-<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.321.4.40 2007/09/16 03:03:40 tgl Exp $ -->
+<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.321.4.41 2008/01/03 21:36:02 tgl Exp $ -->
<!--
Typical markup:
wrap long lines
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-so that perl can remove it so HISTORY.html can be created with no
+so that Perl can remove it so HISTORY.html can be created with no
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do it for earlier branch release files.
<appendix id="release">
<title>Release Notes</title>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-14">
- <title>Release 8.0.14</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-15">
+ <title>Release 8.0.15</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.13.
- </para>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.14</title>
-
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
- </para>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara>
+ </note>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.14,
+ including fixes for significant security issues.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <para>
+ This is the last 8.0.X release for which the <productname>PostgreSQL</>
+ community will produce binary packages for <productname>Windows</>.
+ Windows users are encouraged to move to 8.2.X or later,
+ since there are Windows-specific fixes in 8.2.X that
+ are impractical to back-port. 8.0.X will continue to
+ be supported on other platforms.
+ </para>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.15</title>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
- then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
- on the same table (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </sect2>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix logging so that log messages are never interleaved when using
- the syslogger process (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
- of memory (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of
+ the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom)
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix incorrect handling of some foreign-key corner cases (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ Functions used in index expressions and partial-index
+ predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has
+ long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code
+ execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user.
+ (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the
+ same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger
+ because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations
+ such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed
+ automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user
+ can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a
+ trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum.
+ The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations
+ (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>,
+ and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than
+ the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already
+ used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing
+ this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION
+ AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a
+ <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Prevent <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
- due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Repair assorted bugs in the regular-expression package (Tom, Will Drewry)
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Update the time zone database rules, particularly New Zealand's upcoming changes (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ Suitably crafted regular-expression patterns could cause crashes,
+ infinite or near-infinite looping, and/or massive memory consumption,
+ all of which pose denial-of-service hazards for applications that
+ accept regex search patterns from untrustworthy sources.
+ (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Windows socket improvements (Magnus)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
+ password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Suppress timezone name (<literal>%Z</>) in log timestamps on Windows
- because of possible encoding mismatches (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ The fix that appeared for this in 8.0.14 was incomplete, as it plugged
+ the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601,
+ CVE-2007-3278)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
- password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2007k
+ (in particular, recent Argentina changes) (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix planner failure in some cases of <literal>WHERE false AND var IN
+ (SELECT ...)</> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Preserve the tablespace of indexes that are
+ rebuilt by <command>ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-13">
- <title>Release 8.0.13</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make archive recovery always start a new WAL timeline, rather than only
+ when a recovery stop time was used (Simon)
+ </para>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
- </note>
+ <para>
+ This avoids a corner-case risk of trying to overwrite an existing
+ archived copy of the last WAL segment, and seems simpler and cleaner
+ than the original definition.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.12,
- including a security fix.
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <command>VACUUM</> not use all of <varname>maintenance_work_mem</>
+ when the table is too small for it to be useful (Alvaro)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.13</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte
+ database encoding (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix PL/Perl to cope when platform's Perl defines type <literal>bool</>
+ as <literal>int</> rather than <literal>char</> (Tom)
+ </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ While this could theoretically happen anywhere, no standard build of
+ Perl did things this way ... until <productname>Mac OS X</> 10.5.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix PL/Python to not crash on long exception messages (Alvaro)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix <application>pg_dump</> to correctly handle inheritance child tables
+ that have default expressions different from their parent's (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
- <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
- and operators (Tom)
+ <application>ecpg</> parser fixes (Michael)
</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
<para>
- This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
- truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
- an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
- with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
- See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
+ Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle
+ NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe)
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
+ Fix <type>tsvector</> and <type>tsquery</> output routines to
+ escape backslashes correctly (Teodor, Bruce)
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
- <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
+ Fix crash of <function>to_tsvector()</> on huge input strings (Teodor)
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 8.0.10)
- (Tom)
+ Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used
+ when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter)
</para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
<para>
- Fix POSIX-style timezone specs to follow new USA DST rules (Tom)
+ This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made
+ to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of
+ <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions.
+ You can remove the version check if you really want to use a
+ different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's
+ your responsibility whether the result works or not.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
+ </itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-12">
- <title>Release 8.0.12</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-14">
+ <title>Release 8.0.14</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-02-07</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains one fix from 8.0.11.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.13.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.12</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.14</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
+ </para>
- </sect2>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Remove overly-restrictive check for type length in constraints and
- functional indexes(Tom)
+ Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
+ then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
+ on the same table (Tom)
</para>
- </listitem>
-
- </itemizedlist>
-
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-11">
- <title>Release 8.0.11</title>
-
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.10, including
- a security fix.
- </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.11</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </sect2>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix logging so that log messages are never interleaved when using
+ the syslogger process (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
+ of memory (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix incorrect handling of some foreign-key corner cases (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Remove security vulnerabilities that allowed connected users
- to read backend memory (Tom)
+ Prevent <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
+ due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
<para>
- The vulnerabilities involve suppressing the normal check that a SQL
- function returns the data type it's declared to, and changing the
- data type of a table column (CVE-2007-0555, CVE-2007-0556). These
- errors can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
- principle might be used to read database content that the user
- should not be able to access.
+ Update the time zone database rules, particularly New Zealand's upcoming changes (Tom)
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
- due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
+ Windows socket improvements (Magnus)
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
+ Suppress timezone name (<literal>%Z</>) in log timestamps on Windows
+ because of possible encoding mismatches (Tom)
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
- over three bytes long (Tom)
+ Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
+ password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
+ </itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-10">
- <title>Release 8.0.10</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-13">
+ <title>Release 8.0.13</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.12,
+ including a security fix.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.13</title>
<para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.9.
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
</para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.10</title>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
+ <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
+ and operators (Tom)
+ </para>
<para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
+ This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
+ truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
+ an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
+ with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
+ See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
</para>
+ </listitem>
- </sect2>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
+ <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 8.0.10)
+ (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom)
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix POSIX-style timezone specs to follow new USA DST rules (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector,
- among other things.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
- <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix race condition for truncation of a large relation across a
- gigabyte boundary by <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-12">
+ <title>Release 8.0.12</title>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-02-07</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains one fix from 8.0.11.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.12</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove overly-restrictive check for type length in constraints and
+ functional indexes(Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-11">
+ <title>Release 8.0.11</title>
+
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.10, including
+ a security fix.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.11</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove security vulnerabilities that allowed connected users
+ to read backend memory (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The vulnerabilities involve suppressing the normal check that a SQL
+ function returns the data type it's declared to, and changing the
+ data type of a table column (CVE-2007-0555, CVE-2007-0556). These
+ errors can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
+ principle might be used to read database content that the user
+ should not be able to access.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
+ due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
+ over three bytes long (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-10">
+ <title>Release 8.0.10</title>
+
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.9.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.10</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom)
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector,
+ among other things.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix possible deadlock in Windows signal handling (Teodor)
+ Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
+ <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple
- empty elements (Tom)
+ Fix race condition for truncation of a large relation across a
+ gigabyte boundary by <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix ecpg memory leak during connection (Michael)
+ Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
- are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
- new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix possible deadlock in Windows signal handling (Teodor)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
- change the output of these functions.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple
+ empty elements (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix ecpg memory leak during connection (Michael)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
+ are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
+ new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Update timezone database
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
+ change the output of these functions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- This affects Australian and Canadian daylight-savings rules in
- particular.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
+ </para>
- </itemizedlist>
+ <para>
+ This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Update timezone database
+ </para>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-9">
- <title>Release 8.0.9</title>
+ <para>
+ This affects Australian and Canadian daylight-savings rules in
+ particular.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
- </note>
+ </itemizedlist>
- <para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.8.
- </para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.9</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-9">
+ <title>Release 8.0.9</title>
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
- </para>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
+ </note>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.8.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.9</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Fix crash when referencing <literal>NEW</> row
<listitem><para>Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ... TYPE</> to recheck
<literal>NOT NULL</> for <literal>USING</> clause (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <function>string_to_array()</> to handle overlapping
- matches for the separator string</para>
+ matches for the separator string</para>
<para>For example, <literal>string_to_array('123xx456xxx789', 'xx')</>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix corner cases in pattern matching for
-
<application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
+ <application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix index-corrupting bugs in /contrib/ltree
- (Teodor)</para></listitem>
+ (Teodor)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Numerous robustness fixes in <application>ecpg</> (Joachim
Wieland)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix backslash escaping in /contrib/dbmirror</para></listitem>
<productname>Intel</> compilers (Tom)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-8">
- <title>Release 8.0.8</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-8">
+ <title>Release 8.0.8</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.7,
+ including patches for extremely serious security issues.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.8</title>
<para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.7,
- including patches for extremely serious security issues.
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
</para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.8</title>
+ <para>
+ Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
+ CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
+ code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
+ into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
+ ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
+ most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
+ libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
+ <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
+ rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
- CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
- code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
- into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
- ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
- most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
- libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
- <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
- rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
- </para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Change the server to reject invalidly-encoded multibyte
(Robert Kinberg)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-7">
- <title>Release 8.0.7</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-7">
+ <title>Release 8.0.7</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.6.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.6.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.7</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.7</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
- notes for 8.0.6.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.6.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-6">
- <title>Release 8.0.6</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-6">
+ <title>Release 8.0.6</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.5.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.5.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.6</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.6</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
- notes for 8.0.3.
- Also, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
- columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
-
<application>plperl</> issues described below.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.3.
+ Also, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
+ columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
+ <application>plperl</> issues described below.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-5">
- <title>Release 8.0.5</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-5">
+ <title>Release 8.0.5</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.4.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.4.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.5</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.5</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
- notes for 8.0.3.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.3.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
to subquery results</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-4">
- <title>Release 8.0.4</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-4">
+ <title>Release 8.0.4</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-10-04</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-10-04</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.3.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.3.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.4</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.4</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
- notes for 8.0.3.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
+ notes for 8.0.3.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Fix error that allowed <command>VACUUM</> to remove
code</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-3">
- <title>Release 8.0.3</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-3">
+ <title>Release 8.0.3</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.2, including several
- security-related issues.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.2, including several
+ security-related issues.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.3</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.3</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
- it is one possible way of handling two significant security problems
- that have been found in the initial contents of 8.0.X system
- catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 8.0.3's initdb will
- automatically correct these problems.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
+ it is one possible way of handling two significant security problems
+ that have been found in the initial contents of 8.0.X system
+ catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 8.0.3's initdb will
+ automatically correct these problems.
+ </para>
- The larger security problem is that the built-in character set encoding
- conversion functions can be invoked from SQL commands by unprivileged
- users, but the functions were not designed for such use and are not
- secure against malicious choices of arguments. The fix involves changing
- the declared parameter list of these functions so that they can no longer
- be invoked from SQL commands. (This does not affect their normal use
- by the encoding conversion machinery.)
- </para>
+ <para>
+ The larger security problem is that the built-in character set encoding
+ conversion functions can be invoked from SQL commands by unprivileged
+ users, but the functions were not designed for such use and are not
+ secure against malicious choices of arguments. The fix involves changing
+ the declared parameter list of these functions so that they can no longer
+ be invoked from SQL commands. (This does not affect their normal use
+ by the encoding conversion machinery.)
+ </para>
- The lesser problem is that the <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> module
- creates several functions that are improperly declared to return
- <type>internal</> when they do not accept <type>internal</> arguments.
- This breaks type safety for all functions using <type>internal</>
- arguments.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ The lesser problem is that the <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> module
+ creates several functions that are improperly declared to return
+ <type>internal</> when they do not accept <type>internal</> arguments.
+ This breaks type safety for all functions using <type>internal</>
+ arguments.
+ </para>
- It is strongly recommended that all installations repair these errors,
- either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedure given
- below. The errors at least allow unprivileged database users to crash
- their server process, and might allow unprivileged users to gain the
- privileges of a database superuser.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ It is strongly recommended that all installations repair these errors,
+ either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedure given
+ below. The errors at least allow unprivileged database users to crash
+ their server process, and might allow unprivileged users to gain the
+ privileges of a database superuser.
+ </para>
- If you wish not to do an initdb, perform the same manual repair
- procedures shown in the <link linkend="release-7-4-8">7.4.8 release
- notes</link>.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ If you wish not to do an initdb, perform the same manual repair
+ procedures shown in the <link linkend="release-7-4-8">7.4.8 release
+ notes</link>.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Change encoding function signature to prevent
data types</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-2">
- <title>Release 8.0.2</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-2">
+ <title>Release 8.0.2</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-04-07</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-04-07</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.1.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.1.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.2</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.2</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.*.
- This release updates the major version number of the
-
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> libraries, so it might be
- necessary to re-link some user applications if they cannot
- find the properly-numbered shared library.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.*.
+ This release updates the major version number of the
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> libraries, so it might be
+ necessary to re-link some user applications if they cannot
+ find the properly-numbered shared library.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Increment the major version number of all interface
- libraries (Bruce)</para>
+libraries (Bruce)</para>
<para>
- This should have been done in 8.0.0. It is required so 7.4.X versions
-
of PostgreSQL client applications, like <application>psql</>,
- can be used on the same machine as 8.0.X applications. This might require
- re-linking user applications that use these libraries.
+This should have been done in 8.0.0. It is required so 7.4.X versions
+of PostgreSQL client applications, like <application>psql</>,
+can be used on the same machine as 8.0.X applications. This might require
+re-linking user applications that use these libraries.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Add Windows-only <varname>wal_sync_method</> setting of
- <option>fsync_writethrough</> (Magnus, Bruce)</para>
+<option>fsync_writethrough</> (Magnus, Bruce)</para>
<para>
-
This setting causes <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> to write through
- any disk-drive write cache when writing to WAL.
- This behavior was formerly called <option>fsync</>, but was
- renamed because it acts quite differently from <option>fsync</> on other
- platforms.
+This setting causes <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> to write through
+any disk-drive write cache when writing to WAL.
+This behavior was formerly called <option>fsync</>, but was
+renamed because it acts quite differently from <option>fsync</> on other
+platforms.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Enable the <varname>wal_sync_method</> setting of
- <option>open_datasync</> on Windows, and make it the default for that
- platform (Magnus, Bruce)</para>
-<para>
- Because the default is no longer <option>fsync_writethrough</>,
- data loss is possible during a power failure if the disk drive has
- write caching enabled. To turn off the write cache on Windows,
-
from the <application>Device Manager</>, choose the drive properties,
- then <literal>Policies</>.
+<option>open_datasync</> on Windows, and make it the default for that
+ platform (Magnus, Bruce)</para>
+<para>
+Because the default is no longer <option>fsync_writethrough</>,
+data loss is possible during a power failure if the disk drive has
+write caching enabled. To turn off the write cache on Windows,
+from the <application>Device Manager</>, choose the drive properties,
+then <literal>Policies</>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>New cache management algorithm <acronym>2Q</> replaces
-
<acronym>ARC</> (Tom)</para>
+<acronym>ARC</> (Tom)</para>
<para>
-
This was done to avoid a pending US patent on <acronym>ARC</>. The
-
<acronym>2Q</> code might be a few percentage points slower than
-
<acronym>ARC</> for some work loads. A better cache management algorithm
- will appear in 8.1.
+This was done to avoid a pending US patent on <acronym>ARC</>. The
+<acronym>2Q</> code might be a few percentage points slower than
+<acronym>ARC</> for some work loads. A better cache management algorithm
+will appear in 8.1.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Planner adjustments to improve behavior on freshly-created
tables (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Allow plpgsql to assign to an element of an array that is
initially <literal>NULL</> (Tom)</para>
<para>
- Formerly the array would remain <literal>NULL</>, but now it becomes a
- single-element array. The main SQL engine was changed to handle
- <command>UPDATE</> of a null array value this way in 8.0, but the similar
- case in plpgsql was overlooked.
+Formerly the array would remain <literal>NULL</>, but now it becomes a
+single-element array. The main SQL engine was changed to handle
+<command>UPDATE</> of a null array value this way in 8.0, but the similar
+case in plpgsql was overlooked.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Convert <literal>\r\n</> and <literal>\r</> to <literal>\n</>
in plpython function bodies (Michael Fuhr)</para>
<para>
- This prevents syntax errors when plpython code is written on a Windows or
- Mac client.
+ This prevents syntax errors when plpython code is written on a Windows or
+ Mac client.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Allow SPI cursors to handle utility commands that return rows,
such as <command>EXPLAIN</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <command>CLUSTER</> failure after <command>ALTER TABLE
- SET WITHOUT OIDS</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
+SET WITHOUT OIDS</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Reduce memory usage of <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN</>
- (Neil)</para></listitem>
+(Neil)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <command>ALTER LANGUAGE RENAME</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Document the Windows-only <literal>register</> and
<literal>unregister</> options of <application>pg_ctl</> (Magnus)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Ensure operations done during backend shutdown are counted by
statistics collector</para>
<para>
-
This is expected to resolve reports of <application>pg_autovacuum</>
- not vacuuming the system catalogs often enough — it was not being
- told about catalog deletions caused by temporary table removal during
- backend exit.
+This is expected to resolve reports of <application>pg_autovacuum</>
+not vacuuming the system catalogs often enough — it was not being
+told about catalog deletions caused by temporary table removal during
+backend exit.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Change the Windows default for configuration parameter
- <varname>log_destination</> to <option>eventlog</> (Magnus)</para>
+<varname>log_destination</> to <option>eventlog</> (Magnus)</para>
<para>
- By default, a server running on Windows will now send log output to the
- Windows event logger rather than standard error.
+By default, a server running on Windows will now send log output to the
+Windows event logger rather than standard error.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Make Kerberos authentication work on Windows (Magnus)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Allow <command>ALTER DATABASE RENAME</> by superusers
- who aren't flagged as having CREATEDB privilege (Tom)</para></listitem>
+who aren't flagged as having CREATEDB privilege (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Modify WAL log entries for <command>CREATE</> and
<command>DROP DATABASE</> to not specify absolute paths (Tom)</para>
-
<para>This allows point-in-time recovery on a different machine with possibly
- different database location. Note that <command>CREATE TABLESPACE</> still
- poses a hazard in such situations.
+<para>This allows point-in-time recovery on a different machine with possibly
+different database location. Note that <command>CREATE TABLESPACE</> still
+poses a hazard in such situations.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix crash from a backend exiting with an open transaction
- that created a table and opened a cursor on it (Tom)</para></listitem>
+that created a table and opened a cursor on it (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <function>array_map()</> so it can call PL functions
- (Tom)</para></listitem>
+(Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Several <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> and
<filename>contrib/btree_gist</> fixes (Teodor)
- </para></listitem>
+</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix crash of some <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</>
- functions on some platforms (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
+functions on some platforms (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <filename>contrib/intagg</> for 64-bit platforms
- (Tom)</para></listitem>
+(Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix ecpg bugs in parsing of <command>CREATE</> statement
- (Michael)</para></listitem>
+(Michael)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Work around gcc bug on powerpc and amd64 causing problems in
- ecpg (Christof Petig)</para></listitem>
+ecpg (Christof Petig)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Do not use locale-aware versions of <function>upper()</>,
- <function>lower()</>, and <function>initcap()</> when the locale is
- <literal>C</> (Bruce)</para>
+<function>lower()</>, and <function>initcap()</> when the locale is
+<literal>C</> (Bruce)</para>
<para>
- This allows these functions to work on platforms that generate errors
- for non-7-bit data when the locale is <literal>C</>.
