"Iain" <iain@mst.co.jp> writes:
> Out of interest, what is the word on using newer versions of pg_dump on
> older verisons of the DB - is it is possible or even wise to unload a 7.1
> DB with the 7.4 version of pg?
Standard, recommended procedure is to use the later version of pg_dump
to unload data from the old server. This gets you the benefit of any
bug fixes in the newer pg_dump (of which there are always some...)
Note that pg_dump is usually not designed to produce output that will
load into back-release servers, so this only applies to cross-version
upgrades. You can't use the 7.4 pg_dump against a 7.1 server and expect
to get a dump file that will load back into the 7.1 server --- more than
likely, the dump file will make use of features that weren't in 7.1.
regards, tom lane