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28 For new features, add links to the documentation sections. Use </link>
29 so that Perl can remove it so HISTORY.html can be created with no
30 links to the main documentation. This was added only in 8.2, so don't
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35 <appendix id="release">
36 <title>Release Notes</title>
39 The release notes contain the significant changes in each
40 <productname>PostgreSQL</> release, with major features and migration
41 issues listed at the top. The release notes do not contain changes
42 that affect only a few users or changes that are internal and therefore not
43 user-visible. For example, the optimizer is improved in almost every
44 release, but the improvements are usually observed by users as simply
49 A complete list of changes for each release can be obtained by
50 viewing the <link linkend="cvs">CVS</link> logs for each release.
52 url="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/">pgsql-committers
53 email list</ulink> records all source code changes as well. There is also
54 a <ulink url="http://anoncvs.postgresql.org/cvsweb.cgi/pgsql/">web
55 interface</ulink> that shows changes to specific files.
56 <!-- we need a file containing the CVS logs for each release, and something
57 like the SVN web interface that groups commits but has branches -->
61 The name appearing next to each item represents the major developer for
62 that item. Of course all changes involve community discussion and patch
63 review, so each item is truly a community effort.
66 <sect1 id="release-8-4">
67 <title>Release 8.4</title>
70 <title>Release date</title>
71 <simpara>2009-XX-XX, ITEMS CURRENT AS OF 2009-03-16</simpara>
75 <title>Overview</title>
78 This major PostgreSQL release brings SQL features people have been
79 waiting for for years, as well as performance enhancements
80 and changes to make space reuse more efficient and
81 more automatic. This release adds the following major features:
86 <!-- This list duplicates items below, but without authors or details-->
90 *MAJOR ITEM LIST GOES HERE*
97 The above items are explained in more detail in the sections below.
103 <title>Migration to Version 8.4</title>
106 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
107 required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
112 Observe the following incompatibilities:
116 <title>General</title>
121 Use 64-bit integer datetimes by default (Neil Conway)
125 This was available previously via a configure
126 --enable-integer-datetimes.
132 Change postgresql.conf default for log_min_messages to 'warning'
133 (previously 'notice') to reduce log file volume (Tom)
139 Have debug_print_parse, debug_print_rewritten, and debug_print_plan
140 output appear as LOG message level, not DEBUG1 (Tom) bjm: inconsistency
141 because of var names?
147 Have debug_pretty_print default to on (Tom)
153 Make "log_temp_files" super-user set only, like other logging options
160 Disable appending of the epoch date/time when no '%' escapes are
161 present in log_filename (Robert Haas)
165 This change was made because some users wanted a constant log filename,
166 for use with an external log rotation tool.
172 Remove explain_pretty_print postgresql.conf setting (no longer needed)
179 Remove log_restartpoints from recovery.conf; instead use
180 log_checkpoints (Simon Riggs)
186 Remove support for the (insecure) crypt authentication method (Magnus)
190 This breaks compatibility with pre-7.2 versions.
196 Remove krb_realm and krb_server_hostname, now pg_hba.conf-only settings
203 Remove ipcclean utility command (Bruce)
207 The utility only worked on a few platforms; users should use their
208 operating system tools instead.
214 pg_hba.conf also has extensive changes related to migration. bjm: add markup
223 <title>Queries</title>
229 Have children inherit CHECK constraints from parents (Alex Hunsaker,
230 Nikhil Sontakke, Tom Lane)
236 Force child tables to have the same CHECK constraints as parents (Alex
237 Hunsaker, Nikhil Sontakke, Tom Lane) bjm: verify
243 Change TRUNCATE and LOCK behavior to apply to all child tables (Peter)
247 There is a new ONLY clause which disables this behavior.
253 Disallow negative LIMIT or OFFSET values, rather than treating them as
260 Disallow LOCK TABLE outside a transaction block (Tom)
264 Such an operation is useless because the lock would be immediately
271 Make DISCARD ALL also discard advisory locks (Marko Kreen)
281 <title>Functions and Operators</title>
287 Have NUMERIC 0 ^ 4.3 return 1, rather than an error, and have 0 ^ 0.0
288 return 1, rather than error (Bruce)
292 This was already the float8 behavior.
298 Remove code that prevented unary minus of floating-point values from
303 The changed behavior is more IEEE-standards compliant.
309 Throw an error if an escape character is the last character in a LIKE
310 pattern (it has nothing to escape) (Tom)
316 Have to_char()'s localized month/day names depend on LC_TIME, not
317 LC_MESSAGES (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
323 Cause to_date() and to_timestamp() to more consistently report errors on
324 invalid input (Brendan Jurd)
330 Provide consistent rounding for fractional seconds (Ron Mayer) bjm:
331 combine with another item?
337 Fix to_timestamp() to not require upper/lower case matching for meridian
338 (AM/PM) and era (BC/AD) format designations (Brendan Jurd)
344 Require the existence of periods in to_timestamp() meridian
345 (AM/PM) and era (BC/AD) format designations to match (Brendan Jurd)
349 For example, input value 'AD' does not match format string 'A.D.'.
355 DateStyle no longer controls interval output (use new variable
362 Remove ~=~ and ~<>~ operators used for LIKE index comparisons
367 A not-immediately-obvious incompatibility is that the sort order within
368 bpchar_pattern_ops indexes changes --- it had been identical to plain
369 strcmp, but is now trailing-blank-insensitive. This will impact
370 in-place upgrades, if those ever happen.
381 <title>Changes</title>
384 Below you will find a detailed account of the
385 changes between <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.4 and
386 the previous major release.
390 <title>Performance</title>
395 Improve optimizer statistics calculations (Tom, Jan
400 This includes improved statistics for full text columns.
406 Allow SELECT DISTINCT and UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT to use hashing (Tom)
410 This causes SELECT DISTINCT no longer always produces sorted output;
411 add an ORDER BY clause. The old SELECT DISTINCT behavior can be
412 restored by disabling enable_hashagg. SELECT DISTINCT ON does not use
413 hashing. bjm: enable_hashagg accurate?
419 New semi- and anti-joins (Tom)
423 While semi-joins merely replace existing IN joins, anti-joins
424 are a new capability for NOT EXISTS clauses (Tom) This improves
425 optimization possibilities.
431 Improve IN/ANY/EXISTS processing (Tom)
435 IN and EXISTS now provide similar performance for equivalent clauses.
441 Improve the performance of text_position() and related functions by
442 using Boyer-Moore-Horspool searching (David Rowley)
446 This is particularly useful for long search patterns.
452 Improve handling of subqueries by the optimizer (Tom)
458 Reduce I/O frequency of writing the backend statistics file by writing
459 the file only when requested (Martin Pihlak)
465 Improve performance for bulk inserts (Robert Haas, Simon)
471 Increase the default value of default_statistics_target from 10 to 100
472 (Greg Sabino Mullane, Tom)
476 The maximum value was also increased from 1000 to 10000.
482 Modify 'constraint_exclusion' to check for partitioned tables by default
483 when inheritance or UNION ALL is used (Tom)
487 A new constraint_exclusion setting, "partition", was added to match this
494 Allow I/O read-ahead for bitmap index scans (Greg Stark)
498 The amount of read-ahead is controlled by effective_io_concurrency.
499 This requires posix_fadvise() support in the kernel.
505 Inline simple set-returning SQL functions in FROM clauses (Richard Rowell)
519 Consider TOAST compression on values as short as 32 bytes (previously
526 Require 25% of space savings before using TOAST compression (previously
533 Be more aggressive in storing EXTERNAL and EXTENDED column values in
543 <title>Server Settings</title>
548 Convert many postgresql.conf settings to enumerated values so
549 pg_settings can easily display valid values (Magnus)
555 Add postgresql.conf setting cursor_tuple_fraction to control the
556 fraction of a cursor's rows expected to be requested by the user (Robert
563 Allow underscores in postgresql.conf custom variable classes (Tom)
572 <title>Monitoring</title>
577 Add pg_conf_load_time() function to report when the Postgres configuration
578 files were last loaded (George Gensure)
584 Add pg_terminate_backend() to safely terminate a backend (the SIGTERM
585 signal also works) (Tom, Bruce)
591 Add ability to track user-defined functions call counts and runtimes via
592 postgresql.conf variable 'track_functions' (Martin Pihlak)
596 Function statistics appear in a new system table, pg_stat_user_functions.
597 However, inlined SQL functions are not tracked.
603 Allow specification of the maximum pg_stat_activity query string size
604 via postgresql.conf variable track_activity_query_size (Thomas Lee)
610 Improve syslog performance by increasing the maximum line length
617 Add read-only postgresql.conf variables segment_size, wal_block_size,
618 and wal_segment_size (Bernd Helmle)
624 When reporting a deadlock, report all session queries involved in the
625 deadlock to the server log (Itagaki Takahiro)
631 New pg_stat_get_activity(pid) function to return information about a
632 specific process id (Magnus)
638 Move the server statistics file into the subdirectory pg_stat_tmp
639 and allow its location to be specified via stats_temp_directory (Magnus)
643 This allows the statistics file to be placed in a RAM-resident
644 directory to reduce I/O requirements. On startup/shutdown, the
645 file is copied to the top-level $PGDATA directory so it is preserved
655 <title>pg_hba.conf</title>
660 Parse pg_hba.conf in the postmaster so errors are reported on reload
665 Previously errors in the file wouldn't be detected until clients tried
666 to connect, which could leave the system with a broken file loaded.
672 Remove "sameuser" option from pg_hba.conf, making it the default if
673 no usermap is specified (Magnus)
679 Change all pg_hba.conf authentication options to be 'name=value'
686 Allow usermap parameter in pg_hba.conf for all external authentication
691 Previously this was only supported for ident authentication.
697 Allow 'ident' authentication over Unix-domain sockets on Solaris (Garick
704 Add pg_hba.conf option "clientcert" to control requesting of a client
709 Previously this was controlled by the presence of a root certificate
710 file in the server's data directory.
716 Add pg_hba.conf "cert" authentication method to allow user
717 authentication via SSL certificates (Magnus)
721 Previously SSL certificates could only verify that the client had access
722 to a certificate, not authenticate a user.
728 Allow krb5, gssapi and sspi realm and krb5 host settings to be specified
729 in pg_hba.conf (Magnus)
733 These override the settings in postgresql.conf.
739 Addkrb5, gssapi and sspi 'include_realm' parameter to pg_hba.conf
744 This allows identical usernames from different realms to be
745 authenticated as different database users using usermaps.
751 Show all parsing errors in pg_hba.conf instead of aborting after the
752 first one (Selena Deckelmann)
761 <title>Authentication</title>
766 Report appropriate error message for combination of MD5 authentication
767 and db_user_namespace enabled (Bruce)
773 Support regular expressions in pg_ident.conf (Magnus)
779 Allow Kerberos/GSSAPI parameters to be changed without restarting the
789 <title>Continuous Archiving</title>
794 Have pg_stop_backup() wait for modified WAL files to be archived (Simon)
798 This guarantees that the backup is valid at the time pg_stop_backup()
805 Prevent normal shutdown if a continuous archiving base backup is in
806 progress (Laurenz Albe)
812 Cancel a continuous archiving base backup if a fast shutdown is requested
819 Allow recovery.conf boolean variables to take the same range of string
820 values as postgresql.conf (Bruce)
829 <title>Queries</title>
834 Add support for WINDOW functions (Hitoshi Harada)
840 Add WITH clauses support, including WITH RECURSIVE (Yoshiyuki Asaba,
847 New TABLE command (Peter)
851 "TABLE tablename" is a short-hand for "SELECT * FROM tablename".
857 Allow AS to be optional when specifying a SELECT (or RETURNING) column
858 output label (assuming the label is not an SQL keyword) (Hiroshi Saito)
864 Support set-returning functions in the target lists of Agg and Group plan
865 nodes. This is a pretty ugly feature but since we don't yet have a
866 plausible substitute, we'd better support it everywhere (Tom) bjm:
873 Allow SELECT FOR UPDATE/SHARE to work on inheritance trees (Tom)
879 Add infrastructure for SQL/MED (Martin Pihlak, Peter)
883 There are no remote or external SQL/MED capabilities yet. bjm:
890 Invalidate cached plans when schemas, operators, or operator classes are
891 modified (Tom) bjm: effect?
897 Improve the plan cache invalidation mechanism to make it invalidate plans
898 when user-defined functions used in a plan are modified (Tom, Martin
905 Allow comparison of composite types and allow arrays of
906 possibly-anonymous composite types (Tom) bjm: clear?
910 Specifically this allows 'array[ row(1,2), row(3,4)]' and 'row(1,1.1)
911 = any (array[ row(7,7.7), row(1,1.0)'. This is particularly useful
912 for recursive queries.
918 Add support for Unicode string and identifier specifications using code
919 points, e.g. U&'d\0061t\+000061' (Peter)
925 Improve the parser's ability to report the error location of a query
935 <title>LIMIT/OFFSET</title>
940 Allow LIMIT and OFFSET to use subselects as arguments (Tom)
946 Document that LIMIT NULL and OFFSET NULL have no effect (Tom)
952 Add SQL-standards syntax for LIMIT/OFFSET capabilities (Peter)
958 OFFSET num {ROW|ROWS} FETCH {FIRST|NEXT} [num] {ROW|ROWS} ONLY.
967 <title>ALTER TABLE</title>
972 Add ALTER TYPE RENAME (Petr Jelinek)
978 Add ALTER SEQUENCE ... RESTART (no parameter) to reset a sequence to its
979 initial value (Zoltan Boszormenyi) bjm: compatibility problem?
985 Modify the ALTER TABLE syntax to allow all reasonable combinations for
986 tables, indexes, sequences, and views (Tom)
992 New syntax supported (these formerly required "ALTER TABLE")
1001 ALTER SEQUENCE OWNER TO
1006 ALTER VIEW ALTER COLUMN SET/DROP DEFAULT
1016 ALTER VIEW SET SCHEMA
1025 Add support for the syntax ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... SET DATA
1030 This is SQL-standard syntax for functionality that was already
1037 Have ALTER TABLE SET WITHOUT OIDS rewrite the table to remove oid values
1042 Also, add ALTER TABLE SET WITH OIDS to rewrite the table to add oids.
1048 Add ALTER DATABASE SET TABLESPACE to move a database to a new tablespace
1049 (Guillaume Lelarge, Bernd Helmle)
1058 <title>TRUNCATE</title>
1063 Support statement-level ON TRUNCATE triggers (Simon)
1069 Add TRUNCATE TABLE ... RESTART/CONTINUE IDENTITY clauses (Zoltan
1074 The start value of a sequence can be changed by ALTER SEQUENCE START
1081 Allow TRUNCATE foo, foo to succeed (Bruce)
1087 Add a separate TRUNCATE permission (Robert Haas)
1096 <title>Database Manipulation</title>
1101 Improve reporting of CREATE/DROP/RENAME DATABASE failure when
1102 uncommitted prepared transactions are the cause (Tom)
1108 Make LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE database-level settings (Radek Strnad, Heikki)
1112 This makes collation similar to encoding, which was always configurable
1119 Improve checks that the database encoding, collation (LC_COLLATE), and
1120 character classes (LC_CTYPE) match (Heikki)
1129 <title>Object Manipulation</title>
1134 Add support for column-level privileges (Stephen Frost, KaiGai Kohei)
1140 Improve reporting of dependencies during DROP commands (Alex Hunsaker)
1146 Refactor multi-object DROP operations so conflicting dependencies don't
1147 generate an error (Alex Hunsaker)
1153 Add WITH [NO] DATA clause to CREATE TABLE AS, per the SQL standard (Tom, Peter)
1159 Add support for user-defined I/O conversion casts (Heikki)
1165 Allow CREATE AGGREGATE to user an "internal" transition datatype (for
1166 super-users only) (Tom)
1172 Add LIKE clause to CREATE TYPE (Tom)
1176 This simplifies creation of data types like existing types.
1182 Allow CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW to add columns to the <emphasis>end</>
1183 of the view (Robert Haas)
1192 <title>EXPLAIN</title>
1197 Have EXPLAIN VERBOSE show the output columns of a query (Tom)
1201 Previously EXPLAIN VERBOSE had output an internal representation of the
1202 query plan. (That behavior is now available via debug_print_plan.)
1208 Have EXPLAIN honor debug_print_plan (Tom)
1214 Allow EXPLAIN on CREATE TABLE AS (Peter)
1223 <title>Indexes</title>
1228 Dramatically improve the speed of building and accessing hash indexes
1229 (Tom Raney, Shreya Bhargava, Kenneth Marshall)
1233 This allows hash indexes to be sometimes faster than btree indexes.
1234 However, hash indexes are still not crash-safe.
1240 Have hash indexes store only the hashed value, not the full indexed
1245 This greatly reduces the size of hash indexes for long indexed
1246 values, and improves performance.
1252 Remove requirement to use "@@@" when doing GIN weighted lookups on full
1259 Add optimizer selectivity function for '@@' text search operations (Jan
1266 Add partial match support for GIN indexes (Teodor Sigaev, Oleg Bartunov)
1272 Allow prefix matching in full text searches (Teodor Sigaev, Oleg
1279 Support multi-column GIN indexes (Teodor Sigaev)
1285 Special xxx_pattern_ops LIKE indexes can now be used for simple equality
1295 <title>VACUUM</title>
1300 Allow relation forks to track free space (Heikki)
1304 This allows the recording of all free space discovered by vacuum in
1305 *.fsm files, rather than having to limit recording to a fixed-sized
1306 shared memory area; max_fsm_pages and max_fsm_relations settings
1313 New visibility map file to track pages that do not require vacuum
1318 This allows VACUUM to avoid sequentially scanning a table when only a
1319 portion of the table needs vacuuming.
1325 Track explicit transaction snapshots (Alvaro)
1329 This improves space reuse by vacuum in the presence of long-running
1336 Add vacuum_freeze_table_age to postgresql.conf to control when VACUUM should
1337 ignore the visibility map and do a full table scan to set frozen xids
1344 Add ability to specify autovacuum and TOAST parameters in
1345 CREATE TABLE (Alvaro, Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
1349 Autovacuum options used to be stored in a system table.
1355 Add --freeze option to vacuumdb (Bruce)
1364 <title>Other Utility Operations</title>
1369 Add verbose option to the CLUSTER command and clusterdb (Jim Cox)
1375 Decrease memory requirements for recording pending trigger events (Tom)
1384 <title>General Data Types</title>
1389 Add a CaseSensitive option for text search synonym dictionaries (Simon)
1395 Improve the precision of NUMERIC division (Tom)
1401 Add int2 with int8 basic arithmetic operators (Tom)
1405 This simplifies casting requirements.
1411 Allow UUID input to accept optional hyphens after every four digits
1418 Accept 'on'/'off' as boolean data type values (ITAGAKI Takahiro)
1427 <title>Temporal Data Types</title>
1432 Reject year '0 BC' and years '000' and '0000' (Tom)
1436 Previously these were interpreted as 1 BC. (Years '0' and '00' are
1437 assumed to be the year 2000.)
1443 Include SGT (Singapore time) as a valid timezone abbreviation (Tom)
1449 Support the IS0 8601 time interval syntax (Tom, Kevin Grittner)
1453 For example, INTERVAL 'P1Y2M3DT4H5M6.7S' is now supported.
1459 Allow the interval precision to be specified after the last field, for
1460 SQL-standards compliance (Tom)
1464 Formerly the precision had to be specified after the keyword INTERVAL
1465 (the old syntax is still supported). Data type definitions will now
1466 be output using the new format.
1472 Support 'infinite' dates (Tom)
1478 Add postgresql.conf variable IntervalStyle which controls how interval
1479 values are output (Ron Mayer)
1483 Valid value are: postgres, postgres_verbose, sql_standard, iso_8601.
1484 This also controls handling of negative interval input when only some
1485 fields have positive/negative designations.
1491 Made interval seconds rounding more consistent across output
1502 <title>Arrays</title>
1507 Have cast on ARRAY[] apply to all elements, not just the array result
1512 This allows NULL ARRAY[] entries as long as it is properly cast
1518 Make the SQL ARRAY dimensions optional to match the SQL standard
1525 Add array_ndims() function to return the number of dimensions of an array (Robert
1532 Add array_length() function to return the length of an array for the
1533 specified dimensions (Jim Nasby, Robert Haas, Peter Eisentraut)
1537 Also add identically-functioning SQL-standard function cardinality().
1543 Add new aggregate function array_agg(), which returns all aggregated
1544 values as a single array (Robert Haas, Jeff Davis, Peter)
1550 Add function unnest(), which converts an array to individual row values
1555 This is the opposite of array_agg().
1561 Add array_fill() to create arrays initialized with a value (Pavel Stehule)
1567 Add generate_subscripts() to generate array subscripts (Pavel Stehule)
1573 Generate proper error if a SERIAL array is specified (Tom)
1582 <title>General Functions</title>
1587 Document that setseed() allows values from -1 to 1 (not 0 to 1), and
1588 enforce the valid range (Kris Jurka)
1594 Add server side lo_import(filename, oid) function (Tatsuo)
1600 Add quote_nullable(), which behaves like quote_literal() but returns
1601 'NULL' for a null argument (Brendan Jurd)
1607 Improve full text search headline() generation to allow several
1608 fragments (Sushant Sinha)
1614 Add suppress_redundant_updates_trigger() trigger function to avoid
1615 non-data-changing updates (Andrew)
1621 Add div(NUMERIC, NUMERIC) for NUMERIC division, without rounding (Tom)
1627 Add timestamp and timestamptz versions of generate_series() (Hitoshi
1637 <title>Object Information Functions</title>
1642 Implement current_query() for use by functions that need to know the
1643 currently running query (Tomas Doran)
1649 Add pg_get_keywords() function to return predefined parser keywords
1656 Add function pg_get_functiondef() to see a functions definition (Abhijit
1663 Modify pg_relation_size() to handle free space map (*.fsm) files
1670 Modify pg_relation_size() to use 'regclass' (Heikki)
1674 pg_relation_size(data_type_name) no longer works.
1680 Add boot_val and reset_val columns to pg_settings output (Greg Smith)
1686 Add support for CURRENT_CATALOG, CURRENT_SCHEMA, SET CATALOG, SET SCHEMA
1691 These are SQL-standard capabilities.
1697 Add pg_typeof() function to return the data type of any value (Brendan
1704 Have version() return information about whether the server is a 32
1705 or 64-bit binary (Bruce)
1711 Fix the behavior of information schema columns is_insertable_into and
1712 is_updatable to be consistent (Peter)
1718 Convert remaining builtin set-returning functions to use OUT parameters
1723 This makes it possible to call these functions without specifying
1724 a column list: pg_show_all_settings(), pg_lock_status(),
1725 pg_prepared_xact(), pg_prepared_statement(), pg_cursor()
1731 Have pg_*_is_visible and has_*_privilege functions return NULL for
1732 invalid oids, rather than generate an error (Tom)
1738 Add has_column_privilege() and has_any_column_privilege() functions
1739 (Stephen Frost, Tom)
1748 <title>Function Creation</title>
1753 Support variadic functions (functions with a variable number of
1754 arguments) (Pavel Stehule)
1758 Only trailing arguments can be of variable length, and they all must
1759 be of the same data type.
1765 Allow DEFAULT values for function arguments (Pavel Stehule)
1771 Add CREATE FUNCTION ... RETURNS TABLE clause (Pavel Stehule)
1777 Allow SQL-language functions to return the output of an INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE
1778 RETURNING clause (Tom)
1782 Formerly only SELECT was supported.
1791 <title>PL/PgSQL Server-Side Language</title>
1796 Support EXECUTE USING in PL/pgSQL (Pavel Stehule)
1802 Allow PL/pgSQL to loop over an open cursor using a FOR loop (Pavel
1809 Support RETURN QUERY EXECUTE in PL/pgSQL (Pavel Stehule)
1815 Improve the PL/pgSQL RAISE command (Pavel Stehule)
1824 Support DETAIL and HINT fields
1829 Support SQLSTATE error codes
1834 Support an exception name parameter
1839 Allow RAISE without parameters in an exception
1840 block to rethrow the current error
1849 Allow the specification of SQLSTATE numeric codes in EXCEPTION lists
1854 This is useful for handling custom SQLSTATE codes.
1860 Support CASE statement in PL/pgSQL (Pavel Stehule)
1866 Add PL/PgSQL FOUND and GET DIAGNOSTICS support for the RETURN QUERY
1867 statement (Pavel Stehule)
1873 Add PL/pgSQL translation (Alvaro)
1882 <title>General <link linkend="APP-PSQL"><application>psql</></link></title>
1887 Remove psql startup banner; now just suggest 'help' (Joshua Drake)
1893 Have psql 'help' show common backslash commands (Greg Sabino Mullane)
1899 Add psql '\pset format wrapped' mode to wrap output to screen width, or
1900 file/pipe output too if \pset columns' is set (Bryce Nesbitt)
1906 Use the psql pager for wide output (Bruce)
1912 Require a space between a psql backslash command and the first argument (Bernd
1919 Display access control rights on multiple lines in psql (Brendan Jurd,
1926 Improve psql tab completion support for schema qualified and quoted
1927 identifiers (Greg Sabino Mullane)
1933 Allow the normal range of boolean values in \pset, rather than just
1934 'on' and 'off' (Bruce)
1940 Add optional on/off argument to psql \timing (David Fetter)
1946 Have psql \l show access privileges (Andrew Gilligan)
1952 Have psql \l+ show database sizes, if permissions allow (Andrew Gilligan)
1958 Add psql \ef command to edit function definitions (Abhijit Menon-Sen)
1962 \ef without a function names creates an empty function template for
1972 <title><link linkend="APP-PSQL"><application>psql</></link> \d*</title>
1977 Have psql \d display references to this table as a foreign-key constraint
1984 Have psql \d show the value of sequence columns (Euler Taveira de
1991 Add column storage type and other relation options to psql \d+ display
1992 (Gregory Stark, Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
1998 Show relation size in psql \d+ output (Dickson S. Guedes)
2004 Have all psql \d* commands show system objects only if 'S' is specified
2005 (Greg Sabino Mullane)
2009 psql \dt already behaved this way.
2015 Make psql \d and \dt consistent in their display of system tables
2020 Previously, '\d pg_class' would show pg_class while '\dt pg_class'
2027 Show enumerated values in psql's \dT+ (David Fetter)
2033 Allow psql \dC to accept wildcard patterns (Tom)
2039 Allow psql \d* commands to work with versions of Postgres back to 7.4
2049 <title><link linkend="APP-PGDUMP"><application>pg_dump</></link></title>
2054 Add --no-tablespaces option to pg_dump/pg_dumpall/pg_restore so dumps
2055 can be restored to clusters that have non-matching tablespace layouts
2062 Remove -i/--ignore-version option from pg_dump and pg_dumpall (Tom)
2066 Use of the options does not throw an error, but it has no effect.
2067 This option was removed because the version checks are considered
2074 Disable statement_timeout during dump and restore (Joshua Drake)
2080 Add pg_dump/pg_dumpall option --lock-wait-timeout (David Gould)
2084 Allows dumps to fail if unable to acquire shared lock within the
2085 specified amount of time.
2091 Reorder pg_dump --data-only output to dump primary-key tables referenced
2092 by foreign keys are dumped before the foreign-key referencing tables
2097 This allows data loads when foreign keys are already present. If
2098 circular references make this impossible, issue a NOTICE.
2104 Allow pg_dump, pg_dumpall, and pg_restore to use a specified role (Benedek
2111 Allow pg_restore of a custom format archive to use multiple concurrent
2112 connections to do the restore (Andrew)
2116 The number of concurrent connections is controlled by the option
2123 Add new pg_dump --binary-upgrade flag to be used by binary upgrade
2133 <title>Other Client Applications</title>
2138 Fix 'pg_ctl restart' to preserve command-line arguments (Bruce)
2144 Add -w/--no-password option that suppresses password prompts to all
2145 utilities that have a -W/--password option (Peter)
2151 Remove -q (quiet) option for create* and drop* utility commands (Peter)
2155 These options have had no effect since 8.3.
2164 <title>General <link linkend="libpq"><application>libpq</></link></title>
2169 Allow the OID to be specified when importing large objects using
2170 libpq lo_import_with_oid() (Tatsuo)
2176 Add events support to libpq (Andrew Chernow, Merlin Moncure)
2180 This adds the ability to register callbacks to handle private data
2181 for connection and result creation and destruction.
2187 Improve libpq error handling to allow the return of multiple error
2188 messages as multi-line error reports (Magnus)
2194 Have libpq PQexecParams() return PGRES_EMPTY_QUERY for an empty query
2199 It previously returned PGRES_COMMAND_OK.
2205 Document how to avoid the libpq overhead of WSACleanup() overhead on
2206 Windows (Andrew Chernow)
2215 <title><link linkend="libpq"><application>libpq</></link> SSL</title>
2220 Fix libpq certificate validation for SSL connections (Magnus)
2224 libpq now verifies both the certificate and the name of the server by
2225 default when making SSL connections. If a root certificate is not
2226 available to use for verification, SSL connections will fail. The
2227 "sslverify" parameter can be used to disable the host and certificate
2228 verification if required.
2234 Allow the file locations for libpq SSL certificates to be specified
2235 (Mark Woodward, Alvaro, Magnus)
2241 Add libpq connection parameter "sslverify" to control the verification
2242 of the server's SSL certificate (Magnus)
2246 The default is full verification.
2252 Properly unregister OpenSSL callbacks when libpq is done with
2253 all connection (Bruce, Magnus, Russell Smith)
2257 This is required for applications that unload the libpq library so
2258 no invalid OpenSSL callbacks remain.
2267 <title><link linkend="ecpg"><application>ecpg</></link></title>
2272 Add localization support for ecpg messages (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
2278 ecpg parser is now automatically generated from the server parser
2283 Previously a separate ecpg parser was maintained.
2293 <title>Server Programming Interface (<acronym>SPI</>)</title>
2298 Add SPI support for single-use plans with out-of-line parameters (Tom)
2304 Add new SPI_OK_REWRITTEN return code to SPI_execute() (Heikki)
2308 This is used when a command is rewritten to another type of command.
2317 <title>Build Options</title>
2322 Support 64-bit timezone data files (Heikki)
2326 This adds support for daylight saving time (DST) calculations beyond 2038.
2332 Fix bug in handling of the timezone database when cross-compiling
2339 Update build system to use Autoconf 2.61 (Peter)
2345 Require GNU bison for source code builds (Peter)
2349 This has been a requirement for several years but this removes the
2350 infrastructure for supporting other parser tools.
2356 Add pg_config --htmldir option (Peter)
2362 Pass float4 by value inside the server (Zoltan Boszormenyi)
2366 Add configure option --disable-float4-byval to use the old
2373 Pass float8 and int8 by value in the server where possible (Zoltan
2378 Add configure option --disable-float8-byval to use the old behavior.
2384 Add configure options -with-segsize, --with-blocksize,
2385 --with-wal-blocksize, --with-wal-segsize (Zdenek Kotala, Tom)
2389 This allows compile-time control over several compile-time constants
2390 that control how large tables and WAL are segmented into separate files and
2391 their internal block sizes
2397 Allow threaded builds on Solaris 2.5 (Bruce)
2403 Add support for Sun Studio compiler on Linux (Julius Stroffek)
2409 Append major version number to the gettext domain name, and for
2410 libraries the soname major version number (Peter)
2414 This simplifies parallel installations.
2420 Allow out-of-tree builds on Mingw and Cygwin (Richard Evans)
2426 Fix the use of Mingw32 as a cross-compiling source platform (Peter)
2432 Fix problem when setting LC_MESSAGES on MSVC-built systems (Hiroshi
2433 Inoue, Hiroshi Saito, Magnus) bjm: details?
2442 <title>Source Code</title>
2447 Link backend object files in one step, rather than in stages (Peter)
2453 Additional DTrace probes (Robert Lor)
2459 Add DTrace support on Mac OS X Leopard (Robert Lor)
2465 Add new cstring to text conversion functions (Brendan Jurd, Tom)
2471 Improve logic for shared cache invalidation (Tom)
2477 Make "name" char-aligned (Tom) bjm: pg_upgrade?
2483 Add function hook to let plug-ins control the executor (ITAGAKI
2490 Add a hook to allow planner statistics lookup behavior to be overridden
2497 Add "shmem_startup_hook" for custom shared memory requirements (Tom)
2503 Replace pg_class column reltriggers with boolean relhastriggers (Simon)
2507 Also remove unused pg_class columns relukeys, relfkeys, and relrefs.
2513 Move SQL-command manual pages from the 'manl' (man-el) section to 'man7'
2520 Move platform FAQs into the main documentation (Peter)
2526 Add %expect 0 to all parser input files to prevent builds with parser
2533 Add support for the KOI8U (Ukrainian) encoding (Peter)
2542 <title>Contrib</title>
2547 Add -M (query mode) to /contrib/pgbench (ITAGAKI Takahiro)
2553 Add duration option to /contrib/pgbench (ITAGAKI Takahiro)
2559 Fix /contrib/pgstattuple to handle tables and indexes with over 2
2560 billion pages (Tatsuhito Kasahara)
2566 Add Levenshtein string-distance function to /contrib/fuzzystrmatch
2567 that allows the user to specify the cost of insertion, deletion,
2568 and substitution (Volkan Yazici)
2574 Remove dblink_current_query() from /contrib/dblink; it should now use
2575 current_query() (Tomas Doran)
2581 Have /contrib/ltree support multibyte encodings (laser)
2587 Add /contrib/citext as a case-insensitive, multibyte-capable text data type (David Wheeler)
2593 Make sure /contrib/dblink uses a password supplied by the user, and not
2594 accidentally from the server .pgpass file (Joe Conway)
2598 This is a security enhancement.
2604 Add fsm_page_contents() to contrib/pageinspect (Heikki)
2608 Modify get_raw_page() to support free space map (*.fsm) files.
2609 Also update /contrib/pg_freespacemap.
2615 Add support for multibyte encodings to /contrib/pg_trgm (Teodor)
2621 Rewrite contrib/intagg to user new server-side functions array_agg() and
2628 Add /contrib/auto_explain to automatically run EXPLAIN on queries
2629 exceeding a specified duration (Takahiro Itagaki, Tom)
2635 Add contrib/pg_stat_statements for server-wide tracking of statement execution
2636 statistics (Takahiro Itagaki)
2646 <sect1 id="release-8-3-7">
2647 <title>Release 8.3.7</title>
2650 <title>Release date</title>
2651 <simpara>2009-03-16</simpara>
2655 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.3.6.
