[m11a]

Online upgrades in general are difficult.

Imagine there are changes to the physical format for example, now you need to make sure all code works with both the new and the old format during the upgrade (as some pages will have been updated and others not). Supporting both versions requires temporary backwards compatibility code, bloating the codebase, and introduces a risk of error and increases the complexity of the system.

Since Postgres prioritises correctness probably more than any other database system I know, I’d guess they don’t want to expose themselves to the risk of error.

[nyanpasu64]

Why doesn't postgres automatically (or with one-click confirmation) update all databases on startup when it discovers databases from a previous major version?

[paulryanrogers]

It's getting closer with pg_upgrade. That just wasn't a priority as early as it was for MySQL. Give it time.

For large DBs though you may not be able to wait for it to happen offline.

[mehrau]

They could provide a upgrader.

It's a scale issue. If one does it for all, less work for everyone :)