+ This allows these functions to work on platforms that generate errors
+ for non-7-bit data when the locale is <literal>C</>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <function>quote_ident()</> to quote names that match keywords (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <function>to_date()</> to behave reasonably when
- <literal>CC</> and <literal>YY</> fields are both used (Karel)</para></listitem>
+<literal>CC</> and <literal>YY</> fields are both used (Karel)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Prevent <function>to_char(interval)</> from failing
- when given a zero-month interval (Tom)</para></listitem>
+when given a zero-month interval (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix wrong week returned by <function>date_trunc('week')</>
(Bruce)</para>
<para>
- <function>date_trunc('week')</>
- returned the wrong year for the first few days of January in some years.
+<function>date_trunc('week')</>
+returned the wrong year for the first few days of January in some years.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Use the correct default mask length for class <literal>D</>
- addresses in <type>INET</> data types (Tom)</para></listitem>
+addresses in <type>INET</> data types (Tom)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0-1">
- <title>Release 8.0.1</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0-1">
+ <title>Release 8.0.1</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.0, including several
- security-related issues.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.0, including several
+ security-related issues.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0.1</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0.1</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.0.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.0.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Disallow <command>LOAD</> to non-superusers</para>
typedefs (Michael)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-8-0">
- <title>Release 8.0</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-8-0">
+ <title>Release 8.0</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-01-19</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-01-19</simpara>
+ </note>
- <sect2>
- <title>Overview</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Overview</title>
- Major changes in this release:
- </para>
+ <para>
+ Major changes in this release:
+ </para>
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Microsoft Windows Native Server
- </term>
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Microsoft Windows Native Server
+ </term>
- <listitem>
-
This is the first <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> release
- to run natively on <trademark class=registered>Microsoft Windows</> as
-
a server. It can run as a <productname>Windows</> service. This
- release supports NT-based Windows releases like
-
<productname>Windows 2000 SP4</>, <productname>Windows XP</>, and
-
<productname>Windows 2003</>. Older releases like
-
<productname>Windows 95</>, <productname>Windows 98</>, and
-
<productname>Windows ME</> are not supported because these operating
- systems do not have the infrastructure to support
-
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname>. A separate installer
- project has been created to ease installation on
-
<productname>Windows</> — see <ulink
- url="http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/win32/"></ulink>.
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is the first <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> release
+ to run natively on <trademark class="registered">Microsoft Windows</> as
+ a server. It can run as a <productname>Windows</> service. This
+ release supports NT-based Windows releases like
+ <productname>Windows 2000 SP4</>, <productname>Windows XP</>, and
+ <productname>Windows 2003</>. Older releases like
+ <productname>Windows 95</>, <productname>Windows 98</>, and
+ <productname>Windows ME</> are not supported because these operating
+ systems do not have the infrastructure to support
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>. A separate installer
+ project has been created to ease installation on
+ <productname>Windows</> — see <ulink
+ url="http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/win32/"></ulink>.
+ </para>
- Although tested throughout our release cycle, the Windows port
- does not have the benefit of years of use in production
-
environments that <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> has on
- Unix platforms. Therefore it should be treated with the same
- level of caution as you would a new product.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ Although tested throughout our release cycle, the Windows port
+ does not have the benefit of years of use in production
+ environments that <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> has on
+ Unix platforms. Therefore it should be treated with the same
+ level of caution as you would a new product.
+ </para>
- Previous releases required the Unix emulation toolkit
-
<productname>Cygwin</> in order to run the server on Windows
-
operating systems. <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> has
- supported native clients on Windows for many years.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
+ <para>
+ Previous releases required the Unix emulation toolkit
+ <productname>Cygwin</> in order to run the server on Windows
+ operating systems. <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> has
+ supported native clients on Windows for many years.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Savepoints
- </term>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Savepoints
+ </term>
- <listitem>
- Savepoints allow specific parts of a transaction to be aborted
- without affecting the remainder of the transaction. Prior
- releases had no such capability; there was no way to recover
- from a statement failure within a transaction except by
- aborting the whole transaction. This feature is valuable for
- application writers who require error recovery within a
- complex transaction.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Savepoints allow specific parts of a transaction to be aborted
+ without affecting the remainder of the transaction. Prior
+ releases had no such capability; there was no way to recover
+ from a statement failure within a transaction except by
+ aborting the whole transaction. This feature is valuable for
+ application writers who require error recovery within a
+ complex transaction.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Point-In-Time Recovery
- </term>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Point-In-Time Recovery
+ </term>
- <listitem>
- In previous releases there was no way to recover from disk
- drive failure except to restore from a previous backup or use
- a standby replication server. Point-in-time recovery allows
- continuous backup of the server. You can recover either to
- the point of failure or to some transaction in the past.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In previous releases there was no way to recover from disk
+ drive failure except to restore from a previous backup or use
+ a standby replication server. Point-in-time recovery allows
+ continuous backup of the server. You can recover either to
+ the point of failure or to some transaction in the past.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Tablespaces
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Tablespaces allow administrators to select different file systems
- for storage of individual tables, indexes, and databases.
- This improves performance and control over disk space
- usage. Prior releases used <application>initlocation</> and
- manual symlink management for such tasks.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Improved Buffer Management, <command>CHECKPOINT</command>,
- <command>VACUUM</command>
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This release has a more intelligent buffer replacement strategy,
- which will make better use of available shared buffers and
- improve performance. The performance impact of vacuum and
- checkpoints is also lessened.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Change Column Types
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A column's data type can now be changed with <command>ALTER
- TABLE</command>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- New Perl Server-Side Language
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A new version of the <application>plperl</> server-side language now
- supports a persistent shared storage area, triggers, returning records
- and arrays of records, and SPI calls to access the database.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Comma-separated-value (CSV) support in <command>COPY</command>
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <command>COPY</command> can now read and write
- comma-separated-value files. It has the flexibility to
- interpret nonstandard quoting and separation characters too.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- </variablelist>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 8.0</title>
-
- <para>
- A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
- required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
- release.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Observe the following incompatibilities:
- </para>
-
- <itemizedlist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Tablespaces
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- In <option>READ COMMITTED</> serialization mode, volatile functions
- now see the results of concurrent transactions committed up to the
- beginning of each statement within the function, rather than up to the
- beginning of the interactive command that called the function.
+ Tablespaces allow administrators to select different file systems
+ for storage of individual tables, indexes, and databases.
+ This improves performance and control over disk space
+ usage. Prior releases used <application>initlocation</> and
+ manual symlink management for such tasks.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Functions declared <option>STABLE</> or <option>IMMUTABLE</> always
- use the snapshot of the calling query, and therefore do not see the
- effects of actions taken after the calling query starts, whether in
- their own transaction or other transactions. Such a function must be
- read-only, too, meaning that it cannot use any SQL commands other than
- <command>SELECT</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Improved Buffer Management, <command>CHECKPOINT</command>,
+ <command>VACUUM</command>
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Nondeferred <option>AFTER</> triggers are now fired immediately
- after completion of the triggering query, rather than upon
- finishing the current interactive command. This makes a
- difference when the triggering query occurred within a function:
- the trigger is invoked before the function proceeds to its next
- operation.
+ This release has a more intelligent buffer replacement strategy,
+ which will make better use of available shared buffers and
+ improve performance. The performance impact of vacuum and
+ checkpoints is also lessened.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Server configuration parameters <varname>virtual_host</> and
- <varname>tcpip_socket</> have been replaced with a more general
- parameter <varname>listen_addresses</>. Also, the server now listens on
- <literal>localhost</> by default, which eliminates the need for the
- <literal>-i</> postmaster switch in many scenarios.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Change Column Types
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Server configuration parameters <varname>SortMem</> and
- <varname>VacuumMem</> have been renamed to <varname>work_mem</>
- and <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> to better reflect their
- use. The original names are still supported in
- <command>SET</command> and <command>SHOW</command>.
+ A column's data type can now be changed with <command>ALTER
+ TABLE</command>.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Server configuration parameters <varname>log_pid</>,
- <varname>log_timestamp</>, and <varname>log_source_port</> have been
- replaced with a more general parameter <varname>log_line_prefix</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ New Perl Server-Side Language
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Server configuration parameter <varname>syslog</> has been
- replaced with a more logical <varname>log_destination</> variable to
- control the log output destination.
+ A new version of the <application>plperl</> server-side language now
+ supports a persistent shared storage area, triggers, returning records
+ and arrays of records, and SPI calls to access the database.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Server configuration parameter <varname>log_statement</> has been
- changed so it can selectively log just database modification or
- data definition statements. Server configuration parameter
- <varname>log_duration</> now prints only when <varname>log_statement</>
- prints the query.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Comma-separated-value (CSV) support in <command>COPY</command>
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Server configuration parameter <varname>max_expr_depth</> parameter has
- been replaced with <varname>max_stack_depth</> which measures the
- physical stack size rather than the expression nesting depth. This
- helps prevent session termination due to stack overflow caused by
- recursive functions.
+ <command>COPY</command> can now read and write
+ comma-separated-value files. It has the flexibility to
+ interpret nonstandard quoting and separation characters too.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The <function>length()</> function no longer counts trailing spaces in
- <type>CHAR(n)</> values.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 8.0</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
+ required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
+ release.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Observe the following incompatibilities:
+ </para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- Casting an integer to <type>BIT(N)</> selects the rightmost N bits of the
- integer, not the leftmost N bits as before.
+ In <option>READ COMMITTED</> serialization mode, volatile functions
+ now see the results of concurrent transactions committed up to the
+ beginning of each statement within the function, rather than up to the
+ beginning of the interactive command that called the function.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Updating an element or slice of a NULL array value now produces
- a nonnull array result, namely an array containing
- just the assigned-to positions.
+ Functions declared <option>STABLE</> or <option>IMMUTABLE</> always
+ use the snapshot of the calling query, and therefore do not see the
+ effects of actions taken after the calling query starts, whether in
+ their own transaction or other transactions. Such a function must be
+ read-only, too, meaning that it cannot use any SQL commands other than
+ <command>SELECT</>.
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Syntax checking of array input values has been tightened up
- considerably. Junk that was previously allowed in odd places with
- odd results now causes an error. Empty-string element values
- must now be written as <literal>""</>, rather than writing nothing.
- Also changed behavior with respect to whitespace surrounding
- array elements: trailing whitespace is now ignored, for symmetry
- with leading whitespace (which has always been ignored).
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Nondeferred <option>AFTER</> triggers are now fired immediately
+ after completion of the triggering query, rather than upon
+ finishing the current interactive command. This makes a
+ difference when the triggering query occurred within a function:
+ the trigger is invoked before the function proceeds to its next
+ operation.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Overflow in integer arithmetic operations is now detected and
- reported as an error.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Server configuration parameters <varname>virtual_host</> and
+ <varname>tcpip_socket</> have been replaced with a more general
+ parameter <varname>listen_addresses</>. Also, the server now listens on
+ <literal>localhost</> by default, which eliminates the need for the
+ <literal>-i</> postmaster switch in many scenarios.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The arithmetic operators associated with the single-byte
- <type>"char"</> data type have been removed.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Server configuration parameters <varname>SortMem</> and
+ <varname>VacuumMem</> have been renamed to <varname>work_mem</>
+ and <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> to better reflect their
+ use. The original names are still supported in
+ <command>SET</command> and <command>SHOW</command>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Server configuration parameters <varname>log_pid</>,
+ <varname>log_timestamp</>, and <varname>log_source_port</> have been
+ replaced with a more general parameter <varname>log_line_prefix</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Server configuration parameter <varname>syslog</> has been
+ replaced with a more logical <varname>log_destination</> variable to
+ control the log output destination.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Server configuration parameter <varname>log_statement</> has been
+ changed so it can selectively log just database modification or
+ data definition statements. Server configuration parameter
+ <varname>log_duration</> now prints only when <varname>log_statement</>
+ prints the query.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Server configuration parameter <varname>max_expr_depth</> parameter has
+ been replaced with <varname>max_stack_depth</> which measures the
+ physical stack size rather than the expression nesting depth. This
+ helps prevent session termination due to stack overflow caused by
+ recursive functions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The <function>length()</> function no longer counts trailing spaces in
+ <type>CHAR(n)</> values.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Casting an integer to <type>BIT(N)</> selects the rightmost N bits of the
+ integer, not the leftmost N bits as before.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Updating an element or slice of a NULL array value now produces
+ a nonnull array result, namely an array containing
+ just the assigned-to positions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Syntax checking of array input values has been tightened up
+ considerably. Junk that was previously allowed in odd places with
+ odd results now causes an error. Empty-string element values
+ must now be written as <literal>""</>, rather than writing nothing.
+ Also changed behavior with respect to whitespace surrounding
+ array elements: trailing whitespace is now ignored, for symmetry
+ with leading whitespace (which has always been ignored).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Overflow in integer arithmetic operations is now detected and
+ reported as an error.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The arithmetic operators associated with the single-byte
+ <type>"char"</> data type have been removed.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The <function>extract()</> function (also called
+ <function>date_part</>) now returns the proper year for BC dates.
+ It previously returned one less than the correct year. The
+ function now also returns the proper values for millennium and
+ century.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <type>CIDR</> values now must have their nonmasked bits be zero.
+ For example, we no longer allow
+ <literal>204.248.199.1/31</literal> as a <type>CIDR</> value. Such
+ values should never have been accepted by
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> and will now be rejected.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <command>EXECUTE</command> now returns a completion tag that
+ matches the executed statement.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <application>psql</>'s <command>\copy</> command now reads or
+ writes to the query's <literal>stdin/stdout</>, rather than
+ <application>psql</>'s <literal>stdin/stdout</>. The previous
+ behavior can be accessed via new
+ <option>pstdin</>/<option>pstdout</> parameters.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The JDBC client interface has been removed from the core
+ distribution, and is now hosted at <ulink url=
+ "http://jdbc.postgresql.org"></ulink>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The Tcl client interface has also been removed. There are several
+ Tcl interfaces now hosted at <ulink url=
+ "http://gborg.postgresql.org"></ulink>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The server now uses its own time zone database, rather than the
+ one supplied by the operating system. This will provide consistent
+ behavior across all platforms. In most cases, there should be
+ little noticeable difference in time zone behavior, except that
+ the time zone names used by <command>SET</>/<command>SHOW</>
+ <varname>TimeZone</> might be different from what your platform provides.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <application>Configure</>'s threading option no longer requires
+ users to run tests or edit configuration files; threading options
+ are now detected automatically.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Now that tablespaces have been implemented,
+ <application>initlocation</> has been removed.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The API for user-defined GiST indexes has been changed. The
+ Union and PickSplit methods are now passed a pointer to a
+ special <structname>GistEntryVector</structname> structure,
+ rather than a <type>bytea</type>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Deprecated Features</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Some aspects of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s behavior
+ have been determined to be suboptimal. For the sake of backward
+ compatibility these have not been removed in 8.0, but they are
+ considered deprecated and will be removed in the next major
+ release.
+ </para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The 8.1 release will remove the <function>to_char()</> function
+ for intervals.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The <function>extract()</> function (also called
- <function>date_part</>) now returns the proper year for BC dates.
- It previously returned one less than the correct year. The
- function now also returns the proper values for millennium and
- century.
+ The server now warns of empty strings passed to
+ <type>oid</type>/<type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> data
+ types, but continues to interpret them as zeroes as before.
+ In the next major release, empty strings will be considered
+ invalid input for these data types.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- <type>CIDR</> values now must have their nonmasked bits be zero.
- For example, we no longer allow
- <literal>204.248.199.1/31</literal> as a <type>CIDR</> value. Such
- values should never have been accepted by
- <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> and will now be rejected.
+ By default, tables in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.0
+ and earlier are created with <type>OID</>s. In the next release,
+ this will <emphasis>not</emphasis> be the case: to create a table
+ that contains <type>OID</>s, the <option>WITH OIDS</> clause must
+ be specified or the <varname>default_with_oids</varname>
+ configuration parameter must be set. Users are encouraged to
+ explicitly specify <option>WITH OIDS</> if their tables
+ require OIDs for compatibility with future releases of
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
+ release 8.0 and the previous major release.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Performance Improvements</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+
<listitem>
<para>
- <command>EXECUTE</command> now returns a completion tag that
- matches the executed statement.
+ Support cross-data-type index usage (Tom)
</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
<para>
- <application>psql</>'s <command>\copy</> command now reads or
- writes to the query's <literal>stdin/stdout</>, rather than
- <application>psql</>'s <literal>stdin/stdout</>. The previous
- behavior can be accessed via new
- <option>pstdin</>/<option>pstdout</> parameters.
+ Before this change, many queries would not use an index if the data
+ types did not match exactly. This improvement makes index usage more
+ intuitive and consistent.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The JDBC client interface has been removed from the core
- distribution, and is now hosted at <ulink url=
- "http://jdbc.postgresql.org"></ulink>.
+ New buffer replacement strategy that improves caching (Jan)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Prior releases used a least-recently-used (LRU) cache to keep
+ recently referenced pages in memory. The LRU algorithm
+ did not consider the number of times a specific cache entry was
+ accessed, so large table scans could force out useful cache pages.
+ The new cache algorithm uses four separate lists to track most
+ recently used and most frequently used cache pages and dynamically
+ optimize their replacement based on the work load. This should
+ lead to much more efficient use of the shared buffer cache.
+ Administrators who have tested shared buffer sizes in the past
+ should retest with this new cache replacement policy.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The Tcl client interface has also been removed. There are several
- Tcl interfaces now hosted at <ulink url=
- "http://gborg.postgresql.org"></ulink>.
+ Add subprocess to write dirty buffers periodically to reduce
+ checkpoint writes (Jan)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In previous releases, the checkpoint process, which runs every few
+ minutes, would write all dirty buffers to the operating system's
+ buffer cache then flush all dirty operating system buffers to
+ disk. This resulted in a periodic spike in disk usage that often
+ hurt performance. The new code uses a background writer to trickle
+ disk writes at a steady pace so checkpoints have far fewer dirty
+ pages to write to disk. Also, the new code does not issue a global
+ <function>sync()</> call, but instead <function>fsync()</>s just
+ the files written since the last checkpoint. This should improve
+ performance and minimize degradation during checkpoints.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The server now uses its own time zone database, rather than the
- one supplied by the operating system. This will provide consistent
- behavior across all platforms. In most cases, there should be
- little noticeable difference in time zone behavior, except that
- the time zone names used by <command>SET</>/<command>SHOW</>
- <varname>TimeZone</> might be different from what your platform provides.