2656 For information about new features in the 8.3 major release, see
2657 <xref linkend="release-8-3">.
2661 <title>Migration to Version 8.3.7</title>
2664 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.3.X.
2665 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.3.5,
2666 see the release notes for 8.3.5.
2672 <title>Changes</title>
2678 Prevent error recursion crashes when encoding conversion fails (Tom)
2682 This change extends fixes made in the last two minor releases for
2683 related failure scenarios. The previous fixes were narrowly tailored
2684 for the original problem reports, but we have now recognized that
2685 <emphasis>any</> error thrown by an encoding conversion function could
2686 potentially lead to infinite recursion while trying to report the
2687 error. The solution therefore is to disable translation and encoding
2688 conversion and report the plain-ASCII form of any error message,
2689 if we find we have gotten into a recursive error reporting situation.
2696 Disallow <command>CREATE CONVERSION</> with the wrong encodings
2697 for the specified conversion function (Heikki)
2701 This prevents one possible scenario for encoding conversion failure.
2702 The previous change is a backstop to guard against other kinds of
2703 failures in the same area.
2709 Fix <function>xpath()</> to not modify the path expression unless
2710 necessary, and to make a saner attempt at it when necessary (Andrew)
2714 The SQL standard suggests that <function>xpath</> should work on data
2715 that is a document fragment, but <application>libxml</> doesn't support
2716 that, and indeed it's not clear that this is sensible according to the
2717 XPath standard. <function>xpath</> attempted to work around this
2718 mismatch by modifying both the data and the path expression, but the
2719 modification was buggy and could cause valid searches to fail. Now,
2720 <function>xpath</> checks whether the data is in fact a well-formed
2721 document, and if so invokes <application>libxml</> with no change to the
2722 data or path expression. Otherwise, a different modification method
2723 that is somewhat less likely to fail is used.
2728 The new modification method is still not 100% satisfactory, and it
2729 seems likely that no real solution is possible. This patch should
2730 therefore be viewed as a band-aid to keep from breaking existing
2731 applications unnecessarily. It is likely that
2732 <productname>PostgreSQL</> 8.4 will simply reject use of
2733 <function>xpath</> on data that is not a well-formed document.
2740 Fix core dump when <function>to_char()</> is given format codes that
2741 are inappropriate for the type of the data argument (Tom)
2747 Fix possible failure in text search when C locale is used with
2748 a multi-byte encoding (Teodor)
2752 Crashes were possible on platforms where <type>wchar_t</> is narrower
2753 than <type>int</>; Windows in particular.
2759 Fix extreme inefficiency in text search parser's handling of an
2760 email-like string containing multiple <literal>@</> characters (Heikki)
2766 Fix planner problem with sub-<command>SELECT</> in the output list
2767 of a larger subquery (Tom)
2771 The known symptom of this bug is a <quote>failed to locate grouping
2772 columns</> error that is dependent on the datatype involved;
2773 but there could be other issues as well.
2779 Fix decompilation of <literal>CASE WHEN</> with an implicit coercion
2784 This mistake could lead to Assert failures in an Assert-enabled build,
2785 or an <quote>unexpected CASE WHEN clause</> error message in other
2786 cases, when trying to examine or dump a view.
2792 Fix possible misassignment of the owner of a TOAST table's rowtype (Tom)
2796 If <command>CLUSTER</> or a rewriting variant of <command>ALTER TABLE</>
2797 were executed by someone other than the table owner, the
2798 <structname>pg_type</> entry for the table's TOAST table would end up
2799 marked as owned by that someone. This caused no immediate problems,
2800 since the permissions on the TOAST rowtype aren't examined by any
2801 ordinary database operation. However, it could lead to unexpected
2802 failures if one later tried to drop the role that issued the command
2803 (in 8.1 or 8.2), or <quote>owner of data type appears to be invalid</>
2804 warnings from <application>pg_dump</> after having done so (in 8.3).
2810 Change <command>UNLISTEN</> to exit quickly if the current session has
2811 never executed any <command>LISTEN</> command (Tom)
2815 Most of the time this is not a particularly useful optimization, but
2816 since <command>DISCARD ALL</> invokes <command>UNLISTEN</>, the previous
2817 coding caused a substantial performance problem for applications that
2818 made heavy use of <command>DISCARD ALL</>.
2824 Fix PL/pgSQL to not treat <literal>INTO</> after <command>INSERT</> as
2825 an INTO-variables clause anywhere in the string, not only at the start;
2826 in particular, don't fail for <command>INSERT INTO</> within
2827 <command>CREATE RULE</> (Tom)
2833 Clean up PL/pgSQL error status variables fully at block exit
2834 (Ashesh Vashi and Dave Page)
2838 This is not a problem for PL/pgSQL itself, but the omission could cause
2839 the PL/pgSQL Debugger to crash while examining the state of a function.
2845 Retry failed calls to <function>CallNamedPipe()</> on Windows
2846 (Steve Marshall, Magnus)
2850 It appears that this function can sometimes fail transiently;
2851 we previously treated any failure as a hard error, which could
2852 confuse <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</> as well as other
2859 Add <literal>MUST</> (Mauritius Island Summer Time) to the default list
2860 of known timezone abbreviations (Xavier Bugaud)
2869 <sect1 id="release-8-3-6">
2870 <title>Release 8.3.6</title>
2873 <title>Release date</title>
2874 <simpara>2009-02-02</simpara>
2878 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.3.5.
2879 For information about new features in the 8.3 major release, see
2880 <xref linkend="release-8-3">.
2884 <title>Migration to Version 8.3.6</title>
2887 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.3.X.
2888 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.3.5,
2889 see the release notes for 8.3.5.
2895 <title>Changes</title>
2901 Make <command>DISCARD ALL</> release advisory locks, in addition
2902 to everything it already did (Tom)
2906 This was decided to be the most appropriate behavior. This could
2907 affect existing applications, however.
2913 Fix whole-index GiST scans to work correctly (Teodor)
2917 This error could cause rows to be lost if a table is clustered
2924 Fix crash of <literal>xmlconcat(NULL)</> (Peter)
2930 Fix possible crash in <literal>ispell</> dictionary if high-bit-set
2931 characters are used as flags (Teodor)
2935 This is known to be done by one widely available Norwegian dictionary,
2936 and the same condition may exist in others.
2942 Fix misordering of <application>pg_dump</> output for composite types
2947 The most likely problem was for user-defined operator classes to
2948 be dumped after indexes or views that needed them.
2954 Improve handling of URLs in <function>headline()</> function (Teodor)
2960 Improve handling of overlength headlines in <function>headline()</>
2967 Prevent possible Assert failure or misconversion if an encoding
2968 conversion is created with the wrong conversion function for the
2969 specified pair of encodings (Tom, Heikki)
2975 Fix possible Assert failure if a statement executed in PL/pgSQL is
2976 rewritten into another kind of statement, for example if an
2977 <command>INSERT</> is rewritten into an <command>UPDATE</> (Heikki)
2983 Ensure that a snapshot is available to datatype input functions (Tom)
2987 This primarily affects domains that are declared with <literal>CHECK</>
2988 constraints involving user-defined stable or immutable functions. Such
2989 functions typically fail if no snapshot has been set.
2995 Make it safer for SPI-using functions to be used within datatype I/O;
2996 in particular, to be used in domain check constraints (Tom)
3002 Avoid unnecessary locking of small tables in <command>VACUUM</>
3009 Fix a problem that sometimes kept <command>ALTER TABLE ENABLE/DISABLE
3010 RULE</> from being recognized by active sessions (Tom)
3016 Fix a problem that made <literal>UPDATE RETURNING tableoid</>
3017 return zero instead of the correct OID (Tom)
3023 Allow functions declared as taking <type>ANYARRAY</> to work on
3024 the <structname>pg_statistic</> columns of that type (Tom)
3028 This used to work, but was unintentionally broken in 8.3.
3034 Fix planner misestimation of selectivity when transitive equality
3035 is applied to an outer-join clause (Tom)
3039 This could result in bad plans for queries like
3040 <literal>... from a left join b on a.a1 = b.b1 where a.a1 = 42 ...</>
3046 Improve optimizer's handling of long <literal>IN</> lists (Tom)
3050 This change avoids wasting large amounts of time on such lists
3051 when constraint exclusion is enabled.
3057 Prevent synchronous scan during GIN index build (Tom)
3061 Because GIN is optimized for inserting tuples in increasing TID order,
3062 choosing to use a synchronous scan could slow the build by a factor of
3069 Ensure that the contents of a holdable cursor don't depend on the
3070 contents of TOAST tables (Tom)
3074 Previously, large field values in a cursor result might be represented
3075 as TOAST pointers, which would fail if the referenced table got dropped
3076 before the cursor is read, or if the large value is deleted and then
3077 vacuumed away. This cannot happen with an ordinary cursor,
3078 but it could with a cursor that is held past its creating transaction.
3084 Fix memory leak when a set-returning function is terminated without
3085 reading its whole result (Tom)
3091 Fix encoding conversion problems in XML functions when the database
3092 encoding isn't UTF-8 (Tom)
3098 Fix <filename>contrib/dblink</>'s
3099 <function>dblink_get_result(text,bool)</> function (Joe)
3105 Fix possible garbage output from <filename>contrib/sslinfo</> functions
3112 Fix incorrect behavior of <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> compatibility
3113 trigger when it's fired more than once in a command (Teodor)
3119 Fix possible mis-signaling in autovacuum (Heikki)
3125 Support running as a service on Windows 7 beta (Dave and Magnus)
3131 Fix <application>ecpg</>'s handling of varchar structs (Michael)
3137 Fix <application>configure</> script to properly report failure when
3138 unable to obtain linkage information for PL/Perl (Andrew)
3144 Make all documentation reference <literal>pgsql-bugs</> and/or
3145 <literal>pgsql-hackers</> as appropriate, instead of the
3146 now-decommissioned <literal>pgsql-ports</> and <literal>pgsql-patches</>
3153 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2009a (for
3154 Kathmandu and historical DST corrections in Switzerland, Cuba)
3163 <sect1 id="release-8-3-5">
3164 <title>Release 8.3.5</title>
3167 <title>Release date</title>
3168 <simpara>2008-11-03</simpara>
3172 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.3.4.
3173 For information about new features in the 8.3 major release, see
3174 <xref linkend="release-8-3">.
3178 <title>Migration to Version 8.3.5</title>
3181 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.3.X.
3182 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.3.1,
3183 see the release notes for 8.3.1. Also, if you were running a previous
3184 8.3.X release, it is recommended to <command>REINDEX</> all GiST
3185 indexes after the upgrade.
3191 <title>Changes</title>
3197 Fix GiST index corruption due to marking the wrong index entry
3198 <quote>dead</> after a deletion (Teodor)
3202 This would result in index searches failing to find rows they
3203 should have found. Corrupted indexes can be fixed with
3204 <command>REINDEX</>.
3210 Fix backend crash when the client encoding cannot represent a localized
3215 We have addressed similar issues before, but it would still fail if
3216 the <quote>character has no equivalent</> message itself couldn't
3217 be converted. The fix is to disable localization and send the plain
3218 ASCII error message when we detect such a situation.
3224 Fix possible crash in <type>bytea</>-to-XML mapping (Michael McMaster)
3230 Fix possible crash when deeply nested functions are invoked from
3237 Improve optimization of <replaceable>expression</> <literal>IN</>
3238 (<replaceable>expression-list</>) queries (Tom, per an idea from Robert
3243 Cases in which there are query variables on the right-hand side had been
3244 handled less efficiently in 8.2.x and 8.3.x than in prior versions.
3245 The fix restores 8.1 behavior for such cases.
3251 Fix mis-expansion of rule queries when a sub-<literal>SELECT</> appears
3252 in a function call in <literal>FROM</>, a multi-row <literal>VALUES</>
3253 list, or a <literal>RETURNING</> list (Tom)
3257 The usual symptom of this problem is an <quote>unrecognized node type</>
3264 Fix Assert failure during rescan of an <literal>IS NULL</>
3265 search of a GiST index (Teodor)
3271 Fix memory leak during rescan of a hashed aggregation plan (Neil)
3277 Ensure an error is reported when a newly-defined PL/pgSQL trigger
3278 function is invoked as a normal function (Tom)
3284 Force a checkpoint before <command>CREATE DATABASE</> starts to copy
3289 This prevents a possible failure if files had recently been deleted
3290 in the source database.
3296 Prevent possible collision of <structfield>relfilenode</> numbers
3297 when moving a table to another tablespace with <command>ALTER SET
3298 TABLESPACE</> (Heikki)
3302 The command tried to re-use the existing filename, instead of
3303 picking one that is known unused in the destination directory.
3309 Fix incorrect text search headline generation when single query
3310 item matches first word of text (Sushant Sinha)
3316 Fix improper display of fractional seconds in interval values when
3317 using a non-ISO datestyle in an <option>--enable-integer-datetimes</>
3324 Make <literal>ILIKE</> compare characters case-insensitively
3325 even when they're escaped (Andrew)
3331 Ensure <command>DISCARD</> is handled properly by statement logging (Tom)
3337 Fix incorrect logging of last-completed-transaction time during
3344 Ensure <function>SPI_getvalue</> and <function>SPI_getbinval</>
3345 behave correctly when the passed tuple and tuple descriptor have
3346 different numbers of columns (Tom)
3350 This situation is normal when a table has had columns added or removed,
3351 but these two functions didn't handle it properly.
3352 The only likely consequence is an incorrect error indication.
3358 Mark <varname>SessionReplicationRole</> as <literal>PGDLLIMPORT</>
3359 so it can be used by <application>Slony</> on Windows (Magnus)
3365 Fix small memory leak when using <application>libpq</>'s
3366 <literal>gsslib</> parameter (Magnus)
3370 The space used by the parameter string was not freed at connection
3377 Ensure <application>libgssapi</> is linked into <application>libpq</>
3378 if needed (Markus Schaaf)
3384 Fix <application>ecpg</>'s parsing of <command>CREATE ROLE</> (Michael)
3390 Fix recent breakage of <literal>pg_ctl restart</> (Tom)
3396 Ensure <filename>pg_control</> is opened in binary mode
3401 <application>pg_controldata</> and <application>pg_resetxlog</>
3402 did this incorrectly, and so could fail on Windows.
3408 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008i (for
3409 DST law changes in Argentina, Brazil, Mauritius, Syria)
3418 <sect1 id="release-8-3-4">
3419 <title>Release 8.3.4</title>
3422 <title>Release date</title>
3423 <simpara>2008-09-22</simpara>
3427 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.3.3.
3428 For information about new features in the 8.3 major release, see
3429 <xref linkend="release-8-3">.
3433 <title>Migration to Version 8.3.4</title>
3436 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.3.X.
3437 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.3.1,
3438 see the release notes for 8.3.1.
3444 <title>Changes</title>
3450 Fix bug in btree WAL recovery code (Heikki)
3454 Recovery failed if the WAL ended partway through a page split operation.
3460 Fix potential use of wrong cutoff XID for HOT page pruning (Alvaro)
3464 This error created a risk of corruption in system
3465 catalogs that are consulted by <command>VACUUM</>: dead tuple versions
3466 might be removed too soon. The impact of this on actual database
3467 operations would be minimal, since the system doesn't follow MVCC
3468 rules while examining catalogs, but it might result in transiently
3469 wrong output from <application>pg_dump</> or other client programs.
3475 Fix potential miscalculation of <structfield>datfrozenxid</> (Alvaro)
3479 This error may explain some recent reports of failure to remove old
3480 <structname>pg_clog</> data.
3486 Fix incorrect HOT updates after <structname>pg_class</> is reindexed
3491 Corruption of <structname>pg_class</> could occur if <literal>REINDEX
3492 TABLE pg_class</> was followed in the same session by an <literal>ALTER
3493 TABLE RENAME</> or <literal>ALTER TABLE SET SCHEMA</> command.
3499 Fix missed <quote>combo cid</> case (Karl Schnaitter)
3503 This error made rows incorrectly invisible to a transaction in which they
3504 had been deleted by multiple subtransactions that all aborted.
3510 Prevent autovacuum from crashing if the table it's currently
3511 checking is deleted at just the wrong time (Alvaro)
3517 Widen local lock counters from 32 to 64 bits (Tom)
3521 This responds to reports that the counters could overflow in
3522 sufficiently long transactions, leading to unexpected <quote>lock is
3523 already held</> errors.
3529 Fix possible duplicate output of tuples during a GiST index scan (Teodor)
3535 Regenerate foreign key checking queries from scratch when either
3536 table is modified (Tom)
3540 Previously, 8.3 would attempt to replan the query, but would work from
3541 previously generated query text. This led to failures if a
3542 table or column was renamed.
3548 Fix missed permissions checks when a view contains a simple
3549 <literal>UNION ALL</> construct (Heikki)
3553 Permissions for the referenced tables were checked properly, but not
3554 permissions for the view itself.
3560 Add checks in executor startup to ensure that the tuples produced by an
3561 <command>INSERT</> or <command>UPDATE</> will match the target table's
3562 current rowtype (Tom)
3566 This situation is believed to be impossible in 8.3, but it can happen in
3567 prior releases, so a check seems prudent.
3573 Fix possible repeated drops during <command>DROP OWNED</> (Tom)
3577 This would typically result in strange errors such as <quote>cache
3578 lookup failed for relation NNN</>.
3584 Fix several memory leaks in XML operations (Kris Jurka, Tom)
3590 Fix <function>xmlserialize()</> to raise error properly for
3591 unacceptable target data type (Tom)
3597 Fix a couple of places that mis-handled multibyte characters in text
3598 search configuration file parsing (Tom)
3602 Certain characters occurring in configuration files would always cause
3603 <quote>invalid byte sequence for encoding</> failures.
3609 Provide file name and line number location for all errors reported
3610 in text search configuration files (Tom)
3616 Fix <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> to first try to interpret its timezone
3617 argument as a timezone abbreviation, and only try it as a full timezone
3618 name if that fails, rather than the other way around as formerly (Tom)
3622 The timestamp input functions have always resolved ambiguous zone names
3623 in this order. Making <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> do so as well improves
3624 consistency, and fixes a compatibility bug introduced in 8.1:
3625 in ambiguous cases we now behave the same as 8.0 and before did,
3626 since in the older versions <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> accepted
3627 <emphasis>only</> abbreviations.
3633 Fix datetime input functions to correctly detect integer overflow when
3634 running on a 64-bit platform (Tom)
3640 Prevent integer overflows during units conversion when displaying a
3641 configuration parameter that has units (Tom)
3647 Improve performance of writing very long log messages to syslog (Tom)
3653 Allow spaces in the suffix part of an LDAP URL in
3654 <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Tom)
3660 Fix bug in backwards scanning of a cursor on a <literal>SELECT DISTINCT
3667 Fix planner bug that could improperly push down <literal>IS NULL</>
3668 tests below an outer join (Tom)
3672 This was triggered by occurrence of <literal>IS NULL</> tests for
3673 the same relation in all arms of an upper <literal>OR</> clause.
3679 Fix planner bug with nested sub-select expressions (Tom)
3683 If the outer sub-select has no direct dependency on the parent query,
3684 but the inner one does, the outer value might not get recalculated
3685 for new parent query rows.
3691 Fix planner to estimate that <literal>GROUP BY</> expressions yielding
3692 boolean results always result in two groups, regardless of the
3693 expressions' contents (Tom)
3697 This is very substantially more accurate than the regular <literal>GROUP
3698 BY</> estimate for certain boolean tests like <replaceable>col</>
3699 <literal>IS NULL</>.
3705 Fix PL/PgSQL to not fail when a <literal>FOR</> loop's target variable
3706 is a record containing composite-type fields (Tom)
3712 Fix PL/Tcl to behave correctly with Tcl 8.5, and to be more careful
3713 about the encoding of data sent to or from Tcl (Tom)
3719 Improve performance of <function>PQescapeBytea()</> (Rudolf Leitgeb)
3725 On Windows, work around a Microsoft bug by preventing
3726 <application>libpq</> from trying to send more than 64kB per system call
3733 Fix <application>ecpg</> to handle variables properly in <command>SET</>
3740 Improve <application>pg_dump</> and <application>pg_restore</>'s
3741 error reporting after failure to send a SQL command (Tom)
3747 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to properly preserve postmaster
3748 command-line arguments across a <literal>restart</> (Bruce)
3754 Fix erroneous WAL file cutoff point calculation in
3755 <application>pg_standby</> (Simon)
3761 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008f (for
3762 DST law changes in Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Mauritius, Morocco,
3763 Pakistan, Palestine, and Paraguay)
3772 <sect1 id="release-8-3-3">
3773 <title>Release 8.3.3</title>
3776 <title>Release date</title>
3777 <simpara>2008-06-12</simpara>
3781 This release contains one serious and one minor bug fix over 8.3.2.
3782 For information about new features in the 8.3 major release, see
3783 <xref linkend="release-8-3">.
3787 <title>Migration to Version 8.3.3</title>
3790 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.3.X.
3791 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.3.1,
3792 see the release notes for 8.3.1.
3798 <title>Changes</title>
3804 Make <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> parenthesize negative constants (Tom)
3808 Before this fix, a negative constant in a view or rule might be dumped
3809 as, say, <literal>-42::integer</>, which is subtly incorrect: it should
3810 be <literal>(-42)::integer</> due to operator precedence rules.
3811 Usually this would make little difference, but it could interact with
3812 another recent patch to cause
3813 <productname>PostgreSQL</> to reject what had been a valid
3814 <command>SELECT DISTINCT</> view query. Since this could result in
3815 <application>pg_dump</> output failing to reload, it is being treated
3816 as a high-priority fix. The only released versions in which dump
3817 output is actually incorrect are 8.3.1 and 8.2.7.
3823 Make <command>ALTER AGGREGATE ... OWNER TO</> update
3824 <structname>pg_shdepend</> (Tom)
3828 This oversight could lead to problems if the aggregate was later
3829 involved in a <command>DROP OWNED</> or <command>REASSIGN OWNED</>
3839 <sect1 id="release-8-3-2">
3840 <title>Release 8.3.2</title>
3843 <title>Release date</title>
3844 <simpara>never released</simpara>
3848 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.3.1.
3849 For information about new features in the 8.3 major release, see
3850 <xref linkend="release-8-3">.
3854 <title>Migration to Version 8.3.2</title>
3857 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.3.X.
3858 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.3.1,
3859 see the release notes for 8.3.1.
3865 <title>Changes</title>
3871 Fix <literal>ERRORDATA_STACK_SIZE exceeded</literal> crash that
3872 occurred on Windows when using UTF-8 database encoding and a different
3873 client encoding (Tom)
3879 Fix incorrect archive truncation point calculation for the
3880 <literal>%r</> macro in <varname>recovery_command</> parameters
3885 This could lead to data loss if a warm-standby script relied on
3886 <literal>%r</> to decide when to throw away WAL segment files.
3892 Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN ... PRIMARY KEY</> so that the new
3893 column is correctly checked to see if it's been initialized to all
3894 non-nulls (Brendan Jurd)
3898 Previous versions neglected to check this requirement at all.
3904 Fix <command>REASSIGN OWNED</> so that it works on procedural
3905 languages too (Alvaro)
3911 Fix problems with <command>SELECT FOR UPDATE/SHARE</> occurring as a
3912 subquery in a query with a non-<command>SELECT</> top-level operation
3919 Fix possible <command>CREATE TABLE</> failure when inheriting the
3920 <quote>same</> constraint from multiple parent relations that
3921 inherited that constraint from a common ancestor (Tom)
3927 Fix <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> to show the alias, if any, attached
3928 to the target table of an <command>UPDATE</> or <command>DELETE</>
3935 Restore the pre-8.3 behavior that an out-of-range block number in a
3936 TID being used in a TidScan plan results in silently not matching any
3941 8.3.0 and 8.3.1 threw an error instead.
3947 Fix GIN bug that could result in a <literal>too many LWLocks
3948 taken</literal> failure (Teodor)
3954 Fix broken GiST comparison function for <type>tsquery</> (Teodor)
3960 Fix <function>tsvector_update_trigger()</> and <function>ts_stat()</>
3961 to accept domains over the types they expect to work with (Tom)
3967 Fix failure to support enum data types as foreign keys (Tom)
3973 Avoid possible crash when decompressing corrupted data
3980 Fix race conditions between delayed unlinks and <command>DROP
3981 DATABASE</> (Heikki)
3985 In the worst case this could result in deleting a newly created table
3986 in a new database that happened to get the same OID as the
3987 recently-dropped one; but of course that is an extremely
3988 low-probability scenario.
3994 Repair two places where SIGTERM exit of a backend could leave corrupted
3995 state in shared memory (Tom)
3999 Neither case is very important if SIGTERM is used to shut down the
4000 whole database cluster together, but there was a problem if someone
4001 tried to SIGTERM individual backends.
4007 Fix possible crash due to incorrect plan generated for an
4008 <literal><replaceable>x</> IN (SELECT <replaceable>y</>
4009 FROM ...)</literal> clause when <replaceable>x</> and <replaceable>y</>
4010 have different data types; and make sure the behavior is semantically
4011 correct when the conversion from <replaceable>y</>'s type to
4012 <replaceable>x</>'s type is lossy (Tom)
4018 Fix oversight that prevented the planner from substituting known Param
4019 values as if they were constants (Tom)
4023 This mistake partially disabled optimization of unnamed
4024 extended-Query statements in 8.3.0 and 8.3.1: in particular the
4025 LIKE-to-indexscan optimization would never be applied if the LIKE
4026 pattern was passed as a parameter, and constraint exclusion
4027 depending on a parameter value didn't work either.
4033 Fix planner failure when an indexable <function>MIN</> or
4034 <function>MAX</> aggregate is used with <literal>DISTINCT</> or
4035 <literal>ORDER BY</> (Tom)
4041 Fix planner to ensure it never uses a <quote>physical tlist</> for a
4042 plan node that is feeding a Sort node (Tom)
4046 This led to the sort having to push around more data than it really
4047 needed to, since unused column values were included in the sorted
4054 Avoid unnecessary copying of query strings (Tom)
4058 This fixes a performance problem introduced in 8.3.0 when a very large
4059 number of commands are submitted as a single query string.
4065 Make <function>TransactionIdIsCurrentTransactionId()</> use binary
4066 search instead of linear search when checking child-transaction XIDs
4071 This fixes some cases in which 8.3.0 was significantly
4072 slower than earlier releases.
4078 Fix conversions between ISO-8859-5 and other encodings to handle
4079 Cyrillic <quote>Yo</> characters (<literal>e</> and <literal>E</> with
4080 two dots) (Sergey Burladyan)
4086 Fix several datatype input functions, notably <function>array_in()</>,
4087 that were allowing unused bytes in their results to contain
4088 uninitialized, unpredictable values (Tom)
4092 This could lead to failures in which two apparently identical literal
4093 values were not seen as equal, resulting in the parser complaining
4094 about unmatched <literal>ORDER BY</> and <literal>DISTINCT</>
4101 Fix a corner case in regular-expression substring matching
4102 (<literal>substring(<replaceable>string</> from
4103 <replaceable>pattern</>)</literal>) (Tom)
4107 The problem occurs when there is a match to the pattern overall but
4108 the user has specified a parenthesized subexpression and that
4109 subexpression hasn't got a match. An example is
4110 <literal>substring('foo' from 'foo(bar)?')</>.
4111 This should return NULL, since <literal>(bar)</> isn't matched, but
4112 it was mistakenly returning the whole-pattern match instead (ie,
4119 Prevent cancellation of an auto-vacuum that was launched to prevent
4120 XID wraparound (Alvaro)
4126 Improve <command>ANALYZE</>'s handling of in-doubt tuples (those
4127 inserted or deleted by a not-yet-committed transaction) so that the
4128 counts it reports to the stats collector are more likely to be correct
4135 Fix <application>initdb</> to reject a relative path for its
4136 <literal>--xlogdir</> (<literal>-X</>) option (Tom)
4142 Make <application>psql</> print tab characters as an appropriate
4143 number of spaces, rather than <literal>\x09</literal> as was done in
4144 8.3.0 and 8.3.1 (Bruce)
4150 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008c (for
4151 DST law changes in Morocco, Iraq, Choibalsan, Pakistan, Syria, Cuba, and
4158 Add <function>ECPGget_PGconn()</> function to
4159 <application>ecpglib</> (Michael)
4165 Fix incorrect result from <application>ecpg</>'s
4166 <function>PGTYPEStimestamp_sub()</> function (Michael)
4172 Fix handling of continuation line markers in <application>ecpg</>
4179 Fix possible crashes in <filename>contrib/cube</> functions (Tom)
4185 Fix core dump in <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s
4186 <function>xpath_table()</> function when the input query returns a
4193 Fix <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s makefile to not override
4194 <literal>CFLAGS</>, and make it auto-configure properly for
4195 <application>libxslt</> present or not (Tom)
4204 <sect1 id="release-8-3-1">
4205 <title>Release 8.3.1</title>
4208 <title>Release date</title>
4209 <simpara>2008-03-17</simpara>
4213 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.3.0.
4214 For information about new features in the 8.3 major release, see
4215 <xref linkend="release-8-3">.
4219 <title>Migration to Version 8.3.1</title>
4222 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.3.X.
4223 However, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
4224 columns after updating, if you are affected by the Windows locale
4225 issue described below.
4231 <title>Changes</title>
4237 Fix character string comparison for Windows locales that consider
4238 different character combinations as equal (Tom)
4242 This fix applies only on Windows and only when using UTF-8
4243 database encoding. The same fix was made for all other cases
4244 over two years ago, but Windows with UTF-8 uses a separate code
4245 path that was not updated. If you are using a locale that
4246 considers some non-identical strings as equal, you may need to
4247 <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on textual columns.
4253 Repair corner-case bugs in <command>VACUUM FULL</> (Tom)
4257 A potential deadlock between concurrent <command>VACUUM FULL</>
4258 operations on different system catalogs was introduced in 8.2.
4259 This has now been corrected. 8.3 made this worse because the
4260 deadlock could occur within a critical code section, making it
4261 a PANIC rather than just ERROR condition.
4265 Also, a <command>VACUUM FULL</> that failed partway through
4266 vacuuming a system catalog could result in cache corruption in
4267 concurrent database sessions.
4271 Another <command>VACUUM FULL</> bug introduced in 8.3 could
4272 result in a crash or out-of-memory report when dealing with
4273 pages containing no live tuples.
4279 Fix misbehavior of foreign key checks involving <type>character</>
4280 or <type>bit</> columns (Tom)
4284 If the referencing column were of a different but compatible type
4285 (for instance <type>varchar</>), the constraint was enforced incorrectly.
4291 Avoid needless deadlock failures in no-op foreign-key checks (Stephan
4298 Fix possible core dump when re-planning a prepared query (Tom)
4302 This bug affected only protocol-level prepare operations, not
4303 SQL <command>PREPARE</>, and so tended to be seen only with
4304 JDBC, DBI, and other client-side drivers that use prepared
4311 Fix possible failure when re-planning a query that calls an SPI-using
4318 Fix failure in row-wise comparisons involving columns of different
4325 Fix longstanding <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</>
4326 race condition (Tom)
4330 In rare cases a session that had just executed a
4331 <command>LISTEN</> might not get a notification, even though
4332 one would be expected because the concurrent transaction executing
4333 <command>NOTIFY</> was observed to commit later.
4337 A side effect of the fix is that a transaction that has executed
4338 a not-yet-committed <command>LISTEN</> command will not see any
4339 row in <structname>pg_listener</> for the <command>LISTEN</>,
4340 should it choose to look; formerly it would have. This behavior
4341 was never documented one way or the other, but it is possible that
4342 some applications depend on the old behavior.
4348 Disallow <command>LISTEN</> and <command>UNLISTEN</> within a
4349 prepared transaction (Tom)
4353 This was formerly allowed but trying to do it had various unpleasant
4354 consequences, notably that the originating backend could not exit
4355 as long as an <command>UNLISTEN</> remained uncommitted.
4361 Disallow dropping a temporary table within a
4362 prepared transaction (Heikki)
4366 This was correctly disallowed by 8.1, but the check was inadvertently
4367 broken in 8.2 and 8.3.
4373 Fix rare crash when an error occurs during a query using a hash index
4380 Fix incorrect comparison of <type>tsquery</> values (Teodor)
4386 Fix incorrect behavior of <literal>LIKE</> with non-ASCII characters
4387 in single-byte encodings (Rolf Jentsch)
4393 Disable <function>xmlvalidate</> (Tom)
4397 This function should have been removed before 8.3 release, but
4398 was inadvertently left in the source code. It poses a small
4399 security risk since unprivileged users could use it to read the
4400 first few characters of any file accessible to the server.
4406 Fix memory leaks in certain usages of set-returning functions (Neil)
4412 Make <function>encode(<replaceable>bytea</>, 'escape')</> convert all
4413 high-bit-set byte values into <literal>\</><replaceable>nnn</> octal
4414 escape sequences (Tom)
4418 This is necessary to avoid encoding problems when the database
4419 encoding is multi-byte. This change could pose compatibility issues
4420 for applications that are expecting specific results from
4421 <function>encode</>.
