OK, where are we now on the NT4 support issue? Do we need to modify the
8.0 release announcement?
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Dave Page wrote:
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bruce Momjian [mailto:pgman@candle.pha.pa.us]
> > Sent: 13 August 2004 03:59
> > To: Dave Page
> > Cc: Andrew Dunstan; pgsql-hackers-win32
> > Subject: Re: [pgsql-hackers-win32] [PATCHES] Win32 Event log
> >
> > (http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/10825_2239651_3 for
> > > further analyis). Therefore, attempts to create tablespaces will
> > > probably cause a crash.
> >
> > Can't we fix such a _hypothetical_ crash when someone finally
> > reports it?
> > In fact I bet we aren't going to be able to prevent folks
> > from running on NT4 anyway so we will have to fix it.
>
> On further examination of Andreas' patch, it doesn't use an APIs that
> aren't in NT4 as far as I can see, instead it uses existing functions
> (such as DeviceIoControl), but with control codes like
> FSCTL_SET_REPARSE_POINT which are *not* in NT. As far as I can tell
> without spending time I don't have on it, symlink creation will fail
> gracefully and as long as the create tablespace code can handle that, it
> should be pretty clean.
>
> > If the installer can't run on NT4 SP4, that is an installer
> > issue. I don't see why we should label the base source code
> > as not working on it.
>
> Because the vast majority of Windows users *will not* compile from
> source, they will use the installer. If press releases go out saying it
> supports NT4 and we do get a ton of downloads from NT users, we will end
> up with a correspopnding flood of emails and bug reports. End users will
> not see the difference between the source, and the precompiled binary,
> even if we do see them as separate projects.
>
> > If it doesn't have symlinks, fine, no tablespaces. I will update the
> > release notes to mention the installer doesn't run on NT4.
> >
> > Basically, we can't turn the PostgreSQL ship on a dime. If we
> > come out and say NT4 doesn't work, the someone else appears
> > and gets it working, it is harder to communicate that. I
> > don't want to be adding/removing
> > NT4 based on untested ideas.
>
> The installer issue is not untested - I got a bug report about it this
> morning. The table spaces issue is, but as no-one here seems to have NT4
> we can't test it. We also cannot reasonably support a platform that none
> of us have access to.
>
> By all means note that the base code will compile and run without
> tablespaces on NT4, but please do not announce that it's an official
> supported platform.
>
> Regards, Dave.
>
--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 359-1001
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