On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:09:12 +0100
Marc Recht <marc@geht.de> wrote:
> > I'm wondering if the postgresql packages ought not use the version
> > number in the data directory, e.g.: ${pgsql_home}/data80 instead of
> > ${pgsql_home}/data. This would ensure that postgresql never tries to
> 
> Yes, I'm planning to do this for pgsql packages.

I'm not so sure this is useful.  It seems to me that expert users will
know how to handle this and will have their own way of laying out data
directories and will just have to work around this.  On the other hand,
people that don't fully understand will need to learn this anyway and
this could be an extra surprise that they won't be able to figure out by
reading the PostgreSQL docsumentation since it is a NetBSD modification.
 Certainly we can never handle every possible situation and someone will
be confused.

> > read data not compatable with that version, and also avoid the risk
> > of accidently damaging or deleting one's data after upgrading.

For quite a while now PostgreSQL has been safe in this regard.  It won't
initdb a new database over an existing one and it won't start an
incompatible one.  It explains this tersely in the error messages and
the site explains in more detail what to do in those cases.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@NetBSD.org>
http://www.NetBSD.org/