On Mon, Mar 20, 2017 at 8:57 AM, Stephen Frost <sfr...@snowman.net> wrote:
> Tom, > > * Tom Lane (t...@sss.pgh.pa.us) wrote: > > Stephen Frost <sfr...@snowman.net> writes: > > > * Bruce Momjian (br...@momjian.us) wrote: > > >> 1. make the change now and mention it in the release notes > > >> 2. #1, but also provide backward compatibility for 5+ years > > >> 3. mark the feature as deprecated and remove/change it in 5+ years > > >> 4. #3, but issue a warning for deprecated usage > > > I was imagining the changes to pg_stat_activity as possibly falling > under #3/change, meaning that we'd wait for 5 years before actually > renaming those columns, which is part of why I was objecting to that > idea. > Which ends up boiling down to: A. Make a change and document it in the release notes B. If applicable, and desired, provide a 5 year backward​ compatibility deprecation period (i.e., 3 =>[implies] 2). Generally 2 => 3 but the deprecation period is undefined. C. Optionally, if deprecating, provide explicit warnings when the deprecated feature is used Guidelines for when to desire the 5 year period would be helpful. And also acknowledge that we may wish to choose a shorter period of time, or institute immediate removal, at our discretion. Nothing says we cannot go longer than 5 years but given our support policy I would say that we'd rarely desired to do so intentionally - the burden of proof falling to those who would want to keep something longer. David J.
