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Follow these guidelines to write maintainable, safe, and effective database migrations.

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Version Numbering Strategies

20250120143000__add_user_email.sql
20250121091500__create_orders_table.sql
Format: YYYYMMDDHHmmss Advantages:
  • ✅ No merge conflicts with parallel development
  • ✅ Chronological ordering
  • ✅ Supports distributed teams
Disadvantages:
  • ⚠️ Less human-readable
  • ⚠️ Doesn’t convey significance
Best for: Teams with frequent parallel development

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Strategy 2: Semantic Versioning

v1.0.0__initial_release.sql
v1.1.0__add_user_profiles.sql
v1.1.1__fix_profile_constraint.sql
v2.0.0__redesign_authentication.sql
Format: v<major>.<minor>.<patch> Advantages:
  • ✅ Conveys change significance
  • ✅ Aligns with application versioning
  • ✅ Clear breaking change indication
Disadvantages:
  • ⚠️ Requires coordination
  • ⚠️ Merge conflicts possible
Best for: Teams with coordinated releases

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Strategy 3: Sequential with Milestones

001__initial_schema.sql
002__add_users.sql
...
100__v1_0_release.sql
101__add_analytics.sql
...
200__v2_0_release.sql
Advantages:
  • ✅ Simple and clear
  • ✅ Milestones mark releases
Disadvantages:
  • ⚠️ Merge conflicts in parallel work
  • ⚠️ Gaps can be confusing
Best for: Small teams, sequential development

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Migration File Best Practices

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Keep Migrations Small

-- 005__add_user_email.sql
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN email TEXT;
  • Single, clear purpose
  • Fast execution
  • Easy to review
  • Simple to rollback
Guideline: One logical change per file

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Include Rollback Planning

Document rollback approach in comments: 
-- 010__add_payment_methods_table.sql
-- Rollback: DROP TABLE payment_methods;
-- Impact: Requires app deployment v2.5.0+

CREATE TABLE payment_methods (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    user_id INTEGER REFERENCES users(id),
    card_last_four TEXT NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

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Transaction Handling

Bytebase Automatic Transactions: Bytebase automatically wraps all SQL statements in a migration file within a single transaction. You typically don’t need to add explicit BEGIN/COMMIT statements.
When Bytebase’s automatic transactions are sufficient:
  • Single-file migrations with multiple statements
  • Standard DDL operations (CREATE, ALTER, DROP)
  • Simple DML operations (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE)
When you might need explicit transaction control:
  • Batched operations requiring commits between chunks
  • Long-running data migrations that need progress checkpoints
  • Database-specific requirements like PostgreSQL’s CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY (which cannot run in a transaction)
Example of batched migration (when needed): 
-- 015__batch_archive_logs_dml.sql
-- Note: This uses explicit batching for large data operation
DO $$
DECLARE
    batch_size INT := 10000;
    deleted_count INT;
BEGIN
    LOOP
        DELETE FROM logs
        WHERE id IN (
            SELECT id FROM logs
            WHERE created_at < '2024-01-01'
            LIMIT batch_size
        );

        GET DIAGNOSTICS deleted_count = ROW_COUNT;
        EXIT WHEN deleted_count < batch_size;

        COMMIT; -- Commit each batch
        PERFORM pg_sleep(0.1); -- Throttle
    END LOOP;
END $$;
Database-specific transaction support:
  • ✅ PostgreSQL: DDL in transactions (except CONCURRENTLY operations)
  • ❌ MySQL: DDL commits immediately (implicit commit)
  • ✅ SQL Server: DDL in transactions

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Add Comments for Complex Logic

-- 020__migrate_legacy_permissions_dml.sql
-- Migrates old role system to new permission model
-- Old: roles.name -> New: permissions.scope + permissions.action
-- Mapping:
--   'admin' -> 'database:*'
--   'editor' -> 'database:write'
--   'viewer' -> 'database:read'

UPDATE permissions
SET
    scope = CASE
        WHEN roles.name = 'admin' THEN 'database'
        WHEN roles.name = 'editor' THEN 'database'
        WHEN roles.name = 'viewer' THEN 'database'
    END,
    action = CASE
        WHEN roles.name = 'admin' THEN '*'
        WHEN roles.name = 'editor' THEN 'write'
        WHEN roles.name = 'viewer' THEN 'read'
    END
FROM roles
WHERE permissions.role_id = roles.id;

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Documentation

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Maintain Migration Changelog

Document significant schema changes: 
# Database Changelog

## v2.0.0 (2025-01-20)
- Added `user_preferences` table for customization
- Migrated legacy role system to new permissions model
- **Breaking**: Removed deprecated `user_settings` table

## v1.5.0 (2025-01-15)
- Added email column to users table
- Created indexes on frequently queried columns

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Document Schema Dependencies

Track dependencies between application and schema: 
# Schema Dependencies

## users.email Column
- Added: v1.5.0 (migration 010)
- Required by: Auth Service v2.0+
- Can remove after: All instances upgraded to v2.1+
This helps coordinate schema cleanup with application deployments.

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Common Anti-Patterns to Avoid

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❌ Modifying Applied Migrations

Don’t: 
-- 005__add_email.sql (already deployed)
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN email TEXT; -- Changed to VARCHAR
Do: 
-- 006__fix_email_type.sql
ALTER TABLE users ALTER COLUMN email TYPE VARCHAR(255);

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❌ Skipping Version Numbers

Don’t: 
001__init.sql
002__add_users.sql
010__add_products.sql  ← Why skip 003-009?
Do: 
001__init.sql
002__add_users.sql
003__add_products.sql

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❌ Mixing DDL and DML Without Suffix

Don’t: 
-- 015__add_orders.sql
CREATE TABLE orders (...);
INSERT INTO orders VALUES (...);  -- DML without _dml suffix
Do: 
-- 015__add_orders.sql (DDL only)
CREATE TABLE orders (...);

-- 016__seed_orders_dml.sql (DML separate)
INSERT INTO orders VALUES (...);

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❌ Long-Running Migrations in Production

Don’t: 
-- 020__huge_migration.sql
UPDATE users SET legacy_field = NULL; -- Locks 10M rows for 10 minutes
Do: 
-- 020__migrate_users_batch_dml.sql
-- Batch processing with throttling (see Performance section)

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Next Steps

Git and CI/CD

Learn branching strategies and testing patterns

Performance

Optimize migration performance