On Sat, Apr 20, 2024 at 12:25:47PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote: > > I can see several ways going forward: > > 1. We revert the removal of AIX support and carry on with the status quo > > ante. (The removal of AIX is a regression; it is timely and in scope > > now to revert the change.) > > 2. Like (1), but we consider that notice has been given, and we will > > remove it early in PG18 (like August) unless the situation improves. > > 3. We leave it out of PG17 and consider a new AIX port for PG18 on its > > own merits. > > Andres has ably summarized the reasons why the status quo ante was > getting untenable. The direct-I/O problem could have been tolerable > on its own, but in reality it was the straw that broke the camel's > back so far as our willingness to maintain AIX support went. There > were just too many hacks and workarounds for too many problems, > with too few people interested in looking for better answers. > > So I'm totally not in favor of #1, at least not without some hard > commitments and follow-through on really cleaning up the mess > (which maybe looks more like your #2). What's needed here, as > you said, is for someone with a decent amount of expertise in > modern AIX to review all the issues. Maybe framing that as a > "new port" per #3 would be a good way to think about it. But > I don't want to just revert the AIX-ectomy and continue drifting. > > On the whole, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if PG 17 > lacks AIX support but that comes back in PG 18. That approach would > solve the schedule-crunch aspect and give time for considered review > of how many of the hacks removed in 0b16bb877 really need to be put > back, versus being obsolete or amenable to a nicer solution in > late-model AIX. If we take a "new port" mindset then it would be > totally reasonable to say that it only supports very recent AIX > releases, so I'd hope at least some of the cruft could be removed.
I agree that targeting PG 18 for a new-er AIX port is the reasonable approach. If there is huge demand, someone can create an AIX fork for PG 17 using the reverted patches --- yeah, lots of pain there, but we have carried the AIX pain for too long with too little support. -- Bruce Momjian <br...@momjian.us> https://momjian.us EDB https://enterprisedb.com Only you can decide what is important to you.
