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8.5alpha3 release notes up to Fri Dec 18 21:37:38 2009 +0000

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      doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml

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<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml,v 1.9 2009/12/11 01:33:35 adunstan Exp $ -->
<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml,v 1.10 2009/12/18 22:11:09 petere Exp $ -->
<sect1 id="release-8-5">
<title>Release 8.5alpha2</title>
<title>Release 8.5alpha3</title>
<sect2>
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
@ -69,45 +69,105 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add SQL-compliant triggers on columns, which fire only if
certain columns are named in the UPDATE's SET list.</>
<emphasis>Remove previously deprecated configuration
parameter add_missing_from. The system now always behaves as
though add_missing_from were off.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add CREATE LIKE INCLUDING COMMENTS and STORAGE, and INCLUDING
<emphasis>Performance and behavioral improvements in UPDATE,
DELETE, and SELECT FOR UPDATE/SHARE queries with
joins. Various corner-cases could result in duplicated output
rows. Set-returning functions are now prohibited in the
target list of SELECT FOR UPDATE/SHARE. FOR UPDATE does not
propagate into a WITH query anymore.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Fixed for SELECT FOR UPDATE/SHARE in conjuction with LIMIT.
Previously, it could return fewer rows than the limit specified.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add a WHEN clause to CREATE TRIGGER, allowing a boolean expression
to be checked to determine whether the trigger should be fired.</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>For BEFORE triggers this is mostly a matter of spec compliance; but
for AFTER triggers it can provide a noticeable performance
improvement, since queuing of a deferred trigger event and
re-fetching of the row(s) at end of statement can be
short-circuited if the trigger does not need to be fired.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add exclusion constraints, which generalize the concept of
uniqueness to support any indexable commutative operator, not just
equality. Two rows violate the exclusion constraint if
&quot;row1.col OP row2.col&quot; is TRUE for each of the columns in
the constraint.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Support ORDER BY within aggregate function calls, at long last
providing a non-kluge method for controlling the order in which
values are fed to an aggregate function. At the same time eliminate
the old implementation restriction that DISTINCT was only supported
for single-argument aggregates.</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>Behavioral change: formerly, agg(DISTINCT x) dropped null values of
x unconditionally. Now, it does so only if the agg transition
function is strict; otherwise nulls are treated as DISTINCT
normally would, i.e., you get one copy.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add SQL-compliant triggers on columns, which fire only if
certain columns are named in the UPDATE's SET list.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add CREATE LIKE INCLUDING COMMENTS and STORAGE, and INCLUDING
ALL shortcut to allow users to make an exact copy of a table including
all options and features.</>
all options and features.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Define a new, more extensible syntax for COPY options
in order to support additional COPY options in the future.</>
Define a new, more extensible syntax for COPY options
in order to support additional COPY options in the future.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Modify the definition of window-function PARTITION
Modify the definition of window-function PARTITION
BY and ORDER BY clauses so that their elements are always
taken as simple expressions over the query's input
columns. This fixes a bug.</>
columns. This fixes a bug.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Fix bug with nested WITH RECURSIVE statements.</>
Fix bug with nested WITH RECURSIVE statements.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add surrogate pair support for U&amp; string and identifier
syntax.</>
Add surrogate pair support for U&amp; string and identifier
syntax.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add Unicode escapes in E'...' strings.</>
Add Unicode escapes in E'...' strings.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -154,24 +214,34 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Make TRUNCATE do truncate-in-place when processing
<emphasis>Allow rewriting ALTER TABLE to skip WAL logging.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Speed up information schema privilege views.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Make TRUNCATE do truncate-in-place when processing
a relation that was created or previously truncated in the
current (sub)transaction.</>
