Changes/RemovalPostgreSQL15

Retirement of PostgreSQL 15

Summary

PostgreSQL version 15 will be retired from Fedora 42 since there are newer versions like 16 and 17. Version 16 is already the default version (announced in PostgreSQL16 change), and version 17 would be the alternative.

Owner

• Name: Lukas Javorsky, Filip Janus
• Email: ljavorsk@redhat.com, fjanus@redhat.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 42
• Last updated: 2024-12-16
• Announced
• Discussion thread
• FESCo issue: #3296
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

With the addition of PostgreSQL-17 to Fedora 42, maintaining PG15 is no longer necessary and creates a significant capacity burden. This will also mean the retirement of the dependent components like postgresql15-pgaudit, postgresql15-pg_repack, and postgresql15-decoderbufs.

Benefit to Fedora

Lesser PostgreSQL versions to maintain and newer versions with additional features.

Scope

• Proposal owners:
  • Follow the Package Retirement Process

• Other developers:

• Release engineering: #Releng issue number

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Alignment with the Fedora Strategy:

Upgrade/compatibility impact

In the case user's still didn't upgrade to the default stream 16, the standard upgrade strategy should be followed:

1. Dump and restore upgrade
   1. Stop the postgresql service
   2. Dump the databases using su - postgres -c "pg_dumpall > /PATH/TO/pgdump_file.sql"
   3. Backup all of the data in /var/lib/pgsql/data/
   4. Enumerate all postgresql-based packages by rpm -qa | grep postgresql
   5. Upgrade all installed (enumerated in the previous step) PostgreSQL packages using (e.g. for upgrading to PG-16) dnf install PACKAGE_NAMES --allowerasing
   6. Copy the old configuration files to the /var/lib/pgsql/data/
   7. Start the postgresql service
   8. Import data from the dumped file using su - postgres -c 'psql -f /PATH/TO/pgdump_file.sql postgres'
2. Fast upgrade using the pg_upgrade utility
   1. Stop the postgresql service
   2. Backup all of the data in /var/lib/pgsql/data/
   3. Enumerate all postgresql-based packages by rpm -qa | grep postgresql
   4. Upgrade all installed (enumerated in the previous step) PostgreSQL packages using (e.g. for upgrading to PG-16) dnf install PACKAGE_NAMES --allowerasing
   5. Install the upgrade package dnf install postgresql-upgrade
   6. Run postgresql-setup --upgrade
   7. Copy the old configuration files to the /var/lib/pgsql/data/
   8. Run # systemctl start postgresql.service

How To Test

The postgresql15* RPMs should not be in the Fedora mirrors and should not be installed.

Dependencies

The following dependencies (stand-alone packages) will be retired alongside the postgresql15:

• postgresql15-pgaudit, postgresql15-pg_repack, and postgresql15-decoderbufs

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), No

Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)