Re: Predicted lifespan of different PostgreSQL branches

Dave Page <dpage(at)postgresql(dot)org> writes:
> I've been considering only maintaining the current and previous 2
> versions in pgInstaller (the Windows binary distro). But that's a *lot*
> harder to maintain than just PostgreSQL because of all the bundled
> stuff. In other words, when 8.3 is out, the 8.0 series gets dropped.
> What do people think about that? Does anyone think it would be an
> unreasonable policy?

Actually, I was just wondering last night about whether we should bother
maintaining the 8.0/8.1 Windows ports at all. Everybody knew going in
(or should have known) that 8.0 on Windows would be a pretty raw port
with a lot of issues, as indeed it was, and so long-term support for it
seems a bit pointless. Perhaps the 8.1 port was up to the point where
it would be sane to use for production, or maybe not.

I haven't tracked Windows-specific issues particularly, but I think
there were at least some important patches we didn't back-port because
of complexity. Certainly 8.0 and 8.1 src/backend/port/win32/ files look
quite a bit different. Does anyone recall any specifics about Windows
patches that were back-ported or not?

Anyway I think that a fair case could be made for dropping the 8.0
branch now, and maybe 8.1 too, as far as Windows support goes. What
you want to do going forward is a different decision --- these are
edge cases because of the newness of the port.

regards, tom lane