How CloudQuery handles changes to existing tables
This section describes how CloudQuery is dealing with schema changes in plugins. The overall idea is to not have breaking changes, but rather always add columns, because it is common for users to build views on top which we don't want to break. Those migration tactics are usually implemented in the destination plugins as source plugins are database agnostic and just send back JSON objects.
CloudQuery has two modes of migrating to a new schema, safe which is supported by all destinations, and forced which is only supported by ClickHouse, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL and SQLite at the moment.
The safe mode is the default and will not run migrations that would result in data loss, and will print an error instead. The forced mode will run migrations that may result in data loss and the migration should always succeed without errors.
The following table describes changes to schema that require data loss, thus will only pass with forced mode:
| Schema change | Reasoning |
|---|---|
| Adding a new column that is a primary key or a not null column | New syncs can't succeed without back-filling the data, or dropping and re-adding the table |
| Removing a column that is a primary key or a not null column | New syncs can't succeed as the column will not be populated with data, so dropping and re-adding the table is required |
| Changing a column type | New syncs can't succeed without casting existing data into the new type, which is not always possible and can have performance implications in production environments |
The following table describes changes to schema that don't require data loss, thus will pass with both safe and forced mode:
| Schema change | Reasoning |
|---|---|
| Adding a new column that is neither a primary key nor a not null column | New syncs can succeed by adding the new column to the existing table |
| Removing a column that is neither a primary key nor a not null column | New syncs can succeed by ignoring the column removal |
