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+<!-- BEGIN page_title_block -->
+Weekly News - April 26 2009
+<!-- END page_title_block -->
+
+<h1>PostgreSQL Weekly News - April 26 2009</h1>
+
+<p>
+The Spanish-speaking PostgreSQL community now has its own web site. Kudos!
+<a href="http://www.postgresql-es.org/">http://www.postgresql-es.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Product News</h2>
+<p>
+DBD::Pg 2.13.1, a Perl connector for PostgreSQL, released.
+<a href="http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBD-Pg/">http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBD-Pg/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+pgFouine 1.1, a PostgreSQL log processor and report generator, released.
+<a href="http://pgfouine.projects.postgresql.org/">http://pgfouine.projects.postgresql.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+pgpool-II 2.2.1, a connection pooler and more, released.
+<a href="http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pgpool/">http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pgpool/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slony-ctl 1.0, a set of scripts for creating and managing Slony
+clusters, released.
+<a href="http://pgfoundry.org/projects/slony1-ctl/">http://pgfoundry.org/projects/slony1-ctl/</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL 8.4 Feature of the Week</h2>
+<p>
+pg_stat_functions: this new system view shows you how many times a
+given function was called and how much time it spent executing.
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Tip of the Week</h2>
+<p>
+PostgreSQL supports subselects in the SELECT, FROM, and WHERE clauses.
+So think about where to put that subselect so it will perform well and
+give you the results you want.
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Jobs for April</h2>
+<p>
+<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-jobs/2009-04/threads.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-jobs/2009-04/threads.php</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Local</h2>
+<p>
+PgDay Florianopolis will be May 22. Contact Dickson S. Guedes (guedes
+AT guedesoft DOT net) to participate or submit a paper.
+<a href="http://www.postgresql.org.br/eventos/pgday/sc">http://www.postgresql.org.br/eventos/pgday/sc</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Percona Performance Conference will be taking place at the Santa Clara
+Convention Center, Santa Clara, California USA
+<a href="http://conferences.percona.com/">http://conferences.percona.com/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+CfP is open for PgDay Sao Paulo, which will be April 24. Contact
+marins DOT consultoria AT gmail DOT com or marcelojscosta AT gmail DOT
+com to participate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PostgreSQL Conference, U.S. (JDCon) will be holding a PgDay at
+LinuxFest Northwest (April 25/26th). The call for papers is out at
+<a href="http://www.postgresqlconference.org/">http://www.postgresqlconference.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There will also be PgDays on April 29 in Porto Velho, RO and on April
+30 in Ji-Parana, RO. Contact Luis Fernando Bueno: proflfbueno AT
+gmail DOT com to participate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Michael Renner will be giving a PostgreSQL replication workshop at
+Netways OSDC 2009 on April 29 and 30 in Nuremberg, Germany.
+<a href="http://www.netways.de/english/osdc/y2009/programm/w/michael_renner_postgresql_repliziert_ein_ueberblick/">http://www.netways.de/english/osdc/y2009/programm/w/michael_renner_postgresql_repliziert_ein_ueberblick/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PGCon 2009 will be held 21-22 May 2009, in Ottawa at the University of
+Ottawa. It will be preceded by two days of tutorials on 19-20 May
+2009.
+<a href="http://www.pgcon.org/2009/">http://www.pgcon.org/2009/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PgDay Florianopolis will be May 22, 2009. Contact Dickson S. Guedes
+(guedes AT guedesoft DOT net) to participate or submit a paper.
+<a href="http://www.postgresql.org.br/eventos/pgday/sc">http://www.postgresql.org.br/eventos/pgday/sc</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Save The Date: pgDay San Jose. Sunday, July 19th 2009 immediately
+before OSCON. CfP, more info TBA!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PGCon Brazil will be take place October 23-24 2009 at Unicamp in
+Campinas, Sao Paulo state.
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL in the News</h2>
+<p>
+Planet PostgreSQL: <a href="http://planet.postgresql.org/">http://planet.postgresql.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PostgreSQL Weekly News is brought to you this week by David Fetter
+and Josh Berkus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Submit news and announcements by Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific time.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Applied Patches</h2>
+<p>
+Magnus Hagander committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/tools/msvc/Install.pm, read nls.nk files to determine
+ the proper name of NLS catalogs to install. Hiroshi Inoue, with
+ minor modifications by me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Move gettext encoding names into encnames.c, so we only have one
+ place to update. Per discussion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Remove sslverify parameter again, replacing it with two new sslmode
+ values: "verify-ca" and "verify-full". Since "prefer" remains the
+ default, this will make certificate validation off by default, which
+ should lead to less upgrade issues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml, remove sslverify parameter from
+ release notes, mention that sslmode is used instead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml, more clearly document what the
+ different sslmode options mean, both the new and the old ones.
+ Consistently talk about certificate verification, and not
+ validation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bruce Momjian committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Add agg/normal/trigger/window flags for psql \df and in \df output.