4427 Fix input of datetime values for February 29 in years BC (Tom)
4431 The former coding was mistaken about which years were leap years.
4437 Fix <quote>unrecognized node type</> error in some variants of
4438 <command>ALTER OWNER</> (Tom)
4444 Avoid tablespace permissions errors in <command>CREATE TABLE LIKE
4445 INCLUDING INDEXES</> (Tom)
4451 Ensure <structname>pg_stat_activity</>.<structfield>waiting</> flag
4452 is cleared when a lock wait is aborted (Tom)
4458 Fix handling of process permissions on Windows Vista (Dave, Magnus)
4462 In particular, this fix allows starting the server as the Administrator
4469 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008a
4470 (in particular, recent Chile changes); adjust timezone abbreviation
4471 <literal>VET</> (Venezuela) to mean UTC-4:30, not UTC-4:00 (Tom)
4477 Fix <application>ecpg</> problems with arrays (Michael)
4483 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to correctly extract the postmaster's port
4484 number from command-line options (Itagaki Takahiro, Tom)
4488 Previously, <literal>pg_ctl start -w</> could try to contact the
4489 postmaster on the wrong port, leading to bogus reports of startup
4496 Use <option>-fwrapv</> to defend against possible misoptimization
4497 in recent <application>gcc</> versions (Tom)
4501 This is known to be necessary when building <productname>PostgreSQL</>
4502 with <application>gcc</> 4.3 or later.
4508 Enable building <filename>contrib/uuid-ossp</> with MSVC (Hiroshi Saito)
4517 <sect1 id="release-8-3">
4518 <title>Release 8.3</title>
4521 <title>Release date</title>
4522 <simpara>2008-02-04</simpara>
4526 <title>Overview</title>
4529 With significant new functionality and performance enhancements,
4530 this release represents a major leap forward for
4531 <productname>PostgreSQL</>. This was made possible by a growing
4532 community that has dramatically accelerated the pace of
4533 development. This release adds the following major features:
4540 Full text search is integrated into the core database system
4546 Support for the SQL/XML standard, including new operators and an
4547 <type>XML</type> data type
4553 Enumerated data types (<type>ENUM</type>)
4559 Arrays of composite types
4565 Universally Unique Identifier (<type>UUID</>) data type
4571 Add control over whether <literal>NULL</>s sort first or last
4583 Server configuration parameters can now be set on a per-function
4590 User-defined types can now have type modifiers
4596 Automatically re-plan cached queries when table
4597 definitions change or statistics are updated
4603 Numerous improvements in logging and statistics collection
4609 Support Security Service Provider Interface (<acronym>SSPI</>) for
4610 authentication on Windows
4616 Support multiple concurrent autovacuum processes, and other
4617 autovacuum improvements
4623 Allow the whole <productname>PostgreSQL</> distribution to be compiled
4624 with <productname>Microsoft Visual C++</>
4631 Major performance improvements are listed below. Most of
4632 these enhancements are automatic and do not require user changes or
4640 Asynchronous commit delays writes to WAL during transaction commit
4646 Checkpoint writes can be spread over a longer time period to smooth
4647 the I/O spike during each checkpoint
4653 Heap-Only Tuples (<acronym>HOT</>) accelerate space reuse for
4654 most <command>UPDATE</>s and <command>DELETE</>s
4660 Just-in-time background writer strategy improves disk write
4667 Using non-persistent transaction IDs for read-only transactions
4668 reduces overhead and <command>VACUUM</> requirements
4674 Per-field and per-row storage overhead has been reduced
4680 Large sequential scans no longer force out frequently used
4687 Concurrent large sequential scans can now share disk reads
4693 <literal>ORDER BY ... LIMIT</> can be done without sorting
4700 The above items are explained in more detail in the sections below.
4706 <title>Migration to Version 8.3</title>
4709 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
4710 required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
4715 Observe the following incompatibilities:
4719 <title>General</title>
4724 Non-character data types are no longer automatically cast to
4725 <type>TEXT</> (Peter, Tom)
4729 Previously, if a non-character value was supplied to an operator or
4730 function that requires <type>text</> input, it was automatically
4731 cast to <type>text</>, for most (though not all) built-in data types.
4732 This no longer happens: an explicit cast to <type>text</> is now
4733 required for all non-character-string types. For example, these
4734 expressions formerly worked:
4737 substr(current_date, 1, 4)
4741 but will now draw <quote>function does not exist</> and <quote>operator
4742 does not exist</> errors respectively. Use an explicit cast instead:
4745 substr(current_date::text, 1, 4)
4749 (Of course, you can use the more verbose <literal>CAST()</> syntax too.)
4750 The reason for the change is that these automatic casts too often caused
4751 surprising behavior. An example is that in previous releases, this
4752 expression was accepted but did not do what was expected:
4755 current_date < 2017-11-17
4758 This is actually comparing a date to an integer, which should be
4759 (and now is) rejected — but in the presence of automatic
4760 casts both sides were cast to <type>text</> and a textual comparison
4761 was done, because the <literal>text < text</> operator was able
4762 to match the expression when no other <literal><</> operator could.
4766 Types <type>char(<replaceable>n</>)</type> and
4767 <type>varchar(<replaceable>n</>)</type> still cast to <type>text</>
4768 automatically. Also, automatic casting to <type>text</> still works for
4769 inputs to the concatenation (<literal>||</>) operator, so long as least
4770 one input is a character-string type.
4776 Full text search features from <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> have
4777 been moved into the core server, with some minor syntax changes
4781 <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> now contains a compatibility
4788 <literal>ARRAY(SELECT ...)</literal>, where the <command>SELECT</>
4789 returns no rows, now returns an empty array, rather than NULL
4796 The array type name for a base data type is no longer always the base
4797 type's name with an underscore prefix
4801 The old naming convention is still honored when possible, but
4802 application code should no longer depend on it. Instead
4803 use the new <literal>pg_type.typarray</literal> column to
4804 identify the array data type associated with a given type.
4810 <literal>ORDER BY ... USING</> <replaceable>operator</> must now
4811 use a less-than or greater-than <replaceable>operator</> that is
4812 defined in a btree operator class
4816 This restriction was added to prevent inconsistent results.
4822 <command>SET LOCAL</command> changes now persist until
4823 the end of the outermost transaction, unless rolled back (Tom)
4827 Previously <command>SET LOCAL</command>'s effects were lost
4828 after subtransaction commit (<command>RELEASE SAVEPOINT</>
4829 or exit from a PL/pgSQL exception block).
4835 Commands rejected in transaction blocks are now also rejected in
4836 multiple-statement query strings (Tom)
4840 For example, <literal>"BEGIN; DROP DATABASE; COMMIT"</> will now be
4841 rejected even if submitted as a single query message.
4847 <command>ROLLBACK</> outside a transaction block now
4848 issues <literal>NOTICE</> instead of <literal>WARNING</> (Bruce)
4854 Prevent <command>NOTIFY</command>/<command>LISTEN</command>/<command>UNLISTEN</command>
4855 from accepting schema-qualified names (Bruce)
4859 Formerly, these commands accepted <literal>schema.relation</> but
4860 ignored the schema part, which was confusing.
4866 <command>ALTER SEQUENCE</> no longer affects the sequence's
4867 <function>currval()</> state (Tom)
4873 Foreign keys now must match indexable conditions for
4874 cross-data-type references (Tom)
4878 This improves semantic consistency and helps avoid
4879 performance problems.
4885 Restrict object size functions to users who have reasonable
4886 permissions to view such information (Tom)
4890 For example, <function>pg_database_size()</function> now requires
4891 <literal>CONNECT</> permission, which is granted to everyone by
4892 default. <function>pg_tablespace_size()</function> requires
4893 <literal>CREATE</> permission in the tablespace, or is allowed if
4894 the tablespace is the default tablespace for the database.
4900 Remove the undocumented <literal>!!=</> (not in) operator (Tom)
4904 <literal>NOT IN (SELECT ...)</literal> is the proper way to
4905 perform this operation.
4911 Internal hashing functions are now more uniformly-distributed (Tom)
4915 If application code was computing and storing hash values using
4916 internal <productname>PostgreSQL</> hashing functions, the hash
4917 values must be regenerated.
4923 C-code conventions for handling variable-length data values
4924 have changed (Greg Stark, Tom)
4928 The new <function>SET_VARSIZE()</> macro <emphasis>must</> be used
4929 to set the length of generated <type>varlena</> values. Also, it
4930 might be necessary to expand (<quote>de-TOAST</quote>) input values
4937 Continuous archiving no longer reports each successful archive
4938 operation to the server logs unless <literal>DEBUG</> level is used
4948 <title>Configuration Parameters</title>
4954 Numerous changes in administrative server parameters
4958 <varname>bgwriter_lru_percent</>,
4959 <varname>bgwriter_all_percent</>,
4960 <varname>bgwriter_all_maxpages</>,
4961 <varname>stats_start_collector</>, and
4962 <varname>stats_reset_on_server_start</> are removed.
4963 <varname>redirect_stderr</> is renamed to
4964 <varname>logging_collector</>.
4965 <varname>stats_command_string</> is renamed to
4966 <varname>track_activities</>.
4967 <varname>stats_block_level</> and <varname>stats_row_level</>
4968 are merged into <varname>track_counts</>.
4969 A new boolean configuration parameter, <varname>archive_mode</>,
4970 controls archiving. Autovacuum's default settings have changed.
4976 Remove <varname>stats_start_collector</varname> parameter (Tom)
4980 We now always start the collector process, unless <acronym>UDP</>
4981 socket creation fails.
4987 Remove <varname>stats_reset_on_server_start</varname> parameter (Tom)
4991 This was removed because <function>pg_stat_reset()</function>
4992 can be used for this purpose.
4998 Commenting out a parameter in <filename>postgresql.conf</> now
4999 causes it to revert to its default value (Joachim Wieland)
5003 Previously, commenting out an entry left the parameter's value unchanged
5004 until the next server restart.
5014 <title>Character Encodings</title>
5020 Add more checks for invalidly-encoded data (Andrew)
5024 This change plugs some holes that existed in literal backslash
5025 escape string processing and <command>COPY</command> escape
5026 processing. Now the de-escaped string is rechecked to see if the
5027 result created an invalid multi-byte character.
5033 Disallow database encodings that are inconsistent with the server's
5034 locale setting (Tom)
5038 On most platforms, <literal>C</> locale is the only locale that
5039 will work with any database encoding. Other locale settings imply
5040 a specific encoding and will misbehave if the database encoding
5041 is something different. (Typical symptoms include bogus textual
5042 sort order and wrong results from <function>upper()</> or
5043 <function>lower()</>.) The server now rejects attempts to create
5044 databases that have an incompatible encoding.
5050 Ensure that <function>chr()</function> cannot create
5051 invalidly-encoded values (Andrew)
5055 In UTF8-encoded databases the argument of <function>chr()</function> is
5056 now treated as a Unicode code point. In other multi-byte encodings
5057 <function>chr()</function>'s argument must designate a 7-bit ASCII
5058 character. Zero is no longer accepted.
5059 <function>ascii()</function> has been adjusted to match.
5065 Adjust <function>convert()</function> behavior to ensure encoding
5070 The two argument form of <function>convert()</function> has been
5071 removed. The three argument form now takes a <type>bytea</type>
5072 first argument and returns a <type>bytea</type>. To cover the
5073 loss of functionality, three new functions have been added:
5079 <function>convert_from(bytea, name)</function> returns
5080 <type>text</> — converts the first argument from the named
5081 encoding to the database encoding
5087 <function>convert_to(text, name)</function> returns
5088 <type>bytea</> — converts the first argument from the
5089 database encoding to the named encoding
5095 <function>length(bytea, name)</function> returns
5096 <type>integer</> — gives the length of the first
5097 argument in characters in the named encoding
5105 Remove <literal>convert(argument USING conversion_name)</literal>
5110 Its behavior did not match the SQL standard.
5116 Make JOHAB encoding client-only (Tatsuo)
5120 JOHAB is not safe as a server-side encoding.
5131 <title>Changes</title>
5134 Below you will find a detailed account of the
5135 changes between <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.3 and
5136 the previous major release.
5140 <title>Performance</title>
5145 Asynchronous commit delays writes to WAL during transaction commit
5150 This feature dramatically increases performance for short data-modifying
5151 transactions. The disadvantage is that because disk writes are delayed,
5152 if the database or operating system crashes before data is written to
5153 the disk, committed data will be lost. This feature is useful for
5154 applications that can accept some data loss. Unlike turning off
5155 <varname>fsync</varname>, using asynchronous commit does not put
5156 database consistency at risk; the worst case is that after a crash the
5157 last few reportedly-committed transactions might not be committed after
5159 This feature is enabled by turning off <varname>synchronous_commit</>
5160 (which can be done per-session or per-transaction, if some transactions
5161 are critical and others are not).
5162 <varname>wal_writer_delay</> can be adjusted to control the maximum
5163 delay before transactions actually reach disk.
5169 Checkpoint writes can be spread over a longer time period to smooth
5170 the I/O spike during each checkpoint (Itagaki Takahiro and Heikki
5175 Previously all modified buffers were forced to disk as quickly as
5177 checkpoint, causing an I/O spike that decreased server performance.
5178 This new approach spreads out disk writes during checkpoints,
5179 reducing peak I/O usage. (User-requested and shutdown checkpoints
5180 are still written as quickly as possible.)
5186 Heap-Only Tuples (<acronym>HOT</>) accelerate space reuse for most
5187 <command>UPDATE</>s and <command>DELETE</>s (Pavan Deolasee, with
5188 ideas from many others)
5192 <command>UPDATE</>s and <command>DELETE</>s leave dead tuples
5193 behind, as do failed <command>INSERT</>s. Previously only
5194 <command>VACUUM</> could reclaim space taken by dead tuples. With
5195 <acronym>HOT</> dead tuple space can be automatically reclaimed at
5196 the time of <command>INSERT</> or <command>UPDATE</> if no changes
5197 are made to indexed columns. This allows for more consistent
5198 performance. Also, <acronym>HOT</> avoids adding duplicate index
5205 Just-in-time background writer strategy improves disk write
5206 efficiency (Greg Smith, Itagaki Takahiro)
5210 This greatly reduces the need for manual tuning of the background
5217 Per-field and per-row storage overhead have been reduced
5218 (Greg Stark, Heikki Linnakangas)
5222 Variable-length data types with data values less than 128 bytes long
5223 will see a storage decrease of 3 to 6 bytes. For example, two adjacent
5224 <type>char(1)</type> fields now use 4 bytes instead of 16. Row headers
5225 are also 4 bytes shorter than before.
5231 Using non-persistent transaction IDs for read-only transactions
5232 reduces overhead and <command>VACUUM</> requirements (Florian Pflug)
5236 Non-persistent transaction IDs do not increment the global
5237 transaction counter. Therefore, they reduce the load on
5238 <structname>pg_clog</> and increase the time between forced
5239 vacuums to prevent transaction ID wraparound.
5241 improvements were also made that should improve concurrency.
5247 Avoid incrementing the command counter after a read-only command (Tom)
5251 There was formerly a hard limit of 2<superscript>32</>
5252 (4 billion) commands per transaction. Now only commands that
5253 actually changed the database count, so while this limit still
5254 exists, it should be significantly less annoying.
5260 Create a dedicated <acronym>WAL</> writer process to off-load
5261 work from backends (Simon)
5267 Skip unnecessary WAL writes for <command>CLUSTER</command> and
5268 <command>COPY</command> (Simon)
5272 Unless WAL archiving is enabled, the system now avoids WAL writes
5273 for <command>CLUSTER</command> and just <function>fsync()</>s the
5274 table at the end of the command. It also does the same for
5275 <command>COPY</command> if the table was created in the same
5282 Large sequential scans no longer force out frequently used
5283 cached pages (Simon, Heikki, Tom)
5289 Concurrent large sequential scans can now share disk reads (Jeff Davis)
5293 This is accomplished by starting the new sequential scan in the
5294 middle of the table (where another sequential scan is already
5295 in-progress) and wrapping around to the beginning to finish. This
5296 can affect the order of returned rows in a query that does not
5297 specify <literal>ORDER BY</>. The <varname>synchronize_seqscans</>
5298 configuration parameter can be used to disable this if necessary.
5304 <literal>ORDER BY ... LIMIT</> can be done without sorting
5309 This is done by sequentially scanning the table and tracking just
5310 the <quote>top N</> candidate rows, rather than performing a
5311 full sort of the entire table. This is useful when there is no
5312 matching index and the <literal>LIMIT</> is not large.
5318 Put a rate limit on messages sent to the statistics
5319 collector by backends
5324 This reduces overhead for short transactions, but might sometimes
5325 increase the delay before statistics are tallied.
5331 Improve hash join performance for cases with many NULLs (Tom)
5337 Speed up operator lookup for cases with non-exact datatype matches (Tom)
5346 <title>Server</title>
5351 Autovacuum is now enabled by default (Alvaro)
5355 Several changes were made to eliminate disadvantages of having
5356 autovacuum enabled, thereby justifying the change in default.
5357 Several other autovacuum parameter defaults were also modified.
5363 Support multiple concurrent autovacuum processes (Alvaro, Itagaki
5368 This allows multiple vacuums to run concurrently. This prevents
5369 vacuuming of a large table from delaying vacuuming of smaller tables.
5375 Automatically re-plan cached queries when table
5376 definitions change or statistics are updated (Tom)
5380 Previously PL/PgSQL functions that referenced temporary tables
5381 would fail if the temporary table was dropped and recreated
5382 between function invocations, unless <literal>EXECUTE</> was
5383 used. This improvement fixes that problem and many related issues.
5389 Add a <varname>temp_tablespaces</varname> parameter to control
5390 the tablespaces for temporary tables and files (Jaime Casanova,
5391 Albert Cervera, Bernd Helmle)
5395 This parameter defines a list of tablespaces to be used. This
5396 enables spreading the I/O load across multiple tablespaces. A random
5397 tablespace is chosen each time a temporary object is created.
5398 Temporary files are no longer stored in per-database
5399 <filename>pgsql_tmp/</filename> directories but in per-tablespace
5406 Place temporary tables' TOAST tables in special schemas named
5407 <literal>pg_toast_temp_<replaceable>nnn</></literal> (Tom)
5411 This allows low-level code to recognize these tables as temporary,
5412 which enables various optimizations such as not WAL-logging changes
5413 and using local rather than shared buffers for access. This also
5414 fixes a bug wherein backends unexpectedly held open file references
5415 to temporary TOAST tables.
5421 Fix problem that a constant flow of new connection requests could
5422 indefinitely delay the postmaster from completing a shutdown or
5423 a crash restart (Tom)
5429 Guard against a very-low-probability data loss scenario by preventing
5430 re-use of a deleted table's relfilenode until after the next
5437 Fix <command>CREATE CONSTRAINT TRIGGER</>
5438 to convert old-style foreign key trigger definitions into regular
5439 foreign key constraints (Tom)
5443 This will ease porting of foreign key constraints carried forward from
5444 pre-7.3 databases, if they were never converted using
5445 <filename>contrib/adddepend</>.
5451 Fix <literal>DEFAULT NULL</> to override inherited defaults (Tom)
5455 <literal>DEFAULT NULL</> was formerly considered a noise phrase, but it
5456 should (and now does) override non-null defaults that would otherwise
5457 be inherited from a parent table or domain.
5463 Add new encodings EUC_JIS_2004 and SHIFT_JIS_2004 (Tatsuo)
5467 These new encodings can be converted to and from UTF-8.
5473 Change server startup log message from <quote>database system is
5474 ready</quote> to <quote>database system is ready to accept
5475 connections</quote>, and adjust its timing
5479 The message now appears only when the postmaster is really ready
5480 to accept connections.
5489 <title>Monitoring</title>
5494 Add <varname>log_autovacuum_min_duration</varname> parameter to
5495 support configurable logging of autovacuum activity (Simon, Alvaro)
5501 Add <varname>log_lock_waits</varname> parameter to log lock waiting
5508 Add <varname>log_temp_files</varname> parameter to log temporary
5509 file usage (Bill Moran)
5515 Add <varname>log_checkpoints</varname> parameter to improve logging
5516 of checkpoints (Greg Smith, Heikki)
5522 <varname>log_line_prefix</varname> now supports
5523 <literal>%s</literal> and <literal>%c</literal> escapes in all
5528 Previously these escapes worked only for user sessions, not for
5529 background database processes.
5535 Add <varname>log_restartpoints</varname> to control logging of
5536 point-in-time recovery restart points (Simon)
5542 Last transaction end time is now logged at end of recovery and at
5543 each logged restart point (Simon)
5549 Autovacuum now reports its activity start time in
5550 <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal> (Tom)
5556 Allow server log output in comma-separated value (CSV) format (Arul
5557 Shaji, Greg Smith, Andrew Dunstan)
5561 CSV-format log files can easily be loaded into a database table for
5562 subsequent analysis.
5568 Use PostgreSQL-supplied timezone support for formatting timestamps
5569 displayed in the server log (Tom)
5573 This avoids Windows-specific problems with localized time zone
5574 names that are in the wrong encoding. There is a new
5575 <varname>log_timezone</> parameter that controls the timezone
5576 used in log messages, independently of the client-visible
5577 <varname>timezone</> parameter.
5583 New system view <literal>pg_stat_bgwriter</literal> displays
5584 statistics about background writer activity (Magnus)
5590 Add new columns for database-wide tuple statistics to
5591 <literal>pg_stat_database</literal> (Magnus)
5597 Add an <literal>xact_start</literal> (transaction start time) column to
5598 <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal> (Neil)
5602 This makes it easier to identify long-running transactions.
5608 Add <literal>n_live_tuples</> and <literal>n_dead_tuples</> columns
5609 to <literal>pg_stat_all_tables</literal> and related views (Glen
5616 Merge <varname>stats_block_level</> and <varname>stats_row_level</>
5617 parameters into a single parameter <varname>track_counts</>, which
5618 controls all messages sent to the statistics collector process
5625 Rename <varname>stats_command_string</varname> parameter to
5626 <varname>track_activities</varname> (Tom)
5632 Fix statistical counting of live and dead tuples to recognize that
5633 committed and aborted transactions have different effects (Tom)
5642 <title>Authentication</title>
5647 Support Security Service Provider Interface (<acronym>SSPI</>) for
5648 authentication on Windows (Magnus)
5654 Support GSSAPI authentication (Henry Hotz, Magnus)
5658 This should be preferred to native Kerberos authentication because
5659 GSSAPI is an industry standard.
5665 Support a global SSL configuration file (Victor Wagner)
5671 Add <varname>ssl_ciphers</> parameter to control accepted SSL ciphers
5678 Add a Kerberos realm parameter, <varname>krb_realm</> (Magnus)
5687 <title>Write-Ahead Log (<acronym>WAL</>) and Continuous Archiving</title>
5692 Change the timestamps recorded in transaction WAL records from
5693 time_t to TimestampTz representation (Tom)
5697 This provides sub-second resolution in WAL, which can be useful for
5698 point-in-time recovery.
5704 Reduce WAL disk space needed by warm standby servers (Simon)
5708 This change allows a warm standby server to pass the name of the earliest
5709 still-needed WAL file to the recovery script, allowing automatic removal
5710 of no-longer-needed WAL files. This is done using <literal>%r</> in
5711 the <varname>restore_command</varname> parameter of
5712 <filename>recovery.conf</filename>.
5718 New boolean configuration parameter, <varname>archive_mode</>,
5719 controls archiving (Simon)
5723 Previously setting <varname>archive_command</> to an empty string
5724 turned off archiving. Now <varname>archive_mode</> turns archiving
5725 on and off, independently of <varname>archive_command</>. This is
5726 useful for stopping archiving temporarily.
5735 <title>Queries</title>
5740 Full text search is integrated into the core database
5741 system (Teodor, Oleg)
5745 Text search has been improved, moved into the core code, and is now
5746 installed by default. <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> now contains
5747 a compatibility interface.
5753 Add control over whether <literal>NULL</>s sort first or last (Teodor, Tom)
5757 The syntax is <literal>ORDER BY ... NULLS FIRST/LAST</>.
5763 Allow per-column ascending/descending (<literal>ASC</>/<literal>DESC</>)
5764 ordering options for indexes (Teodor, Tom)
5768 Previously a query using <literal>ORDER BY</> with mixed
5769 <literal>ASC</>/<literal>DESC</> specifiers could not fully use
5770 an index. Now an index can be fully used in such cases if the
5771 index was created with matching
5772 <literal>ASC</>/<literal>DESC</> specifications.
5773 <literal>NULL</> sort order within an index can be controlled, too.
5779 Allow <literal>col IS NULL</> to use an index (Teodor)
5785 Updatable cursors (Arul Shaji, Tom)
5789 This eliminates the need to reference a primary key to
5790 <command>UPDATE</> or <command>DELETE</> rows returned by a cursor.
5791 The syntax is <literal>UPDATE/DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF</>.
5797 Allow <literal>FOR UPDATE</literal> in cursors (Arul Shaji, Tom)
5803 Create a general mechanism that supports casts to and from the
5804 standard string types (<type>TEXT</type>, <type>VARCHAR</type>,
5805 <type>CHAR</type>) for <emphasis>every</emphasis> datatype, by
5806 invoking the datatype's I/O functions (Tom)
5810 Previously, such casts were available only for types that had
5811 specialized function(s) for the purpose.
5812 These new casts are assignment-only in the to-string direction,
5813 explicit-only in the other direction, and therefore should create no
5814 surprising behavior.
5820 Allow <literal>UNION</> and related constructs to return a domain
5821 type, when all inputs are of that domain type (Tom)
5825 Formerly, the output would be considered to be of the domain's base
5832 Allow limited hashing when using two different data types (Tom)
5836 This allows hash joins, hash indexes, hashed subplans, and hash
5837 aggregation to be used in situations involving cross-data-type
5838 comparisons, if the data types have compatible hash functions.
5839 Currently, cross-data-type hashing support exists for
5840 <type>smallint</type>/<type>integer</type>/<type>bigint</type>,
5841 and for <type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type>.
5847 Improve optimizer logic for detecting when variables are equal
5848 in a <literal>WHERE</> clause (Tom)
5852 This allows mergejoins to work with descending sort orders, and
5853 improves recognition of redundant sort columns.
5859 Improve performance when planning large inheritance trees in
5860 cases where most tables are excluded by constraints (Tom)
5869 <title>Object Manipulation</title>
5875 Arrays of composite types (David Fetter, Andrew, Tom)
5879 In addition to arrays of explicitly-declared composite types,
5880 arrays of the rowtypes of regular tables and views are now
5881 supported, except for rowtypes of system catalogs, sequences, and TOAST
5889 Server configuration parameters can now be set on a per-function
5894 For example, functions can now set their own
5895 <varname>search_path</> to prevent unexpected behavior if a
5896 different <varname>search_path</> exists at run-time. Security
5897 definer functions should set <varname>search_path</varname> to
5898 avoid security loopholes.
5904 <command>CREATE/ALTER FUNCTION</command> now supports
5905 <literal>COST</literal> and <literal>ROWS</literal> options (Tom)
5909 <literal>COST</literal> allows specification of the cost of a
5910 function call. <literal>ROWS</literal> allows specification of
5911 the average number or rows returned by a set-returning function.
5912 These values are used by the optimizer in choosing the best plan.
5918 Implement <command>CREATE TABLE LIKE ... INCLUDING
5919 INDEXES</command> (Trevor Hardcastle, Nikhil Sontakke, Neil)
5925 Allow <command>CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY</command> to ignore
5926 transactions in other databases (Simon)
5932 Add <command>ALTER VIEW ... RENAME TO</command> and <command>ALTER
5933 SEQUENCE ... RENAME TO</command> (David Fetter, Neil)
5937 Previously this could only be done via <command>ALTER TABLE ...
5938 RENAME TO</command>.
5944 Make <command>CREATE/DROP/RENAME DATABASE</> wait briefly for
5945 conflicting backends to exit before failing (Tom)
5949 This increases the likelihood that these commands will succeed.
5955 Allow triggers and rules to be deactivated in groups using a
5956 configuration parameter, for replication purposes (Jan)
5960 This allows replication systems to disable triggers and rewrite
5961 rules as a group without modifying the system catalogs directly.
5962 The behavior is controlled by <command>ALTER TABLE</> and a new
5963 parameter <varname>session_replication_role</varname>.
5969 User-defined types can now have type modifiers (Teodor, Tom)
5973 This allows a user-defined type to take a modifier, like
5974 <type>ssnum(7)</>. Previously only built-in
5975 data types could have modifiers.
5984 <title>Utility Commands</title>
5989 Non-superuser database owners now are able to add trusted procedural
5990 languages to their databases by default (Jeremy Drake)
5994 While this is reasonably safe, some administrators might wish to
5995 revoke the privilege. It is controlled by
5996 <structname>pg_pltemplate</>.<structfield>tmpldbacreate</>.
6002 Allow a session's current parameter setting to be used as the
6003 default for future sessions (Tom)
6007 This is done with <literal>SET ... FROM CURRENT</literal> in
6008 <command>CREATE/ALTER FUNCTION</command>, <command>ALTER
6009 DATABASE</command>, or <command>ALTER ROLE</command>.
6015 Implement new commands <command>DISCARD ALL</command>,
6016 <command>DISCARD PLANS</command>, <command>DISCARD
6017 TEMPORARY</command>, <command>CLOSE ALL</command>, and
6018 <command>DEALLOCATE ALL</command> (Marko Kreen, Neil)
6022 These commands simplify resetting a database session to its initial
6023 state, and are particularly useful for connection-pooling software.
6029 Make <command>CLUSTER</command> MVCC-safe (Heikki Linnakangas)
6033 Formerly, <command>CLUSTER</command> would discard all tuples
6034 that were committed dead, even if there were still transactions
6035 that should be able to see them under MVCC visibility rules.
6041 Add new <command>CLUSTER</command> syntax: <literal>CLUSTER
6042 <replaceable>table</> USING <replaceable>index</></literal>
6047 The old <command>CLUSTER</command> syntax is still supported, but
6048 the new form is considered more logical.
6054 Fix <command>EXPLAIN</command> so it can show complex plans
6055 more accurately (Tom)
6059 References to subplan outputs are now always shown correctly,
6060 instead of using <literal>?column<replaceable>N</>?</literal>
6061 for complicated cases.
6067 Limit the amount of information reported when a user is dropped
6072 Previously, dropping (or attempting to drop) a user who owned many
6073 objects could result in large <literal>NOTICE</literal> or
6074 <literal>ERROR</literal> messages listing all these objects; this
6075 caused problems for some client applications. The length of the
6076 message is now limited, although a full list is still sent to the
6086 <title>Data Types</title>
6091 Support for the SQL/XML standard, including new operators and an
6092 <type>XML</type> data type (Nikolay Samokhvalov, Pavel Stehule, Peter)
6098 Enumerated data types (<type>ENUM</type>) (Tom Dunstan)
6102 This feature provides convenient support for fields that have a
6103 small, fixed set of allowed values. An example of creating an
6104 <literal>ENUM</> type is
6105 <literal>CREATE TYPE mood AS ENUM ('sad', 'ok', 'happy')</>.
6111 Universally Unique Identifier (<type>UUID</>) data type (Gevik
6116 This closely matches <acronym>RFC</> 4122.
6122 Widen the <type>MONEY</type> data type to 64 bits (D'Arcy Cain)
6126 This greatly increases the range of supported <type>MONEY</>
6133 Fix <type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> to handle
6134 <literal>Infinity</> and <literal>NAN</> (Not A Number)
6135 consistently (Bruce)
6139 The code formerly was not consistent about distinguishing
6140 <literal>Infinity</> from overflow conditions.
6146 Allow leading and trailing whitespace during input of
6147 <type>boolean</type> values (Neil)
6153 Prevent <command>COPY</> from using digits and lowercase letters as
6163 <title>Functions</title>
6168 Add new regular expression functions
6169 <function>regexp_matches()</function>,
6170 <function>regexp_split_to_array()</function>, and
6171 <function>regexp_split_to_table()</function> (Jeremy Drake, Neil)
6175 These functions provide extraction of regular expression
6176 subexpressions and allow splitting a string using a POSIX regular
6183 Add <function>lo_truncate()</function> for large object truncation
6190 Implement <function>width_bucket()</function> for the <type>float8</>
6197 Add <function>pg_stat_clear_snapshot()</function> to discard
6198 statistics snapshots collected during the current transaction
6203 The first request for statistics in a transaction takes a statistics
6204 snapshot that does not change during the transaction. This function
6205 allows the snapshot to be discarded and a new snapshot loaded during
6206 the next statistics query. This is particularly useful for PL/PgSQL
6207 functions, which are confined to a single transaction.
6213 Add <literal>isodow</> option to <function>EXTRACT()</> and
6214 <function>date_part()</> (Bruce)
6218 This returns the day of the week, with Sunday as seven.
6219 (<literal>dow</> returns Sunday as zero.)
6225 Add <literal>ID</> (ISO day of week) and <literal>IDDD</> (ISO
6226 day of year) format codes for <function>to_char()</>,
6227 <function>to_date()</>, and <function>to_timestamp()</> (Brendan
6234 Make <function>to_timestamp()</> and <function>to_date()</>
6235 assume <literal>TM</literal> (trim) option for potentially
6236 variable-width fields (Bruce)
6240 This matches <productname>Oracle</>'s behavior.
6246 Fix off-by-one conversion error in
6247 <function>to_date()</function>/<function>to_timestamp()</function>
6248 <literal>D</> (non-ISO day of week) fields (Bruce)
6254 Make <function>setseed()</function> return void, rather than a
6255 useless integer value (Neil)
6261 Add a hash function for <type>NUMERIC</type> (Neil)
6265 This allows hash indexes and hash-based plans to be used with
6266 <type>NUMERIC</type> columns.
