pg_tempNNN.NN
files.</P>
- <H4><A name="3.10">3.10</A>) Why do I need to do a dump and restore
- to upgrade PostgreSQL?</H4>
-
- <P>The PostgreSQL team tries very heard to maintain compatability across
- minor releases. So upgrading from 7.2 to 7.2.1 does not require a dump a
- restore. However, new features are continuously being adding and
- sometimes this requires new fields to be added to system tables.
-
- <P>These changes may be across many tables and so maintaining backward
- compatability would be quite difficult. Thus, restoring from a dump is
- required to make everything work.
-
- <P>Note that the actual on-disk file format does not change very often,
- a feature the pg_upgrade script uses quite successfully. There the dump
- is used create the necessary information in the system tables. The data
- files are then just copied across. This method is not as guarenteed as
- the dump/restore method but when it works it can make upgrades very
- efficient.
+ <H4><A name="3.10">3.10</A>) Why do I need to do a dump and restore
+ to upgrade between major PostgreSQL releases?</H4>
+
+ <P>The PostgreSQL team makes only small changes between minor releases,
+ so upgrading from 7.2 to 7.2.1 does not require a dump and restore.
+ However, major releases often change the internal format of system
+ tables and data files. These changes are often complex, so we don't
+ maintain backward compatability for data files. A dump outputs data
+ in a generic format that can then be loaded in using the new internal
+ format.
+
+ <P>In releases where the on-disk format does not change, the
+ <i>pg_upgrade</i> script can be used to upgrade without a dump/restore.
+ The release notes mention whether <i>pg_upgrade</i> is available for the
+ release.
<HR>