+ Add ability to prolong vacuum to reduce performance impact (Jan)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ On busy systems, <command>VACUUM</command> performs many I/O
+ requests which can hurt performance for other users. This
+ release allows you to slow down <command>VACUUM</command> to
+ reduce its impact on other users, though this increases the
+ total duration of <command>VACUUM</command>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- <application>Configure</>'s threading option no longer requires
- users to run tests or edit configuration files; threading options
- are now detected automatically.
+ Improve B-tree index performance for duplicate keys (Dmitry Tkach, Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This improves the way indexes are scanned when many duplicate
+ values exist in the index.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Now that tablespaces have been implemented,
- <application>initlocation</> has been removed.
+ Use dynamically-generated table size estimates while planning (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Formerly the planner estimated table sizes using the values seen
+ by the last <command>VACUUM</command> or <command>ANALYZE</command>,
+ both as to physical table size (number of pages) and number of rows.
+ Now, the current physical table size is obtained from the kernel,
+ and the number of rows is estimated by multiplying the table size
+ by the row density (rows per page) seen by the last
+ <command>VACUUM</command> or <command>ANALYZE</command>. This should
+ produce more reliable estimates in cases where the table size has
+ changed significantly since the last housekeeping command.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The API for user-defined GiST indexes has been changed. The
- Union and PickSplit methods are now passed a pointer to a
- special <structname>GistEntryVector</structname> structure,
- rather than a <type>bytea</type>.
+ Improved index usage with <literal>OR</> clauses (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows the optimizer to use indexes in statements with many OR
+ clauses that would not have been indexed in the past. It can also use
+ multi-column indexes where the first column is specified and the second
+ column is part of an <literal>OR</> clause.
</para>
</listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve matching of partial index clauses (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The server is now smarter about using partial indexes in queries
+ involving complex <option>WHERE</> clauses.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Deprecated Features</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve performance of the GEQO optimizer (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The GEQO optimizer is used to plan queries involving many tables (by
+ default, twelve or more). This release speeds up the way queries are
+ analyzed to decrease time spent in optimization.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- Some aspects of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s behavior
- have been determined to be suboptimal. For the sake of backward
- compatibility these have not been removed in 8.0, but they are
- considered deprecated and will be removed in the next major
- release.
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Miscellaneous optimizer improvements
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ There is not room here to list all the minor improvements made, but
+ numerous special cases work better than in prior releases.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- The 8.1 release will remove the <function>to_char()</> function
- for intervals.
+ Improve lookup speed for C functions (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This release uses a hash table to lookup information for dynamically
+ loaded C functions. This improves their speed so they perform nearly as
+ quickly as functions that are built into the server executable.
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The server now warns of empty strings passed to
- <type>oid</type>/<type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> data
- types, but continues to interpret them as zeroes as before.
- In the next major release, empty strings will be considered
- invalid input for these data types.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add type-specific <command>ANALYZE</command> statistics
+ capability (Mark Cave-Ayland)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This feature allows more flexibility in generating statistics
+ for nonstandard data types.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- By default, tables in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.0
- and earlier are created with <type>OID</>s. In the next release,
- this will <emphasis>not</emphasis> be the case: to create a table
- that contains <type>OID</>s, the <option>WITH OIDS</> clause must
- be specified or the <varname>default_with_oids</varname>
- configuration parameter must be set. Users are encouraged to
- explicitly specify <option>WITH OIDS</> if their tables
- require OIDs for compatibility with future releases of
- <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
+ <command>ANALYZE</command> now collects statistics for
+ expression indexes (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Expression indexes (also called functional indexes) allow users to
+ index not just columns but the results of expressions and function
+ calls. With this release, the optimizer can gather and use statistics
+ about the contents of expression indexes. This will greatly improve
+ the quality of planning for queries in which an expression index is
+ relevant.
</para>
</listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New two-stage sampling method for <command>ANALYZE</command>
+ (Manfred Koizar)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This gives better statistics when the density of valid rows is very
+ different in different regions of a table.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Speed up <command>TRUNCATE</command> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This buys back some of the performance loss observed in 7.4, while still
+ keeping <command>TRUNCATE</command> transaction-safe.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
- release 8.0 and the previous major release.
- </para>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <sect3>
- <title>Performance Improvements</title>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Support cross-data-type index usage (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Before this change, many queries would not use an index if the data
- types did not match exactly. This improvement makes index usage more
- intuitive and consistent.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Server Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New buffer replacement strategy that improves caching (Jan)
- </para>
- <para>
- Prior releases used a least-recently-used (LRU) cache to keep
- recently referenced pages in memory. The LRU algorithm
- did not consider the number of times a specific cache entry was
- accessed, so large table scans could force out useful cache pages.
- The new cache algorithm uses four separate lists to track most
- recently used and most frequently used cache pages and dynamically
- optimize their replacement based on the work load. This should
- lead to much more efficient use of the shared buffer cache.
- Administrators who have tested shared buffer sizes in the past
- should retest with this new cache replacement policy.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add WAL file archiving and point-in-time recovery (Simon Riggs)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add subprocess to write dirty buffers periodically to reduce
- checkpoint writes (Jan)
- </para>
- <para>
- In previous releases, the checkpoint process, which runs every few
- minutes, would write all dirty buffers to the operating system's
- buffer cache then flush all dirty operating system buffers to
- disk. This resulted in a periodic spike in disk usage that often
- hurt performance. The new code uses a background writer to trickle
- disk writes at a steady pace so checkpoints have far fewer dirty
- pages to write to disk. Also, the new code does not issue a global
- <function>sync()</> call, but instead <function>fsync()</>s just
- the files written since the last checkpoint. This should improve
- performance and minimize degradation during checkpoints.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add tablespaces so admins can control disk layout (Gavin)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add ability to prolong vacuum to reduce performance impact (Jan)
- </para>
- <para>
- On busy systems, <command>VACUUM</command> performs many I/O
- requests which can hurt performance for other users. This
- release allows you to slow down <command>VACUUM</command> to
- reduce its impact on other users, though this increases the
- total duration of <command>VACUUM</command>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add a built-in log rotation program (Andreas Pflug)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is now possible to log server messages conveniently without
+ relying on either <application>syslog</> or an external log
+ rotation program.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve B-tree index performance for duplicate keys (Dmitry Tkach, Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This improves the way indexes are scanned when many duplicate
- values exist in the index.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add new read-only server configuration parameters to show server
+ compile-time settings: <varname>block_size</>,
+ <varname>integer_datetimes</>, <varname>max_function_args</>,
+ <varname>max_identifier_length</>, <varname>max_index_keys</> (Joe)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use dynamically-generated table size estimates while planning (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Formerly the planner estimated table sizes using the values seen
- by the last <command>VACUUM</command> or <command>ANALYZE</command>,
- both as to physical table size (number of pages) and number of rows.
- Now, the current physical table size is obtained from the kernel,
- and the number of rows is estimated by multiplying the table size
- by the row density (rows per page) seen by the last
- <command>VACUUM</command> or <command>ANALYZE</command>. This should
- produce more reliable estimates in cases where the table size has
- changed significantly since the last housekeeping command.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make quoting of <literal>sameuser</>, <literal>samegroup</>, and
+ <literal>all</> remove special meaning of these terms in
+ <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improved index usage with <literal>OR</> clauses (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows the optimizer to use indexes in statements with many OR
- clauses that would not have been indexed in the past. It can also use
- multi-column indexes where the first column is specified and the second
- column is part of an <literal>OR</> clause.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use clearer IPv6 name <literal>::1/128</> for
+ <literal>localhost</> in default <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve matching of partial index clauses (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- The server is now smarter about using partial indexes in queries
- involving complex <option>WHERE</> clauses.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use CIDR format in <filename>pg_hba.conf</> examples (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve performance of the GEQO optimizer (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- The GEQO optimizer is used to plan queries involving many tables (by
- default, twelve or more). This release speeds up the way queries are
- analyzed to decrease time spent in optimization.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Rename server configuration parameters <varname>SortMem</> and
+ <varname>VacuumMem</> to <varname>work_mem</> and
+ <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> (Old names still supported) (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This change was made to clarify that bulk operations such as index and
+ foreign key creation use <varname>maintenance_work_mem</>, while
+ <varname>work_mem</> is for workspaces used during query execution.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Miscellaneous optimizer improvements
- </para>
- <para>
- There is not room here to list all the minor improvements made, but
- numerous special cases work better than in prior releases.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow logging of session disconnections using server configuration
+ <varname>log_disconnections</> (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Improve lookup speed for C functions (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This release uses a hash table to lookup information for dynamically
- loaded C functions. This improves their speed so they perform nearly as
- quickly as functions that are built into the server executable.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add new server configuration parameter <varname>log_line_prefix</> to
+ allow control of information emitted in each log line (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Available information includes user name, database name, remote IP
+ address, and session start time.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add type-specific <command>ANALYZE</command> statistics
- capability (Mark Cave-Ayland)
- </para>
- <para>
- This feature allows more flexibility in generating statistics
- for nonstandard data types.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove server configuration parameters <varname>log_pid</>,
+ <varname>log_timestamp</>, <varname>log_source_port</>; functionality
+ superseded by <varname>log_line_prefix</> (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <command>ANALYZE</command> now collects statistics for
- expression indexes (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Expression indexes (also called functional indexes) allow users to
- index not just columns but the results of expressions and function
- calls. With this release, the optimizer can gather and use statistics
- about the contents of expression indexes. This will greatly improve
- the quality of planning for queries in which an expression index is
- relevant.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Replace the <varname>virtual_host</> and <varname>tcpip_socket</>
+ parameters with a unified <varname>listen_addresses</> parameter
+ (Andrew, Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <varname>virtual_host</> could only specify a single IP address to
+ listen on. <varname>listen_addresses</> allows multiple addresses
+ to be specified.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New two-stage sampling method for <command>ANALYZE</command>
- (Manfred Koizar)
- </para>
- <para>
- This gives better statistics when the density of valid rows is very
- different in different regions of a table.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Listen on localhost by default, which eliminates the need for the
+ <option>-i</> postmaster switch in many scenarios (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Listening on localhost (<literal>127.0.0.1</>) opens no new
+ security holes but allows configurations like Windows and JDBC,
+ which do not support local sockets, to work without special
+ adjustments.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Speed up <command>TRUNCATE</command> (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This buys back some of the performance loss observed in 7.4, while still
- keeping <command>TRUNCATE</command> transaction-safe.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove <varname>syslog</> server configuration parameter, and add more
+ logical <varname>log_destination</> variable to control log output
+ location (Magnus)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change server configuration parameter <varname>log_statement</> to take
+ values <varname>all</>, <varname>mod</>, <varname>ddl</>, or
+ <varname>none</> to select which queries are logged (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows administrators to log only data definition changes or
+ only data modification statements.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Some logging-related configuration parameters could formerly be adjusted
+ by ordinary users, but only in the <quote>more verbose</> direction.
+ They are now treated more strictly: only superusers can set them.
+ However, a superuser can use <command>ALTER USER</> to provide per-user
+ settings of these values for non-superusers. Also, it is now possible
+ for superusers to set values of superuser-only configuration parameters
+ via <literal>PGOPTIONS</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>Server Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow configuration files to be placed outside the data directory (mlw)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ By default, configuration files are kept in the cluster's top directory.
+ With this addition, configuration files can be placed outside the
+ data directory, easing administration.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add WAL file archiving and point-in-time recovery (Simon Riggs)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Plan prepared queries only when first executed so constants can be
+ used for statistics (Oliver Jowett)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Prepared statements plan queries once and execute them many
+ times. While prepared queries avoid the overhead of re-planning
+ on each use, the quality of the plan suffers from not knowing the exact
+ parameters to be used in the query. In this release, planning of
+ unnamed prepared statements is delayed until the first execution,
+ and the actual parameter values of that execution are used as
+ optimization hints. This allows use of out-of-line parameter passing
+ without incurring a performance penalty.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add tablespaces so admins can control disk layout (Gavin)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <command>DECLARE CURSOR</command> to take parameters
+ (Oliver Jowett)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is now useful to issue <command>DECLARE CURSOR</command> in a
+ <function>Parse</> message with parameters. The parameter values
+ sent at <function>Bind</> time will be substituted into the
+ execution of the cursor's query.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add a built-in log rotation program (Andreas Pflug)
- </para>
- <para>
- It is now possible to log server messages conveniently without
- relying on either <application>syslog</> or an external log
- rotation program.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add new read-only server configuration parameters to show server
- compile-time settings: <varname>block_size</>,
- <varname>integer_datetimes</>, <varname>max_function_args</>,
- <varname>max_identifier_length</>, <varname>max_index_keys</> (Joe)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Make quoting of <literal>sameuser</>, <literal>samegroup</>, and
- <literal>all</> remove special meaning of these terms in
- <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use clearer IPv6 name <literal>::1/128</> for
- <literal>localhost</> in default <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use CIDR format in <filename>pg_hba.conf</> examples (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Rename server configuration parameters <varname>SortMem</> and
- <varname>VacuumMem</> to <varname>work_mem</> and
- <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> (Old names still supported) (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This change was made to clarify that bulk operations such as index and
- foreign key creation use <varname>maintenance_work_mem</>, while
- <varname>work_mem</> is for workspaces used during query execution.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow logging of session disconnections using server configuration
- <varname>log_disconnections</> (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add new server configuration parameter <varname>log_line_prefix</> to
- allow control of information emitted in each log line (Andrew)
- </para>
- <para>
- Available information includes user name, database name, remote IP
- address, and session start time.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Remove server configuration parameters <varname>log_pid</>,
- <varname>log_timestamp</>, <varname>log_source_port</>; functionality
- superseded by <varname>log_line_prefix</> (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Replace the <varname>virtual_host</> and <varname>tcpip_socket</>
- parameters with a unified <varname>listen_addresses</> parameter
- (Andrew, Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- <varname>virtual_host</> could only specify a single IP address to
- listen on. <varname>listen_addresses</> allows multiple addresses
- to be specified.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Listen on localhost by default, which eliminates the need for the
- <option>-i</> postmaster switch in many scenarios (Andrew)
- </para>
- <para>
- Listening on localhost (<literal>127.0.0.1</>) opens no new
- security holes but allows configurations like Windows and JDBC,
- which do not support local sockets, to work without special
- adjustments.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Remove <varname>syslog</> server configuration parameter, and add more
- logical <varname>log_destination</> variable to control log output
- location (Magnus)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Change server configuration parameter <varname>log_statement</> to take
- values <varname>all</>, <varname>mod</>, <varname>ddl</>, or
- <varname>none</> to select which queries are logged (Bruce)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows administrators to log only data definition changes or
- only data modification statements.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Some logging-related configuration parameters could formerly be adjusted
- by ordinary users, but only in the <quote>more verbose</> direction.
- They are now treated more strictly: only superusers can set them.
- However, a superuser can use <command>ALTER USER</> to provide per-user
- settings of these values for non-superusers. Also, it is now possible
- for superusers to set values of superuser-only configuration parameters
- via <literal>PGOPTIONS</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow configuration files to be placed outside the data directory (mlw)
- </para>
- <para>
- By default, configuration files are kept in the cluster's top directory.
- With this addition, configuration files can be placed outside the
- data directory, easing administration.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Plan prepared queries only when first executed so constants can be
- used for statistics (Oliver Jowett)
- </para>
- <para>
- Prepared statements plan queries once and execute them many
- times. While prepared queries avoid the overhead of re-planning
- on each use, the quality of the plan suffers from not knowing the exact
- parameters to be used in the query. In this release, planning of
- unnamed prepared statements is delayed until the first execution,
- and the actual parameter values of that execution are used as
- optimization hints. This allows use of out-of-line parameter passing
- without incurring a performance penalty.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <command>DECLARE CURSOR</command> to take parameters
- (Oliver Jowett)
- </para>
- <para>
- It is now useful to issue <command>DECLARE CURSOR</command> in a
- <function>Parse</> message with parameters. The parameter values
- sent at <function>Bind</> time will be substituted into the
- execution of the cursor's query.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix hash joins and aggregates of <type>inet</type> and
- <type>cidr</type> data types (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Release 7.4 handled hashing of mixed <type>inet</type> and
- <type>cidr</type> values incorrectly. (This bug did not exist
- in prior releases because they wouldn't try to hash either
- data type.)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Make <varname>log_duration</> print only when <varname>log_statement</>
- prints the query (Ed L.)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
-
-
- <sect3>
- <title>Query Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add savepoints (nested transactions) (Alvaro)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Unsupported isolation levels are now accepted and promoted to the
- nearest supported level (Peter)
- </para>
- <para>
- The SQL specification states that if a database doesn't support a
- specific isolation level, it should use the next more restrictive level.
- This change complies with that recommendation.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <command>BEGIN WORK</command> to specify transaction
- isolation levels like <command>START TRANSACTION</command> does
- (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix table permission checking for cases in which rules generate
- a query type different from the originally submitted query (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Implement dollar quoting to simplify single-quote usage (Andrew, Tom,
- David Fetter)
- </para>
- <para>
- In previous releases, because single quotes had to be used to
- quote a function's body, the use of single quotes inside the
- function text required use of two single quotes or other error-prone
- notations. With this release we add the ability to use "dollar
- quoting" to quote a block of text. The ability to use different
- quoting delimiters at different nesting levels greatly simplifies
- the task of quoting correctly, especially in complex functions.
