2.6. RHEA-2010:0276: postgresql84

New postgresql84 packages are now available.

PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system (DBMS) that supports almost all SQL constructs (including transactions, subselects and user-defined types and functions).

The postgresql84 packages provide the current 8.4.x release series of PostgreSQL, superseding the 8.1.x series originally shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Since there are many minor application-level incompatibilities between 8.1.x and 8.4.x, the original postgresql package set remains available and will continue to be updated.

postgresql84 is for those users who wish to migrate to a more current PostgreSQL release.

postgresql84 and postgresql packages cannot be installed concurrently on the same system, with the exception that the postgresql-libs package can remain in place in parallel with postgresql84. The postgresql-libs package contains client-side library code to which existing applications may be linked. These libraries will still work with the newer server.

As 8.4.x also has on-disk data format differences from 8.1.x, it is not possible to upgrade an existing 8.1.x PostgreSQL database to 8.4.x merely by replacing the packages. Instead, first dump the contents of the existing database using the pg_dumpall command, then shut down the old server and remove the database files (under /var/lib/pgsql/data). Next, remove the old packages and install the new ones; start the new server; and finally restore the data from the pg_dumpall output.

Note, there are two known issues with this new package as follows:

* on Itanium, the only supported development subpackage architecture is Itanium. While it is possible to install both i386 and ia64 packages, these contain conflicting files and using the both architectures together may lead to unpredictable results. The i386 version is unsupported, as the Itanium version of gcc cannot compile code executable using the IA32 emulation capability. (BZ#489479)

* while postgresql84 packages are provided, rebuilding other packages with this new version is not supported. If a package using postgresql-devel is to be rebuilt, a downgrade from postgresql84 to postgresql is necessary. (BZ#558746)

Subject to the limitations noted above, users wishing to run PostgreSQL 8.4.x are encouraged to install these new packages.