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From: Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]>
To: Bruce Momjian <[email protected]>
To: Jeremy Schneider <[email protected]>
Cc: Daniel Gustafsson <[email protected]>
Cc: Michael Banck <[email protected]>
Cc: Nathan Bossart <[email protected]>
Cc: PostgreSQL Hackers <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Reports on obsolete Postgres versions
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:48:07 +0100
Message-ID: <[email protected]> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
	<20240311211204.GA1786481@nathanxps13>
	<[email protected]>
	<[email protected]>
	<[email protected]>
	<[email protected]>
	<[email protected]>

On 13.03.24 18:12, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 09:21:27AM -0700, Jeremy Schneider wrote:
>> It's not just roadmaps and release pages where we mix up these terms
>> either, it's even in user-facing SQL and libpq routines: both
>> PQserverVersion and current_setting('server_version_num') return the
>> patch release version in the numeric patch field, rather than the
>> numeric minor field (which is always 0).
>>
>> In my view, the best thing would be to move toward consistently using
>> the word "patch" and moving away from the word "minor" for the
>> PostgreSQL quarterly maintenance updates.
> 
> I think "minor" is a better term since it contrasts with "major".  We
> don't actually supply patches to upgrade minor versions.

There are potentially different adjectives that could apply to "version" 
and "release".

The version numbers can be called major and minor, because that just 
describes their ordering and significance.

But I do agree that "minor release" isn't quite as clear, because one 
could also interpret that as "a release, but a bit smaller this time". 
(Also might not translate well, since "minor" and "small" could 
translate to the same thing.)

One could instead, for example, describe those as "maintenance releases":

"Are you on the latest maintenance release?  Why not?  Are you not 
maintaining your database?"

That carries much more urgency than the same with "minor".

A maintenance release corresponds to an increase in the minor version 
number.  It's still tied together, but has different terminology.

The last news item reads:

"The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released an update to all 
supported versions of PostgreSQL"

which has no urgency, but consider

"The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has published maintenance 
releases to all supported versions of PostgreSQL"

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