- Dollar quoting can be used anywhere quoted text is needed.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Make <literal>CASE val WHEN compval1 THEN ...</> evaluate <literal>val</> only once (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- <option>CASE</> no longer evaluates the tested expression multiple
- times. This has benefits when the expression is complex or is
- volatile.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Test <option>HAVING</> before computing target list of an
- aggregate query (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Fixes improper failure of cases such as <literal>SELECT SUM(win)/SUM(lose)
- ... GROUP BY ... HAVING SUM(lose) > 0</>. This should work but formerly
- could fail with divide-by-zero.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Replace <varname>max_expr_depth</> parameter with
- <varname>max_stack_depth</> parameter, measured in kilobytes of stack
- size (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This gives us a fairly bulletproof defense against crashing due to
- runaway recursive functions. Instead of measuring the depth of expression
- nesting, we now directly measure the size of the execution stack.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow arbitrary row expressions (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This release allows SQL expressions to contain arbitrary composite
- types, that is, row values. It also allows functions to more easily
- take rows as arguments and return row values.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <option>LIKE</>/<option>ILIKE</> to be used as the operator
- in row and subselect comparisons (Fabien Coelho)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix hash joins and aggregates of <type>inet</type> and
+ <type>cidr</type> data types (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Release 7.4 handled hashing of mixed <type>inet</type> and
+ <type>cidr</type> values incorrectly. (This bug did not exist
+ in prior releases because they wouldn't try to hash either
+ data type.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Avoid locale-specific case conversion of basic ASCII letters in
- identifiers and keywords (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This solves the <quote>Turkish problem</> with mangling of words
- containing <literal>I</> and <literal>i</>. Folding of characters
- outside the 7-bit-ASCII set is still locale-aware.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <varname>log_duration</> print only when <varname>log_statement</>
+ prints the query (Ed L.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve syntax error reporting (Fabien, Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Syntax error reports are more useful than before.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Change <command>EXECUTE</command> to return a completion tag
- matching the executed statement (Kris Jurka)
- </para>
- <para>
- Previous releases return an <command>EXECUTE</command> tag for
- any <command>EXECUTE</command> call. In this release, the tag
- returned will reflect the command executed.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Avoid emitting <option>NATURAL CROSS JOIN</> in rule listings (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Such a clause makes no logical sense, but in some cases the rule
- decompiler formerly produced this syntax.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Query Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add savepoints (nested transactions) (Alvaro)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Unsupported isolation levels are now accepted and promoted to the
+ nearest supported level (Peter)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The SQL specification states that if a database doesn't support a
+ specific isolation level, it should use the next more restrictive level.
+ This change complies with that recommendation.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>Object Manipulation Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <command>BEGIN WORK</command> to specify transaction
+ isolation levels like <command>START TRANSACTION</command> does
+ (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Add <command>COMMENT ON</> for casts, conversions, languages,
- operator classes, and large objects (Christopher)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix table permission checking for cases in which rules generate
+ a query type different from the originally submitted query (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add new server configuration parameter <varname>default_with_oids</> to
- control whether tables are created with <type>OID</>s by default (Neil)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows administrators to control whether <command>CREATE
- TABLE</command> commands create tables with or without <type>OID</>
- columns by default. (Note: the current factory default setting for
- <varname>default_with_oids</> is <literal>TRUE</>, but the default
- will become <literal>FALSE</> in future releases.)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Implement dollar quoting to simplify single-quote usage (Andrew, Tom,
+ David Fetter)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In previous releases, because single quotes had to be used to
+ quote a function's body, the use of single quotes inside the
+ function text required use of two single quotes or other error-prone
+ notations. With this release we add the ability to use "dollar
+ quoting" to quote a block of text. The ability to use different
+ quoting delimiters at different nesting levels greatly simplifies
+ the task of quoting correctly, especially in complex functions.
+ Dollar quoting can be used anywhere quoted text is needed.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <option>WITH</> / <option>WITHOUT OIDS</> clause to
- <command>CREATE TABLE AS</command> (Neil)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <literal>CASE val WHEN compval1 THEN ...</> evaluate <literal>val</> only once (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <option>CASE</> no longer evaluates the tested expression multiple
+ times. This has benefits when the expression is complex or is
+ volatile.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <command>ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN</> to drop an <type>OID</>
- column (<command>ALTER TABLE SET WITHOUT OIDS</> still works)
- (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Test <option>HAVING</> before computing target list of an
+ aggregate query (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Fixes improper failure of cases such as <literal>SELECT SUM(win)/SUM(lose)
+ ... GROUP BY ... HAVING SUM(lose) > 0</>. This should work but formerly
+ could fail with divide-by-zero.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow composite types as table columns (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Replace <varname>max_expr_depth</> parameter with
+ <varname>max_stack_depth</> parameter, measured in kilobytes of stack
+ size (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This gives us a fairly bulletproof defense against crashing due to
+ runaway recursive functions. Instead of measuring the depth of expression
+ nesting, we now directly measure the size of the execution stack.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <command>ALTER ... ADD COLUMN</> with defaults and
- <option>NOT NULL</> constraints; works per SQL spec (Rod)
- </para>
- <para>
- It is now possible for <option>ADD COLUMN</> to create a column
- that is not initially filled with NULLs, but with a specified
- default value.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow arbitrary row expressions (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This release allows SQL expressions to contain arbitrary composite
+ types, that is, row values. It also allows functions to more easily
+ take rows as arguments and return row values.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> to change column's type (Rod)
- </para>
- <para>
- It is now possible to alter a column's data type without dropping
- and re-adding the column.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <option>LIKE</>/<option>ILIKE</> to be used as the operator
+ in row and subselect comparisons (Fabien Coelho)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow multiple <command>ALTER</> actions in a single <command>ALTER
- TABLE</command> command (Rod)
- </para>
- <para>
- This is particularly useful for <command>ALTER</> commands that
- rewrite the table (which include <option>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> and
- <option>ADD COLUMN</> with a default). By grouping
- <command>ALTER</> commands together, the table need be rewritten
- only once.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Avoid locale-specific case conversion of basic ASCII letters in
+ identifiers and keywords (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This solves the <quote>Turkish problem</> with mangling of words
+ containing <literal>I</> and <literal>i</>. Folding of characters
+ outside the 7-bit-ASCII set is still locale-aware.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <command>ALTER TABLE</command> to add <type>SERIAL</type>
- columns (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This falls out from the new capability of specifying defaults for new
- columns.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve syntax error reporting (Fabien, Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Syntax error reports are more useful than before.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow changing the owners of aggregates, conversions, databases,
- functions, operators, operator classes, schemas, types, and tablespaces
- (Christopher, Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
- </para>
- <para>
- Previously this required modifying the system tables directly.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change <command>EXECUTE</command> to return a completion tag
+ matching the executed statement (Kris Jurka)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Previous releases return an <command>EXECUTE</command> tag for
+ any <command>EXECUTE</command> call. In this release, the tag
+ returned will reflect the command executed.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow temporary object creation to be limited to <option>SECURITY
- DEFINER</> functions (Sean Chittenden)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Avoid emitting <option>NATURAL CROSS JOIN</> in rule listings (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Such a clause makes no logical sense, but in some cases the rule
+ decompiler formerly produced this syntax.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <option>ALTER TABLE ... SET WITHOUT CLUSTER</> (Christopher)
- </para>
- <para>
- Prior to this release, there was no way to clear an auto-cluster
- specification except to modify the system tables.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Constraint/Index/<type>SERIAL</> names are now
- <replaceable>table_column_type</>
- with numbers appended to guarantee uniqueness within the schema
- (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- The SQL specification states that such names should be unique
- within a schema.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <function>pg_get_serial_sequence()</> to return a
- <type>SERIAL</> column's sequence name (Christopher)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows automated scripts to reliably find the <type>SERIAL</>
- sequence name.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Object Manipulation Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Warn when primary/foreign key data type mismatch requires costly lookup
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <command>COMMENT ON</> for casts, conversions, languages,
+ operator classes, and large objects (Christopher)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New <command>ALTER INDEX</> command to allow moving of indexes
- between tablespaces (Gavin)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add new server configuration parameter <varname>default_with_oids</> to
+ control whether tables are created with <type>OID</>s by default (Neil)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows administrators to control whether <command>CREATE
+ TABLE</command> commands create tables with or without <type>OID</>
+ columns by default. (Note: the current factory default setting for
+ <varname>default_with_oids</> is <literal>TRUE</>, but the default
+ will become <literal>FALSE</> in future releases.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Make <command>ALTER TABLE OWNER</> change dependent sequence
- ownership too (Alvaro)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>WITH</> / <option>WITHOUT OIDS</> clause to
+ <command>CREATE TABLE AS</command> (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <command>ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN</> to drop an <type>OID</>
+ column (<command>ALTER TABLE SET WITHOUT OIDS</> still works)
+ (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow composite types as table columns (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <command>ALTER ... ADD COLUMN</> with defaults and
+ <option>NOT NULL</> constraints; works per SQL spec (Rod)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is now possible for <option>ADD COLUMN</> to create a column
+ that is not initially filled with NULLs, but with a specified
+ default value.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>Utility Command Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> to change column's type (Rod)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is now possible to alter a column's data type without dropping
+ and re-adding the column.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <command>CREATE SCHEMA</command> to create triggers,
- indexes, and sequences (Neil)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow multiple <command>ALTER</> actions in a single <command>ALTER
+ TABLE</command> command (Rod)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This is particularly useful for <command>ALTER</> commands that
+ rewrite the table (which include <option>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> and
+ <option>ADD COLUMN</> with a default). By grouping
+ <command>ALTER</> commands together, the table need be rewritten
+ only once.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Add <option>ALSO</> keyword to <command>CREATE RULE</command> (Fabien
- Coelho)
- </para>
- This allows <option>ALSO</> to be added to rule creation to contrast it with
- <option>INSTEAD</> rules.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <command>ALTER TABLE</command> to add <type>SERIAL</type>
+ columns (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This falls out from the new capability of specifying defaults for new
+ columns.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <option>NOWAIT</> option to <command>LOCK</command> (Tatsuo)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows the <command>LOCK</command> command to fail if it
- would have to wait for the requested lock.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow changing the owners of aggregates, conversions, databases,
+ functions, operators, operator classes, schemas, types, and tablespaces
+ (Christopher, Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Previously this required modifying the system tables directly.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Allow <command>COPY</command> to read and write
- comma-separated-value (CSV) files (Andrew, Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow temporary object creation to be limited to <option>SECURITY
+ DEFINER</> functions (Sean Chittenden)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Generate error if the <command>COPY</command> delimiter and NULL
- string conflict (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>ALTER TABLE ... SET WITHOUT CLUSTER</> (Christopher)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Prior to this release, there was no way to clear an auto-cluster
+ specification except to modify the system tables.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <command>GRANT</command>/<command>REVOKE</command> behavior
- follows the SQL spec more closely
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Constraint/Index/<type>SERIAL</> names are now
+ <replaceable>table_column_type</>
+ with numbers appended to guarantee uniqueness within the schema
+ (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The SQL specification states that such names should be unique
+ within a schema.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Avoid locking conflict between <command>CREATE INDEX</command>
- and <command>CHECKPOINT</command> (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- In 7.3 and 7.4, a long-running B-tree index build could block concurrent
- <command>CHECKPOINT</>s from completing, thereby causing WAL bloat because the
- WAL log could not be recycled.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <function>pg_get_serial_sequence()</> to return a
+ <type>SERIAL</> column's sequence name (Christopher)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows automated scripts to reliably find the <type>SERIAL</>
+ sequence name.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Database-wide <command>ANALYZE</command> does not hold locks
- across tables (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This reduces the potential for deadlocks against other backends
- that want exclusive locks on tables. To get the benefit of this
- change, do not execute database-wide <command>ANALYZE</command>
- inside a transaction block (<command>BEGIN</command> block); it
- must be able to commit and start a new transaction for each
- table.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Warn when primary/foreign key data type mismatch requires costly lookup
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <command>REINDEX</command> does not exclusively lock the index's
- parent table anymore
- </para>
- <para>
- The index itself is still exclusively locked, but readers of the
- table can continue if they are not using the particular index
- being rebuilt.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <command>ALTER INDEX</> command to allow moving of indexes
+ between tablespaces (Gavin)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Erase MD5 user passwords when a user is renamed (Bruce)
- </para>
- <para>
- <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> uses the user name as salt
- when encrypting passwords via MD5. When a user's name is changed,
- the salt will no longer match the stored MD5 password, so the
- stored password becomes useless. In this release a notice is
- generated and the password is cleared. A new password must then
- be assigned if the user is to be able to log in with a password.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <command>ALTER TABLE OWNER</> change dependent sequence
+ ownership too (Alvaro)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New <application>pg_ctl</> <option>kill</> option for Windows (Andrew)
- </para>
- <para>
- Windows does not have a <literal>kill</> command to send signals to
- backends so this capability was added to <application>pg_ctl</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Information schema improvements
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <option>--pwfile</> option to
- <application>initdb</application> so the initial password can be
- set by GUI tools (Magnus)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Detect locale/encoding mismatch in
- <application>initdb</application> (Peter)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Utility Command Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <command>CREATE SCHEMA</command> to create triggers,
+ indexes, and sequences (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <option>register</> command to <application>pg_ctl</> to
- register Windows operating system service (Dave Page)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>ALSO</> keyword to <command>CREATE RULE</command> (Fabien
+ Coelho)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows <option>ALSO</> to be added to rule creation to contrast it with
+ <option>INSTEAD</> rules.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>NOWAIT</> option to <command>LOCK</command> (Tatsuo)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows the <command>LOCK</command> command to fail if it
+ would have to wait for the requested lock.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <command>COPY</command> to read and write
+ comma-separated-value (CSV) files (Andrew, Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>Data Type and Function Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Generate error if the <command>COPY</command> delimiter and NULL
+ string conflict (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- More complete support for composite types (row types) (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Composite values can be used in many places where only scalar values
- worked before.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <command>GRANT</command>/<command>REVOKE</command> behavior
+ follows the SQL spec more closely
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Reject nonrectangular array values as erroneous (Joe)
- </para>
- <para>
- Formerly, <function>array_in</> would silently build a
- surprising result.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Avoid locking conflict between <command>CREATE INDEX</command>
+ and <command>CHECKPOINT</command> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In 7.3 and 7.4, a long-running B-tree index build could block concurrent
+ <command>CHECKPOINT</>s from completing, thereby causing WAL bloat because the
+ WAL log could not be recycled.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Overflow in integer arithmetic operations is now detected (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The arithmetic operators associated with the single-byte
- <type>"char"</> data type have been removed.
- </para>
- <para>
- Formerly, the parser would select these operators in many situations
- where an <quote>unable to select an operator</> error would be more
- appropriate, such as <literal>null * null</>. If you actually want
- to do arithmetic on a <type>"char"</> column, you can cast it to
- integer explicitly.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Database-wide <command>ANALYZE</command> does not hold locks
+ across tables (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This reduces the potential for deadlocks against other backends
+ that want exclusive locks on tables. To get the benefit of this
+ change, do not execute database-wide <command>ANALYZE</command>
+ inside a transaction block (<command>BEGIN</command> block); it
+ must be able to commit and start a new transaction for each
+ table.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Syntax checking of array input values considerably tightened up (Joe)
- </para>
- <para>
- Junk that was previously allowed in odd places with odd results
- now causes an <literal>ERROR</>, for example, non-whitespace
- after the closing right brace.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <command>REINDEX</command> does not exclusively lock the index's
+ parent table anymore
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The index itself is still exclusively locked, but readers of the
+ table can continue if they are not using the particular index
+ being rebuilt.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Empty-string array element values must now be written as
- <literal>""</>, rather than writing nothing (Joe)
- </para>
- <para>
- Formerly, both ways of writing an empty-string element value were
- allowed, but now a quoted empty string is required. The case where
- nothing at all appears will probably be considered to be a NULL
- element value in some future release.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Erase MD5 user passwords when a user is renamed (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> uses the user name as salt
+ when encrypting passwords via MD5. When a user's name is changed,
+ the salt will no longer match the stored MD5 password, so the
+ stored password becomes useless. In this release a notice is
+ generated and the password is cleared. A new password must then
+ be assigned if the user is to be able to log in with a password.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Array element trailing whitespace is now ignored (Joe)
- </para>
- <para>
- Formerly leading whitespace was ignored, but trailing whitespace
- between an element value and the delimiter or right brace was
- significant. Now trailing whitespace is also ignored.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <application>pg_ctl</> <option>kill</> option for Windows (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Windows does not have a <literal>kill</> command to send signals to
+ backends so this capability was added to <application>pg_ctl</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Emit array values with explicit array bounds when lower bound is not one
- (Joe)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Information schema improvements
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Accept <literal>YYYY-monthname-DD</> as a date string (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>--pwfile</> option to
+ <application>initdb</application> so the initial password can be
+ set by GUI tools (Magnus)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Make <function>netmask</> and <function>hostmask</> functions
- return maximum-length mask length (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Detect locale/encoding mismatch in
+ <application>initdb</application> (Peter)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Change factorial function to return <type>numeric</type> (Gavin)
- </para>
- <para>
- Returning <type>numeric</type> allows the factorial function to
- work for a wider range of input values.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>register</> command to <application>pg_ctl</> to
+ register Windows operating system service (Dave Page)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <function>to_char</>/<function>to_date()</> date conversion
- improvements (Kurt Roeckx, Fabien Coelho)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Make <function>length()</> disregard trailing spaces in
- <type>CHAR(n)</> (Gavin)
- </para>
- <para>
- This change was made to improve consistency: trailing spaces are
- semantically insignificant in <type>CHAR(n)</> data, so they
- should not be counted by <function>length()</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Warn about empty string being passed to
- <type>OID</>/<type>float4</>/<type>float8</> data types (Neil)
- </para>
- <para>
- 8.1 will throw an error instead.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Data Type and Function Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow leading or trailing whitespace in
- <type>int2</>/<type>int4</>/<type>int8</>/<type>float4</>/<type>float8</>
- input routines
- (Neil)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ More complete support for composite types (row types) (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Composite values can be used in many places where only scalar values
+ worked before.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Better support for IEEE <literal>Infinity</> and <literal>NaN</>
- values in <type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> (Neil)
- </para>
- <para>
- These should now work on all platforms that support IEEE-compliant
- floating point arithmetic.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Reject nonrectangular array values as erroneous (Joe)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Formerly, <function>array_in</> would silently build a
+ surprising result.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Add <option>week</> option to <function>date_trunc()</> (Robert Creager)
+ Overflow in integer arithmetic operations is now detected (Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix <function>to_char</function> for <literal>1 BC</>
- (previously it returned <literal>1 AD</>) (Bruce)
+ The arithmetic operators associated with the single-byte
+ <type>"char"</> data type have been removed.
</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
<para>
- Fix <function>date_part(year)</> for BC dates (previously it
- returned one less than the correct year) (Bruce)
+ Formerly, the parser would select these operators in many situations
+ where an <quote>unable to select an operator</> error would be more
+ appropriate, such as <literal>null * null</>. If you actually want
+ to do arithmetic on a <type>"char"</> column, you can cast it to
+ integer explicitly.
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Fix <function>date_part()</> to return the proper millennium and
- century (Fabien Coelho)
+ Syntax checking of array input values considerably tightened up (Joe)
</para>
- In previous versions, the century and millennium results had a wrong
- number and started in the wrong year, as compared to standard
- reckoning of such things.
