Re: 8.4 release planning

Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:
> So, some feedback to make this decision more difficult:

> Users: care about HS more than anything else in the world.

I don't think this is correct.  There are certainly a lot of users who
would like an in-core replication solution, but HS by itself is not that
--- you also need (near) real-time log shipping, which we have already
decided to punt to 8.5.  That being the case, I think the argument
that HS is a must-have feature for 8.4 is actually rather weak.

> SE-Linux:  this patch has effectively been in development for 2 years 
> ourside the core process before putting it in; the forked SEPostgres is 
> in use in production. KaiGai has been available for 20 hours a week (or 
> more) to troubleshoot issues and change APIs.  I really don't see what 
> the problem is with committing it.

The problem, in words of one syllable, is that we are not sure we want
it.  Do you see a user community clamoring for SEPostgres, or a hacker
community that is willing or able to maintain it?  If KaiGai-san got run
over by a bus tomorrow, this patch would be a dead letter, because there
just isn't anyone else who is taking sufficient (any?) interest in it.
That doesn't bode well for its future viability.  Compare the likely
audience for it to previous patches of roughly similar complexity,
such as integrated text search or the Windows port, and it's just not
in the ballpark.

The second problem is that we're not sure it's really the right thing,
because we have no one who is competent to review the design from a
security standpoint.  But unless we get past the first problem the
second one is moot.
        regards, tom lane