/*! @page upgrade Upgrading and downgrading databases

The upgrade/downgrade process is only necessary for major or minor
WiredTiger releases (releases where the major or minor version number
changed). Patch releases (where only the patch number changed), do not
contain any API or file format changes, and do not require anything
other than a link step or shared library installation for upgrading or
downgrading. However, the complete WiredTiger library must be re-built
from scratch when changing versions, as there is no guarantee modules
from one version of the library will work with modules from any other
version.

The rest of this page discusses upgrading and downgrading WiredTiger
major and minor releases. Specifically, by upgrading, we mean migrating
an application and its databases to a newer WiredTiger release, and by
downgrading, we mean reverting to an older version.

When upgrading or downgrading between WiredTiger releases, there are two
components to consider: the WiredTiger library API and the underlying
data files used for the database (for example, log files or B+tree
files).

As part of each WiredTiger release, a new @ref upgrading documentation
section is created, describing changes in the WiredTiger API and in the
format of underlying files, if any.  Changes to the format of the
underlying data files are extremely rare, while changes to WiredTiger
API are more common.  Generally, when the WiredTiger API changes, the
changes are backward compatible and applications do not require
modifications in order to upgrade to the new release.

Note it is not necessary to upgrade (downgrade) to intermediate
releases, you can ignore intermediate releases and upgrade (downgrade)
directly to the release you plan to use.

To upgrade to a new release of WiredTiger:

-# Review the information for each release after the WiredTiger release
you're currently using, up to and including the release you plan to use.
Changes to the WiredTiger API are normally backward compatible, that is,
you can continue to use the same WiredTiger configuration values used
previously. However, it will likely enhance program maintainability to
switch to newer versions of the configuration strings, as documentation
for the deprecated values will no longer be available.
<br><br>
-# Once you have reviewed the relevant release notes and modified your
application as necessary, install the new version of the application by
relinking or installing a new version of the WiredTiger shared library.
<br><br>
-# Shut down the old version of the application.
<br><br>
-# Start the new version of the application.
<br><br>
If the upgrading documentation for any release after the previous
release and up to and including the release you are using, specifies
underlying data file formats are no longer backward compatible and will
not be upgraded at run-time, a data upgrade step is required before the
data can be accessed. In this case, data files must be upgraded using
the WT_SESSION::upgrade method.

Applications wanting the ability to downgrade to previous releases of
WiredTiger are constrained in some important ways:

- The underlying data file formats must not have changed between the
release currently being run and the release to which you are
downgrading. In other words, data file format changes are not backward
compatible, and an upgraded data file cannot be downgraded without being
dumped and re-loaded.
<br><br>
- Applications concerned with downgrading should configure the
::wiredtiger_open \c config_base value to \c false, so WiredTiger does
not write the base configuration file file when creating databases.
Because the base configuration file is written using a current version
of the WiredTiger API, writing this file could cause applications using
previous versions of the WiredTiger API to fail. See @ref config_base
for more information.

To downgrade to a previous release of WiredTiger:

-# Shut down the new version of the application.
<br><br>
-# Start the old version of the application.

*/