6272 Improve efficiency of
6273 <literal>LIKE</literal>/<literal>ILIKE</literal>, especially for
6274 multi-byte character sets like UTF-8 (Andrew, Itagaki Takahiro)
6280 Make <function>currtid()</function> functions require
6281 <literal>SELECT</literal> privileges on the target table (Tom)
6287 Add several <function>txid_*()</function> functions to query
6288 active transaction IDs (Jan)
6292 This is useful for various replication solutions.
6301 <title>PL/PgSQL Server-Side Language</title>
6306 Add scrollable cursor support, including directional control in
6307 <command>FETCH</command> (Pavel Stehule)
6313 Allow <literal>IN</literal> as an alternative to
6314 <literal>FROM</literal> in PL/PgSQL's <command>FETCH</command>
6315 statement, for consistency with the backend's
6316 <command>FETCH</command> command (Pavel Stehule)
6322 Add <command>MOVE</command> to PL/PgSQL (Magnus, Pavel Stehule,
6329 Implement <command>RETURN QUERY</command> (Pavel Stehule, Neil)
6333 This adds convenient syntax for PL/PgSQL set-returning functions
6334 that want to return the result of a query. <command>RETURN QUERY</>
6335 is easier and more efficient than a loop
6336 around <command>RETURN NEXT</command>.
6342 Allow function parameter names to be qualified with the
6343 function's name (Tom)
6347 For example, <literal>myfunc.myvar</>. This is particularly
6348 useful for specifying variables in a query where the variable
6349 name might match a column name.
6355 Make qualification of variables with block labels work properly (Tom)
6359 Formerly, outer-level block labels could unexpectedly interfere with
6360 recognition of inner-level record or row references.
6366 Tighten requirements for <literal>FOR</literal> loop
6367 <literal>STEP</> values (Tom)
6371 Prevent non-positive <literal>STEP</> values, and handle
6378 Improve accuracy when reporting syntax error locations (Tom)
6387 <title>Other Server-Side Languages</title>
6392 Allow type-name arguments to PL/Perl
6393 <function>spi_prepare()</function> to be data type aliases in
6394 addition to names found in <literal>pg_type</literal> (Andrew)
6400 Allow type-name arguments to PL/Python
6401 <function>plpy.prepare()</function> to be data type aliases in
6402 addition to names found in <literal>pg_type</literal> (Andrew)
6408 Allow type-name arguments to PL/Tcl <function>spi_prepare</> to
6409 be data type aliases in addition to names found in
6410 <literal>pg_type</literal> (Andrew)
6416 Enable PL/PythonU to compile on Python 2.5 (Marko Kreen)
6422 Support a true PL/Python boolean type in compatible Python versions
6423 (Python 2.3 and later) (Marko Kreen)
6429 Fix PL/Tcl problems with thread-enabled <filename>libtcl</> spawning
6430 multiple threads within the backend (Steve Marshall, Paul Bayer,
6435 This caused all sorts of unpleasantness.
6444 <title><link linkend="APP-PSQL"><application>psql</></link></title>
6449 List disabled triggers separately in <literal>\d</literal> output
6456 In <literal>\d</literal> patterns, always match <literal>$</literal>
6463 Show aggregate return types in <literal>\da</literal> output
6464 (Greg Sabino Mullane)
6470 Add the function's volatility status to the output of
6471 <literal>\df+</literal> (Neil)
6477 Add <literal>\prompt</literal> capability (Chad Wagner)
6483 Allow <literal>\pset</literal>, <literal>\t</literal>, and
6484 <literal>\x</literal> to specify <literal>on</> or <literal>off</>,
6485 rather than just toggling (Chad Wagner)
6491 Add <literal>\sleep</> capability (Jan)
6497 Enable <literal>\timing</> output for <literal>\copy</> (Andrew)
6503 Improve <literal>\timing</literal> resolution on Windows
6510 Flush <literal>\o</> output after each backslash command (Tom)
6516 Correctly detect and report errors while reading a <literal>-f</>
6523 Remove <literal>-u</> option (this option has long been deprecated)
6533 <title><link linkend="APP-PGDUMP"><application>pg_dump</></link></title>
6538 Add <literal>--tablespaces-only</> and <literal>--roles-only</>
6539 options to <application>pg_dumpall</application> (Dave Page)
6545 Add an output file option to
6546 <application>pg_dumpall</application> (Dave Page)
6550 This is primarily useful on Windows, where output redirection of
6551 child <application>pg_dump</application> processes does not work.
6557 Allow <application>pg_dumpall</> to accept an initial-connection
6558 database name rather than the default
6559 <literal>template1</literal> (Dave Page)
6565 In <literal>-n</> and <literal>-t</> switches, always match
6566 <literal>$</literal> literally (Tom)
6572 Improve performance when a database has thousands of objects (Tom)
6578 Remove <literal>-u</> option (this option has long been deprecated)
6588 <title>Other Client Applications</title>
6593 In <application>initdb</>, allow the location of the
6594 <filename>pg_xlog</filename> directory to be specified
6595 (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
6601 Enable server core dump generation in <application>pg_regress</>
6602 on supported operating systems (Andrew)
6608 Add a <literal>-t</> (timeout) parameter to <application>pg_ctl</>
6613 This controls how long <application>pg_ctl</> will wait when waiting
6614 for server startup or shutdown. Formerly the timeout was hard-wired
6621 Add a <application>pg_ctl</> option to control generation
6622 of server core dumps (Andrew)
6628 Allow Control-C to cancel <application>clusterdb</>,
6629 <application>reindexdb</>, and <application>vacuumdb</> (Itagaki
6636 Suppress command tag output for <application>createdb</>,
6637 <application>createuser</>, <application>dropdb</>, and
6638 <application>dropuser</> (Peter)
6642 The <literal>--quiet</> option is ignored and will be removed in 8.4.
6643 Progress messages when acting on all databases now go to stdout
6644 instead of stderr because they are not actually errors.
6653 <title><link linkend="libpq"><application>libpq</></link></title>
6658 Interpret the <literal>dbName</> parameter of
6659 <function>PQsetdbLogin()</> as a <literal>conninfo</> string if
6660 it contains an equals sign (Andrew)
6664 This allows use of <literal>conninfo</> strings in client
6665 programs that still use <literal>PQsetdbLogin()</>.
6671 Support a global <acronym>SSL</> configuration file (Victor
6678 Add environment variable <varname>PGSSLKEY</> to control
6679 <acronym>SSL</> hardware keys (Victor Wagner)
6685 Add <function>lo_truncate()</function> for large object
6686 truncation (Kris Jurka)
6692 Add <function>PQconnectionNeedsPassword()</function> that returns
6693 true if the server required a password but none was supplied
6698 If this returns true after a failed connection attempt, a client
6699 application should prompt the user for a password. In the past
6700 applications have had to check for a specific error message string to
6701 decide whether a password is needed; that approach is now
6708 Add <function>PQconnectionUsedPassword()</function> that returns
6709 true if the supplied password was actually used
6714 This is useful in some security contexts where it is important
6715 to know whether a user-supplied password is actually valid.
6724 <title><link linkend="ecpg"><application>ecpg</></link></title>
6729 Use V3 frontend/backend protocol (Michael)
6733 This adds support for server-side prepared statements.
6739 Use native threads, instead of pthreads, on Windows (Magnus)
6745 Improve thread-safety of ecpglib (Itagaki Takahiro)
6751 Make the ecpg libraries export only necessary API symbols (Michael)
6760 <title><application>Windows</> Port</title>
6765 Allow the whole <productname>PostgreSQL</> distribution to be compiled
6766 with <productname>Microsoft Visual C++</> (Magnus and others)
6770 This allows Windows-based developers to use familiar development
6771 and debugging tools.
6772 Windows executables made with Visual C++ might also have better
6773 stability and performance than those made with other tool sets.
6774 The client-only Visual C++ build scripts have been removed.
6780 Drastically reduce postmaster's memory usage when it has many child
6787 Allow regression tests to be started by an administrative
6794 Add native shared memory implementation (Magnus)
6803 <title>Server Programming Interface (<acronym>SPI</>)</title>
6808 Add cursor-related functionality in SPI (Pavel Stehule)
6812 Allow access to the cursor-related planning options, and add
6813 <command>FETCH</>/<command>MOVE</> routines.
6819 Allow execution of cursor commands through
6820 <function>SPI_execute</function> (Tom)
6824 The macro <literal>SPI_ERROR_CURSOR</> still exists but will
6831 SPI plan pointers are now declared as <literal>SPIPlanPtr</> instead of
6832 <literal>void *</> (Tom)
6836 This does not break application code, but switching is
6837 recommended to help catch simple programming mistakes.
6846 <title>Build Options</title>
6851 Add <application>configure</> option <literal>--enable-profiling</>
6852 to enable code profiling (works only with <application>gcc</>)
6853 (Korry Douglas and Nikhil Sontakke)
6859 Add <application>configure</> option <literal>--with-system-tzdata</>
6860 to use the operating system's time zone database (Peter)
6866 Fix <acronym>PGXS</> so extensions can be built against PostgreSQL
6867 installations whose <application>pg_config</> program does not
6868 appear first in the <varname>PATH</> (Tom)
6874 Support <command>gmake draft</command> when building the
6875 <acronym>SGML</> documentation (Bruce)
6879 Unless <literal>draft</> is used, the documentation build will
6880 now be repeated if necessary to ensure the index is up-to-date.
6889 <title>Source Code</title>
6894 Rename macro <literal>DLLIMPORT</> to <literal>PGDLLIMPORT</> to
6895 avoid conflicting with third party includes (like Tcl) that
6896 define <literal>DLLIMPORT</> (Magnus)
6902 Create <quote>operator families</quote> to improve planning of
6903 queries involving cross-data-type comparisons (Tom)
6909 Update GIN <function>extractQuery()</> API to allow signalling
6910 that nothing can satisfy the query (Teodor)
6916 Move <literal>NAMEDATALEN</> definition from
6917 <filename>postgres_ext.h</> to <filename>pg_config_manual.h</>
6924 Provide <function>strlcpy()</function> and
6925 <function>strlcat()</function> on all platforms, and replace
6926 error-prone uses of <function>strncpy()</function>,
6927 <function>strncat()</function>, etc (Peter)
6933 Create hooks to let an external plugin monitor (or even replace) the
6934 planner and create plans for hypothetical situations (Gurjeet
6941 Create a function variable <literal>join_search_hook</> to let plugins
6942 override the join search order portion of the planner (Julius
6949 Add <function>tas()</> support for Renesas' M32R processor
6956 <function>quote_identifier()</function> and
6957 <application>pg_dump</application> no longer quote keywords that are
6958 unreserved according to the grammar (Tom)
6964 Change the on-disk representation of the <type>NUMERIC</type>
6965 data type so that the <structfield>sign_dscale</> word comes
6966 before the weight (Tom)
6972 Use <acronym>SYSV</> semaphores rather than POSIX on Darwin
6973 >= 6.0, i.e., OS X 10.2 and up (Chris Marcellino)
6979 Add <link linkend="acronyms">acronym</link> and <link
6980 linkend="creating-cluster-nfs">NFS</link> documentation
6987 "Postgres" is now documented as an accepted alias for
6988 "PostgreSQL" (Peter)
6994 Add documentation about preventing database server spoofing when
6995 the server is down (Bruce)
7004 <title>Contrib</title>
7009 Move <filename>contrib</> <filename>README</> content into the
7010 main <productname>PostgreSQL</> documentation (Albert Cervera i
7017 Add <filename>contrib/pageinspect</filename> module for low-level
7018 page inspection (Simon, Heikki)
7024 Add <filename>contrib/pg_standby</filename> module for controlling
7025 warm standby operation (Simon)
7031 Add <filename>contrib/uuid-ossp</filename> module for generating
7032 <type>UUID</> values using the OSSP UUID library (Peter)
7036 Use <application>configure</>
7037 <literal>--with-ossp-uuid</literal> to activate. This takes
7038 advantage of the new <type>UUID</type> builtin type.
7044 Add <filename>contrib/dict_int</filename>,
7045 <filename>contrib/dict_xsyn</filename>, and
7046 <filename>contrib/test_parser</filename> modules to provide
7047 sample add-on text search dictionary templates and parsers
7054 Allow <application>contrib/pgbench</> to set the fillfactor (Pavan
7061 Add timestamps to <application>contrib/pgbench</> <literal>-l</>
7068 Add usage count statistics to
7069 <filename>contrib/pgbuffercache</filename> (Greg Smith)
7075 Add GIN support for <filename>contrib/hstore</> (Teodor)
7081 Add GIN support for <filename>contrib/pg_trgm</> (Guillaume Smet, Teodor)
7087 Update OS/X startup scripts in
7088 <filename>contrib/start-scripts</filename> (Mark Cotner, David
7095 Restrict <function>pgrowlocks()</function> and
7096 <function>dblink_get_pkey()</function> to users who have
7097 <literal>SELECT</literal> privilege on the target table (Tom)
7103 Restrict <filename>contrib/pgstattuple</filename> functions to
7110 <filename>contrib/xml2</filename> is deprecated and planned for
7111 removal in 8.4 (Peter)
7115 The new XML support in core PostgreSQL supersedes this module.
7125 <sect1 id="release-8-2-13">
7126 <title>Release 8.2.13</title>
7129 <title>Release date</title>
7130 <simpara>2009-03-16</simpara>
7134 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.12.
7135 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
7136 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
7140 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.13</title>
7143 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
7144 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.2.11,
7145 see the release notes for 8.2.11.
7151 <title>Changes</title>
7157 Prevent error recursion crashes when encoding conversion fails (Tom)
7161 This change extends fixes made in the last two minor releases for
7162 related failure scenarios. The previous fixes were narrowly tailored
7163 for the original problem reports, but we have now recognized that
7164 <emphasis>any</> error thrown by an encoding conversion function could
7165 potentially lead to infinite recursion while trying to report the
7166 error. The solution therefore is to disable translation and encoding
7167 conversion and report the plain-ASCII form of any error message,
7168 if we find we have gotten into a recursive error reporting situation.
7175 Disallow <command>CREATE CONVERSION</> with the wrong encodings
7176 for the specified conversion function (Heikki)
7180 This prevents one possible scenario for encoding conversion failure.
7181 The previous change is a backstop to guard against other kinds of
7182 failures in the same area.
7188 Fix core dump when <function>to_char()</> is given format codes that
7189 are inappropriate for the type of the data argument (Tom)
7195 Fix possible failure in <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> when C locale is
7196 used with a multi-byte encoding (Teodor)
7200 Crashes were possible on platforms where <type>wchar_t</> is narrower
7201 than <type>int</>; Windows in particular.
7207 Fix extreme inefficiency in <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> parser's
7208 handling of an email-like string containing multiple <literal>@</>
7215 Fix decompilation of <literal>CASE WHEN</> with an implicit coercion
7220 This mistake could lead to Assert failures in an Assert-enabled build,
7221 or an <quote>unexpected CASE WHEN clause</> error message in other
7222 cases, when trying to examine or dump a view.
7228 Fix possible misassignment of the owner of a TOAST table's rowtype (Tom)
7232 If <command>CLUSTER</> or a rewriting variant of <command>ALTER TABLE</>
7233 were executed by someone other than the table owner, the
7234 <structname>pg_type</> entry for the table's TOAST table would end up
7235 marked as owned by that someone. This caused no immediate problems,
7236 since the permissions on the TOAST rowtype aren't examined by any
7237 ordinary database operation. However, it could lead to unexpected
7238 failures if one later tried to drop the role that issued the command
7239 (in 8.1 or 8.2), or <quote>owner of data type appears to be invalid</>
7240 warnings from <application>pg_dump</> after having done so (in 8.3).
7246 Fix PL/pgSQL to not treat <literal>INTO</> after <command>INSERT</> as
7247 an INTO-variables clause anywhere in the string, not only at the start;
7248 in particular, don't fail for <command>INSERT INTO</> within
7249 <command>CREATE RULE</> (Tom)
7255 Clean up PL/pgSQL error status variables fully at block exit
7256 (Ashesh Vashi and Dave Page)
7260 This is not a problem for PL/pgSQL itself, but the omission could cause
7261 the PL/pgSQL Debugger to crash while examining the state of a function.
7267 Retry failed calls to <function>CallNamedPipe()</> on Windows
7268 (Steve Marshall, Magnus)
7272 It appears that this function can sometimes fail transiently;
7273 we previously treated any failure as a hard error, which could
7274 confuse <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</> as well as other
7281 Add <literal>MUST</> (Mauritius Island Summer Time) to the default list
7282 of known timezone abbreviations (Xavier Bugaud)
7291 <sect1 id="release-8-2-12">
7292 <title>Release 8.2.12</title>
7295 <title>Release date</title>
7296 <simpara>2009-02-02</simpara>
7300 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.11.
7301 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
7302 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
7306 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.12</title>
7309 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
7310 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.2.11,
7311 see the release notes for 8.2.11.
7317 <title>Changes</title>
7323 Improve handling of URLs in <function>headline()</> function (Teodor)
7329 Improve handling of overlength headlines in <function>headline()</>
7336 Prevent possible Assert failure or misconversion if an encoding
7337 conversion is created with the wrong conversion function for the
7338 specified pair of encodings (Tom, Heikki)
7344 Fix possible Assert failure if a statement executed in PL/pgSQL is
7345 rewritten into another kind of statement, for example if an
7346 <command>INSERT</> is rewritten into an <command>UPDATE</> (Heikki)
7352 Ensure that a snapshot is available to datatype input functions (Tom)
7356 This primarily affects domains that are declared with <literal>CHECK</>
7357 constraints involving user-defined stable or immutable functions. Such
7358 functions typically fail if no snapshot has been set.
7364 Make it safer for SPI-using functions to be used within datatype I/O;
7365 in particular, to be used in domain check constraints (Tom)
7371 Avoid unnecessary locking of small tables in <command>VACUUM</>
7378 Fix a problem that made <literal>UPDATE RETURNING tableoid</>
7379 return zero instead of the correct OID (Tom)
7385 Fix planner misestimation of selectivity when transitive equality
7386 is applied to an outer-join clause (Tom)
7390 This could result in bad plans for queries like
7391 <literal>... from a left join b on a.a1 = b.b1 where a.a1 = 42 ...</>
7397 Improve optimizer's handling of long <literal>IN</> lists (Tom)
7401 This change avoids wasting large amounts of time on such lists
7402 when constraint exclusion is enabled.
7408 Ensure that the contents of a holdable cursor don't depend on the
7409 contents of TOAST tables (Tom)
7413 Previously, large field values in a cursor result might be represented
7414 as TOAST pointers, which would fail if the referenced table got dropped
7415 before the cursor is read, or if the large value is deleted and then
7416 vacuumed away. This cannot happen with an ordinary cursor,
7417 but it could with a cursor that is held past its creating transaction.
7423 Fix memory leak when a set-returning function is terminated without
7424 reading its whole result (Tom)
7430 Fix <filename>contrib/dblink</>'s
7431 <function>dblink_get_result(text,bool)</> function (Joe)
7437 Fix possible garbage output from <filename>contrib/sslinfo</> functions
7444 Fix <application>configure</> script to properly report failure when
7445 unable to obtain linkage information for PL/Perl (Andrew)
7451 Make all documentation reference <literal>pgsql-bugs</> and/or
7452 <literal>pgsql-hackers</> as appropriate, instead of the
7453 now-decommissioned <literal>pgsql-ports</> and <literal>pgsql-patches</>
7460 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2009a (for
7461 Kathmandu and historical DST corrections in Switzerland, Cuba)
7470 <sect1 id="release-8-2-11">
7471 <title>Release 8.2.11</title>
7474 <title>Release date</title>
7475 <simpara>2008-11-03</simpara>
7479 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.10.
7480 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
7481 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
7485 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.11</title>
7488 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
7489 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.2.7,
7490 see the release notes for 8.2.7. Also, if you were running a previous
7491 8.2.X release, it is recommended to <command>REINDEX</> all GiST
7492 indexes after the upgrade.
7498 <title>Changes</title>
7504 Fix GiST index corruption due to marking the wrong index entry
7505 <quote>dead</> after a deletion (Teodor)
7509 This would result in index searches failing to find rows they
7510 should have found. Corrupted indexes can be fixed with
7511 <command>REINDEX</>.
7517 Fix backend crash when the client encoding cannot represent a localized
7522 We have addressed similar issues before, but it would still fail if
7523 the <quote>character has no equivalent</> message itself couldn't
7524 be converted. The fix is to disable localization and send the plain
7525 ASCII error message when we detect such a situation.
7531 Fix possible crash when deeply nested functions are invoked from
7538 Improve optimization of <replaceable>expression</> <literal>IN</>
7539 (<replaceable>expression-list</>) queries (Tom, per an idea from Robert
7544 Cases in which there are query variables on the right-hand side had been
7545 handled less efficiently in 8.2.x and 8.3.x than in prior versions.
7546 The fix restores 8.1 behavior for such cases.
7552 Fix mis-expansion of rule queries when a sub-<literal>SELECT</> appears
7553 in a function call in <literal>FROM</>, a multi-row <literal>VALUES</>
7554 list, or a <literal>RETURNING</> list (Tom)
7558 The usual symptom of this problem is an <quote>unrecognized node type</>
7565 Fix memory leak during rescan of a hashed aggregation plan (Neil)
7571 Ensure an error is reported when a newly-defined PL/pgSQL trigger
7572 function is invoked as a normal function (Tom)
7578 Prevent possible collision of <structfield>relfilenode</> numbers
7579 when moving a table to another tablespace with <command>ALTER SET
7580 TABLESPACE</> (Heikki)
7584 The command tried to re-use the existing filename, instead of
7585 picking one that is known unused in the destination directory.
7591 Fix incorrect tsearch2 headline generation when single query
7592 item matches first word of text (Sushant Sinha)
7598 Fix improper display of fractional seconds in interval values when
7599 using a non-ISO datestyle in an <option>--enable-integer-datetimes</>
7606 Ensure <function>SPI_getvalue</> and <function>SPI_getbinval</>
7607 behave correctly when the passed tuple and tuple descriptor have
7608 different numbers of columns (Tom)
7612 This situation is normal when a table has had columns added or removed,
7613 but these two functions didn't handle it properly.
7614 The only likely consequence is an incorrect error indication.
7620 Fix <application>ecpg</>'s parsing of <command>CREATE ROLE</> (Michael)
7626 Fix recent breakage of <literal>pg_ctl restart</> (Tom)
7632 Ensure <filename>pg_control</> is opened in binary mode
7637 <application>pg_controldata</> and <application>pg_resetxlog</>
7638 did this incorrectly, and so could fail on Windows.
7644 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008i (for
7645 DST law changes in Argentina, Brazil, Mauritius, Syria)
7654 <sect1 id="release-8-2-10">
7655 <title>Release 8.2.10</title>
7658 <title>Release date</title>
7659 <simpara>2008-09-22</simpara>
7663 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.9.
7664 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
7665 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
7669 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.10</title>
7672 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
7673 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.2.7,
7674 see the release notes for 8.2.7.
7680 <title>Changes</title>
7686 Fix bug in btree WAL recovery code (Heikki)
7690 Recovery failed if the WAL ended partway through a page split operation.
7696 Fix potential miscalculation of <structfield>datfrozenxid</> (Alvaro)
7700 This error may explain some recent reports of failure to remove old
7701 <structname>pg_clog</> data.
7707 Widen local lock counters from 32 to 64 bits (Tom)
7711 This responds to reports that the counters could overflow in
7712 sufficiently long transactions, leading to unexpected <quote>lock is
7713 already held</> errors.
7719 Fix possible duplicate output of tuples during a GiST index scan (Teodor)
7725 Fix missed permissions checks when a view contains a simple
7726 <literal>UNION ALL</> construct (Heikki)
7730 Permissions for the referenced tables were checked properly, but not
7731 permissions for the view itself.
7737 Add checks in executor startup to ensure that the tuples produced by an
7738 <command>INSERT</> or <command>UPDATE</> will match the target table's
7739 current rowtype (Tom)
7743 <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</>, followed by re-use of a previously
7744 cached plan, could produce this type of situation. The check protects
7745 against data corruption and/or crashes that could ensue.
7751 Fix possible repeated drops during <command>DROP OWNED</> (Tom)
7755 This would typically result in strange errors such as <quote>cache
7756 lookup failed for relation NNN</>.
7762 Fix <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> to first try to interpret its timezone
7763 argument as a timezone abbreviation, and only try it as a full timezone
7764 name if that fails, rather than the other way around as formerly (Tom)
7768 The timestamp input functions have always resolved ambiguous zone names
7769 in this order. Making <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> do so as well improves
7770 consistency, and fixes a compatibility bug introduced in 8.1:
7771 in ambiguous cases we now behave the same as 8.0 and before did,
7772 since in the older versions <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> accepted
7773 <emphasis>only</> abbreviations.
7779 Fix datetime input functions to correctly detect integer overflow when
7780 running on a 64-bit platform (Tom)
7786 Prevent integer overflows during units conversion when displaying a
7787 configuration parameter that has units (Tom)
7793 Improve performance of writing very long log messages to syslog (Tom)
7799 Allow spaces in the suffix part of an LDAP URL in
7800 <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Tom)
7806 Fix bug in backwards scanning of a cursor on a <literal>SELECT DISTINCT
7813 Fix planner bug with nested sub-select expressions (Tom)
7817 If the outer sub-select has no direct dependency on the parent query,
7818 but the inner one does, the outer value might not get recalculated
7819 for new parent query rows.
7825 Fix planner to estimate that <literal>GROUP BY</> expressions yielding
7826 boolean results always result in two groups, regardless of the
7827 expressions' contents (Tom)
7831 This is very substantially more accurate than the regular <literal>GROUP
7832 BY</> estimate for certain boolean tests like <replaceable>col</>
7833 <literal>IS NULL</>.
7839 Fix PL/PgSQL to not fail when a <literal>FOR</> loop's target variable
7840 is a record containing composite-type fields (Tom)
7846 Fix PL/Tcl to behave correctly with Tcl 8.5, and to be more careful
7847 about the encoding of data sent to or from Tcl (Tom)
7853 On Windows, work around a Microsoft bug by preventing
7854 <application>libpq</> from trying to send more than 64kB per system call
7861 Improve <application>pg_dump</> and <application>pg_restore</>'s
7862 error reporting after failure to send a SQL command (Tom)
7868 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to properly preserve postmaster
7869 command-line arguments across a <literal>restart</> (Bruce)
7875 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008f (for
7876 DST law changes in Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Mauritius, Morocco,
7877 Pakistan, Palestine, and Paraguay)
7886 <sect1 id="release-8-2-9">
7887 <title>Release 8.2.9</title>
7890 <title>Release date</title>
7891 <simpara>2008-06-12</simpara>
7895 This release contains one serious and one minor bug fix over 8.2.8.
7896 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
7897 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
7901 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.9</title>
7904 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
7905 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.2.7,
7906 see the release notes for 8.2.7.
7912 <title>Changes</title>
7918 Make <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> parenthesize negative constants (Tom)
7922 Before this fix, a negative constant in a view or rule might be dumped
7923 as, say, <literal>-42::integer</>, which is subtly incorrect: it should
7924 be <literal>(-42)::integer</> due to operator precedence rules.
7925 Usually this would make little difference, but it could interact with
7926 another recent patch to cause
7927 <productname>PostgreSQL</> to reject what had been a valid
7928 <command>SELECT DISTINCT</> view query. Since this could result in
7929 <application>pg_dump</> output failing to reload, it is being treated
7930 as a high-priority fix. The only released versions in which dump
7931 output is actually incorrect are 8.3.1 and 8.2.7.
7937 Make <command>ALTER AGGREGATE ... OWNER TO</> update
7938 <structname>pg_shdepend</> (Tom)
7942 This oversight could lead to problems if the aggregate was later
7943 involved in a <command>DROP OWNED</> or <command>REASSIGN OWNED</>
7953 <sect1 id="release-8-2-8">
7954 <title>Release 8.2.8</title>
7957 <title>Release date</title>
7958 <simpara>never released</simpara>
7962 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.7.
7963 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
7964 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
7968 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.8</title>
7971 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
7972 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.2.7,
7973 see the release notes for 8.2.7.
7979 <title>Changes</title>
7985 Fix <literal>ERRORDATA_STACK_SIZE exceeded</literal> crash that
7986 occurred on Windows when using UTF-8 database encoding and a different
7987 client encoding (Tom)
7993 Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN ... PRIMARY KEY</> so that the new
7994 column is correctly checked to see if it's been initialized to all
7995 non-nulls (Brendan Jurd)
7999 Previous versions neglected to check this requirement at all.
8005 Fix possible <command>CREATE TABLE</> failure when inheriting the
8006 <quote>same</> constraint from multiple parent relations that
8007 inherited that constraint from a common ancestor (Tom)
8013 Fix <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> to show the alias, if any, attached
8014 to the target table of an <command>UPDATE</> or <command>DELETE</>
8021 Fix GIN bug that could result in a <literal>too many LWLocks
8022 taken</literal> failure (Teodor)
8028 Avoid possible crash when decompressing corrupted data
8035 Repair two places where SIGTERM exit of a backend could leave corrupted
8036 state in shared memory (Tom)
8040 Neither case is very important if SIGTERM is used to shut down the
8041 whole database cluster together, but there was a problem if someone
8042 tried to SIGTERM individual backends.
8048 Fix conversions between ISO-8859-5 and other encodings to handle
8049 Cyrillic <quote>Yo</> characters (<literal>e</> and <literal>E</> with
8050 two dots) (Sergey Burladyan)
8056 Fix several datatype input functions, notably <function>array_in()</>,
8057 that were allowing unused bytes in their results to contain
8058 uninitialized, unpredictable values (Tom)
8062 This could lead to failures in which two apparently identical literal
8063 values were not seen as equal, resulting in the parser complaining
8064 about unmatched <literal>ORDER BY</> and <literal>DISTINCT</>
8071 Fix a corner case in regular-expression substring matching
8072 (<literal>substring(<replaceable>string</> from
8073 <replaceable>pattern</>)</literal>) (Tom)
8077 The problem occurs when there is a match to the pattern overall but
8078 the user has specified a parenthesized subexpression and that
8079 subexpression hasn't got a match. An example is
8080 <literal>substring('foo' from 'foo(bar)?')</>.
8081 This should return NULL, since <literal>(bar)</> isn't matched, but
8082 it was mistakenly returning the whole-pattern match instead (ie,
8089 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008c (for
8090 DST law changes in Morocco, Iraq, Choibalsan, Pakistan, Syria, Cuba, and
8097 Fix incorrect result from <application>ecpg</>'s
8098 <function>PGTYPEStimestamp_sub()</> function (Michael)
8104 Fix broken GiST comparison function for <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>'s
8105 <type>tsquery</> type (Teodor)
8111 Fix possible crashes in <filename>contrib/cube</> functions (Tom)
8117 Fix core dump in <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s
8118 <function>xpath_table()</> function when the input query returns a
8125 Fix <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s makefile to not override
8126 <literal>CFLAGS</> (Tom)
8132 Fix <literal>DatumGetBool</> macro to not fail with <application>gcc</>
8137 This problem affects <quote>old style</> (V0) C functions that
8138 return boolean. The fix is already in 8.3, but the need to
8139 back-patch it was not realized at the time.
8148 <sect1 id="release-8-2-7">
8149 <title>Release 8.2.7</title>
8152 <title>Release date</title>
8153 <simpara>2008-03-17</simpara>
8157 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.6.
8158 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
8159 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
8163 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.7</title>
8166 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
8167 However, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
8168 columns after updating, if you are affected by the Windows locale
8169 issue described below.
8175 <title>Changes</title>
8181 Fix character string comparison for Windows locales that consider
8182 different character combinations as equal (Tom)
8186 This fix applies only on Windows and only when using UTF-8
8187 database encoding. The same fix was made for all other cases
8188 over two years ago, but Windows with UTF-8 uses a separate code
8189 path that was not updated. If you are using a locale that
8190 considers some non-identical strings as equal, you may need to
8191 <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on textual columns.
8197 Repair potential deadlock between concurrent <command>VACUUM FULL</>
8198 operations on different system catalogs (Tom)
8204 Fix longstanding <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</>
8205 race condition (Tom)
8209 In rare cases a session that had just executed a
8210 <command>LISTEN</> might not get a notification, even though
8211 one would be expected because the concurrent transaction executing
8212 <command>NOTIFY</> was observed to commit later.
8216 A side effect of the fix is that a transaction that has executed
8217 a not-yet-committed <command>LISTEN</> command will not see any
8218 row in <structname>pg_listener</> for the <command>LISTEN</>,
8219 should it choose to look; formerly it would have. This behavior
8220 was never documented one way or the other, but it is possible that
8221 some applications depend on the old behavior.
8227 Disallow <command>LISTEN</> and <command>UNLISTEN</> within a
8228 prepared transaction (Tom)
8232 This was formerly allowed but trying to do it had various unpleasant
8233 consequences, notably that the originating backend could not exit
8234 as long as an <command>UNLISTEN</> remained uncommitted.
8240 Disallow dropping a temporary table within a
8241 prepared transaction (Heikki)
8245 This was correctly disallowed by 8.1, but the check was inadvertently
8252 Fix rare crash when an error occurs during a query using a hash index
8259 Fix memory leaks in certain usages of set-returning functions (Neil)
8265 Fix input of datetime values for February 29 in years BC (Tom)
8269 The former coding was mistaken about which years were leap years.
8275 Fix <quote>unrecognized node type</> error in some variants of
8276 <command>ALTER OWNER</> (Tom)
8282 Ensure <structname>pg_stat_activity</>.<structfield>waiting</> flag
8283 is cleared when a lock wait is aborted (Tom)
8289 Fix handling of process permissions on Windows Vista (Dave, Magnus)
8293 In particular, this fix allows starting the server as the Administrator
8300 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008a
8301 (in particular, recent Chile changes); adjust timezone abbreviation
8302 <literal>VET</> (Venezuela) to mean UTC-4:30, not UTC-4:00 (Tom)
8308 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to correctly extract the postmaster's port
8309 number from command-line options (Itagaki Takahiro, Tom)
8313 Previously, <literal>pg_ctl start -w</> could try to contact the
8314 postmaster on the wrong port, leading to bogus reports of startup
8321 Use <option>-fwrapv</> to defend against possible misoptimization
8322 in recent <application>gcc</> versions (Tom)
8326 This is known to be necessary when building <productname>PostgreSQL</>
8327 with <application>gcc</> 4.3 or later.
