Re: [HACKERS] Removing binaries (was: createlang/droplang deprecated)

Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net> writes:
> * Magnus Hagander (magnus@hagander.net) wrote:
>> On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 9:23 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>>> I think a more reasonable way to proceed is to install symlinks
>>> pg_createuser -> createuser (or the other direction), mark the older names
>>> as deprecated, and announce that we'll remove the old names a few releases
>>> from now.  That gives people time to adjust.

>> I'd suggest doing it in the other direction, but yeah, that seems like a
>> softer way to handle it. As long as we clearly document them as such.
>> Perhaps we should even have them output a little "hey you should be using
>> pg_xyz" if they are used by the wrong name, but I wonder if that might
>> break things.

> I don't really agree with these half-measures.

It's not a "half measure", it's providing a sane upgrade path.

If we had not had the deprecation notice in place for createlang, I do
not think Magnus' proposal to remove it would have been accepted so
easily --- or, probably, at all.  There is no such notice in place
for createdb or createuser, so arguing by analogy to that proposal
falls flat.
        regards, tom lane