(doc patch) psql version compatibility

Christoph Berg <myon@debian.org> writes:

I didn't understand the current wording of the NOTES section in
psql(1) on which major versions psql is compatible with, so here's a
patch to make that more explicit.

This seems both very repetitive and incorrect in detail.
Some operations will work fine with older servers, some won't.
I don't think that we want to undertake documenting exactly
which commands work how far back, so my inclination is to
add a nonspecific disclaimer along the lines of

Some commands may not work with very old servers (before 9.2).

regards, tom lane

Re: Tom Lane

Christoph Berg <myon@debian.org> writes:

I didn't understand the current wording of the NOTES section in
psql(1) on which major versions psql is compatible with, so here's a
patch to make that more explicit.

This seems both very repetitive and incorrect in detail.

Meh, I tried to preserve as much of the original text as reasonable,
but we can strip it down further.

Some operations will work fine with older servers, some won't.
I don't think that we want to undertake documenting exactly
which commands work how far back, so my inclination is to
add a nonspecific disclaimer along the lines of

Some commands may not work with very old servers (before 9.2).

I'd like it do say "it works with 9.2" when that's what the code is
implementing.

How about this?

<para><application>psql</application> works with servers of the same
or an older major version, back to 9.2. The general
functionality of running SQL commands and displaying query results
should also work with servers of other major versions, but
backslash commands are particularly likely to fail.
</para>
<para>
If you want to use <application>psql</application> to connect to several
servers of different major versions, it is recommended that you use the
newest version of <application>psql</application>. (To connect to pre-9.2 servers,
use <application>psql</application> 14 or earlier.)
</para>

Christoph