8334 Correctly enforce <varname>statement_timeout</> values longer
8335 than <literal>INT_MAX</> microseconds (about 35 minutes) (Tom)
8339 This bug affects only builds with <option>--enable-integer-datetimes</>.
8345 Fix <quote>unexpected PARAM_SUBLINK ID</> planner error when
8346 constant-folding simplifies a sub-select (Tom)
8352 Fix logical errors in constraint-exclusion handling of <literal>IS
8353 NULL</> and <literal>NOT</> expressions (Tom)
8357 The planner would sometimes exclude partitions that should not
8358 have been excluded because of the possibility of NULL results.
8364 Fix another cause of <quote>failed to build any N-way joins</>
8365 planner errors (Tom)
8369 This could happen in cases where a clauseless join needed to be
8370 forced before a join clause could be exploited.
8376 Fix incorrect constant propagation in outer-join planning (Tom)
8380 The planner could sometimes incorrectly conclude that a variable
8381 could be constrained to be equal to a constant, leading
8382 to wrong query results.
8388 Fix display of constant expressions in <literal>ORDER BY</>
8389 and <literal>GROUP BY</> (Tom)
8393 An explictly casted constant would be shown incorrectly. This could
8394 for example lead to corruption of a view definition during
8401 Fix <application>libpq</> to handle NOTICE messages correctly
8402 during COPY OUT (Tom)
8406 This failure has only been observed to occur when a user-defined
8407 datatype's output routine issues a NOTICE, but there is no
8408 guarantee it couldn't happen due to other causes.
8417 <sect1 id="release-8-2-6">
8418 <title>Release 8.2.6</title>
8421 <title>Release date</title>
8422 <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara>
8426 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.5,
8427 including fixes for significant security issues.
8428 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
8429 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
8433 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.6</title>
8436 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
8442 <title>Changes</title>
8448 Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of
8449 the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom)
8453 Functions used in index expressions and partial-index
8454 predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has
8455 long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code
8456 execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user.
8457 (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the
8458 same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger
8459 because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations
8460 such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed
8461 automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user
8462 can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a
8463 trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum.
8464 The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations
8465 (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>,
8466 and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than
8467 the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already
8468 used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing
8469 this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION
8470 AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a
8471 <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600)
8477 Repair assorted bugs in the regular-expression package (Tom, Will Drewry)
8481 Suitably crafted regular-expression patterns could cause crashes,
8482 infinite or near-infinite looping, and/or massive memory consumption,
8483 all of which pose denial-of-service hazards for applications that
8484 accept regex search patterns from untrustworthy sources.
8485 (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)
8491 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
8492 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
8496 The fix that appeared for this in 8.2.5 was incomplete, as it plugged
8497 the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601,
8504 Fix bugs in WAL replay for GIN indexes (Teodor)
8510 Fix GIN index build to work properly when
8511 <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> is 4GB or more (Tom)
8517 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2007k
8518 (in particular, recent Argentina changes) (Tom)
8524 Improve planner's handling of LIKE/regex estimation in non-C locales
8531 Fix planning-speed problem for deep outer-join nests, as well as
8532 possible poor choice of join order (Tom)
8538 Fix planner failure in some cases of <literal>WHERE false AND var IN
8539 (SELECT ...)</> (Tom)
8545 Make <command>CREATE TABLE ... SERIAL</> and
8546 <command>ALTER SEQUENCE ... OWNED BY</> not change the
8547 <function>currval()</> state of the sequence (Tom)
8553 Preserve the tablespace and storage parameters of indexes that are
8554 rebuilt by <command>ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> (Tom)
8560 Make archive recovery always start a new WAL timeline, rather than only
8561 when a recovery stop time was used (Simon)
8565 This avoids a corner-case risk of trying to overwrite an existing
8566 archived copy of the last WAL segment, and seems simpler and cleaner
8567 than the original definition.
8573 Make <command>VACUUM</> not use all of <varname>maintenance_work_mem</>
8574 when the table is too small for it to be useful (Alvaro)
8580 Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte
8581 database encoding (Tom)
8587 Make <function>corr()</> return the correct result for negative
8588 correlation values (Neil)
8594 Fix overflow in <literal>extract(epoch from interval)</> for intervals
8595 exceeding 68 years (Tom)
8601 Fix PL/Perl to not fail when a UTF-8 regular expression is used
8602 in a trusted function (Andrew)
8608 Fix PL/Perl to cope when platform's Perl defines type <literal>bool</>
8609 as <literal>int</> rather than <literal>char</> (Tom)
8613 While this could theoretically happen anywhere, no standard build of
8614 Perl did things this way ... until <productname>Mac OS X</> 10.5.
8620 Fix PL/Python to work correctly with Python 2.5 on 64-bit machines
8627 Fix PL/Python to not crash on long exception messages (Alvaro)
8633 Fix <application>pg_dump</> to correctly handle inheritance child tables
8634 that have default expressions different from their parent's (Tom)
8640 Fix <application>libpq</> crash when <varname>PGPASSFILE</> refers
8641 to a file that is not a plain file (Martin Pitt)
8647 <application>ecpg</> parser fixes (Michael)
8653 Make <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</> defend against
8654 <application>OpenSSL</> libraries that fail on keys longer than 128
8655 bits; which is the case at least on some Solaris versions (Marko Kreen)
8661 Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle
8662 NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe)
8668 Fix <type>tsvector</> and <type>tsquery</> output routines to
8669 escape backslashes correctly (Teodor, Bruce)
8675 Fix crash of <function>to_tsvector()</> on huge input strings (Teodor)
8681 Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used
8682 when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter)
8686 This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made
8687 to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of
8688 <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions.
8689 You can remove the version check if you really want to use a
8690 different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's
8691 your responsibility whether the result works or not.
8697 Update <function>gettimeofday</> configuration check so that
8698 <productname>PostgreSQL</> can be built on newer versions of
8699 <productname>MinGW</> (Magnus)
8708 <sect1 id="release-8-2-5">
8709 <title>Release 8.2.5</title>
8712 <title>Release date</title>
8713 <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
8717 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.4.
8718 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
8719 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
8723 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.5</title>
8726 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
8732 <title>Changes</title>
8738 Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
8739 then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
8740 on the same table (Tom)
8746 Fix <literal>ALTER DOMAIN ADD CONSTRAINT</> for cases involving
8747 domains over domains (Tom)
8753 Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
8759 Fix some planner problems with outer joins, notably poor
8760 size estimation for <literal>t1 LEFT JOIN t2 WHERE t2.col IS NULL</>
8767 Allow the <type>interval</> data type to accept input consisting only of
8768 milliseconds or microseconds (Neil)
8774 Allow timezone name to appear before the year in <type>timestamp</> input (Tom)
8780 Fixes for <acronym>GIN</> indexes used by <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> (Teodor)
8786 Speed up rtree index insertion (Teodor)
8792 Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
8798 Fix logging so that log messages are never interleaved when using
8799 the syslogger process (Andrew)
8805 Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
8812 Fix incorrect handling of some foreign-key corner cases (Tom)
8818 Fix <function>stddev_pop(numeric)</> and <function>var_pop(numeric)</> (Tom)
8824 Prevent <command>REINDEX</> and <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
8825 due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
8831 Update the time zone database rules, particularly New Zealand's upcoming changes (Tom)
8837 Windows socket and semaphore improvements (Magnus)
8843 Make <command>pg_ctl -w</> work properly in Windows service mode (Dave Page)
8849 Fix memory allocation bug when using <application>MIT Kerberos</> on Windows (Magnus)
8855 Suppress timezone name (<literal>%Z</>) in log timestamps on Windows
8856 because of possible encoding mismatches (Tom)
8862 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
8863 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
8869 Restrict <filename>/contrib/pgstattuple</> functions to superusers, for security reasons (Tom)
8875 Do not let <filename>/contrib/intarray</> try to make its GIN opclass
8876 the default (this caused problems at dump/restore) (Tom)
8885 <sect1 id="release-8-2-4">
8886 <title>Release 8.2.4</title>
8889 <title>Release date</title>
8890 <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
8894 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.3,
8895 including a security fix.
8896 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
8897 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
8901 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.4</title>
8904 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
8910 <title>Changes</title>
8916 Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
8917 <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
8922 This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
8923 truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
8924 an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
8925 with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
8926 See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
8932 Fix <varname>shared_preload_libraries</> for Windows
8933 by forcing reload in each backend (Korry Douglas)
8939 Fix <function>to_char()</> so it properly upper/lower cases localized day or month
8940 names (Pavel Stehule)
8946 <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
8952 Require <command>COMMIT PREPARED</> to be executed in the same
8953 database as the transaction was prepared in (Heikki)
8959 Allow <command>pg_dump</> to do binary backups larger than two gigabytes
8966 New traditional (Taiwan) Chinese <acronym>FAQ</> (Zhou Daojing)
8972 Prevent the statistics collector from writing to disk too frequently (Tom)
8978 Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
8979 <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
8985 Fix bug in domains that use array types (Tom)
8991 Fix <command>pg_dump</> so it can dump a serial column's sequence
8992 using <option>-t</> when not also dumping the owning table
8999 Planner fixes, including improving outer join and bitmap scan
9000 selection logic (Tom)
9006 Fix possible wrong answers or crash when a PL/pgSQL function tries
9007 to <literal>RETURN</> from within an <literal>EXCEPTION</> block
9014 Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (Tom)
9020 Fix POSIX-style timezone specs to follow new USA DST rules (Tom)
9029 <sect1 id="release-8-2-3">
9030 <title>Release 8.2.3</title>
9033 <title>Release date</title>
9034 <simpara>2007-02-07</simpara>
9038 This release contains two fixes from 8.2.2.
9039 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
9040 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
9044 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.3</title>
9047 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
9053 <title>Changes</title>
9059 Remove overly-restrictive check for type length in constraints and
9060 functional indexes(Tom)
9066 Fix optimization so MIN/MAX in subqueries can again use indexes (Tom)
9075 <sect1 id="release-8-2-2">
9076 <title>Release 8.2.2</title>
9079 <title>Release date</title>
9080 <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
9084 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.1, including
9086 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
9087 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
9091 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.2</title>
9094 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.X.
9100 <title>Changes</title>
9106 Remove security vulnerabilities that allowed connected users
9107 to read backend memory (Tom)
9111 The vulnerabilities involve suppressing the normal check that a SQL
9112 function returns the data type it's declared to, and changing the
9113 data type of a table column (CVE-2007-0555, CVE-2007-0556). These
9114 errors can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
9115 principle might be used to read database content that the user
9116 should not be able to access.
9122 Fix not-so-rare-anymore bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
9123 due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
9129 Fix Borland C compile scripts (L Bayuk)
9135 Properly handle <function>to_char('CC')</> for years ending in
9136 <literal>00</> (Tom)
9140 Year 2000 is in the twentieth century, not the twenty-first.
9146 <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> localization improvements (Tatsuo, Teodor)
9152 Fix incorrect permission check in
9153 <literal>information_schema.key_column_usage</> view (Tom)
9157 The symptom is <quote>relation with OID nnnnn does not exist</> errors.
9158 To get this fix without using <command>initdb</>, use <command>CREATE OR
9159 REPLACE VIEW</> to install the corrected definition found in
9160 <filename>share/information_schema.sql</>. Note you will need to do
9161 this in each database.
9167 Improve <command>VACUUM</> performance for databases with many tables (Tom)
9173 Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
9179 Fix potentially incorrect results from index searches using
9180 <literal>ROW</> inequality conditions (Tom)
9186 Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
9187 over three bytes long (Tom)
9193 Fix bogus <quote>permission denied</> failures occurring on Windows
9194 due to attempts to fsync already-deleted files (Magnus, Tom)
9200 Fix bug that could cause the statistics collector
9201 to hang on Windows (Magnus)
9205 This would in turn lead to autovacuum not working.
9211 Fix possible crashes when an already-in-use PL/pgSQL function is
9218 Improve PL/pgSQL handling of domain types (Sergiy Vyshnevetskiy, Tom)
9224 Fix possible errors in processing PL/pgSQL exception blocks (Tom)
9233 <sect1 id="release-8-2-1">
9234 <title>Release 8.2.1</title>
9237 <title>Release date</title>
9238 <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
9242 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.2.
9243 For information about new features in the 8.2 major release, see
9244 <xref linkend="release-8-2">.
9248 <title>Migration to Version 8.2.1</title>
9251 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.2.
9257 <title>Changes</title>
9263 Fix crash with <literal>SELECT</> ... <literal>LIMIT ALL</> (also
9264 <literal>LIMIT NULL</>) (Tom)
9270 <filename>Several /contrib/tsearch2</> fixes (Teodor)
9276 On Windows, make log messages coming from the operating system use
9277 <acronym>ASCII</> encoding (Hiroshi Saito)
9281 This fixes a conversion problem when there is a mismatch between
9282 the encoding of the operating system and database server.
9288 Fix Windows linking of <application>pg_dump</> using
9289 <filename>win32.mak</>
9296 Fix planner mistakes for outer join queries (Tom)
9302 Fix several problems in queries involving sub-SELECTs (Tom)
9308 Fix potential crash in SPI during subtransaction abort (Tom)
9312 This affects all PL functions since they all use SPI.
9318 Improve build speed of <acronym>PDF</> documentation (Peter)
9324 Re-add <acronym>JST</> (Japan) timezone abbreviation (Tom)
9330 Improve optimization decisions related to index scans (Tom)
9336 Have <application>psql</> print multi-byte combining characters as
9337 before, rather than output as <literal>\u</> (Tom)
9343 Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
9347 This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
9353 Make <application>pg_dumpall</> assume that databases have public
9354 <literal>CONNECT</> privilege, when dumping from a pre-8.2 server (Tom)
9358 This preserves the previous behavior that anyone can connect to a
9359 database if allowed by <filename>pg_hba.conf</>.
9368 <sect1 id="release-8-2">
9369 <title>Release 8.2</title>
9372 <title>Release date</title>
9373 <simpara>2006-12-05</simpara>
9377 <title>Overview</title>
9380 This release adds many functionality and performance improvements that
9381 were requested by users, including:
9387 Query language enhancements including <command>INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE
9388 RETURNING</command>, multirow <literal>VALUES</literal> lists, and
9389 optional target-table alias in
9390 <command>UPDATE</>/<command>DELETE</command>
9396 Index creation without blocking concurrent
9397 <command>INSERT</>/<command>UPDATE</>/<command>DELETE</>
9404 Many query optimization improvements, including support for
9405 reordering outer joins
9411 Improved sorting performance with lower memory usage
9417 More efficient locking with better concurrency
9423 More efficient vacuuming
9429 Easier administration of warm standby servers
9435 New <literal>FILLFACTOR</literal> support for tables and indexes
9441 Monitoring, logging, and performance tuning additions
9447 More control over creating and dropping objects
9453 Table inheritance relationships can be defined
9454 for and removed from pre-existing tables
9460 <command>COPY TO</command> can copy the output of an arbitrary
9461 <command>SELECT</command> statement
9467 Array improvements, including nulls in arrays
9473 Aggregate-function improvements, including multiple-input
9474 aggregates and SQL:2003 statistical functions
9480 Many <filename>contrib/</filename> improvements
9491 <title>Migration to Version 8.2</title>
9494 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
9495 required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
9500 Observe the following incompatibilities:
9508 linkend="guc-escape-string-warning"><varname>escape_string_warning</></link>
9509 to <literal>on</> by default (Bruce)
9513 This issues a warning if backslash escapes are used in
9514 <link linkend="sql-syntax-strings">non-escape (non-<literal>E''</>)
9521 Change the <link linkend="sql-syntax-row-constructors">row
9522 constructor syntax</link> (<literal>ROW(...)</>) so that
9523 list elements <literal>foo.*</> will be expanded to a list
9524 of their member fields, rather than creating a nested
9525 row type field as formerly (Tom)
9529 The new behavior is substantially more useful since it
9530 allows, for example, triggers to check for data changes
9531 with <literal>IF row(new.*) IS DISTINCT FROM row(old.*)</>.
9532 The old behavior is still available by omitting <literal>.*</>.
9538 Make <link linkend="row-wise-comparison">row comparisons</link>
9539 follow <acronym>SQL</> standard semantics and allow them
9540 to be used in index scans (Tom)
9544 Previously, row = and <> comparisons followed the
9545 standard but < <= > >= did not. A row comparison
9546 can now be used as an index constraint for a multicolumn
9547 index matching the row value.
9553 Make <link linkend="functions-comparison">row <literal>IS <optional>NOT</> NULL</literal></link>
9554 tests follow <acronym>SQL</> standard semantics (Tom)
9558 The former behavior conformed to the standard for simple cases
9559 with <literal>IS NULL</>, but <literal>IS NOT NULL</> would return
9560 true if any row field was non-null, whereas the standard says it
9561 should return true only when all fields are non-null.
9567 Make <link linkend="SQL-SET-CONSTRAINTS"><command>SET
9568 CONSTRAINT</></link> affect only one constraint (Kris Jurka)
9572 In previous releases, <command>SET CONSTRAINT</> modified
9573 all constraints with a matching name. In this release,
9574 the schema search path is used to modify only the first
9575 matching constraint. A schema specification is also
9576 supported. This more nearly conforms to the SQL standard.
9582 Remove <literal>RULE</> permission for tables, for security reasons
9587 As of this release, only a table's owner can create or modify
9588 rules for the table. For backwards compatibility,
9589 <command>GRANT</>/<command>REVOKE RULE</> is still accepted,
9590 but it does nothing.
9596 Array comparison improvements (Tom)
9600 Now array dimensions are also compared.
9606 Change <link linkend="functions-array">array concatenation</link>
9607 to match documented behavior (Tom)
9611 This changes the previous behavior where concatenation
9612 would modify the array lower bound.
9618 Make command-line options of <application>postmaster</>
9619 and <link linkend="app-postgres"><application>postgres</></link>
9624 This allows the postmaster to pass arguments to each backend
9625 without using <literal>-o</>. Note that some options are now
9626 only available as long-form options, because there were conflicting
9627 single-letter options.
9633 Deprecate use of <application>postmaster</> symbolic link (Peter)
9637 <application>postmaster</> and <application>postgres</>
9638 commands now act identically, with the behavior determined
9639 by command-line options. The <application>postmaster</> symbolic link is
9640 kept for compatibility, but is not really needed.
9647 linkend="guc-log-duration"><varname>log_duration</></link>
9648 to output even if the query is not output (Tom)
9652 In prior releases, <varname>log_duration</> only printed if
9653 the query appeared earlier in the log.
9660 linkend="functions-formatting"><function>to_char(time)</></link>
9662 linkend="functions-formatting"><function>to_char(interval)</></link>
9663 treat <literal>HH</> and <literal>HH12</> as 12-hour
9668 Most applications should use <literal>HH24</> unless they
9669 want a 12-hour display.
9675 Zero unmasked bits in conversion from <link
9676 linkend="datatype-inet"><type>INET</></link> to <link
9677 linkend="datatype-inet"><type>CIDR</></link> (Tom)
9681 This ensures that the converted value is actually valid for
9688 Remove <varname>australian_timezones</> configuration variable
9693 This variable has been superseded by a more general facility
9694 for configuring timezone abbreviations.
9700 Improve cost estimation for nested-loop index scans (Tom)
9704 This might eliminate the need to set unrealistically small
9706 linkend="guc-random-page-cost"><varname>random_page_cost</></link>.
9707 If you have been using a very small <varname>random_page_cost</>,
9708 please recheck your test cases.
9714 Change behavior of <command>pg_dump</> <literal>-n</> and
9715 <literal>-t</> options. (Greg Sabino Mullane)
9718 See the <command>pg_dump</> manual page for details.
9724 Change <link linkend="libpq"><application>libpq</></link>
9725 <function>PQdsplen()</> to return a useful value (Martijn
9732 Declare <link linkend="libpq"><application>libpq</></link>
9733 <function>PQgetssl()</> as returning <literal>void *</>,
9734 rather than <literal>SSL *</> (Martijn van Oosterhout)
9738 This allows applications to use the function without including
9739 the OpenSSL headers.
9745 C-language loadable modules must now include a
9746 <link linkend="xfunc-c-dynload"><literal>PG_MODULE_MAGIC</></link>
9747 macro call for version compatibility checking
9748 (Martijn van Oosterhout)
9754 For security's sake, modules used by a PL/PerlU function are no
9755 longer available to PL/Perl functions (Andrew)
9759 This also implies that data can no longer be shared between a PL/Perl
9760 function and a PL/PerlU function.
9761 Some Perl installations have not been compiled with the correct flags
9762 to allow multiple interpreters to exist within a single process.
9763 In this situation PL/Perl and PL/PerlU cannot both be used in a
9764 single backend. The solution is to get a Perl installation which
9765 supports multiple interpreters.
9772 In <filename>contrib/xml2/</>, rename <function>xml_valid()</> to
9773 <function>xml_is_well_formed()</> (Tom)
9777 <function>xml_valid()</> will remain for backward compatibility,
9778 but its behavior will change to do schema checking in a future
9785 Remove <filename>contrib/ora2pg/</>, now at <ulink
9786 url="http://www.samse.fr/GPL/ora2pg"></ulink>
9792 Remove contrib modules that have been migrated to PgFoundry:
9793 <filename>adddepend</>, <filename>dbase</>, <filename>dbmirror</>,
9794 <filename>fulltextindex</>, <filename>mac</>, <filename>userlock</>
9800 Remove abandoned contrib modules:
9801 <filename>mSQL-interface</>, <filename>tips</>
9807 Remove <acronym>QNX</> and <acronym>BEOS</> ports (Bruce)
9811 These ports no longer had active maintainers.
9819 <title>Changes</title>
9822 Below you will find a detailed account of the
9823 changes between <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.2 and
9824 the previous major release.
9828 <title>Performance Improvements</title>
9833 Allow the planner to reorder <link linkend="queries-join">outer
9834 joins</link> in some circumstances (Tom)
9838 In previous releases, outer joins would always be evaluated in
9839 the order written in the query. This change allows the
9840 query optimizer to consider reordering outer joins, in cases where
9841 it can determine that the join order can be changed without
9842 altering the meaning of the query. This can make a
9843 considerable performance difference for queries involving
9844 multiple outer joins or mixed inner and outer joins.
9850 Improve efficiency of <link
9851 linkend="functions-comparisons"><literal>IN</>
9852 (list-of-expressions)</link> clauses (Tom)
9858 Improve sorting speed and reduce memory usage (Simon, Tom)
9864 Improve subtransaction performance (Alvaro, Itagaki Takahiro,
9871 Add <literal>FILLFACTOR</> to <link
9872 linkend="SQL-CREATETABLE">table</link> and <link
9873 linkend="SQL-CREATEINDEX">index</link> creation (ITAGAKI
9878 This leaves extra free space in each table or index page,
9879 allowing improved performance as the database grows. This
9880 is particularly valuable to maintain clustering.
9886 Increase default values for <link
9887 linkend="guc-shared-buffers"><varname>shared_buffers</></link>
9888 and <varname>max_fsm_pages</>
9895 Improve locking performance by breaking the lock manager tables into
9901 This allows locking to be more fine-grained, reducing
9908 Reduce locking requirements of sequential scans (Qingqing
9915 Reduce locking required for database creation and destruction
9922 Improve the optimizer's selectivity estimates for <link
9923 linkend="functions-like"><literal>LIKE</></link>, <link
9924 linkend="functions-like"><literal>ILIKE</></link>, and
9925 <link linkend="functions-posix-regexp">regular expression</link>
9932 Improve planning of joins to <link linkend="ddl-inherit">inherited
9933 tables</link> and <link linkend="queries-union"><literal>UNION
9934 ALL</></link> views (Tom)
9940 Allow <link linkend="guc-constraint-exclusion">constraint
9941 exclusion</link> to be applied to <link
9942 linkend="ddl-inherit">inherited</link> <command>UPDATE</> and
9943 <command>DELETE</> queries (Tom)
9947 <command>SELECT</> already honored constraint exclusion.
9953 Improve planning of constant <literal>WHERE</> clauses, such as
9954 a condition that depends only on variables inherited from an
9955 outer query level (Tom)
9961 Protocol-level unnamed prepared statements are re-planned
9962 for each set of <literal>BIND</> values (Tom)
9966 This improves performance because the exact parameter values
9967 can be used in the plan.
9973 Speed up vacuuming of B-Tree indexes (Heikki Linnakangas,
9980 Avoid extra scan of tables without indexes during <link
9981 linkend="SQL-VACUUM"><command>VACUUM</></link> (Greg Stark)
9987 Improve multicolumn <link linkend="GiST"><acronym>GiST</></link>
9988 indexing (Oleg, Teodor)
9994 Remove dead index entries before B-Tree page split (Junji
10004 <title>Server Changes</title>
10009 Allow a forced switch to a new transaction log file (Simon, Tom)
10013 This is valuable for keeping warm standby slave servers
10014 in sync with the master. Transaction log file switching now also happens
10015 automatically during <link
10016 linkend="functions-admin"><function>pg_stop_backup()</></link>.
10017 This ensures that all
10018 transaction log files needed for recovery can be archived immediately.
10024 Add <acronym>WAL</> informational functions (Simon)
10028 Add functions for interrogating the current transaction log insertion
10029 point and determining <acronym>WAL</> filenames from the
10030 hex <acronym>WAL</> locations displayed by <link
10031 linkend="functions-admin"><function>pg_stop_backup()</></link>
10032 and related functions.
10038 Improve recovery from a crash during <acronym>WAL</> replay (Simon)
10042 The server now does periodic checkpoints during <acronym>WAL</>
10043 recovery, so if there is a crash, future <acronym>WAL</>
10044 recovery is shortened. This also eliminates the need for
10045 warm standby servers to replay the entire log since the
10046 base backup if they crash.
10052 Improve reliability of long-term <acronym>WAL</> replay
10053 (Heikki, Simon, Tom)
10057 Formerly, trying to roll forward through more than 2 billion
10058 transactions would not work due to XID wraparound. This meant
10059 warm standby servers had to be reloaded
10060 from fresh base backups periodically.
10067 linkend="guc-archive-timeout"><varname>archive_timeout</></link>
10068 to force transaction log file switches at a given interval (Simon)
10072 This enforces a maximum replication delay for warm standby servers.
10078 Add native <link linkend="auth-ldap"><acronym>LDAP</></link>
10079 authentication (Magnus Hagander)
10083 This is particularly useful for platforms that do not
10084 support <acronym>PAM</>, such as Windows.
10090 Add <link linkend="sql-grant-description-objects"><literal>GRANT
10091 CONNECT ON DATABASE</></link> (Gevik Babakhani)
10095 This gives SQL-level control over database access. It works as
10096 an additional filter on top of the existing
10097 <link linkend="auth-pg-hba-conf"><filename>pg_hba.conf</></link>
10104 Add support for <link linkend="ssl-tcp"><acronym>SSL</>
10105 Certificate Revocation List</link> (<acronym>CRL</>) files
10106 (Libor Hohoš)
10110 The server and <application>libpq</> both recognize <acronym>CRL</>
10117 <link linkend="GiST"><acronym>GiST</></link> indexes are
10118 now clusterable (Teodor)
10124 Remove routine autovacuum server log entries (Bruce)
10129 linkend="monitoring-stats-views-table"><literal>pg_stat_activity</></link>
10130 now shows autovacuum activity.
10136 Track maximum XID age within individual tables, instead of whole databases (Alvaro)
10140 This reduces the overhead involved in preventing transaction
10141 ID wraparound, by avoiding unnecessary VACUUMs.
10147 Add last vacuum and analyze timestamp columns to the stats
10148 collector (Larry Rosenman)
10152 These values now appear in the <link
10153 linkend="monitoring-stats-views-table"><literal>pg_stat_*_tables</></link>
10160 Improve performance of statistics monitoring, especially
10161 <varname>stats_command_string</>
10166 This release enables <varname>stats_command_string</> by
10167 default, now that its overhead is minimal. This means
10169 linkend="monitoring-stats-views-table"><literal>pg_stat_activity</></link>
10170 will now show all active queries by default.
10176 Add a <literal>waiting</> column to <link
10177 linkend="monitoring-stats-views-table"><literal>pg_stat_activity</></link>
10182 This allows <structname>pg_stat_activity</> to show all the
10183 information included in the <application>ps</> display.
10189 Add configuration parameter <link
10190 linkend="guc-update-process-title"><varname>update_process_title</></link>
10191 to control whether the <application>ps</> display is updated
10192 for every command (Bruce)
10196 On platforms where it is expensive to update the <application>ps</>
10197 display, it might be worthwhile to turn this off and rely solely on
10198 <structname>pg_stat_activity</> for status information.
10204 Allow units to be specified in configuration settings
10209 For example, you can now set <link
10210 linkend="guc-shared-buffers"><varname>shared_buffers</></link>
10211 to <literal>32MB</> rather than mentally converting sizes.
10217 Add support for <link linkend="config-setting">include
10218 directives</link> in <filename>postgresql.conf</> (Joachim
10225 Improve logging of protocol-level prepare/bind/execute
10226 messages (Bruce, Tom)
10230 Such logging now shows statement names, bind parameter
10231 values, and the text of the query being executed. Also,
10232 the query text is properly included in logged error messages
10233 when enabled by <varname>log_min_error_statement</>.
10240 linkend="guc-max-stack-depth"><varname>max_stack_depth</></link>
10241 from being set to unsafe values
10245 On platforms where we can determine the actual kernel stack depth
10246 limit (which is most), make sure that the initial default value of
10247 <varname>max_stack_depth</> is safe, and reject attempts to set it
10248 to unsafely large values.
10254 Enable highlighting of error location in query in more
10259 The server is now able to report a specific error location for
10260 some semantic errors (such as unrecognized column name), rather
10261 than just for basic syntax errors as before.
10267 Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
10268 <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
10274 Clean out <filename>pg_internal.init</> cache files during server
10279 This avoids a hazard that the cache files might contain stale
10280 data after PITR recovery.
10286 Fix race condition for truncation of a large relation across a
10287 gigabyte boundary by <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
10293 Fix bug causing needless deadlock errors on row-level locks (Tom)
10299 Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
10305 Each backend process is now its own process group leader (Tom)
10309 This allows query cancel to abort subprocesses invoked from a
10310 backend or archive/recovery process.
10319 <title>Query Changes</title>
10324 Add <link linkend="SQL-INSERT"><command>INSERT</></link>/<link
10325 linkend="SQL-UPDATE"><command>UPDATE</></link>/<link
10326 linkend="SQL-DELETE"><command>DELETE</></link>
10327 <literal>RETURNING</> (Jonah Harris, Tom)
10331 This allows these commands to return values, such as the
10332 computed serial key for a new row. In the <command>UPDATE</>
10333 case, values from the updated version of the row are returned.
10339 Add support for multiple-row <link
10340 linkend="queries-values"><literal>VALUES</></link> clauses,
10341 per SQL standard (Joe, Tom)
10345 This allows <command>INSERT</> to insert multiple rows of
10346 constants, or queries to generate result sets using constants.
10347 For example, <literal>INSERT ... VALUES (...), (...),
10348 ....</>, and <literal>SELECT * FROM (VALUES (...), (...),
10349 ....) AS alias(f1, ...)</>.
10355 Allow <link linkend="SQL-UPDATE"><command>UPDATE</></link>
10356 and <link linkend="SQL-DELETE"><command>DELETE</></link>
10357 to use an alias for the target table (Atsushi Ogawa)
10361 The SQL standard does not permit an alias in these commands, but
10362 many database systems allow one anyway for notational convenience.
10368 Allow <link linkend="SQL-UPDATE"><command>UPDATE</></link>
10369 to set multiple columns with a list of values (Susanne
10374 This is basically a short-hand for assigning the columns
10375 and values in pairs. The syntax is <literal>UPDATE tab
10376 SET (<replaceable>column</>, ...) = (<replaceable>val</>, ...)</>.
10382 Make row comparisons work per standard (Tom)
10386 The forms <, <=, >, >= now compare rows lexicographically,
10387 that is, compare the first elements, if equal compare the second
10388 elements, and so on. Formerly they expanded to an AND condition
10389 across all the elements, which was neither standard nor very useful.
10395 Add <link linkend="SQL-TRUNCATE"><literal>CASCADE</></link>
10396 option to <command>TRUNCATE</> (Joachim Wieland)
10400 This causes <command>TRUNCATE</> to automatically include all tables
10401 that reference the specified table(s) via foreign keys. While
10402 convenient, this is a dangerous tool — use with caution!
10408 Support <literal>FOR UPDATE</> and <literal>FOR SHARE</>
10409 in the same <link linkend="SQL-INSERT"><literal>SELECT</></link>
10416 Add <link linkend="functions-comparisons"><literal>IS NOT
10417 DISTINCT FROM</></link> (Pavel Stehule)
10421 This operator is similar to equality (<literal>=</>), but
10422 evaluates to true when both left and right operands are
10423 <literal>NULL</>, and to false when just one is, rather than
10424 yielding <literal>NULL</> in these cases.
10430 Improve the length output used by <link
10431 linkend="queries-union"><literal>UNION</></link>/<literal>INTERSECT</>/<literal>EXCEPT</>
10436 When all corresponding columns are of the same defined length, that
10437 length is used for the result, rather than a generic length.
