The actual commit is rather dull though, it’s just the release/upload tag for version 107 which I just uploaded to Debian unstable (it will hit Ubuntu maverick and backports soon). 107 introduces support for PostgreSQL 9.0, and I fixed up the scripts and tests enough so that all the tests pass now, and thus it’s good for public release.

I also uploaded the 9.0 beta 1 server itself now. It’ll be in Debian’s NEW queue for a bit, and hit experimental in a few days (or hours; recently the ftpmasters have been awesome!) It has a few cool new features (see the announcement), and upstream really appreciates testing and feedback. So, bug reports appreciated!

In particular, if you have existing 8.4 clusters you can just try to pg_upgradecluster them to 9.0 beta 1. Remember, if anything goes wrong, the cluster of the previous version is still intact and untouched, so you can run upgrades as many times as you like and only pg_dropcluster the old one when you’re completely satisfied with the upgrade.

The new releases are in Lucid Beta-2, and hardy/jaunty/karmic-proposed. If you are running PostgreSQL, please upgrade to the proposed versions and give feedback to LP #557408.

Updates for Debian Lenny are prepared as well, and await release team ack.

On a related note, I recently fixed quite a major problem in pg_upgradecluster in postgresql-common 106: It did not copy database-level ACLs and configuration settings (Debian #543506). Fixing this required some reenginering of the upgrade process. It’s all thoroughly test case’d, but practical feedback would be very welcome! Remember, if anything goes wrong, the cluster of the previous version is still intact and untouched, so you can run upgrades as many times as you like and only pg_dropcluster the old one when you’re completely satisfied with the upgrade.

Thanks,

Martin

Updates for all supported Ubuntu releases are built in the ubuntu-security-proposed PPA. They pass the upstream and postgresql-common test suites, but more testing is heavily appreciated! Please give feedback in bug LP#496923.

Thanks!

8.4.1 is already in Ubuntu 9.10 and in my PostgreSQL Backports PPA for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and 9.04. Updates for the other supported Ubuntu releases are currently in -proposed, waiting for testing feedback.

If you use PostgreSQL, please give the -proposed packages some testing and report back in Ubuntu bug #430544. Thanks!

Packaging the actual 8.4 bits was actually pretty easy, just took me half a day to adapt the 8.3 packaging and eventually figuring out how to build the entire documentation from SGML sources with Debian/Ubuntu’s broken docbook-utils.

I spent much more work work on supporting 8.4 in postgresql-common, especially with the new per-database locales, migrating changed postgresql.conf parameters in pg_upgradecluster, and so on. Now almost all of the > 1000 tests pass, so I believe it is pretty solid now.

The only exception is the changed behaviour in verifying the server side’s SSL certificate from the client side. At first I thought it was a bug, and reported it to upstream, but it evolved into a pretty lengthy and interesting discussion about the right defaults for SSL verification. I’ll work on better defaults, and the test suite to pass 100% soon.

I invite you give the beta a good beating. Packages for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and 9.04 are in my
postgresql PPA. Due to postgresql-common, you can safely run 8.4 in parallel with existing 8.3 instances, test-upgrade your 8.3 ones to 8.4 and compare them, etc.

Feedback appreciated!