contrib/pg_upgrade/TESTING The most effective way to test pg_upgrade, aside from testing on user data, is by upgrading the PostgreSQL regression database. This testing process first requires the creation of a valid regression database dump. Such files contain most database features and are specific to each major version of Postgres. Here are the steps needed to create a regression database dump file: 1) Create and populate the regression database in the old cluster This database can be created by running 'make installcheck' from src/test/regression. 2) Use pg_dump to dump out the regression database. Use the new cluster's pg_dump on the old database to minimize whitespace differences in the diff. 3) Adjust the regression database dump file a) Perform the load/dump twice This fixes problems with the ordering of COPY columns for inherited tables. b) Change CREATE FUNCTION shared object paths to use '$libdir' The old and new cluster will have different shared object paths. c) Fix any wrapping format differences Commands like CREATE TRIGGER and ALTER TABLE sometimes have differences. d) For pre-9.0, change CREATE OR REPLACE LANGUAGE to CREATE LANGUAGE e) For pre-9.0, remove 'regex_flavor' f) For pre-9.0, adjust extra_float_digits Postgres 9.0 pg_dump uses extra_float_digits=-2 for pre-9.0 databases, and extra_float_digits=-3 for >= 9.0 databases. It is necessary to modify 9.0 pg_dump to always use -3, and modify the pre-9.0 old server to accept extra_float_digits=-3. Once the dump is created, it can be repeatedly loaded into the old database, upgraded, and dumped out of the new database, and then compared to the original version. To test the dump file, perform these steps: 1) Create the old and new clusters in different directories. 2) Copy the regression shared object files into the appropriate /lib directory for old and new clusters. 3) Create the regression database in the old server. 4) Load the dump file created above into the regression database; check for errors while loading. 5) Upgrade the old database to the new major version, as outlined in the pg_upgrade manual section. 6) Use pg_dump to dump out the regression database in the new cluster. 7) Diff the regression database dump file with the regression dump file loaded into the old server. The shell script test.sh in this directory performs more or less this procedure. You can invoke it by running make check or by running make installcheck if "make install" (or "make install-world") were done beforehand. When invoked without arguments, it will run an upgrade from the version in this source tree to a new instance of the same version. To test an upgrade from a different version, invoke it like this: make installcheck oldbindir=...otherversion/bin oldsrc=...somewhere/postgresql In this case, you will have to manually eyeball the resulting dump diff for version-specific differences, as explained above.