current (sub)transaction.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Implement &quot;join removal&quot; for cases where the inner side
Implement &quot;join removal&quot; for cases where the inner side
of a left join is unique and is not referenced above the join. This should
speed up many ORM-generated and reporting tool queries.</emphasis>
speed up many ORM-generated and reporting tool queries.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Remove the use of the flat files pg_auth and
Remove the use of the flat files pg_auth and
pg_database in order to improve performance. (Warning: pgbouncer
and possibly other tools currently suggest referring to the pg_auth
file for its user database. Such schemes will no longer work.)</emphasis>
file for its user database. Such schemes will no longer work.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -235,35 +305,79 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add a Boolean server configuration parameter
<emphasis>Provide a parenthesized-options syntax for VACUUM, analogous to
that recently adopted for EXPLAIN. This will allow additional
options to be implemented in future without having to make them
fully-reserved keywords. The old syntax remains available for
existing options, however.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add support for an application_name parameter, which is displayed
in pg_stat_activity and recorded in log entries.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Fix longstanding problems in VACUUM caused by untimely
interruptions.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Error when a specified connection service is not found in
pg_service.conf, instead of ignoring it.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add YAML to list of EXPLAIN formats.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add an EXPLAIN (BUFFERS) option to show buffer-usage statistics.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add a hook to let loadable modules get control at ProcessUtility
execution, and use it to extend contrib/pg_stat_statements to track
utility commands.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add a Boolean server configuration parameter
&quot;bonjour&quot; to control whether a Bonjour-enabled
build actually attempts to advertise itself via Bonjour.</>
build actually attempts to advertise itself via Bonjour.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>When reloading postgresql.conf, log what parameters actually
changed.</>
When reloading postgresql.conf, log what parameters actually
changed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Make it possibly to specify server configuration parameters
Make it possibly to specify server configuration parameters
per user-database combination. Add a \drds command to psql to
display the settings.</>
display the settings.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Allow the collection of statistics on sequences.</>
Allow the collection of statistics on sequences.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Increase the maximum value of extra_float_digits to
Increase the maximum value of extra_float_digits to
3, and have pg_dump use that value when the backend is new
enough to allow it, because it is possible to need 3 extra
digits for float4 values (but not for float8 values).</>
digits for float4 values (but not for float8 values).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -287,22 +401,55 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command, which allows
<emphasis>When querying a table with child tables, do not check permissions
on the child tables, only on the parent table. The old behavior was
found to be useless and confusing in virtually all cases, and also
contrary to the SQL standard.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add a hook to CREATE/ALTER ROLE to allow an external module to
check the strength of database passwords, and create a sample
implementation of such a hook as a new contrib module
&quot;passwordcheck&quot;.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add large object access control.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Allow LDAP authentication to operate in search+bind
mode, meaning it does a search for the user in the directory
first, and then binds with the DN found for this user. This
allows for LDAP logins in scenarios where the DN of the user
cannot be determined simply by prefix and suffix, such as the
case where different users are located in different
containers. The old way of authentication can be
significantly faster, so it's kept as an option.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command, which allows
users to adjust the privileges that will be applied to
subsequently-created objects.</>
subsequently-created objects.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add GRANT/REVOKE ON ALL TABLES/SEQUENCES/FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA.
This makes it easier to manage permissions on database objects.</emphasis>
Add GRANT/REVOKE ON ALL TABLES/SEQUENCES/FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA.