+ <para>
+ Junk that was previously allowed in odd places with odd results
+ now causes an <literal>ERROR</>, for example, non-whitespace
+ after the closing right brace.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Add <function>ceiling()</> as an alias for <function>ceil()</>,
- and <function>power()</> as an alias for <function>pow()</> for
- standards compliance (Neil)
+ Empty-string array element values must now be written as
+ <literal>""</>, rather than writing nothing (Joe)
</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Change <function>ln()</>, <function>log()</>,
- <function>power()</>, and <function>sqrt()</> to emit the correct
- <literal>SQLSTATE</> error codes for certain error conditions, as
- specified by SQL:2003 (Neil)
+ <para>
+ Formerly, both ways of writing an empty-string element value were
+ allowed, but now a quoted empty string is required. The case where
+ nothing at all appears will probably be considered to be a NULL
+ element value in some future release.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Add <function>width_bucket()</> function as defined by SQL:2003 (Neil)
+ Array element trailing whitespace is now ignored (Joe)
</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <function>generate_series()</> functions to simplify working
- with numeric sets (Joe)
+ <para>
+ Formerly leading whitespace was ignored, but trailing whitespace
+ between an element value and the delimiter or right brace was
+ significant. Now trailing whitespace is also ignored.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Fix <function>upper/lower/initcap()</> functions to work with
- multibyte encodings (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Emit array values with explicit array bounds when lower bound is not one
+ (Joe)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add boolean and bitwise integer <option>AND</>/<option>OR</>
- aggregates (Fabien Coelho)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Accept <literal>YYYY-monthname-DD</> as a date string (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- New session information functions to return network addresses for client
- and server (Sean Chittenden)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <function>netmask</> and <function>hostmask</> functions
+ return maximum-length mask length (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add function to determine the area of a closed path (Sean Chittenden)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change factorial function to return <type>numeric</type> (Gavin)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Returning <type>numeric</type> allows the factorial function to
+ work for a wider range of input values.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add function to send cancel request to other backends (Magnus)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <function>to_char</>/<function>to_date()</> date conversion
+ improvements (Kurt Roeckx, Fabien Coelho)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <type>interval</> plus <type>datetime</> operators (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- The reverse ordering, <type>datetime</> plus <type>interval</>,
- was already supported, but both are required by the SQL standard.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <function>length()</> disregard trailing spaces in
+ <type>CHAR(n)</> (Gavin)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This change was made to improve consistency: trailing spaces are
+ semantically insignificant in <type>CHAR(n)</> data, so they
+ should not be counted by <function>length()</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Casting an integer to <type>BIT(N)</> selects the rightmost N bits
- of the integer
- (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- In prior releases, the leftmost N bits were selected, but this was
- deemed unhelpful, not to mention inconsistent with casting from bit
- to int.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Warn about empty string being passed to
+ <type>OID</>/<type>float4</>/<type>float8</> data types (Neil)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ 8.1 will throw an error instead.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Require <type>CIDR</> values to have all nonmasked bits be zero
- (Kevin Brintnall)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow leading or trailing whitespace in
+ <type>int2</>/<type>int4</>/<type>int8</>/<type>float4</>/<type>float8</>
+ input routines
+ (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Better support for IEEE <literal>Infinity</> and <literal>NaN</>
+ values in <type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> (Neil)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ These should now work on all platforms that support IEEE-compliant
+ floating point arithmetic.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>week</> option to <function>date_trunc()</> (Robert Creager)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>Server-Side Language Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix <function>to_char</function> for <literal>1 BC</>
+ (previously it returned <literal>1 AD</>) (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In <literal>READ COMMITTED</> serialization mode, volatile functions
- now see the results of concurrent transactions committed up to the
- beginning of each statement within the function, rather than up to the
- beginning of the interactive command that called the function.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix <function>date_part(year)</> for BC dates (previously it
+ returned one less than the correct year) (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Functions declared <literal>STABLE</> or <literal>IMMUTABLE</> always
- use the snapshot of the calling query, and therefore do not see the
- effects of actions taken after the calling query starts, whether in
- their own transaction or other transactions. Such a function must be
- read-only, too, meaning that it cannot use any SQL commands other than
- <command>SELECT</>. There is a considerable performance gain from
- declaring a function <literal>STABLE</> or <literal>IMMUTABLE</>
- rather than <literal>VOLATILE</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix <function>date_part()</> to return the proper millennium and
+ century (Fabien Coelho)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In previous versions, the century and millennium results had a wrong
+ number and started in the wrong year, as compared to standard
+ reckoning of such things.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Nondeferred <option>AFTER</> triggers are now fired immediately
- after completion of the triggering query, rather than upon
- finishing the current interactive command. This makes a difference
- when the triggering query occurred within a function: the trigger
- is invoked before the function proceeds to its next operation. For
- example, if a function inserts a new row into a table, any
- nondeferred foreign key checks occur before proceeding with the
- function.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <function>ceiling()</> as an alias for <function>ceil()</>,
+ and <function>power()</> as an alias for <function>pow()</> for
+ standards compliance (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow function parameters to be declared with names (Dennis Björklund)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows better documentation of functions. Whether the names
- actually do anything depends on the specific function language
- being used.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change <function>ln()</>, <function>log()</>,
+ <function>power()</>, and <function>sqrt()</> to emit the correct
+ <literal>SQLSTATE</> error codes for certain error conditions, as
+ specified by SQL:2003 (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow PL/pgSQL parameter names to be referenced in the function (Dennis Björklund)
- </para>
- <para>
- This basically creates an automatic alias for each named parameter.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <function>width_bucket()</> function as defined by SQL:2003 (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Do minimal syntax checking of PL/pgSQL functions at creation time (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows us to catch simple syntax errors sooner.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <function>generate_series()</> functions to simplify working
+ with numeric sets (Joe)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- More support for composite types (row and record variables) in PL/pgSQL
- </para>
- <para>
- For example, it now works to pass a rowtype variable to another function
- as a single variable.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix <function>upper/lower/initcap()</> functions to work with
+ multibyte encodings (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Default values for PL/pgSQL variables can now reference previously
- declared variables
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add boolean and bitwise integer <option>AND</>/<option>OR</>
+ aggregates (Fabien Coelho)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve parsing of PL/pgSQL FOR loops (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- Parsing is now driven by presence of <literal>".."</> rather than
- data type of <option>FOR</> variable. This makes no difference for
- correct functions, but should result in more understandable error
- messages when a mistake is made.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New session information functions to return network addresses for client
+ and server (Sean Chittenden)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Major overhaul of PL/Perl server-side language (Command Prompt, Andrew Dunstan)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add function to determine the area of a closed path (Sean Chittenden)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In PL/Tcl, SPI commands are now run in subtransactions. If an error
- occurs, the subtransaction is cleaned up and the error is reported
- as an ordinary Tcl error, which can be trapped with <literal>catch</>.
- Formerly, it was not possible to catch such errors.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add function to send cancel request to other backends (Magnus)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Accept <command>ELSEIF</> in PL/pgSQL (Neil)
- </para>
- Previously PL/pgSQL only allowed <command>ELSIF</>, but many people
- are accustomed to spelling this keyword <command>ELSEIF</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <type>interval</> plus <type>datetime</> operators (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The reverse ordering, <type>datetime</> plus <type>interval</>,
+ was already supported, but both are required by the SQL standard.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Casting an integer to <type>BIT(N)</> selects the rightmost N bits
+ of the integer
+ (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, the leftmost N bits were selected, but this was
+ deemed unhelpful, not to mention inconsistent with casting from bit
+ to int.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Require <type>CIDR</> values to have all nonmasked bits be zero
+ (Kevin Brintnall)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title><application>psql</> Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve <application>psql</> information display about database
- objects (Christopher)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <application>psql</> to display group membership in
- <command>\du</> and <command>\dg</> (Markus Bertheau)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Server-Side Language Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Prevent <application>psql</> <command>\dn</command> from showing
- temporary schemas (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In <literal>READ COMMITTED</> serialization mode, volatile functions
+ now see the results of concurrent transactions committed up to the
+ beginning of each statement within the function, rather than up to the
+ beginning of the interactive command that called the function.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <application>psql</> to handle tilde user expansion for file
- names (Zach Irmen)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Functions declared <literal>STABLE</> or <literal>IMMUTABLE</> always
+ use the snapshot of the calling query, and therefore do not see the
+ effects of actions taken after the calling query starts, whether in
+ their own transaction or other transactions. Such a function must be
+ read-only, too, meaning that it cannot use any SQL commands other than
+ <command>SELECT</>. There is a considerable performance gain from
+ declaring a function <literal>STABLE</> or <literal>IMMUTABLE</>
+ rather than <literal>VOLATILE</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <application>psql</> to display fancy prompts, including
- color, via <application>readline</> (Reece Hart, Chet Ramey)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Nondeferred <option>AFTER</> triggers are now fired immediately
+ after completion of the triggering query, rather than upon
+ finishing the current interactive command. This makes a difference
+ when the triggering query occurred within a function: the trigger
+ is invoked before the function proceeds to its next operation. For
+ example, if a function inserts a new row into a table, any
+ nondeferred foreign key checks occur before proceeding with the
+ function.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Make <application>psql</> <command>\copy</> match <command>COPY</command> command syntax
- fully (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow function parameters to be declared with names (Dennis Björklund)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows better documentation of functions. Whether the names
+ actually do anything depends on the specific function language
+ being used.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Show the location of syntax errors (Fabien Coelho, Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow PL/pgSQL parameter names to be referenced in the function (Dennis Björklund)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This basically creates an automatic alias for each named parameter.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <command>CLUSTER</command> information to <application>psql</>
- <command>\d</> display
- (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Do minimal syntax checking of PL/pgSQL functions at creation time (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows us to catch simple syntax errors sooner.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Change <application>psql</> <command>\copy stdin/stdout</> to read
- from command input/output (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ More support for composite types (row and record variables) in PL/pgSQL
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For example, it now works to pass a rowtype variable to another function
+ as a single variable.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <option>pstdin</>/<option>pstdout</> to read from
- <application>psql</>'s <literal>stdin</>/<literal>stdout</> (Mark
- Feit)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Default values for PL/pgSQL variables can now reference previously
+ declared variables
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add global <application>psql</> configuration file, <filename>psqlrc.sample</filename>
- (Bruce)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows a central file where global <application>psql</> startup commands can
- be stored.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve parsing of PL/pgSQL FOR loops (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Parsing is now driven by presence of <literal>".."</> rather than
+ data type of <option>FOR</> variable. This makes no difference for
+ correct functions, but should result in more understandable error
+ messages when a mistake is made.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Have <application>psql</> <command>\d+</> indicate if the table
- has an <type>OID</> column (Neil)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Major overhaul of PL/Perl server-side language (Command Prompt, Andrew Dunstan)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- On Windows, use binary mode in <application>psql</> when reading files so control-Z
- is not seen as end-of-file
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In PL/Tcl, SPI commands are now run in subtransactions. If an error
+ occurs, the subtransaction is cleaned up and the error is reported
+ as an ordinary Tcl error, which can be trapped with <literal>catch</>.
+ Formerly, it was not possible to catch such errors.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Have <command>\dn+</> show permissions and description for schemas (Dennis
- Björklund)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Accept <command>ELSEIF</> in PL/pgSQL (Neil)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Previously PL/pgSQL only allowed <command>ELSIF</>, but many people
+ are accustomed to spelling this keyword <command>ELSEIF</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve tab completion support (Stefan Kaltenbrunn, Greg Sabino Mullane)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow boolean settings to be set using upper or lower case (Michael Paesold)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <sect3>
+ <title><application>psql</> Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve <application>psql</> information display about database
+ objects (Christopher)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title><application>pg_dump</> Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <application>psql</> to display group membership in
+ <command>\du</> and <command>\dg</> (Markus Bertheau)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use dependency information to improve the reliability of
- <application>pg_dump</> (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This should solve the longstanding problems with related objects
- sometimes being dumped in the wrong order.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Prevent <application>psql</> <command>\dn</command> from showing
+ temporary schemas (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Have <application>pg_dump</> output objects in alphabetical order if possible (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This should make it easier to identify changes between
- dump files.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <application>psql</> to handle tilde user expansion for file
+ names (Zach Irmen)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <application>pg_restore</> to ignore some SQL errors (Fabien Coelho)
- </para>
- <para>
- This makes <application>pg_restore</>'s behavior similar to the
- results of feeding a <application>pg_dump</> output script to
- <application>psql</>. In most cases, ignoring errors and plowing
- ahead is the most useful thing to do. Also added was a pg_restore
- option to give the old behavior of exiting on an error.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <application>psql</> to display fancy prompts, including
+ color, via <application>readline</> (Reece Hart, Chet Ramey)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <application>pg_restore</> <option>-l</> display now includes
- objects' schema names
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <application>psql</> <command>\copy</> match <command>COPY</command> command syntax
+ fully (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- New begin/end markers in <application>pg_dump</> text output (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Show the location of syntax errors (Fabien Coelho, Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Add start/stop times for
- <application>pg_dump</>/<application>pg_dumpall</> in verbose mode
- (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <command>CLUSTER</command> information to <application>psql</>
+ <command>\d</> display
+ (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Allow most <application>pg_dump</> options in
- <application>pg_dumpall</> (Christopher)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change <application>psql</> <command>\copy stdin/stdout</> to read
+ from command input/output (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Have <application>pg_dump</> use <command>ALTER OWNER</> rather
- than <command>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> by default
- (Christopher)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>pstdin</>/<option>pstdout</> to read from
+ <application>psql</>'s <literal>stdin</>/<literal>stdout</> (Mark
+ Feit)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add global <application>psql</> configuration file, <filename>psqlrc.sample</filename>
+ (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows a central file where global <application>psql</> startup commands can
+ be stored.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Have <application>psql</> <command>\d+</> indicate if the table
+ has an <type>OID</> column (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>libpq Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ On Windows, use binary mode in <application>psql</> when reading files so control-Z
+ is not seen as end-of-file
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Make libpq's <option>SIGPIPE</> handling thread-safe (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Have <command>\dn+</> show permissions and description for schemas (Dennis
+ Björklund)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <function>PQmbdsplen()</> which returns the display length
- of a character (Tatsuo)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve tab completion support (Stefan Kaltenbrunn, Greg Sabino Mullane)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add thread locking to <application>SSL</> and
- <application>Kerberos</> connections (Manfred Spraul)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow boolean settings to be set using upper or lower case (Michael Paesold)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <function>PQoidValue()</>, <function>PQcmdTuples()</>, and
- <function>PQoidStatus()</> to work on <command>EXECUTE</command>
- commands (Neil)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <function>PQserverVersion()</> to provide more convenient
- access to the server version number (Greg Sabino Mullane)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <function>PQprepare/PQsendPrepared()</> functions to support
- preparing statements without necessarily specifying the data types
- of their parameters (Abhijit Menon-Sen)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title><application>pg_dump</> Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Many ECPG improvements, including <command>SET DESCRIPTOR</> (Michael)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use dependency information to improve the reliability of
+ <application>pg_dump</> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This should solve the longstanding problems with related objects
+ sometimes being dumped in the wrong order.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Have <application>pg_dump</> output objects in alphabetical order if possible (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This should make it easier to identify changes between
+ dump files.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <application>pg_restore</> to ignore some SQL errors (Fabien Coelho)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This makes <application>pg_restore</>'s behavior similar to the
+ results of feeding a <application>pg_dump</> output script to
+ <application>psql</>. In most cases, ignoring errors and plowing
+ ahead is the most useful thing to do. Also added was a pg_restore
+ option to give the old behavior of exiting on an error.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>Source Code Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <application>pg_restore</> <option>-l</> display now includes
+ objects' schema names
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Allow the database server to run natively on Windows (Claudio, Magnus, Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New begin/end markers in <application>pg_dump</> text output (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Shell script commands converted to C versions for Windows support (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add start/stop times for
+ <application>pg_dump</>/<application>pg_dumpall</> in verbose mode
+ (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Create an extension makefile framework (Fabien Coelho, Peter)
- </para>
- <para>
- This simplifies the task of building extensions outside the original
- source tree.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow most <application>pg_dump</> options in
+ <application>pg_dumpall</> (Christopher)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Support relocatable installations (Bruce)
- </para>
- <para>
- Directory paths for installed files (such as the
- <filename>/share</> directory) are now computed relative to the
- actual location of the executables, so that an installation tree
- can be moved to another place without reconfiguring and
- rebuilding.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Have <application>pg_dump</> use <command>ALTER OWNER</> rather
+ than <command>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> by default
+ (Christopher)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use <option>--with-docdir</> to choose installation location of documentation; also
- allow <option>--infodir</> (Peter)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add <option>--without-docdir</> to prevent installation of documentation (Peter)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Upgrade to <application>DocBook</> V4.2 SGML (Peter)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>libpq Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New <literal>PostgreSQL</> <application>CVS</> tag (Marc)
- </para>
- <para>
- This was done to make it easier for organizations to manage their
- own copies of the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
- <application>CVS</> repository. File version stamps from the master
- repository will not get munged by checking into or out of a copied
- repository.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make libpq's <option>SIGPIPE</> handling thread-safe (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Clarify locking code (Manfred Koizar)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <function>PQmbdsplen()</> which returns the display length
+ of a character (Tatsuo)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add thread locking to <application>SSL</> and
+ <application>Kerberos</> connections (Manfred Spraul)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Buffer manager cleanup (Neil)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <function>PQoidValue()</>, <function>PQcmdTuples()</>, and
+ <function>PQoidStatus()</> to work on <command>EXECUTE</command>
+ commands (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Decouple platform tests from CPU spinlock code (Bruce, Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <function>PQserverVersion()</> to provide more convenient
+ access to the server version number (Greg Sabino Mullane)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add inlined test-and-set code on PA-RISC for <application>gcc</>
- (ViSolve, Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <function>PQprepare/PQsendPrepared()</> functions to support
+ preparing statements without necessarily specifying the data types
+ of their parameters (Abhijit Menon-Sen)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Improve i386 spinlock code (Manfred Spraul)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Many ECPG improvements, including <command>SET DESCRIPTOR</> (Michael)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Clean up spinlock assembly code to avoid warnings from newer
- <application>gcc</> releases (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Remove JDBC from source tree; now a separate project
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Remove the libpgtcl client interface; now a separate project
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Source Code Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- More accurately estimate memory and file descriptor usage (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow the database server to run natively on Windows (Claudio, Magnus, Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Improvements to the Mac OS X startup scripts (Ray A.)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Shell script commands converted to C versions for Windows support (Andrew)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New <function>fsync()</> test program (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Create an extension makefile framework (Fabien Coelho, Peter)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This simplifies the task of building extensions outside the original
+ source tree.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Major documentation improvements (Neil, Peter)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Support relocatable installations (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Directory paths for installed files (such as the
+ <filename>/share</> directory) are now computed relative to the
+ actual location of the executables, so that an installation tree
+ can be moved to another place without reconfiguring and
+ rebuilding.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Remove <application>pg_encoding</application>; not needed
- anymore
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use <option>--with-docdir</> to choose installation location of documentation; also
+ allow <option>--infodir</> (Peter)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Remove <application>pg_id</application>; not needed anymore
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add <option>--without-docdir</> to prevent installation of documentation (Peter)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Remove <application>initlocation</application>; not needed
- anymore
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Upgrade to <application>DocBook</> V4.2 SGML (Peter)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Auto-detect thread flags (no more manual testing) (Bruce)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <literal>PostgreSQL</> <application>CVS</> tag (Marc)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This was done to make it easier for organizations to manage their
+ own copies of the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
+ <application>CVS</> repository. File version stamps from the master
+ repository will not get munged by checking into or out of a copied
+ repository.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Use Olson's public domain <application>timezone</> library (Magnus)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Clarify locking code (Manfred Koizar)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- With threading enabled, use thread flags on Unixware for
- backend executables too (Bruce)
- </para>
- <para>
- Unixware cannot mix threaded and nonthreaded object files in the
- same executable, so everything must be compiled as threaded.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Buffer manager cleanup (Neil)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <application>psql</> now uses a <application>flex</>-generated
- lexical analyzer to process command strings
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Decouple platform tests from CPU spinlock code (Bruce, Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Reimplement the linked list data structure used throughout the
- backend (Neil)
- </para>
- <para>
- This improves performance by allowing list append and length
- operations to be more efficient.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add inlined test-and-set code on PA-RISC for <application>gcc</>
+ (ViSolve, Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow dynamically loaded modules to create their own server configuration
- parameters (Thomas Hallgren)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve i386 spinlock code (Manfred Spraul)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New Brazilian version of FAQ (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Clean up spinlock assembly code to avoid warnings from newer
+ <application>gcc</> releases (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Add French FAQ (Guillaume Lelarge)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove JDBC from source tree; now a separate project
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- New <application>pgevent</> for Windows logging
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove the libpgtcl client interface; now a separate project
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Make libpq and ECPG build as proper shared libraries on OS X (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ More accurately estimate memory and file descriptor usage (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improvements to the Mac OS X startup scripts (Ray A.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <function>fsync()</> test program (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect3>
- <title>Contrib Changes</title>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Major documentation improvements (Neil, Peter)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Overhaul of <filename>contrib/dblink</> (Joe)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove <application>pg_encoding</application>; not needed
+ anymore
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <filename>contrib/dbmirror</> improvements (Steven Singer)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove <application>pg_id</application>; not needed anymore
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New <filename>contrib/xml2</> (John Gray, Torchbox)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove <application>initlocation</application>; not needed
+ anymore
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Updated <filename>contrib/mysql</filename>
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Auto-detect thread flags (no more manual testing) (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- New version of <filename>contrib/btree_gist</> (Teodor)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use Olson's public domain <application>timezone</> library (Magnus)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New <filename>contrib/trgm</>, trigram matching for
- <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> (Teodor)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ With threading enabled, use thread flags on Unixware for
+ backend executables too (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Unixware cannot mix threaded and nonthreaded object files in the
+ same executable, so everything must be compiled as threaded.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Many <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> improvements (Teodor)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <application>psql</> now uses a <application>flex</>-generated
+ lexical analyzer to process command strings
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add double metaphone to <filename>contrib/fuzzystrmatch</> (Andrew)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Reimplement the linked list data structure used throughout the
+ backend (Neil)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This improves performance by allowing list append and length
+ operations to be more efficient.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <filename>contrib/pg_autovacuum</> to run as a Windows service (Dave Page)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow dynamically loaded modules to create their own server configuration
+ parameters (Thomas Hallgren)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Add functions to <filename>contrib/dbsize</> (Andreas Pflug)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New Brazilian version of FAQ (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Removed <filename>contrib/pg_logger</>: obsoleted by integrated logging
- subprocess
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add French FAQ (Guillaume Lelarge)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Removed <filename>contrib/rserv</>: obsoleted by various separate projects
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <application>pgevent</> for Windows logging
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make libpq and ECPG build as proper shared libraries on OS X (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-18">
- <title>Release 7.4.18</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
- </note>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Contrib Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <para>
- This release contains fixes from 7.4.17.