+ David Fetter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Merge psql \df options into a single \? line, and update docs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Improve psql \df error handling. David Fetter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/bin/psql/help.c, use brackets in psql \df \? help.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/runtime.sgml, improve server spoofing wording,
+ per request from Magnus Hagander.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Remove HELIOS Software GmbH name and copyright from AIX dynloader
+ files, per approval from Helmut Tschemernjak, President. Only back
+ branches; files removed from CVS HEAD.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tom Lane committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/port/dynloader/osf.c, fix obsolete
+ cross-reference (this file isn't called alpha.c anymore)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Remove the long-obsolete homebrew dl*() functions for AIX, in favor
+ of just using the system functions all the time. (These files are
+ now just copies of the osf.* files.) The homebrew functions were
+ not getting used anyway on AIX versions that have dlopen(), that is
+ 4.3 and up, so they are not needed on any AIX that is even remotely
+ supported by the vendor anymore. We'd have probably left them here
+ anyway, except some questions were raised about the copyright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Change the default value of max_prepared_transactions to zero, and
+ add documentation warnings against setting it nonzero unless active
+ use of prepared transactions is intended and a suitable transaction
+ manager has been installed. This should help to prevent the type of
+ scenario we've seen several times now where a prepared transaction
+ is forgotten and eventually causes severe maintenance problems (or
+ even anti-wraparound shutdown). The only real reason we had the
+ default be nonzero in the first place was to support regression
+ testing of the feature. To still be able to do that, tweak
+ pg_regress to force a nonzero value during "make check". Since we
+ cannot force a nonzero value in "make installcheck", add a variant
+ regression test "expected" file that shows the results that will be
+ obtained when max_prepared_transactions is zero. Also, extend the
+ HINT messages for transaction wraparound warnings to mention the
+ possibility that old prepared transactions are causing the problem.
+ All per today's discussion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/commands/dbcommands.c, don't use the result of
+ strcmp as if it were a boolean. A service of your local coding
+ style police.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/libpq/ip.c, suppress some 'variable may be used
+ uninitialized' warnings from gcc 4.4.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/parser/parse_func.c, fix some more 'variable
+ may be used uninitialized' warnings from gcc 4.4.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Fix the handling of sub-SELECTs appearing in the arguments of an
+ outer-level aggregate function. By definition, such a sub-SELECT
+ cannot reference any variables of query levels between itself and
+ the aggregate's semantic level (else the aggregate would've been
+ assigned to that lower level instead). So the correct, most
+ efficient implementation is to treat the sub-SELECT as being a
+ sub-select of that outer query level, not the level the aggregate
+ syntactically appears in. Not doing so also confuses the heck out
+ of our parameter-passing logic, as illustrated in bug report from
+ Daniel Grace. Fortunately, we were already copying the whole Aggref
+ expression up to the outer query level, so all that's needed is to
+ delay SS_process_sublinks processing of the sub-SELECT until control
+ returns to the outer level. This has been broken since we
+ introduced spec-compliant treatment of outer aggregates in 7.4; so
+ patch all the way back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Update citext expected output to exactly match the real output,
+ rather than having some whitespace discrepancy. Although whitespace
+ is supposed to be ignored in our regression tests, for some reason
+ buildfarm member spoonbill doesn't like it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/bin/psql/copy.c, remove Windows-specific definition of
+ S_ISDIR(). This should not be here; if there are any Windows
+ configurations where port/win32.h fails to provide the macro, it
+ should be fixed in the latter file not here.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml, some more work on the 8.4
+ release notes. Document a few changes that Bruce apparently found
+ uninteresting, and do minor wordsmithing on a number of the existing
+ entries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Heikki Linnakangas committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c, after archive recovery,
+ mark the last WAL segment from the parent timeline ready for
+ archival. It was marked at the next checkpoint anyway, but waiting
+ for the next checkpoint is an unnecessary delay. Fujii Masao.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- varstr_cmp and any comparison function that piggybacks on it can
+ return any negative or positive number, not just -1 or 1. Fix
+ comment on varstr_cmp and citext test case accordingly. As pointed
+ out by Zdenek Kotala, and buildfarm member gothic moth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/maintenance.sgml, improve the documentation on
+ 8.4 visibility map related VACUUM changes. Explain how
+ vacuum_freeze_table_age should be tuned, and how it relates to the
+ other settings. Mention that vacuum_freeze_table_age also affects
+ when autovacuum scans the whole table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/storage.sgml, mention that tables have a
+ visibility map fork alongside the main fork and FSM.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Rejected Patches (for now)</h2>
+<p>
+No one was disappointed this week :-)
+</p>
+
+<h2>Pending Patches</h2>
+<p>
+Pavel Stehule sent in another revision of his patch to add
+transformation hooks into the parser.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fujii Masao sent in two more revisions of the stats_temp_directory
+patch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hiroshi Inoue sent in a patch which adds some encoding conversion
+logic on Windows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fujii Masao sent in another revision of the pg_standby trigger patch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tom Lane sent in a patch to fix a performance regression in hash
+joins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robert Haas sent in an experimental patch to change NTUP_PER_BUCKET
+into a GUC called hash_load, and add EXPLAIN support to show the
+number of buckets and batches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Brendan Jurd sent in an updated version of Pavel Stehule's patch to
+add scientific notation to to_char().
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hannu Valtonen sent in a patch to add support for integer and text
+arrays to PL/PythonU.
+
+</p>
+
projects / pgweb-old.git / commitdiff