This makes it easier to manage permissions on database objects.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Support &quot;samehost&quot; and &quot;samenet&quot; specifications
Support &quot;samehost&quot; and &quot;samenet&quot; specifications
in pg_hba.conf. This allows users with dynamic server addresses to run
PostgreSQL without frequently modifying pg_hba.conf</emphasis>
PostgreSQL without frequently modifying pg_hba.conf.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -318,8 +465,23 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Support POSIX-compatible interpretation of ? as well as {m,n}
and related constructs in SIMILAR TO, per SQL:2008.</>
<emphasis>Remove configuration parameter regex_flavor. It is now always
&quot;advanced&quot;.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Teach the regular expression functions to do case-insensitive
matching and locale-dependent character classification properly
when the database encoding is UTF8. This previously only worked
correct for single-byte encodings and is still broken for other
multibyte encodings.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Support POSIX-compatible interpretation of ? as well as {m,n}
and related constructs in SIMILAR TO, per SQL:2008.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -349,13 +511,27 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Fix encoding handling in binary input function of xml type.</>
<emphasis>When doing &quot;ARRAY[...]::domain&quot;, where domain is a domain
over an array type, we need to check domain constraints. Regression
introduced in 8.4.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Fix integer-to-bit-string conversions to handle the first
fractional byte correctly when the output bit width is wider than
the given integer by something other than a multiple of 8 bits.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Tighten binary receive functions so that they reject values
that the text input functions don't accept either.</>
Fix encoding handling in binary input function of xml type.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Tighten binary receive functions so that they reject values
that the text input functions don't accept either.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -379,8 +555,19 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>It is now reasonably safe to use pg_ctl to start
the postmaster from a boot-time script.</emphasis>
<emphasis>initdb now selects the encoding SQL_ASCII when the locale specifies
US-ASCII. This case previously failed.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add init[db] option to pg_ctl.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
It is now reasonably safe to use pg_ctl to start
the postmaster from a boot-time script.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -401,16 +588,42 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Implement significantly saner behavior when two or
more psql sessions overlap in their use of the history file.</>
<emphasis>In psql, show view definition only with \d+, not with \d.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>In psql, ignore UTF-8-encoded Unicode byte-order mark at the
beginning of a file if the client encoding is UTF-8.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Improve psql's tabular display of wrapped-around data by inserting
markers in the formerly-always-blank columns just to left and right
of the data. &quot;pset linestyle old-ascii&quot; is added to make
the previous behavior available if anyone really wants it.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Simplify psql's new linestyle behavior to default to
linestyle=ascii all the time, rather than hoping we can tell
whether the terminal supports UTF-8 characters.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Implement significantly saner behavior when two or
more psql sessions overlap in their use of the history file.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add &quot;pset linestyle ascii/unicode&quot; option to psql,
Add &quot;pset linestyle ascii/unicode&quot; option to psql,
allowing our traditional ASCII-art style of table output to
be upgraded to use Unicode box drawing characters if
desired.</>
desired.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -430,56 +643,114 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add DO statement to support execution of procedural language
code without having to create a function for it.</>
<emphasis>PL/pgSQL is installed by default.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Support use of function argument names to identify which
<emphasis>Remove PL/pgSQL's RENAME declaration, which has
bizarre and mostly nonfunctional behavior, and is so little
used that no one has been interested in fixing it. To ensure
that possible uses are covered, remove the ALIAS declaration's
arbitrary restriction that only $n identifiers can be
aliased.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>The PL/pgSQL parser and scanner were reworked to behave much more
sanely:</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>A variable reference will only be recognized where it can validly
go, ie, a place where a column value or parameter would be legal,
instead of the former behavior that would replace any textual match
including table names and column aliases (leading to syntax errors
later on). PL/pgSQL variable names that match fully-reserved words
will now need to be quoted. An the other hand, a number of
PL/pgSQL-specific words were de-reserved.</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>The variable resolution behavior is by default not backward
compatible, but can be configured; see documentation.</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>Error reporting is much nicer and accurate.</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>The argument of WHERE CURRENT OF can be a PL/pgSQL cursor variable.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add support for anonymous code blocks (DO blocks) to PL/Perl.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Support arrays as parameters and return values of PL/Python
functions.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Python 3 support in PL/Python; behaves more or less unchanged
compared to Python 2, but the new language variant is called