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Overhaul of <filename>contrib/dblink</> (Joe)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.18</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <filename>contrib/dbmirror</> improvements (Steven Singer)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
- notes for 7.4.11.
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <filename>contrib/xml2</> (John Gray, Torchbox)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </sect2>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Updated <filename>contrib/mysql</filename>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New version of <filename>contrib/btree_gist</> (Teodor)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <filename>contrib/trgm</>, trigram matching for
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> (Teodor)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
- then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
- on the same table (Tom)
+ Many <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> improvements (Teodor)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
+ Add double metaphone to <filename>contrib/fuzzystrmatch</> (Andrew)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
+ Allow <filename>contrib/pg_autovacuum</> to run as a Windows service (Dave Page)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
- of memory (Tom)
+ Add functions to <filename>contrib/dbsize</> (Andreas Pflug)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Prevent <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
- due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
+ Removed <filename>contrib/pg_logger</>: obsoleted by integrated logging
+ subprocess
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
- password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
+ Removed <filename>contrib/rserv</>: obsoleted by various separate projects
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-17">
- <title>Release 7.4.17</title>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
- </note>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-19">
+ <title>Release 7.4.19</title>
+
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.18,
+ including fixes for significant security issues.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.19</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of
+ the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom)
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Functions used in index expressions and partial-index
+ predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has
+ long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code
+ execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user.
+ (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the
+ same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger
+ because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations
+ such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed
+ automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user
+ can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a
+ trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum.
+ The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations
+ (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>,
+ and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than
+ the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already
+ used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing
+ this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION
+ AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a
+ <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Repair assorted bugs in the regular-expression package (Tom, Will Drewry)
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Suitably crafted regular-expression patterns could cause crashes,
+ infinite or near-infinite looping, and/or massive memory consumption,
+ all of which pose denial-of-service hazards for applications that
+ accept regex search patterns from untrustworthy sources.
+ (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
+ password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The fix that appeared for this in 7.4.18 was incomplete, as it plugged
+ the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601,
+ CVE-2007-3278)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix planner failure in some cases of <literal>WHERE false AND var IN
+ (SELECT ...)</> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte
+ database encoding (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix PL/Python to not crash on long exception messages (Alvaro)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <application>ecpg</> parser fixes (Michael)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle
+ NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix <type>tsvector</> and <type>tsquery</> output routines to
+ escape backslashes correctly (Teodor, Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix crash of <function>to_tsvector()</> on huge input strings (Teodor)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used
+ when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter)
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made
+ to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of
+ <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions.
+ You can remove the version check if you really want to use a
+ different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's
+ your responsibility whether the result works or not.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-18">
+ <title>Release 7.4.18</title>
+
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains fixes from 7.4.17.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.18</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
+ </para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
+ then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
+ on the same table (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
+ of memory (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Prevent <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
+ due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
+ password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-17">
+ <title>Release 7.4.17</title>
+
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains fixes from 7.4.16,
+ including a security fix.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.17</title>
<para>
- This release contains fixes from 7.4.16,
- including a security fix.
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
</para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.17</title>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
- notes for 7.4.11.
+ Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
+ <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
+ and operators (Tom)
</para>
+ <para>
+ This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
+ truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
+ an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
+ with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
+ See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
+ <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
- <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
- and operators (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
- truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
- an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
- with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
- See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 7.4.15)
+ (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
- <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 7.4.15)
- (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-16">
+ <title>Release 7.4.16</title>
- </itemizedlist>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
+ </note>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-16">
- <title>Release 7.4.16</title>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.15, including
+ a security fix.
+ </para>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
- </note>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.16</title>
<para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.15, including
- a security fix.
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
</para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.16</title>
+ </sect2>
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
- notes for 7.4.11.
- </para>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
- </sect2>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove security vulnerability that allowed connected users
+ to read backend memory (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The vulnerability involves suppressing the normal check that a SQL
+ function returns the data type it's declared to, or changing the
+ data type of a table column used in a SQL function (CVE-2007-0555).
+ This error can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
+ principle might be used to read database content that the user
+ should not be able to access.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
+ due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Remove security vulnerability that allowed connected users
- to read backend memory (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- The vulnerability involves suppressing the normal check that a SQL
- function returns the data type it's declared to, or changing the
- data type of a table column used in a SQL function (CVE-2007-0555).
- This error can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
- principle might be used to read database content that the user
- should not be able to access.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
- due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
+ over three bytes long (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
- over three bytes long (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- </itemizedlist>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-15">
+ <title>Release 7.4.15</title>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
+ </note>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-15">
- <title>Release 7.4.15</title>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.14.
+ </para>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
- </note>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.15</title>
<para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.14.
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
</para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.15</title>
+ </sect2>
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
- notes for 7.4.11.
- </para>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
- </sect2>
+ <itemizedlist>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom)
+ </para>
- <itemizedlist>
+ <para>
+ This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector,
+ among other things.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom)
+ Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
+ <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector,
- among other things.
+ Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
- <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple
+ empty elements (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
+ are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
+ new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple
- empty elements (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
+ change the output of these functions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
- are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
- new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
- </para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
+ </para>
- <para>
- This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
- change the output of these functions.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
- </para>
+ </itemizedlist>
- <para>
- This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- </itemizedlist>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-14">
+ <title>Release 7.4.14</title>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
+ </note>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-14">
- <title>Release 7.4.14</title>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.13.
+ </para>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
- </note>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.14</title>
<para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.13.
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
</para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.14</title>
-
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
- notes for 7.4.11.
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Fix core dump when an untyped literal is taken as
ANYARRAY</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <function>string_to_array()</> to handle overlapping
- matches for the separator string</para>
+ matches for the separator string</para>
<para>For example, <literal>string_to_array('123xx456xxx789', 'xx')</>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix corner cases in pattern matching for
-
<application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
+ <application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix index-corrupting bugs in /contrib/ltree
- (Teodor)</para></listitem>
+ (Teodor)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix backslash escaping in /contrib/dbmirror</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Adjust regression tests for recent changes in US DST laws
</para> </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-13">
- <title>Release 7.4.13</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-13">
+ <title>Release 7.4.13</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.12,
- including patches for extremely serious security issues.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.12,
+ including patches for extremely serious security issues.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.13</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.13</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
- notes for 7.4.11.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
+ </para>
- Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
- CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
- code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
- into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
- ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
- most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
-
libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
- <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
- rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
+ CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
+ code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
+ into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
+ ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
+ most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
+ libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
+ <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
+ rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Change the server to reject invalidly-encoded multibyte
<listitem><para>Fix various minor memory leaks</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-12">
- <title>Release 7.4.12</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-12">
+ <title>Release 7.4.12</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.11.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.11.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.12</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.12</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
- notes for 7.4.11.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.11.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-11">
- <title>Release 7.4.11</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-11">
+ <title>Release 7.4.11</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
+ </note>
+
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.10.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.11</title>
<para>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.10.
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.8.
+ Also, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
+ columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
+ <application>plperl</> issues described below.
</para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.11</title>
-
- <para>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
- notes for 7.4.8.
- Also, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
- columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
- <application>plperl</> issues described below.
- </para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-10">
- <title>Release 7.4.10</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-10">
+ <title>Release 7.4.10</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.9.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.9.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.10</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.10</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
- notes for 7.4.8.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.8.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
table has been dropped</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-9">
- <title>Release 7.4.9</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-9">
+ <title>Release 7.4.9</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-10-04</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-10-04</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.8.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.8.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.9</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.9</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
- notes for 7.4.8.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
+ notes for 7.4.8.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Fix error that allowed <command>VACUUM</> to remove
code</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-8">
- <title>Release 7.4.8</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-8">
+ <title>Release 7.4.8</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.7, including several
- security-related issues.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.7, including several
+ security-related issues.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.8</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.8</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- it is one possible way of handling two significant security problems
- that have been found in the initial contents of 7.4.X system
- catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 7.4.8's initdb will
- automatically correct these problems.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ it is one possible way of handling two significant security problems
+ that have been found in the initial contents of 7.4.X system
+ catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 7.4.8's initdb will
+ automatically correct these problems.
+ </para>
- The larger security problem is that the built-in character set encoding
- conversion functions can be invoked from SQL commands by unprivileged
- users, but the functions were not designed for such use and are not
- secure against malicious choices of arguments. The fix involves changing
- the declared parameter list of these functions so that they can no longer
- be invoked from SQL commands. (This does not affect their normal use
- by the encoding conversion machinery.)
- </para>
+ <para>
+ The larger security problem is that the built-in character set encoding
+ conversion functions can be invoked from SQL commands by unprivileged
+ users, but the functions were not designed for such use and are not
+ secure against malicious choices of arguments. The fix involves changing
+ the declared parameter list of these functions so that they can no longer
+ be invoked from SQL commands. (This does not affect their normal use
+ by the encoding conversion machinery.)
+ </para>
- The lesser problem is that the <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> module
- creates several functions that are misdeclared to return
- <type>internal</> when they do not accept <type>internal</> arguments.
- This breaks type safety for all functions using <type>internal</>
- arguments.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ The lesser problem is that the <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> module
+ creates several functions that are misdeclared to return
+ <type>internal</> when they do not accept <type>internal</> arguments.
+ This breaks type safety for all functions using <type>internal</>
+ arguments.
+ </para>
- It is strongly recommended that all installations repair these errors,
- either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedures given
- below. The errors at least allow unprivileged database users to crash
- their server process, and might allow unprivileged users to gain the
- privileges of a database superuser.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ It is strongly recommended that all installations repair these errors,
+ either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedures given
+ below. The errors at least allow unprivileged database users to crash
+ their server process, and might allow unprivileged users to gain the
+ privileges of a database superuser.
+ </para>
- If you wish not to do an initdb, perform the following procedures instead.
- As the database superuser, do:
+ <para>
+ If you wish not to do an initdb, perform the following procedures instead.
+ As the database superuser, do:
<programlisting>
BEGIN;
UPDATE pg_proc SET proargtypes[3] = 'internal'::regtype
WHERE pronamespace = 11 AND pronargs = 5
- AND proargtypes[2] = 'cstring'::regtype;
+ AND proargtypes[2] = 'cstring'::regtype;
-- The command should report having updated 90 rows;
-- if not, rollback and investigate instead of committing!
COMMIT;
</programlisting>
- Next, if you have installed <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>, do:
+ Next, if you have installed <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>, do:
<programlisting>
BEGIN;
UPDATE pg_proc SET proargtypes[0] = 'internal'::regtype
WHERE oid IN (
- 'dex_init(text)'::regprocedure,
- 'snb_en_init(text)'::regprocedure,
- 'snb_ru_init(text)'::regprocedure,
- 'spell_init(text)'::regprocedure,
- 'syn_init(text)'::regprocedure
+ 'dex_init(text)'::regprocedure,
+ 'snb_en_init(text)'::regprocedure,
+ 'snb_ru_init(text)'::regprocedure,
+ 'spell_init(text)'::regprocedure,
+ 'syn_init(text)'::regprocedure
);
-- The command should report having updated 5 rows;
-- if not, rollback and investigate instead of committing!
COMMIT;
</programlisting>
- If this command fails with a message like <quote>function
- "dex_init(text)" does not exist</>, then either <filename>tsearch2</>
- is not installed in this database, or you already did the update.
- </para>
+ If this command fails with a message like <quote>function
+ "dex_init(text)" does not exist</>, then either <filename>tsearch2</>
+ is not installed in this database, or you already did the update.
+ </para>
- The above procedures must be carried out in <emphasis>each</> database
- of an installation, including <literal>template1</>, and ideally
- including <literal>template0</> as well. If you do not fix the
- template databases then any subsequently created databases will contain
- the same errors. <literal>template1</> can be fixed in the same way
- as any other database, but fixing <literal>template0</> requires
- additional steps. First, from any database issue:
+ <para>
+ The above procedures must be carried out in <emphasis>each</> database
+ of an installation, including <literal>template1</>, and ideally
+ including <literal>template0</> as well. If you do not fix the
+ template databases then any subsequently created databases will contain
+ the same errors. <literal>template1</> can be fixed in the same way
+ as any other database, but fixing <literal>template0</> requires
+ additional steps. First, from any database issue:
<programlisting>
UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = true WHERE datname = 'template0';
</programlisting>
- Next connect to <literal>template0</> and perform the above repair
- procedures. Finally, do:
+ Next connect to <literal>template0</> and perform the above repair
+ procedures. Finally, do:
<programlisting>
-- re-freeze template0:
VACUUM FREEZE;
-- and protect it against future alterations:
UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = false WHERE datname = 'template0';
</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Change encoding function signature to prevent
<listitem><para>Ensure operations done during backend shutdown are counted by
statistics collector</para>
<para>
-
This is expected to resolve reports of <application>pg_autovacuum</>
- not vacuuming the system catalogs often enough — it was not being
- told about catalog deletions caused by temporary table removal during
- backend exit.
+This is expected to resolve reports of <application>pg_autovacuum</>
+not vacuuming the system catalogs often enough — it was not being
+told about catalog deletions caused by temporary table removal during
+backend exit.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Additional buffer overrun checks in plpgsql
(Neil)</para></listitem>
<command>ALTER TABLE SET WITHOUT OIDS</></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-7">
- <title>Release 7.4.7</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-7">
+ <title>Release 7.4.7</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.6, including several
- security-related issues.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.6, including several
+ security-related issues.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.7</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.7</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Disallow <command>LOAD</> to non-superusers</para>
GMT</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-6">
- <title>Release 7.4.6</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-6">
+ <title>Release 7.4.6</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2004-10-22</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2004-10-22</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.5.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.5.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.6</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.6</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Repair possible failure to update hint bits on disk</para>
ECPG prepare statement</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-5">
- <title>Release 7.4.5</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-5">
+ <title>Release 7.4.5</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2004-08-18</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2004-08-18</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains one serious bug fix over 7.4.4.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains one serious bug fix over 7.4.4.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.5</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.5</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Repair possible crash during concurrent B-tree index insertions</para>
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-4">
- <title>Release 7.4.4</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-4">
+ <title>Release 7.4.4</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2004-08-16</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2004-08-16</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.3.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.3.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.4</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.4</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Prevent possible loss of committed transactions during crash</para>
<listitem><para>Translation updates (various contributors)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-3">
- <title>Release 7.4.3</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-3">
+ <title>Release 7.4.3</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2004-06-14</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2004-06-14</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.2.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.2.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.3</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.3</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Fix temporary memory leak when using non-hashed aggregates (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Do not generate <quote>NATURAL CROSS JOIN</> when decompiling rules (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Add checks for invalid field length in binary COPY (Tom)</para>
<para>
- This fixes a difficult-to-exploit security hole.
+ This fixes a difficult-to-exploit security hole.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Avoid locking conflict between <command>ANALYZE</command> and <command>LISTEN</command>/<command>NOTIFY</command></para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Numerous translation updates (various contributors)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-2">
- <title>Release 7.4.2</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-2">
+ <title>Release 7.4.2</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2004-03-08</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2004-03-08</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.1.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.1.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.2</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.2</title>
- A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
- it might be advisable as the easiest method of incorporating fixes for
- two errors that have been found in the initial contents of 7.4.X system
- catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 7.4.2's initdb will
- automatically correct these problems.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
+ it might be advisable as the easiest method of incorporating fixes for
+ two errors that have been found in the initial contents of 7.4.X system
+ catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 7.4.2's initdb will
+ automatically correct these problems.