10443 Allow <link linkend="functions-like"><literal>ILIKE</></link>
10444 to work for multi-byte encodings (Tom)
10448 Internally, <literal>ILIKE</> now calls <function>lower()</>
10449 and then uses <literal>LIKE</>. Locale-specific regular
10450 expression patterns still do not work in these encodings.
10457 linkend="guc-standard-conforming-strings"><varname>standard_conforming_strings</></link>
10458 to be turned <literal>on</> (Kevin Grittner)
10462 This allows backslash escaping in strings to be disabled,
10463 making <productname>PostgreSQL</> more
10464 standards-compliant. The default is <literal>off</> for backwards
10465 compatibility, but future releases will default this to <literal>on</>.
10471 Do not flatten subqueries that contain <literal>volatile</>
10472 functions in their target lists (Jaime Casanova)
10476 This prevents surprising behavior due to multiple evaluation
10477 of a <literal>volatile</> function (such as <function>random()</>
10478 or <function>nextval()</>). It might cause performance
10479 degradation in the presence of functions that are unnecessarily
10480 marked as <literal>volatile</>.
10486 Add system views <link
10487 linkend="view-pg-prepared-statements"><literal>pg_prepared_statements</></link>
10489 linkend="view-pg-cursors"><literal>pg_cursors</></link>
10490 to show prepared statements and open cursors (Joachim Wieland, Neil)
10494 These are very useful in pooled connection setups.
10500 Support portal parameters in <link
10501 linkend="SQL-EXPLAIN"><command>EXPLAIN</></link> and <link
10502 linkend="SQL-EXECUTE"><command>EXECUTE</></link> (Tom)
10506 This allows, for example, <acronym>JDBC</> <literal>?</> parameters to
10507 work in these commands.
10513 If <acronym>SQL</>-level <link
10514 linkend="SQL-PREPARE"><command>PREPARE</></link> parameters
10515 are unspecified, infer their types from the content of the
10520 Protocol-level <command>PREPARE</> already did this.
10526 Allow <literal>LIMIT</> and <literal>OFFSET</> to exceed
10527 two billion (Dhanaraj M)
10536 <title>Object Manipulation Changes</title>
10541 Add <literal>TABLESPACE</> clause to <link
10542 linkend="SQL-CREATETABLEAS"><command>CREATE TABLE AS</></link>
10547 This allows a tablespace to be specified for the new table.
10553 Add <literal>ON COMMIT</> clause to <link
10554 linkend="SQL-CREATETABLEAS"><command>CREATE TABLE AS</></link>
10559 This allows temporary tables to be truncated or dropped on
10560 transaction commit. The default behavior is for the table
10561 to remain until the session ends.
10567 Add <literal>INCLUDING CONSTRAINTS</> to <link
10568 linkend="SQL-CREATETABLE"><command>CREATE TABLE LIKE</></link>
10573 This allows easy copying of <literal>CHECK</> constraints to a new
10580 Allow the creation of placeholder (shell) <link
10581 linkend="SQL-CREATETYPE">types</link> (Martijn van Oosterhout)
10585 A shell type declaration creates a type name, without specifying
10586 any of the details of the type. Making a shell type is useful
10587 because it allows cleaner declaration of the type's input/output
10588 functions, which must exist before the type can be defined <quote>for
10589 real</>. The syntax is <command>CREATE TYPE <replaceable
10590 class="parameter">typename</replaceable></>.
10596 <link linkend="SQL-CREATEAGGREGATE">Aggregate functions</link>
10597 now support multiple input parameters (Sergey Koposov, Tom)
10603 Add new aggregate creation <link
10604 linkend="SQL-CREATEAGGREGATE">syntax</link> (Tom)
10608 The new syntax is <command>CREATE AGGREGATE
10609 <replaceable>aggname</> (<replaceable>input_type</>)
10610 (<replaceable>parameter_list</>)</command>. This more
10611 naturally supports the new multi-parameter aggregate
10612 functionality. The previous syntax is still supported.
10619 linkend="SQL-ALTERROLE"><command>ALTER ROLE PASSWORD NULL</></link>
10620 to remove a previously set role password (Peter)
10626 Add <command>DROP</> object <literal>IF EXISTS</> for many
10627 object types (Andrew)
10631 This allows <command>DROP</> operations on non-existent
10632 objects without generating an error.
10638 Add <link linkend="SQL-DROP-OWNED"><literal>DROP OWNED</></link>
10639 to drop all objects owned by a role (Alvaro)
10645 Add <link linkend="SQL-REASSIGN-OWNED"><literal>REASSIGN
10646 OWNED</></link> to reassign ownership of all objects owned
10651 This, and <literal>DROP OWNED</> above, facilitate dropping
10658 Add <link linkend="SQL-GRANT"><command>GRANT ON SEQUENCE</></link>
10663 This was added for setting sequence-specific permissions.
10664 <literal>GRANT ON TABLE</> for sequences is still supported
10665 for backward compatibility.
10671 Add <link linkend="SQL-GRANT"><literal>USAGE</></link>
10672 permission for sequences that allows only <function>currval()</>
10673 and <function>nextval()</>, not <function>setval()</>
10678 <literal>USAGE</> permission allows more fine-grained
10679 control over sequence access. Granting <literal>USAGE</>
10680 allows users to increment
10681 a sequence, but prevents them from setting the sequence to
10682 an arbitrary value using <function>setval()</>.
10688 Add <link linkend="SQL-ALTERTABLE"><literal>ALTER TABLE
10689 [ NO ] INHERIT</></link> (Greg Stark)
10693 This allows inheritance to be adjusted dynamically, rather than
10694 just at table creation and destruction. This is very valuable
10695 when using inheritance to implement table partitioning.
10701 Allow <link linkend="SQL-COMMENT">comments</link> on global
10702 objects to be stored globally (Kris Jurka)
10706 Previously, comments attached to databases were stored in individual
10707 databases, making them ineffective, and there was no provision
10708 at all for comments on roles or tablespaces. This change adds a new
10709 shared catalog <link
10710 linkend="catalog-pg-shdescription"><structname>pg_shdescription</structname></link>
10711 and stores comments on databases, roles, and tablespaces therein.
10720 <title>Utility Command Changes</title>
10725 Add option to allow indexes to be created without blocking
10726 concurrent writes to the table (Greg Stark, Tom)
10730 The new syntax is <link linkend="SQL-CREATEINDEX"><command>CREATE
10731 INDEX CONCURRENTLY</></link>. The default behavior is
10732 still to block table modification while a index is being
10739 Provide <link linkend="functions-advisory-locks">advisory
10740 locking</link> functionality (Abhijit Menon-Sen, Tom)
10744 This is a new locking API designed to replace what used to be
10745 in /contrib/userlock. The userlock code is now on pgfoundry.
10751 Allow <link linkend="SQL-COPY"><command>COPY</></link> to
10752 dump a <command>SELECT</> query (Zoltan Boszormenyi, Karel
10757 This allows <command>COPY</> to dump arbitrary <acronym>SQL</>
10758 queries. The syntax is <literal>COPY (SELECT ...) TO</>.
10764 Make the <link linkend="SQL-COPY"><command>COPY</></link>
10765 command return a command tag that includes the number of
10766 rows copied (Volkan YAZICI)
10772 Allow <link linkend="SQL-VACUUM"><command>VACUUM</></link>
10773 to expire rows without being affected by other concurrent
10774 <command>VACUUM</> operations (Hannu Krossing, Alvaro, Tom)
10780 Make <link linkend="APP-INITDB"><application>initdb</></link>
10781 detect the operating system locale and set the default
10782 <varname>DateStyle</> accordingly (Peter)
10786 This makes it more likely that the installed
10787 <filename>postgresql.conf</> <varname>DateStyle</> value will
10794 Reduce number of progress messages displayed by <application>initdb</> (Tom)
10803 <title>Date/Time Changes</title>
10808 Allow full timezone names in <link
10809 linkend="datatype-datetime"><type>timestamp</></link> input values
10814 For example, <literal>'2006-05-24 21:11
10815 America/New_York'::timestamptz</>.
10821 Support configurable timezone abbreviations (Joachim Wieland)
10825 A desired set of timezone abbreviations can be chosen via the
10826 configuration parameter <link
10827 linkend="guc-timezone-abbreviations"><varname>timezone_abbreviations</></link>.
10834 linkend="view-pg-timezone-abbrevs"><varname>pg_timezone_abbrevs</></link>
10836 linkend="view-pg-timezone-names"><varname>pg_timezone_names</></link>
10837 views to show supported timezones (Magnus Hagander)
10844 linkend="functions-datetime-table"><function>clock_timestamp()</></link>,
10846 linkend="functions-datetime-table"><function>statement_timestamp()</></link>,
10848 linkend="functions-datetime-table"><function>transaction_timestamp()</></link>
10853 <function>clock_timestamp()</> is the current wall-clock time,
10854 <function>statement_timestamp()</> is the time the current
10855 statement arrived at the server, and
10856 <function>transaction_timestamp()</> is an alias for
10857 <function>now()</>.
10864 linkend="functions-formatting"><function>to_char()</></link>
10865 to print localized month and day names (Euler Taveira de
10873 linkend="functions-formatting"><function>to_char(time)</></link>
10875 linkend="functions-formatting"><function>to_char(interval)</></link>
10876 to output <acronym>AM</>/<acronym>PM</> specifications
10881 Intervals and times are treated as 24-hour periods, e.g.
10882 <literal>25 hours</> is considered <acronym>AM</>.
10888 Add new function <link
10889 linkend="functions-datetime-table"><function>justify_interval()</></link>
10890 to adjust interval units (Mark Dilger)
10896 Allow timezone offsets up to 14:59 away from GMT
10900 Kiribati uses GMT+14, so we'd better accept that.
10906 Interval computation improvements (Michael Glaesemann, Bruce)
10915 <title>Other Data Type and Function Changes</title>
10920 Allow arrays to contain <literal>NULL</> elements (Tom)
10926 Allow assignment to array elements not contiguous with the existing
10931 The intervening array positions will be filled with nulls.
10932 This is per SQL standard.
10938 New built-in <link linkend="functions-array">operators</link>
10939 for array-subset comparisons (<literal>@></>,
10940 <literal><@</>, <literal>&&</>) (Teodor, Tom)
10944 These operators can be indexed for many data types using
10945 <acronym>GiST</> or <acronym>GIN</> indexes.
10951 Add convenient arithmetic <link
10952 linkend="cidr-inet-operators-table">operations</link> on
10953 <type>INET</>/<type>CIDR</> values (Stephen R. van den
10958 The new operators are <literal>&</> (and), <literal>|</>
10959 (or), <literal>~</> (not), <type>inet</> <literal>+</> <type>int8</>,
10960 <type>inet</> <literal>-</> <type>int8</>, and
10961 <type>inet</> <literal>-</> <type>inet</>.
10968 linkend="functions-aggregate-statistics-table">aggregate functions</link>
10969 from SQL:2003 (Neil)
10973 The new functions are <function>var_pop()</>,
10974 <function>var_samp()</>, <function>stddev_pop()</>, and
10975 <function>stddev_samp()</>. <function>var_samp()</> and
10976 <function>stddev_samp()</> are merely renamings of the
10977 existing aggregates <function>variance()</> and
10978 <function>stddev()</>. The latter names remain available
10979 for backward compatibility.
10985 Add SQL:2003 statistical <link
10986 linkend="functions-aggregate-statistics-table">aggregates</link>
10991 New functions: <function>regr_intercept()</>,
10992 <function>regr_slope()</>, <function>regr_r2()</>,
10993 <function>corr()</>, <function>covar_samp()</>,
10994 <function>covar_pop()</>, <function>regr_avgx()</>,
10995 <function>regr_avgy()</>, <function>regr_sxy()</>,
10996 <function>regr_sxx()</>, <function>regr_syy()</>,
10997 <function>regr_count()</>.
11003 Allow <link linkend="SQL-CREATEDOMAIN">domains</link> to be
11004 based on other domains (Tom)
11010 Properly enforce domain <link
11011 linkend="ddl-constraints"><literal>CHECK</></link> constraints
11012 everywhere (Neil, Tom)
11016 For example, the result of a user-defined function that is
11017 declared to return a domain type is now checked against the
11018 domain's constraints. This closes a significant hole in the domain
11025 Fix problems with dumping renamed <link
11026 linkend="datatype-serial"><type>SERIAL</></link> columns
11031 The fix is to dump a <type>SERIAL</> column by explicitly
11032 specifying its <literal>DEFAULT</> and sequence elements,
11033 and reconstructing the <type>SERIAL</> column on reload
11034 using a new <link linkend="SQL-ALTERSEQUENCE"><command>ALTER
11035 SEQUENCE OWNED BY</></link> command. This also allows
11036 dropping a <type>SERIAL</> column specification.
11042 Add a server-side sleep function <link
11043 linkend="functions-datetime-delay"><function>pg_sleep()</></link>
11050 Add all comparison operators for the <link
11051 linkend="datatype-oid"><type>tid</></link> (tuple id) data
11052 type (Mark Kirkwood, Greg Stark, Tom)
11061 <title>PL/PgSQL Server-Side Language Changes</title>
11066 Add <literal>TG_table_name</> and <literal>TG_table_schema</> to
11067 trigger parameters (Andrew)
11071 <literal>TG_relname</> is now deprecated. Comparable
11072 changes have been made in the trigger parameters for the other
11079 Allow <literal>FOR</> statements to return values to scalars
11080 as well as records and row types (Pavel Stehule)
11086 Add a <literal>BY</> clause to the <literal>FOR</> loop,
11087 to control the iteration increment (Jaime Casanova)
11093 Add <literal>STRICT</> to <link
11094 linkend="plpgsql-statements-sql-onerow"><command>SELECT
11095 INTO</></link> (Matt Miller)
11099 <literal>STRICT</> mode throws an exception if more or less
11100 than one row is returned by the <command>SELECT</>, for
11101 <productname>Oracle PL/SQL</> compatibility.
11110 <title>PL/Perl Server-Side Language Changes</title>
11115 Add <literal>table_name</> and <literal>table_schema</> to
11116 trigger parameters (Adam Sjøgren)
11122 Add prepared queries (Dmitry Karasik)
11128 Make <literal>$_TD</> trigger data a global variable (Andrew)
11132 Previously, it was lexical, which caused unexpected sharing
11139 Run PL/Perl and PL/PerlU in separate interpreters, for security
11143 In consequence, they can no longer share data nor loaded modules.
11144 Also, if Perl has not been compiled with the requisite flags to
11145 allow multiple interpreters, only one of these languages can be used
11146 in any given backend process.
11155 <title>PL/Python Server-Side Language Changes</title>
11160 Named parameters are passed as ordinary variables, as well as in the
11161 <literal>args[]</> array (Sven Suursoho)
11167 Add <literal>table_name</> and <literal>table_schema</> to
11168 trigger parameters (Andrew)
11174 Allow returning of composite types and result sets (Sven Suursoho)
11180 Return result-set as <literal>list</>, <literal>iterator</>,
11181 or <literal>generator </>(Sven Suursoho)
11187 Allow functions to return <literal>void</> (Neil)
11193 Python 2.5 is now supported (Tom)
11202 <title><link linkend="APP-PSQL"><application>psql</></link> Changes</title>
11207 Add new command <literal>\password</> for changing role
11208 password with client-side password encryption (Peter)
11214 Allow <literal>\c</> to connect to a new host and port
11215 number (David, Volkan YAZICI)
11221 Add tablespace display to <literal>\l+</> (Philip Yarra)
11227 Improve <literal>\df</> slash command to include the argument
11228 names and modes (<literal>OUT</> or <literal>INOUT</>) of
11229 the function (David Fetter)
11235 Support binary <command>COPY</> (Andreas Pflug)
11241 Add option to run the entire session in a single transaction
11246 Use option <literal>-1</> or <literal>--single-transaction</>.
11252 Support for automatically retrieving <command>SELECT</>
11253 results in batches using a cursor (Chris Mair)
11257 This is enabled using <command>\set FETCH_COUNT
11258 <replaceable>n</></command>. This
11259 feature allows large result sets to be retrieved in
11260 <application>psql</> without attempting to buffer the entire
11261 result set in memory.
11267 Make multi-line values align in the proper column
11268 (Martijn van Oosterhout)
11272 Field values containing newlines are now displayed in a more
11279 Save multi-line statements as a single entry, rather than
11280 one line at a time (Sergey E. Koposov)
11284 This makes up-arrow recall of queries easier. (This is
11285 not available on Windows, because that platform uses the native
11286 command-line editing present in the operating system.)
11292 Make the line counter 64-bit so it can handle files with more
11293 than two billion lines (David Fetter)
11299 Report both the returned data and the command status tag
11300 for <command>INSERT</>/<command>UPDATE</>/<command>DELETE
11310 <title><link linkend="APP-PGDUMP"><application>pg_dump</></link> Changes</title>
11315 Allow complex selection of objects to be included or excluded
11316 by <application>pg_dump</> (Greg Sabino Mullane)
11320 <application>pg_dump</> now supports multiple <literal>-n</>
11321 (schema) and <literal>-t</> (table) options, and adds
11322 <literal>-N</> and <literal>-T</> options to exclude objects.
11323 Also, the arguments of these switches can now be wild-card expressions
11324 rather than single object names, for example
11325 <literal>-t 'foo*'</>, and a schema can be part of
11326 a <literal>-t</> or <literal>-T</> switch, for example
11327 <literal>-t schema1.table1</>.
11333 Add <link linkend="APP-PGRESTORE"><application>pg_restore</></link>
11334 <literal>--no-data-for-failed-tables</> option to suppress
11335 loading data if table creation failed (i.e., the table already
11336 exists) (Martin Pitt)
11342 Add <link linkend="APP-PGRESTORE"><application>pg_restore</></link>
11343 option to run the entire session in a single transaction
11348 Use option <literal>-1</> or <literal>--single-transaction</>.
11357 <title><link linkend="libpq"><application>libpq</></link> Changes</title>
11363 linkend="libpq-misc"><function>PQencryptPassword()</></link>
11364 to encrypt passwords (Tom)
11368 This allows passwords to be sent pre-encrypted for commands
11369 like <link linkend="SQL-ALTERROLE"><command>ALTER ROLE ...
11370 PASSWORD</></link>.
11377 linkend="libpq-threading"><function>PQisthreadsafe()</></link>
11382 This allows applications to query the thread-safety status
11390 linkend="libpq-exec-main"><function>PQdescribePrepared()</></link>,
11392 linkend="libpq-exec-main"><function>PQdescribePortal()</></link>,
11393 and related functions to return information about previously
11394 prepared statements and open cursors (Volkan YAZICI)
11400 Allow <link linkend="libpq-ldap"><acronym>LDAP</></link> lookups
11402 linkend="libpq-pgservice"><filename>pg_service.conf</></link>
11409 Allow a hostname in <link
11410 linkend="libpq-pgpass"><filename>~/.pgpass</></link>
11411 to match the default socket directory (Bruce)
11415 A blank hostname continues to match any Unix-socket connection,
11416 but this addition allows entries that are specific to one of
11417 several postmasters on the machine.
11426 <title><link linkend="ecpg"><application>ecpg</></link> Changes</title>
11431 Allow <link linkend="SQL-SHOW"><command>SHOW</></link> to
11432 put its result into a variable (Joachim Wieland)
11438 Add <link linkend="SQL-COPY"><command>COPY TO STDOUT</></link>
11445 Add regression tests (Joachim Wieland, Michael)
11451 Major source code cleanups (Joachim Wieland, Michael)
11460 <title><application>Windows</> Port</title>
11465 Allow <acronym>MSVC</> to compile the <productname>PostgreSQL</>
11466 server (Magnus, Hiroshi Saito)
11472 Add <acronym>MSVC</> support for utility commands and <link
11473 linkend="APP-PGDUMP"><application>pg_dump</></link> (Hiroshi
11480 Add support for Windows code pages <literal>1253</>,
11481 <literal>1254</>, <literal>1255</>, and <literal>1257</>
11488 Drop privileges on startup, so that the server can be started from
11489 an administrative account (Magnus)
11495 Stability fixes (Qingqing Zhou, Magnus)
11501 Add native semaphore implementation (Qingqing Zhou)
11505 The previous code mimicked SysV semaphores.
11514 <title>Source Code Changes</title>
11519 Add <link linkend="GIN"><acronym>GIN</></link> (Generalized
11520 Inverted iNdex) index access method (Teodor, Oleg)
11526 Remove R-tree indexing (Tom)
11530 Rtree has been re-implemented using <link
11531 linkend="GiST"><acronym>GiST</></link>. Among other
11532 differences, this means that rtree indexes now have support
11533 for crash recovery via write-ahead logging (WAL).
11539 Reduce libraries needlessly linked into the backend (Martijn
11540 van Oosterhout, Tom)
11546 Add a configure flag to allow libedit to be preferred over
11547 <acronym>GNU</> readline (Bruce)
11551 Use configure <link
11552 linkend="configure"><literal>--with-libedit-preferred</></link>.
11558 Allow installation into directories containing spaces
11565 Improve ability to relocate installation directories (Tom)
11571 Add support for <productname>Solaris x86_64</> using the
11572 <productname>Solaris</> compiler (Pierre Girard, Theo
11573 Schlossnagle, Bruce)
11579 Add <application>DTrace</> support (Robert Lor)
11585 Add <literal>PG_VERSION_NUM</> for use by third-party
11586 applications wanting to test the backend version in C using >
11587 and < comparisons (Bruce)
11593 Add <literal>XLOG_BLCKSZ</> as independent from <literal>BLCKSZ</>
11600 Add <literal>LWLOCK_STATS</> define to report locking
11607 Emit warnings for unknown <application>configure</> options
11608 (Martijn van Oosterhout)
11614 Add server support for <quote>plugin</> libraries
11615 that can be used for add-on tasks such as debugging and performance
11616 measurement (Korry Douglas)
11620 This consists of two features: a table of <quote>rendezvous
11621 variables</> that allows separately-loaded shared libraries to
11622 communicate, and a new configuration parameter <link
11623 linkend="guc-local-preload-libraries"><varname>local_preload_libraries</></link>
11624 that allows libraries to be loaded into specific sessions without
11625 explicit cooperation from the client application. This allows
11626 external add-ons to implement features such as a PL/PgSQL debugger.
11632 Rename existing configuration parameter
11633 <varname>preload_libraries</> to <link
11634 linkend="guc-shared-preload-libraries"><varname>shared_preload_libraries</></link>
11639 This was done for clarity in comparison to
11640 <varname>local_preload_libraries</>.
11646 Add new configuration parameter <link
11647 linkend="guc-server-version-num"><varname>server_version_num</></link>
11648 (Greg Sabino Mullane)
11652 This is like <varname>server_version</varname>, but is an
11653 integer, e.g. <literal>80200</>. This allows applications to
11654 make version checks more easily.
11660 Add a configuration parameter <link
11661 linkend="guc-seq-page-cost"><varname>seq_page_cost</></link>
11668 Re-implement the <link linkend="regress">regression test</link> script as a C program
11675 Allow loadable modules to allocate shared memory and
11676 lightweight locks (Marc Munro)
11682 Add automatic initialization and finalization of dynamically
11683 loaded libraries (Ralf Engelschall, Tom)
11687 New <link linkend="xfunc-c-dynload">functions</link>
11688 <function>_PG_init()</> and <function>_PG_fini()</> are
11689 called if the library defines such symbols. Hence we no
11690 longer need to specify an initialization function in
11691 <varname>shared_preload_libraries</>; we can assume that
11692 the library used the <function>_PG_init()</> convention
11700 linkend="xfunc-c-dynload"><literal>PG_MODULE_MAGIC</></link>
11701 header block to all shared object files (Martijn van
11706 The magic block prevents version mismatches between loadable object
11713 Add shared library support for AIX (Laurenz Albe)
11719 New <link linkend="datatype-xml"><acronym>XML</></link>
11720 documentation section (Bruce)
11729 <title>Contrib Changes</title>
11734 Major tsearch2 improvements (Oleg, Teodor)
11741 multibyte encoding support, including <acronym>UTF8</>
11746 query rewriting support
11751 improved ranking functions
11756 thesaurus dictionary support
11761 Ispell dictionaries now recognize <application>MySpell</>
11762 format, used by <application>OpenOffice</>
11767 <acronym>GIN</> support
11777 Add adminpack module containing <application>Pgadmin</> administration
11782 These functions provide additional file system access
11783 routines not present in the default <productname>PostgreSQL</>
11790 Add sslinfo module (Victor Wagner)
11794 Reports information about the current connection's <acronym>SSL</>
11801 Add pgrowlocks module (Tatsuo)
11805 This shows row locking information for a specified table.
11811 Add hstore module (Oleg, Teodor)
11817 Add isn module, replacing isbn_issn (Jeremy Kronuz)
11821 This new implementation supports <acronym>EAN13</>, <acronym>UPC</>,
11822 <acronym>ISBN</> (books), <acronym>ISMN</> (music), and
11823 <acronym>ISSN</> (serials).
11829 Add index information functions to pgstattuple (ITAGAKI Takahiro,
11836 Add pg_freespacemap module to display free space map information
11843 pgcrypto now has all planned functionality (Marko Kreen)
11848 Include iMath library in pgcrypto to have the public-key encryption
11849 functions always available.
11854 Add SHA224 algorithm that was missing in OpenBSD code.
11859 Activate builtin code for SHA224/256/384/512 hashes on older
11860 OpenSSL to have those algorithms always available.
11865 New function gen_random_bytes() that returns cryptographically strong
11866 randomness. Useful for generating encryption keys.
11871 Remove digest_exists(), hmac_exists() and cipher_exists() functions.
11879 Improvements to cube module (Joshua Reich)
11883 New functions are <function>cube(float[])</>,
11884 <function>cube(float[], float[])</>, and
11885 <function>cube_subset(cube, int4[])</>.
11891 Add async query capability to dblink (Kai Londenberg,
11898 New operators for array-subset comparisons (<literal>@></>,
11899 <literal><@</>, <literal>&&</>) (Tom)
11903 Various contrib packages already had these operators for their
11904 datatypes, but the naming wasn't consistent. We have now added
11905 consistently named array-subset comparison operators to the core code
11906 and all the contrib packages that have such functionality.
11907 (The old names remain available, but are deprecated.)
11913 Add uninstall scripts for all contrib packages that have install
11914 scripts (David, Josh Drake)
11925 <sect1 id="release-8-1-17">
11926 <title>Release 8.1.17</title>
11929 <title>Release date</title>
11930 <simpara>2009-03-16</simpara>
11934 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.16.
11935 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
11936 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
11940 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.17</title>
11943 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
11944 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.15,
11945 see the release notes for 8.1.15.
11951 <title>Changes</title>
11957 Prevent error recursion crashes when encoding conversion fails (Tom)
11961 This change extends fixes made in the last two minor releases for
11962 related failure scenarios. The previous fixes were narrowly tailored
11963 for the original problem reports, but we have now recognized that
11964 <emphasis>any</> error thrown by an encoding conversion function could
11965 potentially lead to infinite recursion while trying to report the
11966 error. The solution therefore is to disable translation and encoding
11967 conversion and report the plain-ASCII form of any error message,
11968 if we find we have gotten into a recursive error reporting situation.
11975 Disallow <command>CREATE CONVERSION</> with the wrong encodings
11976 for the specified conversion function (Heikki)
11980 This prevents one possible scenario for encoding conversion failure.
11981 The previous change is a backstop to guard against other kinds of
11982 failures in the same area.
11988 Fix core dump when <function>to_char()</> is given format codes that
11989 are inappropriate for the type of the data argument (Tom)
11995 Fix decompilation of <literal>CASE WHEN</> with an implicit coercion
12000 This mistake could lead to Assert failures in an Assert-enabled build,
12001 or an <quote>unexpected CASE WHEN clause</> error message in other
12002 cases, when trying to examine or dump a view.
12008 Fix possible misassignment of the owner of a TOAST table's rowtype (Tom)
12012 If <command>CLUSTER</> or a rewriting variant of <command>ALTER TABLE</>
12013 were executed by someone other than the table owner, the
12014 <structname>pg_type</> entry for the table's TOAST table would end up
12015 marked as owned by that someone. This caused no immediate problems,
12016 since the permissions on the TOAST rowtype aren't examined by any
12017 ordinary database operation. However, it could lead to unexpected
12018 failures if one later tried to drop the role that issued the command
12019 (in 8.1 or 8.2), or <quote>owner of data type appears to be invalid</>
12020 warnings from <application>pg_dump</> after having done so (in 8.3).
12026 Clean up PL/pgSQL error status variables fully at block exit
12027 (Ashesh Vashi and Dave Page)
12031 This is not a problem for PL/pgSQL itself, but the omission could cause
12032 the PL/pgSQL Debugger to crash while examining the state of a function.
12038 Add <literal>MUST</> (Mauritius Island Summer Time) to the default list
12039 of known timezone abbreviations (Xavier Bugaud)
12048 <sect1 id="release-8-1-16">
12049 <title>Release 8.1.16</title>
12052 <title>Release date</title>
12053 <simpara>2009-02-02</simpara>
12057 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.15.
12058 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
12059 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
12063 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.16</title>
12066 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
12067 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.15,
12068 see the release notes for 8.1.15.
12074 <title>Changes</title>
12080 Fix crash in autovacuum (Alvaro)
12084 The crash occurs only after vacuuming a whole database for
12085 anti-transaction-wraparound purposes, which means that it occurs
12086 infrequently and is hard to track down.
12092 Improve handling of URLs in <function>headline()</> function (Teodor)
12098 Improve handling of overlength headlines in <function>headline()</>
12105 Prevent possible Assert failure or misconversion if an encoding
12106 conversion is created with the wrong conversion function for the
12107 specified pair of encodings (Tom, Heikki)
12113 Avoid unnecessary locking of small tables in <command>VACUUM</>
12120 Ensure that the contents of a holdable cursor don't depend on the
12121 contents of TOAST tables (Tom)
12125 Previously, large field values in a cursor result might be represented
12126 as TOAST pointers, which would fail if the referenced table got dropped
12127 before the cursor is read, or if the large value is deleted and then
12128 vacuumed away. This cannot happen with an ordinary cursor,
12129 but it could with a cursor that is held past its creating transaction.
12135 Fix uninitialized variables in <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>'s
12136 <function>get_covers()</> function (Teodor)
12142 Fix <application>configure</> script to properly report failure when
12143 unable to obtain linkage information for PL/Perl (Andrew)
12149 Make all documentation reference <literal>pgsql-bugs</> and/or
12150 <literal>pgsql-hackers</> as appropriate, instead of the
12151 now-decommissioned <literal>pgsql-ports</> and <literal>pgsql-patches</>
12152 mailing lists (Tom)
12158 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2009a (for
12159 Kathmandu and historical DST corrections in Switzerland, Cuba)
12168 <sect1 id="release-8-1-15">
12169 <title>Release 8.1.15</title>
12172 <title>Release date</title>
12173 <simpara>2008-11-03</simpara>
12177 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.14.
12178 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
12179 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
12183 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.15</title>
12186 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
12187 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
12188 see the release notes for 8.1.2. Also, if you were running a previous
12189 8.1.X release, it is recommended to <command>REINDEX</> all GiST
12190 indexes after the upgrade.
12196 <title>Changes</title>
12202 Fix GiST index corruption due to marking the wrong index entry
12203 <quote>dead</> after a deletion (Teodor)
12207 This would result in index searches failing to find rows they
12208 should have found. Corrupted indexes can be fixed with
12209 <command>REINDEX</>.
12215 Fix backend crash when the client encoding cannot represent a localized
12216 error message (Tom)
12220 We have addressed similar issues before, but it would still fail if
12221 the <quote>character has no equivalent</> message itself couldn't
12222 be converted. The fix is to disable localization and send the plain
12223 ASCII error message when we detect such a situation.
12229 Fix possible crash when deeply nested functions are invoked from
12236 Fix mis-expansion of rule queries when a sub-<literal>SELECT</> appears
12237 in a function call in <literal>FROM</>, a multi-row <literal>VALUES</>
12238 list, or a <literal>RETURNING</> list (Tom)
12242 The usual symptom of this problem is an <quote>unrecognized node type</>
12249 Ensure an error is reported when a newly-defined PL/pgSQL trigger
12250 function is invoked as a normal function (Tom)
12256 Prevent possible collision of <structfield>relfilenode</> numbers
12257 when moving a table to another tablespace with <command>ALTER SET
12258 TABLESPACE</> (Heikki)
12262 The command tried to re-use the existing filename, instead of
12263 picking one that is known unused in the destination directory.
12269 Fix incorrect tsearch2 headline generation when single query
12270 item matches first word of text (Sushant Sinha)
12276 Fix improper display of fractional seconds in interval values when
12277 using a non-ISO datestyle in an <option>--enable-integer-datetimes</>
12284 Ensure <function>SPI_getvalue</> and <function>SPI_getbinval</>
12285 behave correctly when the passed tuple and tuple descriptor have
12286 different numbers of columns (Tom)
12290 This situation is normal when a table has had columns added or removed,
12291 but these two functions didn't handle it properly.
12292 The only likely consequence is an incorrect error indication.
12298 Fix <application>ecpg</>'s parsing of <command>CREATE ROLE</> (Michael)
12304 Fix recent breakage of <literal>pg_ctl restart</> (Tom)
12310 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008i (for
12311 DST law changes in Argentina, Brazil, Mauritius, Syria)
12320 <sect1 id="release-8-1-14">
12321 <title>Release 8.1.14</title>
12324 <title>Release date</title>
12325 <simpara>2008-09-22</simpara>
12329 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.13.
12330 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
12331 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
12335 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.14</title>
12338 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
12339 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
12340 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
12346 <title>Changes</title>
12352 Widen local lock counters from 32 to 64 bits (Tom)
12356 This responds to reports that the counters could overflow in
12357 sufficiently long transactions, leading to unexpected <quote>lock is
12358 already held</> errors.