plpython3u.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add DO statement to support execution of procedural language
code without having to create a function for it.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Support use of function argument names to identify which
actual arguments match which function parameters. The syntax
uses AS, for example funcname(value AS arg1, anothervalue AS
arg2).</>
arg2).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Fix/improve bytea and boolean support in PL/Python. Data type
Fix/improve bytea and boolean support in PL/Python. Data type
conversion into and out of PL/Python previously went through
an intermediate string representation, which caused various
discrepancies especially with bytea and boolean data. This is
now fixed by converting the values directly.</>
now fixed by converting the values directly.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>PL/Python now accepts Unicode objects where it previously
PL/Python now accepts Unicode objects where it previously
only accepted string objects (for example, as return
value). Unicode objects are converted to the PostgreSQL
server encoding as necessary.</>
server encoding as necessary.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Improve error context reporting in PL/Perl, for
easier debugging.</>
Improve error context reporting in PL/Perl, for
easier debugging.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>PL/pgSQL IN parameters now accept value assignments.</>
PL/pgSQL IN parameters now accept value assignments.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Convert a Perl array to a PostgreSQL array when returned by
set-returning functions as well as non-SRFs.</>
Convert a Perl array to a PostgreSQL array when returned by
set-returning functions as well as non-SRFs.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Allow cursor commands MOVE FORWARD n, MOVE BACKWARD n,
MOVE FORWARD ALL, MOVE BACKWARD ALL in PL/pgSQL.</>
Allow cursor commands MOVE FORWARD n, MOVE BACKWARD n,
MOVE FORWARD ALL, MOVE BACKWARD ALL in PL/pgSQL.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -506,9 +777,18 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Multiple improvements in contrib/hstore, including
<emphasis>Add \shell and \setshell meta commands to pgbench.</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>\shell command runs an external shell command. \setshell also does
the same and sets the result to a variable.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Multiple improvements in contrib/hstore, including
raising limits on keys and values, conversions to and from
records and arrays, and support for GROUP BY and DISTINCT.</emphasis>
records and arrays, and support for GROUP BY and DISTINCT.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -540,20 +820,32 @@
<sect3>
<title>Development</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Refactor ECPG grammar so that it uses the core grammar's
unreserved_keyword list, minus a few specific words that have to be
treated specially. This de-reserves a number of works in ECPG.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Added dynamic cursor names to ECPG.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Add ECPG function that returns the current transaction status.</>
Add ECPG function that returns the current transaction status.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Make ECPG more robust against applications freeing strings.</>
Make ECPG more robust against applications freeing strings.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Make libpq reject non-numeric and out-of-range port numbers with a
suitable error message.</emphasis>
Make libpq reject non-numeric and out-of-range port numbers with a
suitable error message.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -580,28 +872,28 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Change the WIN32 API version to be 5.01 (Windows XP), to
bring in the proper IPv6 headers in newer SDKs.</>
<emphasis>Disable triggering failover with a signal in pg_standby on Windows.
It never really worked before anyway.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Write to the Windows eventlog in UTF-16, converting the
message encoding as necessary.</>
Change the WIN32 API version to be 5.01 (Windows XP), to
bring in the proper IPv6 headers in newer SDKs.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Replace use of the long-deprecated Bonjour API
DNSServiceRegistrationCreate with the not-so-deprecated
DNSServiceRegister. The new code will fail on Mac OS X
releases before 10.3.</>
Write to the Windows eventlog in UTF-16, converting the
message encoding as necessary.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Install a hopefully-temporary workaround for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
readdir() bug.</>
Replace use of the long-deprecated Bonjour API
DNSServiceRegistrationCreate with the not-so-deprecated
DNSServiceRegister. The new code will fail on Mac OS X
releases before 10.3.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@ -621,28 +913,34 @@
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Source code, build options</title>
<title>Source Code, Build Options</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Fix inclusions of readline/editline header files so that we
<emphasis>configure --enable-thread-safety is now the default (but can still
be turned off).</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Fix inclusions of readline/editline header files so that we
only attempt to #include the version of history.h that is in
the same directory as the readline.h we are using. This
avoids problems in some scenarios where both readline and
editline are installed.</>
editline are installed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Derived files that are shipped in the distribution used to be
Derived files that are shipped in the distribution used to be
built in the source directory even for out-of-tree
builds. They are now also built in the build tree. This
should be more convenient for certain developers' workflows.</>
should be more convenient for certain developers' workflows.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Translations were updated.</>
Translations were updated.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>

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