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From: Nathan Bossart <[email protected]>
To: Dagfinn Ilmari Mannsåker <[email protected]>
Cc: Tom Lane <[email protected]>
Cc: Melanie Plageman <[email protected]>
Cc: Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]>
Cc: Andres Freund <[email protected]>
Cc: Álvaro Herrera <[email protected]>
Cc: Pg Hackers <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: remove bits* types
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:00:07 -0500
Message-ID: <acq6J5W_pe_DRP25@nathan> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <absbX33E4eaA0Ity@nathan>
	<[email protected]>
	<acV5NYm4XBzIE50N@nathan>
	<CAAKRu_ZucXL3mLc0f-t_7giiChN9Zad2EAr9SoAqFFc95vFaOg@mail.gmail.com>
	<acqsERCb1t8OCZpG@nathan>
	<[email protected]>
	<acqu7Z40kvJ4t8O8@nathan>
	<[email protected]>

On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 06:36:48PM +0100, Dagfinn Ilmari Mannsåker wrote:
> To avoid breaking extensions, we could leave the typedefs in place with
> an #ifndef guard on some symbol that's only defined when building
> postgres itself, but not when building extensions (or vice versa with an
> #ifdef instead).
> 
> This is used a lot in Perl for things we don't want to use in core any
> more, but we don't want to break CPAN modules still using.

It's hard to get an exact count because the names are so common, but I'm
seeing <10 packages on codesearch.debian.net that might be affected, and
it's quite easy to fix (s/bits/uint/g).  My experience is that we routinely
"break" extensions like this in new major versions, too.  So, I'm not
convinced we need to do any kind of backward-compatibility work.  In any
case, we have a lot of time between now and GA, so if a bunch of angry
extension authors come to my door with pitchforks, we can reconsider.

-- 
nathan

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