+ </para>
- The more severe of the two errors is that data type <type>anyarray</>
- has the wrong alignment label; this is a problem because the
- <structname>pg_statistic</> system catalog uses <type>anyarray</>
- columns. The mislabeling can cause planner misestimations and even
- crashes when planning queries that involve <literal>WHERE</> clauses on
- double-aligned columns (such as <type>float8</> and <type>timestamp</>).
- It is strongly recommended that all installations repair this error,
- either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedure given
- below.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ The more severe of the two errors is that data type <type>anyarray</>
+ has the wrong alignment label; this is a problem because the
+ <structname>pg_statistic</> system catalog uses <type>anyarray</>
+ columns. The mislabeling can cause planner misestimations and even
+ crashes when planning queries that involve <literal>WHERE</> clauses on
+ double-aligned columns (such as <type>float8</> and <type>timestamp</>).
+ It is strongly recommended that all installations repair this error,
+ either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedure given
+ below.
+ </para>
- The lesser error is that the system view <structname>pg_settings</>
- ought to be marked as having public update access, to allow
- <literal>UPDATE pg_settings</> to be used as a substitute for
- <command>SET</>. This can also be fixed either by initdb or manually,
- but it is not necessary to fix unless you want to use <literal>UPDATE
- pg_settings</>.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ The lesser error is that the system view <structname>pg_settings</>
+ ought to be marked as having public update access, to allow
+ <literal>UPDATE pg_settings</> to be used as a substitute for
+ <command>SET</>. This can also be fixed either by initdb or manually,
+ but it is not necessary to fix unless you want to use <literal>UPDATE
+ pg_settings</>.
+ </para>
- If you wish not to do an initdb, the following procedure will work
- for fixing <structname>pg_statistic</>. As the database superuser,
- do:
+ <para>
+ If you wish not to do an initdb, the following procedure will work
+ for fixing <structname>pg_statistic</>. As the database superuser,
+ do:
<programlisting>
-- clear out old data in pg_statistic:
ANALYZE;
</programlisting>
- This can be done in a live database, but beware that all backends
- running in the altered database must be restarted before it is safe to
- repopulate <structname>pg_statistic</>.
- </para>
+ This can be done in a live database, but beware that all backends
+ running in the altered database must be restarted before it is safe to
+ repopulate <structname>pg_statistic</>.
+ </para>
- To repair the <structname>pg_settings</> error, simply do:
+ <para>
+ To repair the <structname>pg_settings</> error, simply do:
<programlisting>
GRANT SELECT, UPDATE ON pg_settings TO PUBLIC;
</programlisting>
- </para>
+ </para>
- The above procedures must be carried out in <emphasis>each</> database
- of an installation, including <literal>template1</>, and ideally
- including <literal>template0</> as well. If you do not fix the
- template databases then any subsequently created databases will contain
- the same errors. <literal>template1</> can be fixed in the same way
- as any other database, but fixing <literal>template0</> requires
- additional steps. First, from any database issue:
+ <para>
+ The above procedures must be carried out in <emphasis>each</> database
+ of an installation, including <literal>template1</>, and ideally
+ including <literal>template0</> as well. If you do not fix the
+ template databases then any subsequently created databases will contain
+ the same errors. <literal>template1</> can be fixed in the same way
+ as any other database, but fixing <literal>template0</> requires
+ additional steps. First, from any database issue:
<programlisting>
UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = true WHERE datname = 'template0';
</programlisting>
- Next connect to <literal>template0</> and perform the above repair
- procedures. Finally, do:
+ Next connect to <literal>template0</> and perform the above repair
+ procedures. Finally, do:
<programlisting>
-- re-freeze template0:
VACUUM FREEZE;
-- and protect it against future alterations:
UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = false WHERE datname = 'template0';
</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect2>
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<para>
- Release 7.4.2 incorporates all the fixes included in release 7.3.6,
- plus the following fixes:
+ Release 7.4.2 incorporates all the fixes included in release 7.3.6,
+ plus the following fixes:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Various JDBC fixes</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
- <sect1 id="release-7-4-1">
- <title>Release 7.4.1</title>
+ <sect1 id="release-7-4-1">
+ <title>Release 7.4.1</title>
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2003-12-22</simpara>
- </note>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2003-12-22</simpara>
+ </note>
- This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.
+ </para>
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4.1</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4.1</title>
- A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
- running 7.4.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
+ running 7.4.
+ </para>
- If you want to install the fixes in the information schema
- you need to reload it into the database.
- This is either accomplished by initializing a new cluster
- by running <command>initdb</command>, or by running the following
- sequence of SQL commands in each database (ideally including
- <literal>template1</literal>) as a superuser in
-
<application>psql</application>, after installing the new release:
+ <para>
+ If you want to install the fixes in the information schema
+ you need to reload it into the database.
+ This is either accomplished by initializing a new cluster
+ by running <command>initdb</command>, or by running the following
+ sequence of SQL commands in each database (ideally including
+ <literal>template1</literal>) as a superuser in
+ <application>psql</application>, after installing the new release:
<programlisting>
DROP SCHEMA information_schema CASCADE;
\i /usr/local/pgsql/share/information_schema.sql
</programlisting>
- Substitute your installation path in the second command.
- </para>
+ Substitute your installation path in the second command.
+ </para>
- </sect2>
+ </sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Fixed bug in <command>CREATE SCHEMA</command> parsing in ECPG (Michael)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix compile error when <option>--enable-thread-safety</option> and <option>--with-perl</option> are used together (Peter)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix for subqueries that used hash joins (Tom)</para>
<para>
- Certain subqueries that used hash joins would crash because of
- improperly shared structures.
+ Certain subqueries that used hash joins would crash because of
+ improperly shared structures.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix free space map compaction bug (Tom)</para>
<para>
- This fixes a bug where compaction of the free space map could lead
- to a database server shutdown.
+ This fixes a bug where compaction of the free space map could lead
+ to a database server shutdown.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix for Borland compiler build of libpq (Bruce)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix <function>netmask()</function> and <function>hostmask()</function> to return the maximum-length masklen (Tom)</para>
<para>
- Fix these functions to return values consistent with pre-7.4
- releases.
+ Fix these functions to return values consistent with pre-7.4
+ releases.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Several <filename>contrib/pg_autovacuum</filename> fixes</para>
<para>
- Fixes include improper variable initialization, missing vacuum after
- <command>TRUNCATE</command>, and duration computation overflow for long vacuums.
+ Fixes include improper variable initialization, missing vacuum after
+ <command>TRUNCATE</command>, and duration computation overflow for long vacuums.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Allow compile of <filename>contrib/cube</filename> under Cygwin (Jason Tishler)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix Solaris use of password file when no passwords are defined (Tom)</para>
<para>
- Fix crash on Solaris caused by use of any type of password
- authentication when no passwords were defined.
+ Fix crash on Solaris caused by use of any type of password
+ authentication when no passwords were defined.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>JDBC fix for thread problems, other fixes</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Make <function>PQescapeBytea</function> and <function>byteaout</function> consistent with each other (Joe)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Escape <type>bytea</type> output for bytes > 0x7e(Joe)</para>
<para>
- If different client encodings are used for <type>bytea</type> output and input, it
- is possible for <type>bytea</type> values to be corrupted by the differing
- encodings. This fix escapes all bytes that might be affected.
+ If different client encodings are used for <type>bytea</type> output and input, it
+ is possible for <type>bytea</type> values to be corrupted by the differing
+ encodings. This fix escapes all bytes that might be affected.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Added missing <function>SPI_finish()</function> calls to dblink's <function>get_tuple_of_interest()</function> (Joe)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Allow <literal>COUNT('x')</literal> to work (Tom)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Install ECPG include files for Informix compatibility into separate directory (Peter)</para>
<para>
- Some names of ECPG include files for Informix compatibility conflicted with operating system include files.
- By installing them in their own directory, name conflicts have been reduced.
+ Some names of ECPG include files for Informix compatibility conflicted with operating system include files.
+ By installing them in their own directory, name conflicts have been reduced.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix SSL memory leak (Neil)</para>
<para>
- This release fixes a bug in 7.4 where SSL didn't free all memory it allocated.
+ This release fixes a bug in 7.4 where SSL didn't free all memory it allocated.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Prevent <filename>pg_service.conf</filename> from using service name as default dbname (Bruce)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fix local ident authentication on FreeBSD (Tom)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="release-7-4">
- <title>Release 7.4</title>
-
- <note>
- <title>Release date</title>
- <simpara>2003-11-17</simpara>
- </note>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Overview</title>
-
- <para>
- Major changes in this release:
- </para>
-
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- <literal>IN</literal> / <literal>NOT IN</literal> subqueries are
- now much more efficient
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In previous releases, <literal>IN</literal>/<literal>NOT
- IN</literal> subqueries were joined to the upper query by
- sequentially scanning the subquery looking for a match. The
- 7.4 code uses the same sophisticated techniques used by
- ordinary joins and so is much faster. An
- <literal>IN</literal> will now usually be as fast as or faster
- than an equivalent <literal>EXISTS</literal> subquery; this
- reverses the conventional wisdom that applied to previous
- releases.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Improved <literal>GROUP BY</literal> processing by using hash buckets
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In previous releases, rows to be grouped had to be sorted
- first. The 7.4 code can do <literal>GROUP BY</literal>
- without sorting, by accumulating results into a hash table
- with one entry per group. It will still use the sort
- technique, however, if the hash table is estimated to be too
- large to fit in <varname>sort_mem</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- New multikey hash join capability
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In previous releases, hash joins could only occur on single
- keys. This release allows multicolumn hash joins.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Queries using the explicit <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax are
- now better optimized
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Prior releases evaluated queries using the explicit
- <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax only in the order implied by
- the syntax. 7.4 allows full optimization of these queries,
- meaning the optimizer considers all possible join orderings
- and chooses the most efficient. Outer joins, however, must
- still follow the declared ordering.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Faster and more powerful regular expression code
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The entire regular expression module has been replaced with a
- new version by Henry Spencer, originally written for Tcl. The
- code greatly improves performance and supports several flavors
- of regular expressions.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Function-inlining for simple SQL functions
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Simple SQL functions can now be inlined by including their SQL
- in the main query. This improves performance by eliminating
- per-call overhead. That means simple SQL functions now
- behave like macros.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Full support for IPv6 connections and IPv6 address data types
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Previous releases allowed only IPv4 connections, and the IP
- data types only supported IPv4 addresses. This release adds
- full IPv6 support in both of these areas.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Major improvements in SSL performance and reliability
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Several people very familiar with the SSL API have overhauled
- our SSL code to improve SSL key negotiation and error
- recovery.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Make free space map efficiently reuse empty index pages,
- and other free space management improvements
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In previous releases, B-tree index pages that were left empty
- because of deleted rows could only be reused by rows with
- index values similar to the rows originally indexed on that
- page. In 7.4, <command>VACUUM</command> records empty index
- pages and allows them to be reused for any future index rows.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- SQL-standard information schema
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The information schema provides a standardized and stable way
- to access information about the schema objects defined in a
- database.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Cursors conform more closely to the SQL standard
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The commands <command>FETCH</command> and
- <command>MOVE</command> have been overhauled to conform more
- closely to the SQL standard.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Cursors can exist outside transactions
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- These cursors are also called holdable cursors.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- New client-to-server protocol
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The new protocol adds error codes, more status information,
- faster startup, better support for binary data transmission,
- parameter values separated from SQL commands, prepared
- statements available at the protocol level, and cleaner
- recovery from <command>COPY</command> failures. The older
- protocol is still supported by both server and clients.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- <application>libpq</application> and
- <application>ECPG</application> applications are now fully
- thread-safe
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- While previous <application>libpq</application> releases
- already supported threads, this release improves thread safety
- by fixing some non-thread-safe code that was used during
- database connection startup. The <command>configure</command>
- option <option>--enable-thread-safety</option> must be used to
- enable this feature.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- New version of full-text indexing
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A new full-text indexing suite is available in
- <filename>contrib/tsearch2</filename>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- New autovacuum tool
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The new autovacuum tool in
- <filename>contrib/autovacuum</filename> monitors the database
- statistics tables for
- <command>INSERT</command>/<command>UPDATE</command>/<command>DELETE</command>
- activity and automatically vacuums tables when needed.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- Array handling has been improved and moved into the server core
- </term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Many array limitations have been removed, and arrays behave
- more like fully-supported data types.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- </variablelist>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Migration to version 7.4</title>
-
- <para>
- A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
- required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
- release.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Observe the following incompatibilities:
- </para>
+ </sect2>
+</sect1>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The server-side autocommit setting was removed and
- reimplemented in client applications and languages.
- Server-side autocommit was causing too many problems with
- languages and applications that wanted to control their own
- autocommit behavior, so autocommit was removed from the server
- and added to individual client APIs as appropriate.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+<sect1 id="release-7-4">
+ <title>Release 7.4</title>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Error message wording has changed substantially in this
- release. Significant effort was invested to make the messages
- more consistent and user-oriented. If your applications try to
- detect different error conditions by parsing the error message,
- you are strongly encouraged to use the new error code facility instead.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <note>
+ <title>Release date</title>
+ <simpara>2003-11-17</simpara>
+ </note>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Inner joins using the explicit <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax
- might behave differently because they are now better
- optimized.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Overview</title>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A number of server configuration parameters have been renamed
- for clarity, primarily those related to
- logging.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ Major changes in this release:
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <literal>FETCH 0</literal> or <literal>MOVE 0</literal> now
- does nothing. In prior releases, <literal>FETCH 0</literal>
- would fetch all remaining rows, and <literal>MOVE 0</literal>
- would move to the end of the cursor.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <literal>IN</literal> / <literal>NOT IN</literal> subqueries are
+ now much more efficient
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- <command>FETCH</command> and <command>MOVE</command> now return
- the actual number of rows fetched/moved, or zero if at the
- beginning/end of the cursor. Prior releases would return the
- row count passed to the command, not the number of rows
- actually fetched or moved.
+ In previous releases, <literal>IN</literal>/<literal>NOT
+ IN</literal> subqueries were joined to the upper query by
+ sequentially scanning the subquery looking for a match. The
+ 7.4 code uses the same sophisticated techniques used by
+ ordinary joins and so is much faster. An
+ <literal>IN</literal> will now usually be as fast as or faster
+ than an equivalent <literal>EXISTS</literal> subquery; this
+ reverses the conventional wisdom that applied to previous
+ releases.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Improved <literal>GROUP BY</literal> processing by using hash buckets
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- <command>COPY</command> now can process files that use
- carriage-return or carriage-return/line-feed end-of-line
- sequences. Literal carriage-returns and line-feeds are no
- longer accepted in data values; use <literal>\r</literal> and
- <literal>\n</literal> instead.
+ In previous releases, rows to be grouped had to be sorted
+ first. The 7.4 code can do <literal>GROUP BY</literal>
+ without sorting, by accumulating results into a hash table
+ with one entry per group. It will still use the sort
+ technique, however, if the hash table is estimated to be too
+ large to fit in <varname>sort_mem</>.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ New multikey hash join capability
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Trailing spaces are now trimmed when converting from type
- <type>char(<replaceable>n</>)</type> to
- <type>varchar(<replaceable>n</>)</type> or <type>text</type>.
- This is what most people always expected to happen anyway.
+ In previous releases, hash joins could only occur on single
+ keys. This release allows multicolumn hash joins.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Queries using the explicit <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax are
+ now better optimized
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The data type <type>float(<replaceable>p</>)</type> now
- measures <replaceable>p</> in binary digits, not decimal
- digits. The new behavior follows the SQL standard.
+ Prior releases evaluated queries using the explicit
+ <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax only in the order implied by
+ the syntax. 7.4 allows full optimization of these queries,
+ meaning the optimizer considers all possible join orderings
+ and chooses the most efficient. Outer joins, however, must
+ still follow the declared ordering.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Faster and more powerful regular expression code
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Ambiguous date values now must match the ordering specified by
- the <varname>datestyle</varname> setting. In prior releases, a
- date specification of <literal>10/20/03</> was interpreted as a
- date in October even if <varname>datestyle</> specified that
- the day should be first. 7.4 will throw an error if a date
- specification is invalid for the current setting of
- <varname>datestyle</>.
+ The entire regular expression module has been replaced with a
+ new version by Henry Spencer, originally written for Tcl. The
+ code greatly improves performance and supports several flavors
+ of regular expressions.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Function-inlining for simple SQL functions
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The functions <function>oidrand</function>,
- <function>oidsrand</function>, and
- <function>userfntest</function> have been removed. These
- functions were determined to be no longer useful.
+ Simple SQL functions can now be inlined by including their SQL
+ in the main query. This improves performance by eliminating
+ per-call overhead. That means simple SQL functions now
+ behave like macros.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Full support for IPv6 connections and IPv6 address data types
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- String literals specifying time-varying date/time values, such
- as <literal>'now'</literal> or <literal>'today'</literal> will
- no longer work as expected in column default expressions; they
- now cause the time of the table creation to be the default, not
- the time of the insertion. Functions such as
- <function>now()</>, <function>current_timestamp</>, or
- <function>current_date</function> should be used instead.
+ Previous releases allowed only IPv4 connections, and the IP
+ data types only supported IPv4 addresses. This release adds
+ full IPv6 support in both of these areas.
</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Major improvements in SSL performance and reliability
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- In previous releases, there was special code so that strings
- such as <literal>'now'</literal> were interpreted at
- <command>INSERT</> time and not at table creation time, but
- this work around didn't cover all cases. Release 7.4 now
- requires that defaults be defined properly using functions such
- as <function>now()</> or <function>current_timestamp</>. These
- will work in all situations.
+ Several people very familiar with the SSL API have overhauled
+ our SSL code to improve SSL key negotiation and error
+ recovery.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Make free space map efficiently reuse empty index pages,
+ and other free space management improvements
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The dollar sign (<literal>$</>) is no longer allowed in
- operator names. It can instead be a non-first character in
- identifiers. This was done to improve compatibility with other
- database systems, and to avoid syntax problems when parameter
- placeholders (<literal>$<replaceable>n</></>) are written
- adjacent to operators.
+ In previous releases, B-tree index pages that were left empty
+ because of deleted rows could only be reused by rows with
+ index values similar to the rows originally indexed on that
+ page. In 7.4, <command>VACUUM</command> records empty index
+ pages and allows them to be reused for any future index rows.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2>
- <title>Changes</title>
-
- <para>
- Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
- release 7.4 and the previous major release.
