Re: RFC: Remove contrib entirely

On 05/29/2015 11:27 AM, Jeff Janes wrote:

    It would be less confusing for users. Contrib modules seem to be
    first class extensions, leaving doubt on other extensions.


Presumably there are still going to be some extensions maintained by
-hackers, and some not.  I don't think we are going to change that, so
the difference will still need to be explained, regardless of what words
are used.  And people *should* have doubts about other extensions.
Couldn't any talented programmer write an extension which gives them a
backdoor into the deployer's system, and then upload it to github?

Yes, it is called Open Source development.

I would certainly be cautious about installing any old extension I found
some some place on the internet.

    But the fact they aren't in core make them not fully trusted by some
    users.

No. This is completely wrong thinking. If you are compiling this stuff from source you are taking that risk on yourself.

Most people are not compiling from source, they are installing from a distribution (or downloading a distribution package).

    Trying to explain all that in a training is a PITA. It would be much
    less confusing if they were either in core or in their own repository.

Several of the contrib modules should be kept in tight sync with src or
else testing and debugging would be a disaster. Putting them in
different git repositories wouldn't work well.  Unless those would among
the ones moved to "core".

Note: I actually don't care if the current contrib gets pushed into core proper and is default installed.

I care about this idea that contrib exists. It isn't needed and leads to a discussion like this one (or the pg_audit), almost every release.

Contrib made sense years ago. It does not any longer. Let's put the old horse down and raise a new herd of ponies on a new pasture.

JD

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