Why are migrations called migrations?

[Younes Serraj]

A client just asked me why we call them "database migrations" and not "database alterations". It made me curious, so I'm asking you guys: why?

[Ariel Juodziukynas]

The term not just for Rails, schema migration is a database concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_migration

I'm not sure about why the word "migration" is used, but maybe you get somewhere reading database's theory or history.

El mar., 20 ago. 2019 a las 13:13, Younes Serraj (<younes...@gmail.com>) escribió:

A client just asked me why we call them "database migrations" and not "database alterations". It made me curious, so I'm asking you guys: why?

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[Mehdi Farsi]

It's because Database Migration (aka Schema Migration) is versionned.

So, we migrate (increment, decrement, etc..) from a schema version to another one.

Feel free to visit this Wiki page for further information:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_migration

Hope that helps..

Mehdi

Younes Serraj <younes...@gmail.com>于2019年8月20日 周二下午6:13写道：

A client just asked me why we call them "database migrations" and not "database alterations". It made me curious, so I'm asking you guys: why?

[Jake Niemiec]

>I'm not sure about why the word "migration" is used, but maybe you get somewhere reading database's theory or history.

Schemas change, the data migrates to the new schema. 

Probably in reference to older databases for sites developed with the likes of Active Server Pages / Java Servelets / Dream Weaver / Java Beans where the actual site "data" had to be manually moved between databases.

Remember when sites would take a few days off and simply show "website under construction"?

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[Leandro Rodrigues]

Very nice explanation! 👍😀

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