- </para>
-
- <sect3>
- <title>Server Operation Changes</title>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ SQL-standard information schema
+ </term>
- <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- Allow IPv6 server connections (Nigel Kukard, Johan Jordaan,
- Bruce, Tom, Kurt Roeckx, Andrew Dunstan)
+ The information schema provides a standardized and stable way
+ to access information about the schema objects defined in a
+ database.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Cursors conform more closely to the SQL standard
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix SSL to handle errors cleanly (Nathan Mueller)
- </para>
- <para>
- In prior releases, certain SSL API error reports were not
- handled correctly. This release fixes those problems.
+ The commands <command>FETCH</command> and
+ <command>MOVE</command> have been overhauled to conform more
+ closely to the SQL standard.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Cursors can exist outside transactions
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- SSL protocol security and performance improvements (Sean Chittenden)
- </para>
- <para>
- SSL key renegotiation was happening too frequently, causing poor
- SSL performance. Also, initial key handling was improved.
+ These cursors are also called holdable cursors.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ New client-to-server protocol
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Print lock information when a deadlock is detected (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This allows easier debugging of deadlock situations.
+ The new protocol adds error codes, more status information,
+ faster startup, better support for binary data transmission,
+ parameter values separated from SQL commands, prepared
+ statements available at the protocol level, and cleaner
+ recovery from <command>COPY</command> failures. The older
+ protocol is still supported by both server and clients.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <application>libpq</application> and
+ <application>ECPG</application> applications are now fully
+ thread-safe
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Update <filename>/tmp</filename> socket modification times
- regularly to avoid their removal (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- This should help prevent <filename>/tmp</filename> directory
- cleaner administration scripts from removing server socket
- files.
+ While previous <application>libpq</application> releases
+ already supported threads, this release improves thread safety
+ by fixing some non-thread-safe code that was used during
+ database connection startup. The <command>configure</command>
+ option <option>--enable-thread-safety</option> must be used to
+ enable this feature.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem><para>Enable PAM for Mac OS X (Aaron Hillegass)</para></listitem>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ New version of full-text indexing
+ </term>
<listitem>
- <para>Make B-tree indexes fully WAL-safe (Tom)</para>
<para>
- In prior releases, under certain rare cases, a server crash
- could cause B-tree indexes to become corrupt. This release
- removes those last few rare cases.
+ A new full-text indexing suite is available in
+ <filename>contrib/tsearch2</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem><para>Allow B-tree index compaction and empty page reuse (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ New autovacuum tool
+ </term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Fix inconsistent index lookups during split of first root page (Tom)
- </para>
- <para>
- In prior releases, when a single-page index split into two
- pages, there was a brief period when another database session
- could miss seeing an index entry. This release fixes that rare
- failure case.
+ The new autovacuum tool in
+ <filename>contrib/autovacuum</filename> monitors the database
+ statistics tables for
+ <command>INSERT</command>/<command>UPDATE</command>/<command>DELETE</command>
+ activity and automatically vacuums tables when needed.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem><para>Improve free space map allocation logic (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ Array handling has been improved and moved into the server core
+ </term>
<listitem>
- <para>Preserve free space information between server restarts (Tom)</para>
<para>
- In prior releases, the free space map was not saved when the
- postmaster was stopped, so newly started servers had no free
- space information. This release saves the free space map, and
- reloads it when the server is restarted.
+ Many array limitations have been removed, and arrays behave
+ more like fully-supported data types.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem><para>Add start time to <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal> (Neil)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>New code to detect corrupt disk pages; erase with <varname>zero_damaged_pages</varname> (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>New client/server protocol: faster, no username length limit, allow clean exit from <command>COPY</command> (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Add transaction status, table ID, column ID to client/server protocol (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Add binary I/O to client/server protocol (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Remove autocommit server setting; move to client applications (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>New error message wording, error codes, and three levels of error detail (Tom, Joe, Peter)</para></listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect2>
- <sect3>
- <title>Performance Improvements</title>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Migration to Version 7.4</title>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem><para>Add hashing for <literal>GROUP BY</literal> aggregates (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Make nested-loop joins be smarter about multicolumn indexes (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Allow multikey hash joins (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Improve constant folding (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Add ability to inline simple SQL functions (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <para>
+ A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
+ required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
+ release.
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>Reduce memory usage for queries using complex functions (Tom)</para>
- <para>
- In prior releases, functions returning allocated memory would
- not free it until the query completed. This release allows the
- freeing of function-allocated memory when the function call
- completes, reducing the total memory used by functions.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ Observe the following incompatibilities:
+ </para>
- <listitem>
- <para>Improve GEQO optimizer performance (Tom)</para>
- <para>
- This release fixes several inefficiencies in the way the GEQO optimizer
- manages potential query paths.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The server-side autocommit setting was removed and
+ reimplemented in client applications and languages.
+ Server-side autocommit was causing too many problems with
+ languages and applications that wanted to control their own
+ autocommit behavior, so autocommit was removed from the server
+ and added to individual client APIs as appropriate.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow <literal>IN</>/<literal>NOT IN</> to be handled via hash
- tables (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Error message wording has changed substantially in this
+ release. Significant effort was invested to make the messages
+ more consistent and user-oriented. If your applications try to
+ detect different error conditions by parsing the error message,
+ you are strongly encouraged to use the new error code facility instead.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve <literal>NOT IN (<replaceable>subquery</>)</literal>
- performance (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Inner joins using the explicit <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax
+ might behave differently because they are now better
+ optimized.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow most <literal>IN</literal> subqueries to be processed as
- joins (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A number of server configuration parameters have been renamed
+ for clarity, primarily those related to
+ logging.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Pattern matching operations can use indexes regardless of
- locale (Peter)
- </para>
- <para>
- There is no way for non-ASCII locales to use the standard
- indexes for <literal>LIKE</literal> comparisons. This release
- adds a way to create a special index for
- <literal>LIKE</literal>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>FETCH 0</literal> or <literal>MOVE 0</literal> now
+ does nothing. In prior releases, <literal>FETCH 0</literal>
+ would fetch all remaining rows, and <literal>MOVE 0</literal>
+ would move to the end of the cursor.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Allow the postmaster to preload libraries using <varname>preload_libraries</varname> (Joe)</para>
- <para>
- For shared libraries that require a long time to load, this
- option is available so the library can be preloaded in the
- postmaster and inherited by all database sessions.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <command>FETCH</command> and <command>MOVE</command> now return
+ the actual number of rows fetched/moved, or zero if at the
+ beginning/end of the cursor. Prior releases would return the
+ row count passed to the command, not the number of rows
+ actually fetched or moved.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve optimizer cost computations, particularly for subqueries (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <command>COPY</command> now can process files that use
+ carriage-return or carriage-return/line-feed end-of-line
+ sequences. Literal carriage-returns and line-feeds are no
+ longer accepted in data values; use <literal>\r</literal> and
+ <literal>\n</literal> instead.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Avoid sort when subquery <literal>ORDER BY</literal> matches upper query (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Trailing spaces are now trimmed when converting from type
+ <type>char(<replaceable>n</>)</type> to
+ <type>varchar(<replaceable>n</>)</type> or <type>text</type>.
+ This is what most people always expected to happen anyway.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Deduce that <literal>WHERE a.x = b.y AND b.y = 42</literal> also
- means <literal>a.x = 42</literal> (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The data type <type>float(<replaceable>p</>)</type> now
+ measures <replaceable>p</> in binary digits, not decimal
+ digits. The new behavior follows the SQL standard.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow hash/merge joins on complex joins (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Ambiguous date values now must match the ordering specified by
+ the <varname>datestyle</varname> setting. In prior releases, a
+ date specification of <literal>10/20/03</> was interpreted as a
+ date in October even if <varname>datestyle</> specified that
+ the day should be first. 7.4 will throw an error if a date
+ specification is invalid for the current setting of
+ <varname>datestyle</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The functions <function>oidrand</function>,
+ <function>oidsrand</function>, and
+ <function>userfntest</function> have been removed. These
+ functions were determined to be no longer useful.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ String literals specifying time-varying date/time values, such
+ as <literal>'now'</literal> or <literal>'today'</literal> will
+ no longer work as expected in column default expressions; they
+ now cause the time of the table creation to be the default, not
+ the time of the insertion. Functions such as
+ <function>now()</>, <function>current_timestamp</>, or
+ <function>current_date</function> should be used instead.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ In previous releases, there was special code so that strings
+ such as <literal>'now'</literal> were interpreted at
+ <command>INSERT</> time and not at table creation time, but
+ this work around didn't cover all cases. Release 7.4 now
+ requires that defaults be defined properly using functions such
+ as <function>now()</> or <function>current_timestamp</>. These
+ will work in all situations.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The dollar sign (<literal>$</>) is no longer allowed in
+ operator names. It can instead be a non-first character in
+ identifiers. This was done to improve compatibility with other
+ database systems, and to avoid syntax problems when parameter
+ placeholders (<literal>$<replaceable>n</></>) are written
+ adjacent to operators.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Changes</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
+ release 7.4 and the previous major release.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Server Operation Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow IPv6 server connections (Nigel Kukard, Johan Jordaan,
+ Bruce, Tom, Kurt Roeckx, Andrew Dunstan)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix SSL to handle errors cleanly (Nathan Mueller)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, certain SSL API error reports were not
+ handled correctly. This release fixes those problems.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ SSL protocol security and performance improvements (Sean Chittenden)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ SSL key renegotiation was happening too frequently, causing poor
+ SSL performance. Also, initial key handling was improved.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Print lock information when a deadlock is detected (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This allows easier debugging of deadlock situations.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Update <filename>/tmp</filename> socket modification times
+ regularly to avoid their removal (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This should help prevent <filename>/tmp</filename> directory
+ cleaner administration scripts from removing server socket
+ files.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Enable PAM for Mac OS X (Aaron Hillegass)</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Make B-tree indexes fully WAL-safe (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, under certain rare cases, a server crash
+ could cause B-tree indexes to become corrupt. This release
+ removes those last few rare cases.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Allow B-tree index compaction and empty page reuse (Tom)</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix inconsistent index lookups during split of first root page (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, when a single-page index split into two
+ pages, there was a brief period when another database session
+ could miss seeing an index entry. This release fixes that rare
+ failure case.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Improve free space map allocation logic (Tom)</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Preserve free space information between server restarts (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, the free space map was not saved when the
+ postmaster was stopped, so newly started servers had no free
+ space information. This release saves the free space map, and
+ reloads it when the server is restarted.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Add start time to <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal> (Neil)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>New code to detect corrupt disk pages; erase with <varname>zero_damaged_pages</varname> (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>New client/server protocol: faster, no username length limit, allow clean exit from <command>COPY</command> (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Add transaction status, table ID, column ID to client/server protocol (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Add binary I/O to client/server protocol (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Remove autocommit server setting; move to client applications (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>New error message wording, error codes, and three levels of error detail (Tom, Joe, Peter)</para></listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Performance Improvements</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>Add hashing for <literal>GROUP BY</literal> aggregates (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Make nested-loop joins be smarter about multicolumn indexes (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Allow multikey hash joins (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Improve constant folding (Tom)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Add ability to inline simple SQL functions (Tom)</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Reduce memory usage for queries using complex functions (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, functions returning allocated memory would
+ not free it until the query completed. This release allows the
+ freeing of function-allocated memory when the function call
+ completes, reducing the total memory used by functions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Improve GEQO optimizer performance (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ This release fixes several inefficiencies in the way the GEQO optimizer
+ manages potential query paths.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow <literal>IN</>/<literal>NOT IN</> to be handled via hash
+ tables (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve <literal>NOT IN (<replaceable>subquery</>)</literal>
+ performance (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow most <literal>IN</literal> subqueries to be processed as
+ joins (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Pattern matching operations can use indexes regardless of
+ locale (Peter)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ There is no way for non-ASCII locales to use the standard
+ indexes for <literal>LIKE</literal> comparisons. This release
+ adds a way to create a special index for
+ <literal>LIKE</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Allow the postmaster to preload libraries using <varname>preload_libraries</varname> (Joe)</para>
+ <para>
+ For shared libraries that require a long time to load, this
+ option is available so the library can be preloaded in the
+ postmaster and inherited by all database sessions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve optimizer cost computations, particularly for subqueries (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Avoid sort when subquery <literal>ORDER BY</literal> matches upper query (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Deduce that <literal>WHERE a.x = b.y AND b.y = 42</literal> also
+ means <literal>a.x = 42</literal> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow hash/merge joins on complex joins (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow hash joins for more data types (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Allow join optimization of explicit inner joins, disable with
+ <varname>join_collapse_limit</varname> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add parameter <varname>from_collapse_limit</varname> to control
+ conversion of subqueries to joins (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use faster and more powerful regular expression code from Tcl
+ (Henry Spencer, Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use bit-mapped relation sets in the optimizer (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Improve connection startup time (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ The new client/server protocol requires fewer network packets to
+ start a database session.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve trigger/constraint performance (Stephan)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improve speed of <literal>col IN (const, const, const, ...)</literal> (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Fix hash indexes which were broken in rare cases (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Improve hash index concurrency and speed (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ Prior releases suffered from poor hash index performance,
+ particularly for high concurrency situations. This release fixes
+ that, and the development group is interested in reports
+ comparing B-tree and hash index performance.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Align shared buffers on 32-byte boundary for copy speed improvement (Manfred Spraul)</para>
+ <para>
+ Certain CPU's perform faster data copies when addresses are
+ 32-byte aligned.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Data type <type>numeric</type> reimplemented for better performance (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ <type>numeric</type> used to be stored in base 100. The new code
+ uses base 10000, for significantly better performance.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Server Configuration Changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Rename server parameter <varname>server_min_messages</> to <varname>log_min_messages</> (Bruce)</para>
+ <para>
+ This was done so most parameters that control the server logs
+ begin with <literal>log_</>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Rename <varname>show_*_stats</> to <varname>log_*_stats</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Rename <varname>show_source_port</> to <varname>log_source_port</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Rename <varname>hostname_lookup</> to <varname>log_hostname</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Add <varname>checkpoint_warning</> to warn of excessive checkpointing (Bruce)</para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, it was difficult to determine if checkpoint
+ was happening too frequently. This feature adds a warning to the
+ server logs when excessive checkpointing happens.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>New read-only server parameters for localization (Tom)</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change debug server log messages to output as <literal>DEBUG</>
+ rather than <literal>LOG</> (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Prevent server log variables from being turned off by non-superusers (Bruce)</para>
+ <para>
+ This is a security feature so non-superusers cannot disable
+ logging that was enabled by the administrator.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <varname>log_min_messages</>/<varname>client_min_messages</> now
+ controls <varname>debug_*</> output (Bruce)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This centralizes client debug information so all debug output
+ can be sent to either the client or server logs.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Add Mac OS X Rendezvous server support (Chris Campbell)</para>
+ <para>
+ This allows Mac OS X hosts to query the network for available
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> servers.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow hash joins for more data types (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add ability to print only slow statements using
+ <varname>log_min_duration_statement</varname>
+ (Christopher)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This is an often requested debugging feature that allows
+ administrators to see only slow queries in their server logs.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Allow join optimization of explicit inner joins, disable with
- <varname>join_collapse_limit</varname> (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Allow <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> to accept netmasks in CIDR format (Andrew Dunstan)</para>
+ <para>
+ This allows administrators to merge the host IP address and
+ netmask fields into a single CIDR field in <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Add parameter <varname>from_collapse_limit</varname> to control
- conversion of subqueries to joins (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem><para>New read-only parameter <varname>is_superuser</varname> (Tom)</para></listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use faster and more powerful regular expression code from Tcl
- (Henry Spencer, Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>New parameter <varname>log_error_verbosity</varname> to control error detail (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ This works with the new error reporting feature to supply
+ additional error information like hints, file names and line
+ numbers.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use bit-mapped relation sets in the optimizer (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><literal>postgres --describe-config</literal> now dumps server config variables (Aizaz Ahmed, Peter)</para>
+ <para>
+ This option is useful for administration tools that need to know
+ the configuration variable names and their minimums, maximums,
+ defaults, and descriptions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Improve connection startup time (Tom)</para>
- <para>
- The new client/server protocol requires fewer network packets to
- start a database session.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add new columns in <literal>pg_settings</literal>:
+ <literal>context</>, <literal>type</>, <literal>source</>,
+ <literal>min_val</>, <literal>max_val</> (Joe)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve trigger/constraint performance (Stephan)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make default <varname>shared_buffers</> 1000 and
+ <varname>max_connections</> 100, if possible (Tom)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Prior versions defaulted to 64 shared buffers so <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
+ would start on even very old systems. This release tests the
+ amount of shared memory allowed by the platform and selects more
+ reasonable default values if possible. Of course, users are
+ still encouraged to evaluate their resource load and size
+ <varname>shared_buffers</varname> accordingly.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Improve speed of <literal>col IN (const, const, const, ...)</literal> (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> record type
+ <literal>hostnossl</> to prevent SSL connections (Jon
+ Jensen)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, there was no way to prevent SSL connections
+ if both the client and server supported SSL. This option allows
+ that capability.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix hash indexes which were broken in rare cases (Tom)
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Remove parameter <varname>geqo_random_seed</varname>
+ (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem><para>Improve hash index concurrency and speed (Tom)</para>
- <para>
- Prior releases suffered from poor hash index performance,
- particularly for high concurrency situations. This release fixes
- that, and the development group is interested in reports
- comparing B-tree and hash index performance.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Add server parameter <varname>regex_flavor</varname> to control regular expression processing (Tom)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Align shared buffers on 32-byte boundary for copy speed improvement (Manfred Spraul)</para>
- <para>
- Certain CPU's perform faster data copies when addresses are
- 32-byte aligned.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Make <command>pg_ctl</command> better handle nonstandard ports (Greg)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
- <listitem>
- <para>Data type <type>numeric</type> reimplemented for better performance (Tom)</para>
- <para>
- <type>numeric</type> used to be stored in base 100. The new code
- uses base 10000, for significantly better performance.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Query Changes</title>
- <sect3>
- <title>Server Configuration Changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>New SQL-standard information schema (Peter)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Add read-only transactions (Peter)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Print key name and value in foreign-key violation messages (Dmitry Tkach)</para></listitem>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>Rename server parameter <varname>server_min_messages</> to <varname>log_min_messages</> (Bruce)</para>
- <para>
- This was done so most parameters that control the server logs
- begin with <literal>log_</>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Allow users to see their own queries in <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal> (Kevin Brown)</para>
+ <para>
+ In prior releases, only the superuser could see query strings
+ using <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal>. Now ordinary users
+ can see their own query strings.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem><para>Rename <varname>show_*_stats</> to <varname>log_*_stats</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Rename <varname>show_source_port</> to <varname>log_source_port</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Rename <varname>hostname_lookup</> to <varname>log_hostname</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Fix aggregates in subqueries to match SQL standard (Tom)</para>
+ <para>
+ The SQL standard says that an aggregate function appearing
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