PostgreSQL Ecosystem Problems

PgBackRest Is Dead

Yesterday the maintainer of PgBackRest, David Steele, published the NOTICE OF OBSOLESCENCE.

For further information please read the blog post pgBackRest is dead. Now what? by Lætitia Avrot. She also points to how to go an as she, like me, always recommended PgBackRest for PostgreSQL backups.

Therefore a big thank you goes for the work David has done on PgBackRest.

And Now What?

Things alike happened before, for example when due to the liquidation of the Segfault Inc. Multicorn became an abandend project.

That has been solved by several people creating a fork and named that fork Multicorn2.

I predict that very soon several forks of PgBackRest will be spotted in the wild with different names. And that might become a problem.
It might end up with different patches solving problems and they would not be consistent. In additon, which fork would become the replacement the RPM or DEB packages?

This would also not solve the problem, that a very good maintainer of an essential part of the PostgreSQL ecosystem does not get paid for the work he’s done. And keep in mind, that this is not a small job that one could do as a side project. He, like all of us, needs to make a living.

Even having a another company sponsoring him would only be a short-time solution. What when that company get bought, or a new CEO decides to spare the money to invest it elsewhere?

Some people of the PostgreSQL community already thought, that it might be a good idea to move PgBackRest into PostgreSQL itself.
But that might also be a short-time solution, in additon to all the arguments speaking against this way like, the code differs a lot to PostgreSQL standards.

What about other widely used projects in the PostgreSQL ecosystem that are widely used, and extenesions, that do have a lot of users?

An Umbrella For the Ecosystem?

IMHO an umbrella organisation for tools in the PostgreSQL ecosystem would be a good solution. No single company owning the code. Also switching maintainers would be much easier.
Not to speak about that it would be much easier to raise money by an organisation, than some single persons trying to raise enough for an income for themselves.

There are already examples out there that might help to find a solution. To mind are coming The Apache Software Foundation and Codeberg e.V..

I know that someone has already submitted a proposal for the PostgreSQL Conference Europe Community Event Day, but that conference is about six months away. Nevertheless, it would be a good place to discuss stuff in person.

Feel free to contact me to discuss what think about my ideas per email or on Telegram.

Author: Stefanie Janine Stölting