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Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 08:37:46 -0600
From: Kenneth Marshall <ktm@rice.edu>
To: Uwe Schroeder <uwe@bunspace.com>
Cc: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org, gnanam@zoniac.com,
	'Devrim G?ND?Z' <devrim@gunduz.org>
Subject: Re: How to upgrade PostgreSQL minor releases without a dump/restore?
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On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 07:43:46PM -0800, Uwe Schroeder wrote:
> 
> > > ? Did you read the paragraph above?
> > > 
> > > Install latest version, and restart postmaster.
> > 
> > Installing of latest version as-is will keep overwriting the existing
> > installed directories/files/binaries but not the "/usr/local/pgsql/data/"
> > directory right?  Since this is our production server database, am just
> > clarifying this question that came to my mind, before upgrading.
> 
> For sake of safety, I'd always make a backup of the data directory. You don't 
> need to dump/restore. Just copy the files someplace else and then do the 
> update. In case something goes wrong you can always go back to your old 
> version and just copy the backup to the data directory.
> 
> That's how I do upgrades. Never needed the backup, but better to have one.
> 
> Uwe
> 
The "Just copy the files someplace else" can take a long, long
time for a large database and you need to have the database off-line
for the copy to be correct. Not really an option in many environments.

Cheers,
Ken