> I had an older installation of postgresql, 7.1.3. I got down the
packages for
> 7.3.2. I looked at a few of the files in the directories where the
packages
> were kept, and seeing no particular warnings, I ran rpm -Uvh
postgresql*,
> which ran without a hitch, until I restarted the postmaster. Then it
informed
> me that I should have dumped the damned database before I upgraded the
> binaries.
>
> This is like seeing the "Bridge Out" sign at the bottom of the river.
>
> Why didn't the preinstall scripts dump the database? Why doesn't the FAQ
or
> the README in the download directory mention the required procedure?
That's the nature of the beast with RPM's, or any other package manager,
for that matter. When you allow someone else to do the work and make the
decisions for you, you're not always guaranteed that their decisions are
going to be what you want.
Compiling PG (and most Unix software) from source really isn't that
hard. Some utilities rarely, if ever need to be updated, and when they
do, using RPM's is just fine. But for things like PG, I personally feel
that you do yourself a great disservice by not compiling it yourself. Of
course, YMMV.
steve