On 5 September 2017 at 09:58, Tom Lane <t...@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > Robert Haas <robertmh...@gmail.com> writes: >> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 12:16 PM, Tom Lane <t...@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: >>> Hm. I think it would be a fine idea to push this change into v10, >>> so that all psql versions that have \if would have these variables. >>> However, I'm less enthused about adding them to the 9.x branches. >>> Given the lack of \if, I'm not seeing a use-case that would justify >>> taking any compatibility risk for. >>> >>> Opinions anyone? > >> As I see it, the risks of back-patching are: > >> 1. Different minor versions will have different behavior, and that >> tends to create more problems than it solves. > > Yeah. Whatever use-case you think might exist for these variables in, > say, 9.6 is greatly weakened by the fact that releases through 9.6.5 > don't have them.
Makes sense > However, since v10 is still in beta I don't think that argument > applies to it. OK Does raise the further question of how psql behaves when we connect to a pre-10 server, so we have SERVER_VERSION_NUM but yet it is not set. How does this \if SERVER_VERSION_NUM < x behave if unset? Presumably it fails, even though the version *is* less than x Do we need some macro or suggested special handling? -- Simon Riggs http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/ PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