12364 Fix possible duplicate output of tuples during a GiST index scan (Teodor)
12370 Add checks in executor startup to ensure that the tuples produced by an
12371 <command>INSERT</> or <command>UPDATE</> will match the target table's
12372 current rowtype (Tom)
12376 <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</>, followed by re-use of a previously
12377 cached plan, could produce this type of situation. The check protects
12378 against data corruption and/or crashes that could ensue.
12384 Fix <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> to first try to interpret its timezone
12385 argument as a timezone abbreviation, and only try it as a full timezone
12386 name if that fails, rather than the other way around as formerly (Tom)
12390 The timestamp input functions have always resolved ambiguous zone names
12391 in this order. Making <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> do so as well improves
12392 consistency, and fixes a compatibility bug introduced in 8.1:
12393 in ambiguous cases we now behave the same as 8.0 and before did,
12394 since in the older versions <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> accepted
12395 <emphasis>only</> abbreviations.
12401 Fix datetime input functions to correctly detect integer overflow when
12402 running on a 64-bit platform (Tom)
12408 Improve performance of writing very long log messages to syslog (Tom)
12414 Fix bug in backwards scanning of a cursor on a <literal>SELECT DISTINCT
12421 Fix planner bug with nested sub-select expressions (Tom)
12425 If the outer sub-select has no direct dependency on the parent query,
12426 but the inner one does, the outer value might not get recalculated
12427 for new parent query rows.
12433 Fix planner to estimate that <literal>GROUP BY</> expressions yielding
12434 boolean results always result in two groups, regardless of the
12435 expressions' contents (Tom)
12439 This is very substantially more accurate than the regular <literal>GROUP
12440 BY</> estimate for certain boolean tests like <replaceable>col</>
12441 <literal>IS NULL</>.
12447 Fix PL/PgSQL to not fail when a <literal>FOR</> loop's target variable
12448 is a record containing composite-type fields (Tom)
12454 Fix PL/Tcl to behave correctly with Tcl 8.5, and to be more careful
12455 about the encoding of data sent to or from Tcl (Tom)
12461 Fix PL/Python to work with Python 2.5
12465 This is a back-port of fixes made during the 8.2 development cycle.
12471 Improve <application>pg_dump</> and <application>pg_restore</>'s
12472 error reporting after failure to send a SQL command (Tom)
12478 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to properly preserve postmaster
12479 command-line arguments across a <literal>restart</> (Bruce)
12485 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008f (for
12486 DST law changes in Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Mauritius, Morocco,
12487 Pakistan, Palestine, and Paraguay)
12496 <sect1 id="release-8-1-13">
12497 <title>Release 8.1.13</title>
12500 <title>Release date</title>
12501 <simpara>2008-06-12</simpara>
12505 This release contains one serious and one minor bug fix over 8.1.12.
12506 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
12507 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
12511 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.13</title>
12514 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
12515 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
12516 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
12522 <title>Changes</title>
12528 Make <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> parenthesize negative constants (Tom)
12532 Before this fix, a negative constant in a view or rule might be dumped
12533 as, say, <literal>-42::integer</>, which is subtly incorrect: it should
12534 be <literal>(-42)::integer</> due to operator precedence rules.
12535 Usually this would make little difference, but it could interact with
12536 another recent patch to cause
12537 <productname>PostgreSQL</> to reject what had been a valid
12538 <command>SELECT DISTINCT</> view query. Since this could result in
12539 <application>pg_dump</> output failing to reload, it is being treated
12540 as a high-priority fix. The only released versions in which dump
12541 output is actually incorrect are 8.3.1 and 8.2.7.
12547 Make <command>ALTER AGGREGATE ... OWNER TO</> update
12548 <structname>pg_shdepend</> (Tom)
12552 This oversight could lead to problems if the aggregate was later
12553 involved in a <command>DROP OWNED</> or <command>REASSIGN OWNED</>
12563 <sect1 id="release-8-1-12">
12564 <title>Release 8.1.12</title>
12567 <title>Release date</title>
12568 <simpara>never released</simpara>
12572 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.11.
12573 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
12574 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
12578 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.12</title>
12581 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
12582 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
12583 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
12589 <title>Changes</title>
12595 Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN ... PRIMARY KEY</> so that the new
12596 column is correctly checked to see if it's been initialized to all
12597 non-nulls (Brendan Jurd)
12601 Previous versions neglected to check this requirement at all.
12607 Fix possible <command>CREATE TABLE</> failure when inheriting the
12608 <quote>same</> constraint from multiple parent relations that
12609 inherited that constraint from a common ancestor (Tom)
12615 Fix conversions between ISO-8859-5 and other encodings to handle
12616 Cyrillic <quote>Yo</> characters (<literal>e</> and <literal>E</> with
12617 two dots) (Sergey Burladyan)
12623 Fix a few datatype input functions
12624 that were allowing unused bytes in their results to contain
12625 uninitialized, unpredictable values (Tom)
12629 This could lead to failures in which two apparently identical literal
12630 values were not seen as equal, resulting in the parser complaining
12631 about unmatched <literal>ORDER BY</> and <literal>DISTINCT</>
12638 Fix a corner case in regular-expression substring matching
12639 (<literal>substring(<replaceable>string</> from
12640 <replaceable>pattern</>)</literal>) (Tom)
12644 The problem occurs when there is a match to the pattern overall but
12645 the user has specified a parenthesized subexpression and that
12646 subexpression hasn't got a match. An example is
12647 <literal>substring('foo' from 'foo(bar)?')</>.
12648 This should return NULL, since <literal>(bar)</> isn't matched, but
12649 it was mistakenly returning the whole-pattern match instead (ie,
12656 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008c (for
12657 DST law changes in Morocco, Iraq, Choibalsan, Pakistan, Syria, Cuba,
12658 Argentina/San_Luis, and Chile)
12664 Fix incorrect result from <application>ecpg</>'s
12665 <function>PGTYPEStimestamp_sub()</> function (Michael)
12671 Fix core dump in <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s
12672 <function>xpath_table()</> function when the input query returns a
12679 Fix <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s makefile to not override
12680 <literal>CFLAGS</> (Tom)
12686 Fix <literal>DatumGetBool</> macro to not fail with <application>gcc</>
12691 This problem affects <quote>old style</> (V0) C functions that
12692 return boolean. The fix is already in 8.3, but the need to
12693 back-patch it was not realized at the time.
12699 Fix longstanding <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</>
12700 race condition (Tom)
12704 In rare cases a session that had just executed a
12705 <command>LISTEN</> might not get a notification, even though
12706 one would be expected because the concurrent transaction executing
12707 <command>NOTIFY</> was observed to commit later.
12711 A side effect of the fix is that a transaction that has executed
12712 a not-yet-committed <command>LISTEN</> command will not see any
12713 row in <structname>pg_listener</> for the <command>LISTEN</>,
12714 should it choose to look; formerly it would have. This behavior
12715 was never documented one way or the other, but it is possible that
12716 some applications depend on the old behavior.
12722 Disallow <command>LISTEN</> and <command>UNLISTEN</> within a
12723 prepared transaction (Tom)
12727 This was formerly allowed but trying to do it had various unpleasant
12728 consequences, notably that the originating backend could not exit
12729 as long as an <command>UNLISTEN</> remained uncommitted.
12735 Fix rare crash when an error occurs during a query using a hash index
12742 Fix input of datetime values for February 29 in years BC (Tom)
12746 The former coding was mistaken about which years were leap years.
12752 Fix <quote>unrecognized node type</> error in some variants of
12753 <command>ALTER OWNER</> (Tom)
12759 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to correctly extract the postmaster's port
12760 number from command-line options (Itagaki Takahiro, Tom)
12764 Previously, <literal>pg_ctl start -w</> could try to contact the
12765 postmaster on the wrong port, leading to bogus reports of startup
12772 Use <option>-fwrapv</> to defend against possible misoptimization
12773 in recent <application>gcc</> versions (Tom)
12777 This is known to be necessary when building <productname>PostgreSQL</>
12778 with <application>gcc</> 4.3 or later.
12784 Fix display of constant expressions in <literal>ORDER BY</>
12785 and <literal>GROUP BY</> (Tom)
12789 An explictly casted constant would be shown incorrectly. This could
12790 for example lead to corruption of a view definition during
12797 Fix <application>libpq</> to handle NOTICE messages correctly
12798 during COPY OUT (Tom)
12802 This failure has only been observed to occur when a user-defined
12803 datatype's output routine issues a NOTICE, but there is no
12804 guarantee it couldn't happen due to other causes.
12813 <sect1 id="release-8-1-11">
12814 <title>Release 8.1.11</title>
12817 <title>Release date</title>
12818 <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara>
12822 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.10,
12823 including fixes for significant security issues.
12824 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
12825 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
12829 This is the last 8.1.X release for which the <productname>PostgreSQL</>
12830 community will produce binary packages for <productname>Windows</>.
12831 Windows users are encouraged to move to 8.2.X or later,
12832 since there are Windows-specific fixes in 8.2.X that
12833 are impractical to back-port. 8.1.X will continue to
12834 be supported on other platforms.
12838 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.11</title>
12841 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
12842 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
12843 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
12849 <title>Changes</title>
12855 Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of
12856 the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom)
12860 Functions used in index expressions and partial-index
12861 predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has
12862 long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code
12863 execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user.
12864 (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the
12865 same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger
12866 because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations
12867 such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed
12868 automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user
12869 can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a
12870 trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum.
12871 The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations
12872 (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>,
12873 and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than
12874 the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already
12875 used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing
12876 this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION
12877 AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a
12878 <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600)
12884 Repair assorted bugs in the regular-expression package (Tom, Will Drewry)
12888 Suitably crafted regular-expression patterns could cause crashes,
12889 infinite or near-infinite looping, and/or massive memory consumption,
12890 all of which pose denial-of-service hazards for applications that
12891 accept regex search patterns from untrustworthy sources.
12892 (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)
12898 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
12899 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
12903 The fix that appeared for this in 8.1.10 was incomplete, as it plugged
12904 the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601,
12911 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2007k
12912 (in particular, recent Argentina changes) (Tom)
12918 Improve planner's handling of LIKE/regex estimation in non-C locales
12925 Fix planner failure in some cases of <literal>WHERE false AND var IN
12926 (SELECT ...)</> (Tom)
12932 Preserve the tablespace of indexes that are
12933 rebuilt by <command>ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> (Tom)
12939 Make archive recovery always start a new WAL timeline, rather than only
12940 when a recovery stop time was used (Simon)
12944 This avoids a corner-case risk of trying to overwrite an existing
12945 archived copy of the last WAL segment, and seems simpler and cleaner
12946 than the original definition.
12952 Make <command>VACUUM</> not use all of <varname>maintenance_work_mem</>
12953 when the table is too small for it to be useful (Alvaro)
12959 Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte
12960 database encoding (Tom)
12966 Fix overflow in <literal>extract(epoch from interval)</> for intervals
12967 exceeding 68 years (Tom)
12973 Fix PL/Perl to not fail when a UTF-8 regular expression is used
12974 in a trusted function (Andrew)
12980 Fix PL/Perl to cope when platform's Perl defines type <literal>bool</>
12981 as <literal>int</> rather than <literal>char</> (Tom)
12985 While this could theoretically happen anywhere, no standard build of
12986 Perl did things this way ... until <productname>Mac OS X</> 10.5.
12992 Fix PL/Python to not crash on long exception messages (Alvaro)
12998 Fix <application>pg_dump</> to correctly handle inheritance child tables
12999 that have default expressions different from their parent's (Tom)
13005 Fix <application>libpq</> crash when <varname>PGPASSFILE</> refers
13006 to a file that is not a plain file (Martin Pitt)
13012 <application>ecpg</> parser fixes (Michael)
13018 Make <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</> defend against
13019 <application>OpenSSL</> libraries that fail on keys longer than 128
13020 bits; which is the case at least on some Solaris versions (Marko Kreen)
13026 Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle
13027 NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe)
13033 Fix <type>tsvector</> and <type>tsquery</> output routines to
13034 escape backslashes correctly (Teodor, Bruce)
13040 Fix crash of <function>to_tsvector()</> on huge input strings (Teodor)
13046 Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used
13047 when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter)
13051 This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made
13052 to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of
13053 <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions.
13054 You can remove the version check if you really want to use a
13055 different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's
13056 your responsibility whether the result works or not.
13065 <sect1 id="release-8-1-10">
13066 <title>Release 8.1.10</title>
13069 <title>Release date</title>
13070 <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
13074 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.9.
13075 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13076 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13080 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.10</title>
13083 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13084 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13085 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13091 <title>Changes</title>
13097 Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
13098 then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
13099 on the same table (Tom)
13105 Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
13111 Allow the <type>interval</> data type to accept input consisting only of
13112 milliseconds or microseconds (Neil)
13118 Speed up rtree index insertion (Teodor)
13124 Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
13130 Fix logging so that log messages are never interleaved when using
13131 the syslogger process (Andrew)
13137 Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
13144 Fix incorrect handling of some foreign-key corner cases (Tom)
13150 Prevent <command>REINDEX</> and <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
13151 due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
13157 Update the time zone database rules, particularly New Zealand's upcoming changes (Tom)
13163 Windows socket improvements (Magnus)
13169 Suppress timezone name (<literal>%Z</>) in log timestamps on Windows
13170 because of possible encoding mismatches (Tom)
13176 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
13177 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
13186 <sect1 id="release-8-1-9">
13187 <title>Release 8.1.9</title>
13190 <title>Release date</title>
13191 <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
13195 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.8,
13196 including a security fix.
13197 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13198 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13202 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.9</title>
13205 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13206 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13207 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13213 <title>Changes</title>
13219 Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
13220 <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
13221 and operators (Tom)
13224 This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
13225 truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
13226 an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
13227 with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
13228 See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
13234 <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
13240 Require <command>COMMIT PREPARED</> to be executed in the same
13241 database as the transaction was prepared in (Heikki)
13247 Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
13248 <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
13254 Planner fixes, including improving outer join and bitmap scan
13255 selection logic (Tom)
13261 Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 8.1.6)
13268 Fix POSIX-style timezone specs to follow new USA DST rules (Tom)
13277 <sect1 id="release-8-1-8">
13278 <title>Release 8.1.8</title>
13281 <title>Release date</title>
13282 <simpara>2007-02-07</simpara>
13286 This release contains one fix from 8.1.7.
13287 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13288 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13292 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.8</title>
13295 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13296 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13297 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13303 <title>Changes</title>
13309 Remove overly-restrictive check for type length in constraints and
13310 functional indexes(Tom)
13319 <sect1 id="release-8-1-7">
13320 <title>Release 8.1.7</title>
13323 <title>Release date</title>
13324 <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
13328 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.6, including
13330 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13331 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13335 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.7</title>
13338 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13339 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13340 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13346 <title>Changes</title>
13352 Remove security vulnerabilities that allowed connected users
13353 to read backend memory (Tom)
13356 The vulnerabilities involve suppressing the normal check that a SQL
13357 function returns the data type it's declared to, and changing the
13358 data type of a table column (CVE-2007-0555, CVE-2007-0556). These
13359 errors can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
13360 principle might be used to read database content that the user
13361 should not be able to access.
13367 Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
13368 due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
13374 Improve <command>VACUUM</> performance for databases with many tables (Tom)
13380 Fix autovacuum to avoid leaving non-permanent transaction IDs in
13381 non-connectable databases (Alvaro)
13385 This bug affects the 8.1 branch only.
13391 Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
13397 Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
13398 over three bytes long (Tom)
13404 Fix bogus <quote>permission denied</> failures occurring on Windows
13405 due to attempts to fsync already-deleted files (Magnus, Tom)
13411 Fix possible crashes when an already-in-use PL/pgSQL function is
13421 <sect1 id="release-8-1-6">
13422 <title>Release 8.1.6</title>
13425 <title>Release date</title>
13426 <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
13430 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.5.
13431 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13432 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13436 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.6</title>
13439 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13440 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13441 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13447 <title>Changes</title>
13453 Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom)
13457 This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector,
13458 among other things.
13464 Fix <application>pg_restore</> to handle a tar-format backup
13465 that contains large objects (blobs) with comments (Tom)
13471 Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
13472 <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
13478 Clean out <filename>pg_internal.init</> cache files during server
13483 This avoids a hazard that the cache files might contain stale
13484 data after PITR recovery.
13490 Fix race condition for truncation of a large relation across a
13491 gigabyte boundary by <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
13497 Fix bug causing needless deadlock errors on row-level locks (Tom)
13503 Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
13509 Fix possible deadlock in Windows signal handling (Teodor)
13515 Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple
13516 empty elements (Tom)
13522 Fix ecpg memory leak during connection (Michael)
13528 Fix for Darwin (OS X) compilation (Tom)
13534 <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
13535 are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
13536 new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
13540 This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
13541 change the output of these functions.
13547 Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
13551 This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
13557 Update timezone database
13561 This affects Australian and Canadian daylight-savings rules in
13571 <sect1 id="release-8-1-5">
13572 <title>Release 8.1.5</title>
13575 <title>Release date</title>
13576 <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
13580 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.4.
13581 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13582 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13586 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.5</title>
13589 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13590 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13591 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13597 <title>Changes</title>
13600 <listitem><para>Disallow aggregate functions in <command>UPDATE</>
13601 commands, except within sub-SELECTs (Tom)</para>
13602 <para>The behavior of such an aggregate was unpredictable, and in 8.1.X
13603 could cause a crash, so it has been disabled. The SQL standard does not allow
13604 this either.</para></listitem>
13605 <listitem><para>Fix core dump when an untyped literal is taken as
13606 ANYARRAY</para></listitem>
13607 <listitem><para>Fix core dump in duration logging for extended query protocol
13608 when a <command>COMMIT</> or <command>ROLLBACK</> is
13609 executed</para></listitem>
13610 <listitem><para>Fix mishandling of AFTER triggers when query contains a SQL
13611 function returning multiple rows (Tom)</para></listitem>
13612 <listitem><para>Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ... TYPE</> to recheck
13613 <literal>NOT NULL</> for <literal>USING</> clause (Tom)</para></listitem>
13614 <listitem><para>Fix <function>string_to_array()</> to handle overlapping
13615 matches for the separator string</para>
13616 <para>For example, <literal>string_to_array('123xx456xxx789', 'xx')</>.
13618 <listitem><para>Fix <function>to_timestamp()</> for
13619 <literal>AM</>/<literal>PM</> formats (Bruce)</para></listitem>
13620 <listitem><para>Fix autovacuum's calculation that decides whether
13621 <command>ANALYZE</> is needed (Alvaro)</para></listitem>
13622 <listitem><para>Fix corner cases in pattern matching for
13623 <application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
13624 <listitem><para>Fix index-corrupting bugs in /contrib/ltree
13625 (Teodor)</para></listitem>
13626 <listitem><para>Numerous robustness fixes in <application>ecpg</> (Joachim
13627 Wieland)</para></listitem>
13628 <listitem><para>Fix backslash escaping in /contrib/dbmirror</para></listitem>
13629 <listitem><para>Minor fixes in /contrib/dblink and /contrib/tsearch2</para>
13631 <listitem><para>Efficiency improvements in hash tables and bitmap index scans
13632 (Tom)</para></listitem>
13633 <listitem><para>Fix instability of statistics collection on Windows (Tom, Andrew)</para></listitem>
13634 <listitem><para>Fix <varname>statement_timeout</> to use the proper
13635 units on Win32 (Bruce)</para>
13636 <para>In previous Win32 8.1.X versions, the delay was off by a factor of
13637 100.</para></listitem>
13638 <listitem><para>Fixes for <acronym>MSVC</> and <productname>Borland C++</>
13639 compilers (Hiroshi Saito)</para></listitem>
13640 <listitem><para>Fixes for <systemitem class="osname">AIX</> and
13641 <productname>Intel</> compilers (Tom)</para></listitem>
13642 <listitem><para>Fix rare bug in continuous archiving (Tom)</para></listitem>
13648 <sect1 id="release-8-1-4">
13649 <title>Release 8.1.4</title>
13652 <title>Release date</title>
13653 <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
13657 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.3,
13658 including patches for extremely serious security issues.
13659 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13660 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13664 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.4</title>
13667 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13668 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13669 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13673 Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
13674 CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
13675 code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
13676 into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
13677 ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
13678 most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
13679 libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
13680 <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
13681 rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
13686 <title>Changes</title>
13689 <listitem><para>Change the server to reject invalidly-encoded multibyte
13690 characters in all cases (Tatsuo, Tom)</para>
13691 <para>While <productname>PostgreSQL</> has been moving in this direction for
13692 some time, the checks are now applied uniformly to all encodings and all
13693 textual input, and are now always errors not merely warnings. This change
13694 defends against SQL-injection attacks of the type described in CVE-2006-2313.
13697 <listitem><para>Reject unsafe uses of <literal>\'</> in string literals</para>
13698 <para>As a server-side defense against SQL-injection attacks of the type
13699 described in CVE-2006-2314, the server now only accepts <literal>''</> and not
13700 <literal>\'</> as a representation of ASCII single quote in SQL string
13701 literals. By default, <literal>\'</> is rejected only when
13702 <varname>client_encoding</> is set to a client-only encoding (SJIS, BIG5, GBK,
13703 GB18030, or UHC), which is the scenario in which SQL injection is possible.
13704 A new configuration parameter <varname>backslash_quote</> is available to
13705 adjust this behavior when needed. Note that full security against
13706 CVE-2006-2314 might require client-side changes; the purpose of
13707 <varname>backslash_quote</> is in part to make it obvious that insecure
13708 clients are insecure.
13711 <listitem><para>Modify <application>libpq</>'s string-escaping routines to be
13712 aware of encoding considerations and
13713 <varname>standard_conforming_strings</></para>
13714 <para>This fixes <application>libpq</>-using applications for the security
13715 issues described in CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314, and also future-proofs
13716 them against the planned changeover to SQL-standard string literal syntax.
13717 Applications that use multiple <productname>PostgreSQL</> connections
13718 concurrently should migrate to <function>PQescapeStringConn()</> and
13719 <function>PQescapeByteaConn()</> to ensure that escaping is done correctly
13720 for the settings in use in each database connection. Applications that
13721 do string escaping <quote>by hand</> should be modified to rely on library
13725 <listitem><para>Fix weak key selection in pgcrypto (Marko Kreen)</para>
13726 <para>Errors in fortuna PRNG reseeding logic could cause a predictable
13727 session key to be selected by <function>pgp_sym_encrypt()</> in some cases.
13728 This only affects non-OpenSSL-using builds.
13731 <listitem><para>Fix some incorrect encoding conversion functions</para>
13732 <para><function>win1251_to_iso</>, <function>win866_to_iso</>,
13733 <function>euc_tw_to_big5</>, <function>euc_tw_to_mic</>,
13734 <function>mic_to_euc_tw</> were all broken to varying
13738 <listitem><para>Clean up stray remaining uses of <literal>\'</> in strings
13739 (Bruce, Jan)</para></listitem>
13741 <listitem><para>Make autovacuum visible in <structname>pg_stat_activity</>
13742 (Alvaro)</para></listitem>
13744 <listitem><para>Disable <literal>full_page_writes</> (Tom)</para>
13745 <para>In certain cases, having <literal>full_page_writes</> off would cause
13746 crash recovery to fail. A proper fix will appear in 8.2; for now it's just
13750 <listitem><para>Various planner fixes, particularly for bitmap index scans and
13751 MIN/MAX optimization (Tom)</para></listitem>
13753 <listitem><para>Fix incorrect optimization in merge join (Tom)</para>
13754 <para>Outer joins could sometimes emit multiple copies of unmatched rows.
13757 <listitem><para>Fix crash from using and modifying a plpgsql function in the
13758 same transaction</para></listitem>
13760 <listitem><para>Fix WAL replay for case where a B-Tree index has been
13761 truncated</para></listitem>
13763 <listitem><para>Fix <literal>SIMILAR TO</> for patterns involving
13764 <literal>|</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
13766 <listitem><para>Fix <command>SELECT INTO</> and <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> to
13767 create tables in the default tablespace, not the base directory (Kris
13768 Jurka)</para></listitem>
13770 <listitem><para>Fix server to use custom DH SSL parameters correctly (Michael
13771 Fuhr)</para></listitem>
13773 <listitem><para>Improve qsort performance (Dann Corbit)</para>
13774 <para>Currently this code is only used on Solaris.
13777 <listitem><para>Fix for OS/X Bonjour on x86 systems (Ashley Clark)</para></listitem>
13779 <listitem><para>Fix various minor memory leaks</para></listitem>
13781 <listitem><para>Fix problem with password prompting on some Win32 systems
13782 (Robert Kinberg)</para></listitem>
13784 <listitem><para>Improve <application>pg_dump</>'s handling of default values
13785 for domains</para></listitem>
13787 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_dumpall</> to handle identically-named
13788 users and groups reasonably (only possible when dumping from a pre-8.1 server)
13790 <para>The user and group will be merged into a single role with
13791 <literal>LOGIN</> permission. Formerly the merged role wouldn't have
13792 <literal>LOGIN</> permission, making it unusable as a user.
13795 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_restore</> <literal>-n</> to work as
13796 documented (Tom)</para></listitem>
13802 <sect1 id="release-8-1-3">
13803 <title>Release 8.1.3</title>
13806 <title>Release date</title>
13807 <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
13811 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.2,
13812 including one very serious security issue.
13813 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13814 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13818 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.3</title>
13821 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13822 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2,
13823 see the release notes for 8.1.2.
13828 <title>Changes</title>
13832 <listitem><para>Fix bug that allowed any logged-in user to <command>SET
13833 ROLE</> to any other database user id (CVE-2006-0553)</para>
13834 <para>Due to inadequate validity checking, a user could exploit the special
13835 case that <command>SET ROLE</> normally uses to restore the previous role
13836 setting after an error. This allowed ordinary users to acquire superuser
13837 status, for example.
13838 The escalation-of-privilege risk exists only in 8.1.0-8.1.2.
13839 However, in all releases back to 7.3 there is a related bug in <command>SET
13840 SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> that allows unprivileged users to crash the server,
13841 if it has been compiled with Asserts enabled (which is not the default).
13842 Thanks to Akio Ishida for reporting this problem.
13845 <listitem><para>Fix bug with row visibility logic in self-inserted
13847 <para>Under rare circumstances a row inserted by the current command
13848 could be seen as already valid, when it should not be. Repairs bug
13849 created in 8.0.4, 7.4.9, and 7.3.11 releases.
13852 <listitem><para>Fix race condition that could lead to <quote>file already
13853 exists</> errors during pg_clog and pg_subtrans file creation
13854 (Tom)</para></listitem>
13856 <listitem><para>Fix cases that could lead to crashes if a cache-invalidation
13857 message arrives at just the wrong time (Tom)</para></listitem>
13859 <listitem><para>Properly check <literal>DOMAIN</> constraints for
13860 <literal>UNKNOWN</> parameters in prepared statements
13861 (Neil)</para></listitem>
13863 <listitem><para>Ensure <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> will process
13864 <literal>FOREIGN KEY</>, <literal>UNIQUE</>, and <literal>PRIMARY KEY</>
13865 constraints in the proper order (Nakano Yoshihisa)</para></listitem>
13867 <listitem><para>Fixes to allow restoring dumps that have cross-schema
13868 references to custom operators or operator classes (Tom)</para></listitem>
13870 <listitem><para>Allow <application>pg_restore</> to continue properly after a
13871 <command>COPY</> failure; formerly it tried to treat the remaining
13872 <command>COPY</> data as SQL commands (Stephen Frost)</para></listitem>
13874 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_ctl</> <literal>unregister</> crash
13875 when the data directory is not specified (Magnus)</para></listitem>
13877 <listitem><para>Fix <application>libpq</> <function>PQprint</> HTML tags
13878 (Christoph Zwerschke)</para></listitem>
13880 <listitem><para>Fix <application>ecpg</> crash on AMD64 and PPC
13881 (Neil)</para></listitem>
13883 <listitem><para>Allow <literal>SETOF</> and <literal>%TYPE</> to be used
13884 together in function result type declarations</para></listitem>
13886 <listitem><para>Recover properly if error occurs during argument passing
13887 in <application>PL/python</> (Neil)</para></listitem>
13889 <listitem><para>Fix memory leak in <function>plperl_return_next</>
13890 (Neil)</para></listitem>
13892 <listitem><para>Fix <application>PL/perl</>'s handling of locales on
13893 Win32 to match the backend (Andrew)</para></listitem>
13895 <listitem><para>Various optimizer fixes (Tom)</para></listitem>
13897 <listitem><para>Fix crash when <literal>log_min_messages</> is set to
13898 <literal>DEBUG3</> or above in <filename>postgresql.conf</> on Win32
13899 (Bruce)</para></listitem>
13901 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pgxs</> <literal>-L</> library path
13902 specification for Win32, Cygwin, OS X, AIX (Bruce)</para></listitem>
13904 <listitem><para>Check that SID is enabled while checking for Win32 admin
13905 privileges (Magnus)</para></listitem>
13907 <listitem><para>Properly reject out-of-range date inputs (Kris
13908 Jurka)</para></listitem>
13910 <listitem><para>Portability fix for testing presence of <function>finite</>
13911 and <function>isinf</> during configure (Tom)</para></listitem>
13913 <listitem><para>Improve speed of <command>COPY IN</> via libpq, by
13914 avoiding a kernel call per data line (Alon Goldshuv)</para></listitem>
13916 <listitem><para>Improve speed of <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> index
13917 creation (Tom)</para></listitem>
13924 <sect1 id="release-8-1-2">
13925 <title>Release 8.1.2</title>
13928 <title>Release date</title>
13929 <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
13933 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.1.
13934 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
13935 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
13939 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.2</title>
13942 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
13943 However, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
13944 columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
13945 <application>plperl</> issues described below.
13950 <title>Changes</title>
13954 <listitem><para>Fix Windows code so that postmaster will continue rather
13955 than exit if there is no more room in ShmemBackendArray (Magnus)</para>
13956 <para>The previous behavior could lead to a denial-of-service situation if too
13957 many connection requests arrive close together. This applies
13958 <emphasis>only</> to the Windows port.</para></listitem>
13960 <listitem><para>Fix bug introduced in 8.0 that could allow ReadBuffer
13961 to return an already-used page as new, potentially causing loss of
13962 recently-committed data (Tom)</para></listitem>
13964 <listitem><para>Fix for protocol-level Describe messages issued
13965 outside a transaction or in a failed transaction (Tom)</para></listitem>
13967 <listitem><para>Fix character string comparison for locales that consider
13968 different character combinations as equal, such as Hungarian (Tom)</para>
13969 <para>This might require <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
13970 textual columns.</para></listitem>
13972 <listitem><para>Set locale environment variables during postmaster startup
13973 to ensure that <application>plperl</> won't change the locale later</para>
13974 <para>This fixes a problem that occurred if the <application>postmaster</> was
13975 started with environment variables specifying a different locale than what
13976 <application>initdb</> had been told. Under these conditions, any use of
13977 <application>plperl</> was likely to lead to corrupt indexes. You might need
13978 <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
13979 textual columns if this has happened to you.</para></listitem>
13981 <listitem><para>Allow more flexible relocation of installation
13982 directories (Tom)</para>
13983 <para>Previous releases supported relocation only if all installation
13984 directory paths were the same except for the last component.</para></listitem>
13986 <listitem><para>Prevent crashes caused by the use of
13987 <literal>ISO-8859-5</> and <literal>ISO-8859-9</> encodings
13988 (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
13990 <listitem><para>Fix longstanding bug in strpos() and regular expression
13991 handling in certain rarely used Asian multi-byte character sets (Tatsuo)
13994 <listitem><para>Fix bug where COPY CSV mode considered any
13995 <literal>\.</> to terminate the copy data</para> <para>The new code
13996 requires <literal>\.</> to appear alone on a line, as per
13997 documentation.</para></listitem>
13999 <listitem><para>Make COPY CSV mode quote a literal data value of
14000 <literal>\.</> to ensure it cannot be interpreted as the
14001 end-of-data marker (Bruce)</para></listitem>
14003 <listitem><para>Various fixes for functions returning <literal>RECORD</>s
14004 (Tom) </para></listitem>
14006 <listitem><para>Fix processing of <filename>postgresql.conf</> so a
14007 final line with no newline is processed properly (Tom)
14010 <listitem><para>Fix bug in <filename>/contrib/pgcrypto</> gen_salt,
14011 which caused it not to use all available salt space for MD5 and
14012 XDES algorithms (Marko Kreen, Solar Designer)</para>
14013 <para>Salts for Blowfish and standard DES are unaffected.</para></listitem>
14015 <listitem><para>Fix autovacuum crash when processing expression indexes
14018 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to throw an error,
14019 rather than crashing, when the number of columns specified is different from
14020 what's actually returned by the query (Joe)</para></listitem>
14027 <sect1 id="release-8-1-1">
14028 <title>Release 8.1.1</title>
14031 <title>Release date</title>
14032 <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
14036 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.0.
14037 For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see
14038 <xref linkend="release-8-1">.
14042 <title>Migration to Version 8.1.1</title>
14045 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X.
14050 <title>Changes</title>
14053 <listitem><para>Fix incorrect optimizations of outer-join conditions
14054 (Tom)</para></listitem>
14056 <listitem><para>Fix problems with wrong reported column names in cases
14057 involving sub-selects flattened by the optimizer (Tom)</para></listitem>
14059 <listitem><para>Fix update failures in scenarios involving CHECK constraints,
14060 toasted columns, <emphasis>and</> indexes (Tom)</para></listitem>
14062 <listitem><para>Fix bgwriter problems after recovering from errors
14065 The background writer was found to leak buffer pins after write errors.
14066 While not fatal in itself, this might lead to mysterious blockages of
14067 later VACUUM commands.
