Adopt the stable pseudo-version convention

.gitattributes

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# See ../ai/RELEASE.md's multi-extension distribution section: an
+# extension with no real changes this release cycle keeps its
+# <last-released>--stable.sql update script un-renamed (a genuine no-op),
+# rather than promoting it to a real versioned update script. That file
+# must never ship in a release archive -- nothing in a tagged release
+# has default_version = 'stable' for any extension, so a file only
+# reachable via that pseudo-version would be permanently unreachable,
+# confusing cruft in the archive. Safe as a blanket glob here (unlike
+# .gitignore's exact-filename version of this same exclusion): by the
+# time `make dist` archives a tag, any extension that DID change already
+# had its stable-named file renamed away, so only genuine no-ops can
+# still match this pattern.
+sql/*--stable.sql export-ignore

.gitignore

@@ -18,6 +18,17 @@ control.mk
 
 # built targets
 # Note: Version-specific files (sql/*--*.sql) are now tracked in git and should be committed
+# Exception: the `stable` pseudo-version (default_version between releases,
+# see ../ai/RELEASE.md and ../ai/CLAUDE.md's "Version-specific SQL files")
+# is permanently current, not a frozen release -- it would be regenerated
+# and re-diffed on every source edit for zero test-coverage value if
+# tracked. Named explicitly, not `sql/*--stable.sql`: that glob's `*` also
+# matches across the second `--`, so it silently swept up the *update*
+# scripts too (sql/<ext>--<last-release>--stable.sql, which must stay
+# committed -- confirmed the hard way when `git status` didn't show them
+# as untracked after creating them).
+sql/test_factory--stable.sql
+sql/test_factory_pgtap--stable.sql
 
 # Generated by asciidoctor from doc/*.asc; only the .asc source is tracked
 doc/*.html

bin/test_existing

@@ -26,12 +26,12 @@
 #
 #   run-suite DB
 #       Assert the installed version matches the current build (never
-#       hardcoded -- derived from `make -s print-PGXNVERSION`, so a broken
-#       extraction can't silently compare "" to ""), then run the suite in
-#       existing mode via --use-existing (pg_regress must not drop/recreate
-#       DB) and gate on verify-results, not a bare `make test` (pgxntool
-#       marks installcheck .IGNORE, so a plain test run exits 0 even when
-#       regression.diffs is nonempty).
+#       hardcoded -- derived from `make -s print-EXTENSION_test_factory_VERSION`,
+#       so a broken extraction can't silently compare "" to ""), then run
+#       the suite in existing mode via --use-existing (pg_regress must not
+#       drop/recreate DB) and gate on verify-results, not a bare `make test`
+#       (pgxntool marks installcheck .IGNORE, so a plain test run exits 0
+#       even when regression.diffs is nonempty).
 #
 # No separate guard-planting subcommand: unlike cat_tools, test_factory's
 # dependency guard (a view in schema test_factory_drop_guard depending on
@@ -57,8 +57,15 @@ psql_do() {
   psql -d "$db" -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1 "$@"
 }
 
+# EXTENSION_test_factory_VERSION, not PGXNVERSION: the latter is the
+# *distribution* version from META.json, which no longer tracks what
+# CREATE EXTENSION actually installs now that test_factory.control's
+# default_version sits at the literal 'stable' pseudo-version between
+# releases (see ../ai/RELEASE.md) -- a bare CREATE EXTENSION always
+# resolves to whatever default_version says, not the distribution's
+# semver.
 current_version() {
-  make -s print-PGXNVERSION 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/.*set to "\(.*\)"$/\1/p'
+  make -s print-EXTENSION_test_factory_VERSION 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/.*set to "\(.*\)"$/\1/p'
 }
 
 installed_version() {

sql/test_factory--0.5.0--stable.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+/*
+ * Genuine no-op: nothing in this extension has changed since 0.5.0 yet.
+ * This file exists purely so ALTER EXTENSION test_factory UPDATE has an
+ * edge to follow at all -- Postgres's version-graph resolution requires
+ * an actual sql/test_factory--<from>--<to>.sql file to exist for a
+ * transition, regardless of whether its content would be a no-op
+ * (confirmed directly: without this file, ALTER EXTENSION UPDATE fails
+ * outright with "has no update path from version 0.5.0 to version
+ * stable", even though nothing would actually need to change). See
+ * ../ai/RELEASE.md's `stable` pseudo-version workflow: every subsequent
+ * SQL-touching PR adds whatever ALTER .../CREATE OR REPLACE ... statements
+ * are needed here to bring an install on 0.5.0 up to that change.
+ */
+
+-- vi: expandtab ts=2 sw=2

sql/test_factory_pgtap--0.1.0--stable.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+/*
+ * Genuine no-op: nothing in this extension has changed since 0.1.0 yet.
+ * Every extension this distribution provides keeps one of these between
+ * releases, not just the ones a given change happens to touch -- at
+ * release time, each extension's own <last-released>--stable.sql is
+ * inspected to decide whether THAT extension needs a new version (see
+ * ../ai/RELEASE.md's multi-extension distribution section). An empty
+ * file here means test_factory_pgtap is not part of this cycle's
+ * changes and should ship at its existing version, whatever the
+ * distribution version does.
+ */
+
+-- vi: expandtab ts=2 sw=2

test_factory.control

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 comment = 'A framework for managing test data'
-default_version = '0.5.0'
+default_version = 'stable'
 relocatable = false

test_factory_pgtap.control

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 comment = 'A framework for managing test data'
-default_version = '0.1.0'
+default_version = 'stable'
 relocatable = false
 requires = 'pgtap, test_factory'