14071 <listitem><para>Prevent failure if client sends Bind protocol message
14072 when current transaction is already aborted</para></listitem>
14074 <listitem><para><filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> and <filename>/contrib/ltree</>
14075 fixes (Teodor)</para></listitem>
14077 <listitem><para>Fix problems with translated error messages in
14078 languages that require word reordering, such as Turkish; also problems with
14079 unexpected truncation of output strings and wrong display of the smallest
14080 possible bigint value (Andrew, Tom)</para>
14082 These problems only appeared on platforms that were using our
14083 <filename>port/snprintf.c</> code, which includes BSD variants if
14084 <literal>--enable-nls</> was given, and perhaps others. In addition,
14085 a different form of the translated-error-message problem could appear
14086 on Windows depending on which version of <filename>libintl</> was used.
14089 <listitem><para>Re-allow <literal>AM</>/<literal>PM</>, <literal>HH</>,
14090 <literal>HH12</>, and <literal>D</> format specifiers for
14091 <function>to_char(time)</> and <function>to_char(interval)</>.
14092 (<function>to_char(interval)</> should probably use
14093 <literal>HH24</>.) (Bruce)</para></listitem>
14095 <listitem><para>AIX, HPUX, and MSVC compile fixes (Tom, Hiroshi
14096 Saito)</para></listitem>
14098 <listitem><para>Optimizer improvements (Tom)</para></listitem>
14100 <listitem><para>Retry file reads and writes after Windows
14101 NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES error (Qingqing Zhou)</para></listitem>
14103 <listitem><para>Prevent <application>autovacuum</> from crashing during
14104 ANALYZE of expression index (Alvaro)</para></listitem>
14106 <listitem><para>Fix problems with ON COMMIT DELETE ROWS temp
14107 tables</para></listitem>
14109 <listitem><para>Fix problems when a trigger alters the output of a SELECT
14110 DISTINCT query</para></listitem>
14112 <listitem><para>Add 8.1.0 release note item on how to migrate invalid
14113 <literal>UTF-8</> byte sequences (Paul Lindner)</para></listitem>
14119 <sect1 id="release-8-1">
14120 <title>Release 8.1</title>
14123 <title>Release date</title>
14124 <simpara>2005-11-08</simpara>
14128 <title>Overview</title>
14131 Major changes in this release:
14138 Improve concurrent access to the shared buffer cache (Tom)
14143 Access to the shared buffer cache was identified as a
14144 significant scalability problem, particularly on multi-CPU
14145 systems. In this release, the way that locking is done in the
14146 buffer manager has been overhauled to reduce lock contention
14147 and improve scalability. The buffer manager has also been
14148 changed to use a <quote>clock sweep</quote> replacement
14156 Allow index scans to use an intermediate in-memory bitmap (Tom)
14161 In previous releases, only a single index could be used to do
14162 lookups on a table. With this feature, if a query has
14163 <command>WHERE tab.col1 = 4 and tab.col2 = 9</>, and there is
14164 no multicolumn index on <literal>col1</> and <literal>col2</>,
14165 but there is an index on <literal>col1</> and another on
14166 <literal>col2</>, it is possible to search both indexes and
14167 combine the results in memory, then do heap fetches for only
14168 the rows matching both the <literal>col1</> and
14169 <literal>col2</> restrictions. This is very useful in
14170 environments that have a lot of unstructured queries where it
14171 is impossible to create indexes that match all possible access
14172 conditions. Bitmap scans are useful even with a single index,
14173 as they reduce the amount of random access needed; a bitmap
14174 index scan is efficient for retrieving fairly large fractions
14175 of the complete table, whereas plain index scans are not.
14182 Add two-phase commit (Heikki Linnakangas, Alvaro, Tom)
14187 Two-phase commit allows transactions to be "prepared" on several
14188 computers, and once all computers have successfully prepared
14189 their transactions (none failed), all transactions can be
14190 committed. Even if a machine crashes after a prepare, the
14191 prepared transaction can be committed after the machine is
14192 restarted. New syntax includes <command>PREPARE TRANSACTION</> and
14193 <command>COMMIT/ROLLBACK PREPARED</>. A new system view
14194 <literal>pg_prepared_xacts</> has also been added.
14201 Create a new role system that replaces users and groups
14207 Roles are a combination of users and groups. Like users, they
14208 can have login capability, and like groups, a role can have
14209 other roles as members. Roles basically remove the distinction
14210 between users and groups. For example, a role can:
14217 Have login capability (optionally)
14229 Hold access permissions for database objects
14235 Inherit permissions from other roles it is a member of
14241 Once a user logs into a role, she obtains capabilities of
14242 the login role plus any inherited roles, and can use
14243 <command>SET ROLE</> to switch to other roles she is a member of.
14244 This feature is a generalization of the SQL standard's concept of
14246 This change also replaces <structname>pg_shadow</> and
14247 <structname>pg_group</> by new role-capable catalogs
14248 <structname>pg_authid</> and <structname>pg_auth_members</>. The old
14249 tables are redefined as read-only views on the new role tables.
14256 Automatically use indexes for <function>MIN()</> and
14257 <function>MAX()</> (Tom)
14262 In previous releases, the only way to use an index for
14263 <function>MIN()</> or <function>MAX()</> was to rewrite the
14264 query as <command>SELECT col FROM tab ORDER BY col LIMIT 1</>.
14265 Index usage now happens automatically.
14272 Move <filename>/contrib/pg_autovacuum</> into the main server
14278 Integrating autovacuum into the server allows it to be
14279 automatically started and stopped in sync with the database
14280 server, and allows autovacuum to be configured from
14281 <filename>postgresql.conf</>.
14288 Add shared row level locks using <command>SELECT ... FOR SHARE</>
14294 While <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s MVCC locking
14295 allows <command>SELECT</> to never be blocked by writers and
14296 therefore does not need shared row locks for typical operations,
14297 shared locks are useful for applications that require shared row
14298 locking. In particular this reduces the locking requirements
14299 imposed by referential integrity checks.
14306 Add dependencies on shared objects, specifically roles
14312 This extension of the dependency mechanism prevents roles from
14313 being dropped while there are still database objects they own.
14314 Formerly it was possible to accidentally <quote>orphan</> objects by
14315 deleting their owner. While this could be recovered from, it
14316 was messy and unpleasant.
14323 Improve performance for partitioned tables (Simon)
14328 The new <varname>constraint_exclusion</varname> configuration
14329 parameter avoids lookups on child tables where constraints indicate
14330 that no matching rows exist in the child table.
14333 This allows for a basic type of table partitioning. If child tables
14334 store separate key ranges and this is enforced using appropriate
14335 <command>CHECK</> constraints, the optimizer will skip child
14336 table accesses when the constraint guarantees no matching rows
14337 exist in the child table.
14346 <title>Migration to Version 8.1</title>
14349 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is required
14350 for those wishing to migrate data from any previous release.
14354 The 8.0 release announced that the <function>to_char()</> function
14355 for intervals would be removed in 8.1. However, since no better API
14356 has been suggested, <function>to_char(interval)</> has been enhanced in
14357 8.1 and will remain in the server.
14361 Observe the following incompatibilities:
14368 <varname>add_missing_from</> is now false by default (Neil)
14371 By default, we now generate an error if a table is used in a query
14372 without a <literal>FROM</> reference. The old behavior is still
14373 available, but the parameter must be set to 'true' to obtain it.
14377 It might be necessary to set <varname>add_missing_from</> to true
14378 in order to load an existing dump file, if the dump contains any
14379 views or rules created using the implicit-<literal>FROM</> syntax.
14380 This should be a one-time annoyance, because
14381 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.1 will convert
14382 such views and rules to standard explicit-<literal>FROM</> syntax.
14383 Subsequent dumps will therefore not have the problem.
14389 Cause input of a zero-length string (<literal>''</literal>) for
14390 <type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type>/<type>oid</type>
14391 to throw an error, rather than treating it as a zero (Neil)
14394 This change is consistent with the current handling of
14395 zero-length strings for integers. The schedule for this change
14396 was announced in 8.0.
14402 <varname>default_with_oids</> is now false by default (Neil)
14405 With this option set to false, user-created tables no longer
14406 have an OID column unless <command>WITH OIDS</> is specified in
14407 <command>CREATE TABLE</>. Though OIDs have existed in all
14408 releases of <productname>PostgreSQL</>, their use is limited
14409 because they are only four bytes long and the counter is shared
14410 across all installed databases. The preferred way of uniquely
14411 identifying rows is via sequences and the <type>SERIAL</> type,
14412 which have been supported since <productname>PostgreSQL</> 6.4.
14418 Add <literal>E''</> syntax so eventually ordinary strings can
14419 treat backslashes literally (Bruce)
14422 Currently <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> processes a
14423 backslash in a string literal as introducing a special escape sequence,
14424 e.g. <literal>\n</> or <literal>\010</>.
14425 While this allows easy entry of special values, it is
14426 nonstandard and makes porting of applications from other
14427 databases more difficult. For this reason, the
14428 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> project is planning to
14429 remove the special meaning of backslashes in strings. For
14430 backward compatibility and for users who want special backslash
14431 processing, a new string syntax has been created. This new string
14432 syntax is formed by writing an <literal>E</> immediately preceding the
14433 single quote that starts the string, e.g. <literal>E'hi\n'</>. While
14434 this release does not change the handling of backslashes in strings, it
14435 does add new configuration parameters to help users migrate applications
14436 for future releases:
14442 <varname>standard_conforming_strings</> — does this release
14443 treat backslashes literally in ordinary strings?
14449 <varname>escape_string_warning</> — warn about backslashes in
14450 ordinary (non-E) strings
14457 The <varname>standard_conforming_strings</> value is read-only.
14458 Applications can retrieve the value to know how backslashes are
14459 processed. (Presence of the parameter can also be taken as an
14460 indication that <literal>E''</> string syntax is supported.)
14461 In a future release, <varname>standard_conforming_strings</>
14462 will be true, meaning backslashes will be treated literally in
14463 non-E strings. To prepare for this change, use <literal>E''</>
14464 strings in places that need special backslash processing, and
14465 turn on <varname>escape_string_warning</> to find additional
14466 strings that need to be converted to use <literal>E''</>.
14467 Also, use two single-quotes (<literal>''</>) to embed a literal
14468 single-quote in a string, rather than the
14469 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>-supported syntax of
14470 backslash single-quote (<literal>\'</>). The former is
14471 standards-conforming and does not require the use of the
14472 <literal>E''</> string syntax. You can also use the
14473 <literal>$$</> string syntax, which does not treat backslashes
14480 Make <command>REINDEX DATABASE</> reindex all indexes in the
14484 Formerly, <command>REINDEX DATABASE</> reindexed only
14485 system tables. This new behavior seems more intuitive. A new
14486 command <command>REINDEX SYSTEM</> provides the old functionality
14487 of reindexing just the system tables.
14493 Read-only large object descriptors now obey MVCC snapshot semantics
14496 When a large object is opened with <literal>INV_READ</> (and not
14497 <literal>INV_WRITE</>), the data read from the descriptor will now
14498 reflect a <quote>snapshot</> of the large object's state at the
14499 time of the transaction snapshot in use by the query that called
14500 <function>lo_open()</>. To obtain the old behavior of always
14501 returning the latest committed data, include <literal>INV_WRITE</>
14502 in the mode flags for <function>lo_open()</>.
14508 Add proper dependencies for arguments of sequence functions (Tom)
14511 In previous releases, sequence names passed to <function>nextval()</>,
14512 <function>currval()</>, and <function>setval()</> were stored as
14513 simple text strings, meaning that renaming or dropping a
14514 sequence used in a <literal>DEFAULT</> clause made the clause
14515 invalid. This release stores all newly-created sequence function
14516 arguments as internal OIDs, allowing them to track sequence
14517 renaming, and adding dependency information that prevents
14518 improper sequence removal. It also makes such <literal>DEFAULT</>
14519 clauses immune to schema renaming and search path changes.
14522 Some applications might rely on the old behavior of
14523 run-time lookup for sequence names. This can still be done by
14524 explicitly casting the argument to <type>text</>, for example
14525 <literal>nextval('myseq'::text)</>.
14528 Pre-8.1 database dumps loaded into 8.1 will use the old text-based
14529 representation and therefore will not have the features of
14530 OID-stored arguments. However, it is possible to update a
14531 database containing text-based <literal>DEFAULT</> clauses.
14532 First, save this query into a file, such as <filename>fixseq.sql</>:
14534 SELECT 'ALTER TABLE ' ||
14535 pg_catalog.quote_ident(n.nspname) || '.' ||
14536 pg_catalog.quote_ident(c.relname) ||
14537 ' ALTER COLUMN ' || pg_catalog.quote_ident(a.attname) ||
14539 regexp_replace(d.adsrc,
14540 $$val\(\(('[^']*')::text\)::regclass$$,
14544 FROM pg_namespace n, pg_class c, pg_attribute a, pg_attrdef d
14545 WHERE n.oid = c.relnamespace AND
14546 c.oid = a.attrelid AND
14547 a.attrelid = d.adrelid AND
14548 a.attnum = d.adnum AND
14549 d.adsrc ~ $$val\(\('[^']*'::text\)::regclass$$;
14551 Next, run the query against a database to find what
14552 adjustments are required, like this for database <literal>db1</>:
14554 psql -t -f fixseq.sql db1
14556 This will show the <command>ALTER TABLE</> commands needed to
14557 convert the database to the newer OID-based representation.
14558 If the commands look reasonable, run this to update the database:
14560 psql -t -f fixseq.sql db1 | psql -e db1
14562 This process must be repeated in each database to be updated.
14568 In <application>psql</application>, treat unquoted
14569 <literal>\{digit}+</> sequences as octal (Bruce)
14572 In previous releases, <literal>\{digit}+</> sequences were
14573 treated as decimal, and only <literal>\0{digit}+</> were treated
14574 as octal. This change was made for consistency.
14580 Remove grammar productions for prefix and postfix <literal>%</>
14581 and <literal>^</> operators
14585 These have never been documented and complicated the use of the
14586 modulus operator (<literal>%</>) with negative numbers.
14592 Make <literal>&<</> and <literal>&></> for polygons
14593 consistent with the box "over" operators (Tom)
14599 <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</> can ignore the provided arguments
14600 in favor of information from <structname>pg_pltemplate</>
14604 A new system catalog <structname>pg_pltemplate</> has been defined
14605 to carry information about the preferred definitions of procedural
14606 languages (such as whether they have validator functions). When
14607 an entry exists in this catalog for the language being created,
14608 <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</> will ignore all its parameters except the
14609 language name and instead use the catalog information. This measure
14610 was taken because of increasing problems with obsolete language
14611 definitions being loaded by old dump files. As of 8.1,
14612 <application>pg_dump</> will dump procedural language definitions as
14613 just <command>CREATE LANGUAGE <replaceable>name</></command>, relying
14614 on a template entry to exist at load time. We expect this will be a
14615 more future-proof representation.
14621 Make <function>pg_cancel_backend(int)</function> return a
14622 <type>boolean</type> rather than an <type>integer</type> (Neil)
14628 Some users are having problems loading UTF-8 data into 8.1.X.
14629 This is because previous versions allowed invalid UTF-8 byte
14630 sequences to be entered into the database, and this release
14631 properly accepts only valid UTF-8 sequences. One way to correct a
14632 dumpfile is to run the command <command>iconv -c -f UTF-8 -t
14633 UTF-8 -o cleanfile.sql dumpfile.sql</>. The <literal>-c</> option
14634 removes invalid character sequences. A diff of the two files will
14635 show the sequences that are invalid. <command>iconv</> reads the
14636 entire input file into memory so it might be necessary to use
14637 <application>split</> to break up the dump into multiple smaller
14638 files for processing.
14646 <title>Additional Changes</title>
14649 Below you will find a detailed account of the additional changes
14650 between <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.1 and the
14651 previous major release.
14655 <title>Performance Improvements</title>
14660 Improve GiST and R-tree index performance (Neil)
14666 Improve the optimizer, including auto-resizing of hash joins
14673 Overhaul internal API in several areas
14679 Change WAL record CRCs from 64-bit to 32-bit (Tom)
14682 We determined that the extra cost of computing 64-bit CRCs was
14683 significant, and the gain in reliability too marginal to justify it.
14689 Prevent writing large empty gaps in WAL pages (Tom)
14695 Improve spinlock behavior on SMP machines, particularly Opterons (Tom)
14701 Allow nonconsecutive index columns to be used in a multicolumn
14705 For example, this allows an index on columns a,b,c to be used in
14706 a query with <command>WHERE a = 4 and c = 10</>.
14712 Skip WAL logging for <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> /
14713 <command>SELECT INTO</> (Simon)
14716 Since a crash during <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> would cause the
14717 table to be dropped during recovery, there is no reason to WAL
14718 log as the table is loaded. (Logging still happens if WAL
14719 archiving is enabled, however.)
14725 Allow concurrent GiST index access (Teodor, Oleg)
14731 Add configuration parameter <varname>full_page_writes</> to
14732 control writing full pages to WAL (Bruce)
14735 To prevent partial disk writes from corrupting the database,
14736 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> writes a complete copy of
14737 each database disk page to WAL the first time it is modified
14738 after a checkpoint. This option turns off that functionality for more
14739 speed. This is safe to use with battery-backed disk caches where
14740 partial page writes cannot happen.
14746 Use <literal>O_DIRECT</> if available when using
14747 <literal>O_SYNC</> for <varname>wal_sync_method</varname>
14751 <literal>O_DIRECT</> causes disk writes to bypass the kernel
14752 cache, and for WAL writes, this improves performance.
14758 Improve <command>COPY FROM</> performance (Alon Goldshuv)
14761 This was accomplished by reading <command>COPY</> input in
14762 larger chunks, rather than character by character.
14768 Improve the performance of <function>COUNT()</function>,
14769 <function>SUM</function>, <function>AVG()</function>,
14770 <function>STDDEV()</function>, and
14771 <function>VARIANCE()</function> (Neil, Tom)
14778 <title>Server Changes</title>
14783 Prevent problems due to transaction ID (XID) wraparound (Tom)
14786 The server will now warn when the transaction counter approaches
14787 the wraparound point. If the counter becomes too close to wraparound,
14788 the server will stop accepting queries. This ensures that data is
14789 not lost before needed vacuuming is performed.
14795 Fix problems with object IDs (OIDs) conflicting with existing system
14796 objects after the OID counter has wrapped around (Tom)
14802 Add warning about the need to increase
14803 <varname>max_fsm_relations</> and <varname>max_fsm_pages</>
14804 during <command>VACUUM</> (Ron Mayer)
14810 Add <varname>temp_buffers</> configuration parameter to allow
14811 users to determine the size of the local buffer area for
14812 temporary table access (Tom)
14818 Add session start time and client IP address to
14819 <literal>pg_stat_activity</> (Magnus)
14825 Adjust <literal>pg_stat</> views for bitmap scans (Tom)
14828 The meanings of some of the fields have changed slightly.
14834 Enhance <literal>pg_locks</> view (Tom)
14840 Log queries for client-side <command>PREPARE</> and
14841 <command>EXECUTE</> (Simon)
14847 Allow Kerberos name and user name case sensitivity to be
14848 specified in <filename>postgresql.conf</> (Magnus)
14854 Add configuration parameter <varname>krb_server_hostname</> so
14855 that the server host name can be specified as part of service
14856 principal (Todd Kover)
14859 If not set, any service principal matching an entry in the
14860 keytab can be used. This is new Kerberos matching behavior in
14867 Add <varname>log_line_prefix</> options for millisecond
14868 timestamps (<literal>%m</>) and remote host (<literal>%h</>) (Ed
14875 Add WAL logging for GiST indexes (Teodor, Oleg)
14878 GiST indexes are now safe for crash and point-in-time recovery.
14884 Remove old <filename>*.backup</> files when we do
14885 <function>pg_stop_backup()</> (Bruce)
14888 This prevents a large number of <filename>*.backup</> files from
14889 existing in <filename>pg_xlog/</>.
14895 Add configuration parameters to control TCP/IP keep-alive
14896 times for idle, interval, and count (Oliver Jowett)
14900 These values can be changed to allow more rapid detection of
14901 lost client connections.
14907 Add per-user and per-database connection limits (Petr Jelinek)
14910 Using <command>ALTER USER</> and <command>ALTER DATABASE</>,
14911 limits can now be enforced on the maximum number of sessions that
14912 can concurrently connect as a specific user or to a specific database.
14913 Setting the limit to zero disables user or database connections.
14919 Allow more than two gigabytes of shared memory and per-backend
14920 work memory on 64-bit machines (Koichi Suzuki)
14926 New system catalog <structname>pg_pltemplate</> allows overriding
14927 obsolete procedural-language definitions in dump files (Tom)
14936 <title>Query Changes</title>
14941 Add temporary views (Koju Iijima, Neil)
14947 Fix <command>HAVING</> without any aggregate functions or
14948 <command>GROUP BY</> so that the query returns a single group (Tom)
14951 Previously, such a case would treat the <command>HAVING</>
14952 clause the same as a <command>WHERE</> clause. This was not per spec.
14958 Add <command>USING</> clause to allow additional tables to be
14959 specified to <command>DELETE</> (Euler Taveira de Oliveira, Neil)
14962 In prior releases, there was no clear method for specifying
14963 additional tables to be used for joins in a <command>DELETE</>
14964 statement. <command>UPDATE</> already has a <literal>FROM</>
14965 clause for this purpose.
14971 Add support for <literal>\x</> hex escapes in backend and ecpg
14975 This is just like the standard C <literal>\x</> escape syntax.
14976 Octal escapes were already supported.
14982 Add <command>BETWEEN SYMMETRIC</> query syntax (Pavel Stehule)
14985 This feature allows <command>BETWEEN</> comparisons without
14986 requiring the first value to be less than the second. For
14987 example, <command>2 BETWEEN [ASYMMETRIC] 3 AND 1</> returns
14988 false, while <command>2 BETWEEN SYMMETRIC 3 AND 1</> returns
14989 true. <command>BETWEEN ASYMMETRIC</> was already supported.
14995 Add <command>NOWAIT</> option to <command>SELECT ... FOR
14996 UPDATE/SHARE</> (Hans-Juergen Schoenig)
14999 While the <varname>statement_timeout</> configuration
15000 parameter allows a query taking more than a certain amount of
15001 time to be cancelled, the <command>NOWAIT</> option allows a
15002 query to be canceled as soon as a <command>SELECT ... FOR
15003 UPDATE/SHARE</> command cannot immediately acquire a row lock.
15011 <title>Object Manipulation Changes</title>
15016 Track dependencies of shared objects (Alvaro)
15019 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> allows global tables
15020 (users, databases, tablespaces) to reference information in
15021 multiple databases. This addition adds dependency information
15022 for global tables, so, for example, user ownership can be
15023 tracked across databases, so a user who owns something in any
15024 database can no longer be removed. Dependency tracking already
15025 existed for database-local objects.
15031 Allow limited <command>ALTER OWNER</> commands to be performed
15032 by the object owner (Stephen Frost)
15035 Prior releases allowed only superusers to change object owners.
15036 Now, ownership can be transferred if the user executing the command
15037 owns the object and would be able to create it as the new owner
15038 (that is, the user is a member of the new owning role and that role
15039 has the CREATE permission that would be needed to create the object
15046 Add <command>ALTER</> object <command>SET SCHEMA</> capability
15047 for some object types (tables, functions, types) (Bernd Helmle)
15050 This allows objects to be moved to different schemas.
15056 Add <command>ALTER TABLE ENABLE/DISABLE TRIGGER</command> to
15057 disable triggers (Satoshi Nagayasu)
15066 <title>Utility Command Changes</title>
15071 Allow <command>TRUNCATE</> to truncate multiple tables in a
15072 single command (Alvaro)
15075 Because of referential integrity checks, it is not allowed to
15076 truncate a table that is part of a referential integrity
15077 constraint. Using this new functionality, <command>TRUNCATE</>
15078 can be used to truncate such tables, if both tables involved in
15079 a referential integrity constraint are truncated in a single
15080 <command>TRUNCATE</> command.
15086 Properly process carriage returns and line feeds in
15087 <command>COPY CSV</> mode (Andrew)
15090 In release 8.0, carriage returns and line feeds in <command>CSV
15091 COPY TO</> were processed in an inconsistent manner. (This was
15092 documented on the TODO list.)
15098 Add <command>COPY WITH CSV HEADER</> to allow a header line as
15099 the first line in <command>COPY</> (Andrew)
15102 This allows handling of the common <command>CSV</> usage of
15103 placing the column names on the first line of the data file. For
15104 <command>COPY TO</>, the first line contains the column names,
15105 and for <command>COPY FROM</>, the first line is ignored.
15111 On Windows, display better sub-second precision in
15112 <command>EXPLAIN ANALYZE</> (Magnus)
15118 Add trigger duration display to <command>EXPLAIN ANALYZE</>
15122 Prior releases included trigger execution time as part of the
15123 total execution time, but did not show it separately. It is now
15124 possible to see how much time is spent in each trigger.
15130 Add support for <literal>\x</> hex escapes in <command>COPY</>
15134 Previous releases only supported octal escapes.
15140 Make <command>SHOW ALL</> include variable descriptions
15144 <command>SHOW</> varname still only displays the variable's
15145 value and does not include the description.
15151 Make <application>initdb</application> create a new standard
15152 database called <literal>postgres</>, and convert utilities to
15153 use <literal>postgres</> rather than <literal>template1</> for
15154 standard lookups (Dave)
15157 In prior releases, <literal>template1</> was used both as a
15158 default connection for utilities like
15159 <application>createuser</application>, and as a template for
15160 new databases. This caused <command>CREATE DATABASE</> to
15161 sometimes fail, because a new database cannot be created if
15162 anyone else is in the template database. With this change, the
15163 default connection database is now <literal>postgres</>,
15164 meaning it is much less likely someone will be using
15165 <literal>template1</> during <command>CREATE DATABASE</>.
15171 Create new <application>reindexdb</application> command-line
15172 utility by moving <filename>/contrib/reindexdb</> into the
15173 server (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
15182 <title>Data Type and Function Changes</title>
15187 Add <function>MAX()</> and <function>MIN()</> aggregates for
15188 array types (Koju Iijima)
15194 Fix <function>to_date()</> and <function>to_timestamp()</> to
15195 behave reasonably when <literal>CC</> and <literal>YY</> fields
15196 are both used (Karel Zak)
15199 If the format specification contains <literal>CC</> and a year
15200 specification is <literal>YYY</> or longer, ignore the
15201 <literal>CC</>. If the year specification is <literal>YY</> or
15202 shorter, interpret <literal>CC</> as the previous century.
15208 Add <function>md5(bytea)</> (Abhijit Menon-Sen)
15211 <function>md5(text)</> already existed.
15217 Add support for <command>numeric ^ numeric</> based on
15218 <function>power(numeric, numeric)</>
15221 The function already existed, but there was no operator assigned
15228 Fix <type>NUMERIC</> modulus by properly truncating the quotient
15229 during computation (Bruce)
15232 In previous releases, modulus for large values sometimes
15233 returned negative results due to rounding of the quotient.
15239 Add a function <function>lastval()</> (Dennis Björklund)
15242 <function>lastval()</> is a simplified version of
15243 <function>currval()</>. It automatically determines the proper
15244 sequence name based on the most recent <function>nextval()</> or
15245 <function>setval()</> call performed by the current session.
15251 Add <function>to_timestamp(DOUBLE PRECISION) (Michael Glaesemann)</>
15254 Converts Unix seconds since 1970 to a <type>TIMESTAMP WITH
15261 Add <function>pg_postmaster_start_time()</> function (Euler
15262 Taveira de Oliveira, Matthias Schmidt)
15268 Allow the full use of time zone names in <command>AT TIME
15269 ZONE</>, not just the short list previously available (Magnus)
15272 Previously, only a predefined list of time zone names were
15273 supported by <command>AT TIME ZONE</>. Now any supported time
15274 zone name can be used, e.g.:
15276 SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP AT TIME ZONE 'Europe/London';
15278 In the above query, the time zone used is adjusted based on the
15279 daylight saving time rules that were in effect on the supplied
15286 Add <function>GREATEST()</> and <function>LEAST()</> variadic
15287 functions (Pavel Stehule)
15290 These functions take a variable number of arguments and return
15291 the greatest or least value among the arguments.
15297 Add <function>pg_column_size()</> (Mark Kirkwood)
15300 This returns storage size of a column, which might be compressed.
15306 Add <function>regexp_replace()</> (Atsushi Ogawa)
15309 This allows regular expression replacement, like sed. An optional
15310 flag argument allows selection of global (replace all) and
15311 case-insensitive modes.
15317 Fix interval division and multiplication (Bruce)
15320 Previous versions sometimes returned unjustified results, like
15321 <command>'4 months'::interval / 5</> returning <command>'1 mon
15328 Fix roundoff behavior in timestamp, time, and interval output (Tom)
15331 This fixes some cases in which the seconds field would be shown as
15332 <literal>60</> instead of incrementing the higher-order fields.
15338 Add a separate day field to type <type>interval</> so a one day
15339 interval can be distinguished from a 24 hour interval (Michael
15343 Days that contain a daylight saving time adjustment are not 24
15344 hours long, but typically 23 or 25 hours. This change creates a
15345 conceptual distinction between intervals of <quote>so many days</>
15346 and intervals of <quote>so many hours</>. Adding
15347 <literal>1 day</> to a timestamp now gives the same local time on
15348 the next day even if a daylight saving time adjustment occurs
15349 between, whereas adding <literal>24 hours</> will give a different
15350 local time when this happens. For example, under US DST rules:
15352 '2005-04-03 00:00:00-05' + '1 day' = '2005-04-04 00:00:00-04'
15353 '2005-04-03 00:00:00-05' + '24 hours' = '2005-04-04 01:00:00-04'
15360 Add <function>justify_days()</> and <function>justify_hours()</>
15361 (Michael Glaesemann)
15364 These functions, respectively, adjust days to an appropriate
15365 number of full months and days, and adjust hours to an
15366 appropriate number of full days and hours.
15372 Move <filename>/contrib/dbsize</> into the backend, and rename
15373 some of the functions (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug)
15380 <function>pg_tablespace_size()</>
15386 <function>pg_database_size()</>
15392 <function>pg_relation_size()</>
15398 <function>pg_total_relation_size()</>
15404 <function>pg_size_pretty()</>
15411 <function>pg_total_relation_size()</> includes indexes and TOAST
15418 Add functions for read-only file access to the cluster directory
15419 (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug)
15426 <function>pg_stat_file()</>
15432 <function>pg_read_file()</>
15438 <function>pg_ls_dir()</>
15448 Add <function>pg_reload_conf()</> to force reloading of the
15449 configuration files (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug)
15455 Add <function>pg_rotate_logfile()</> to force rotation of the
15456 server log file (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug)
15462 Change <literal>pg_stat_*</> views to include TOAST tables (Tom)
15471 <title>Encoding and Locale Changes</title>
15476 Rename some encodings to be more consistent and to follow
15477 international standards (Bruce)
15484 <literal>UNICODE</> is now <literal>UTF8</>
15490 <literal>ALT</> is now <literal>WIN866</>
15496 <literal>WIN</> is now <literal>WIN1251</>
15502 <literal>TCVN</> is now <literal>WIN1258</>
15510 The original names still work.
15516 Add support for <literal>WIN1252</> encoding (Roland Volkmann)
15522 Add support for four-byte <literal>UTF8</> characters (John
15526 Previously only one, two, and three-byte <literal>UTF8</> characters
15527 were supported. This is particularly important for support for
15528 some Chinese character sets.
15534 Allow direct conversion between <literal>EUC_JP</> and
15535 <literal>SJIS</> to improve performance (Atsushi Ogawa)
15541 Allow the UTF8 encoding to work on Windows (Magnus)
15544 This is done by mapping UTF8 to the Windows-native UTF16
15554 <title>General Server-Side Language Changes</title>
15559 Fix <command>ALTER LANGUAGE RENAME</> (Sergey Yatskevich)
15565 Allow function characteristics, like strictness and volatility,
15566 to be modified via <command>ALTER FUNCTION</> (Neil)
15572 Increase the maximum number of function arguments to 100 (Tom)
15578 Allow SQL and PL/PgSQL functions to use <command>OUT</> and
15579 <command>INOUT</> parameters (Tom)
15582 <command>OUT</> is an alternate way for a function to return
15583 values. Instead of using <command>RETURN</>, values can be
15584 returned by assigning to parameters declared as <command>OUT</> or
15585 <command>INOUT</>. This is notationally simpler in some cases,
15586 particularly so when multiple values need to be returned.
15587 While returning multiple values from a function
15588 was possible in previous releases, this greatly simplifies the
15589 process. (The feature will be extended to other server-side
15590 languages in future releases.)
15596 Move language handler functions into the <literal>pg_catalog</> schema
15599 This makes it easier to drop the public schema if desired.
15605 Add <function>SPI_getnspname()</function> to SPI (Neil)
15613 <title>PL/PgSQL Server-Side Language Changes</title>
15618 Overhaul the memory management of PL/PgSQL functions (Neil)
15621 The parsetree of each function is now stored in a separate
15622 memory context. This allows this memory to be easily reclaimed
15623 when it is no longer needed.
15629 Check function syntax at <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> time,
15630 rather than at runtime (Neil)
15633 Previously, most syntax errors were reported only when the
15634 function was executed.
15640 Allow <command>OPEN</> to open non-<command>SELECT</> queries
15641 like <command>EXPLAIN</> and <command>SHOW</> (Tom)
15647 No longer require functions to issue a <command>RETURN</>
15651 This is a byproduct of the newly added <command>OUT</> and
15652 <command>INOUT</> functionality. <command>RETURN</> can
15653 be omitted when it is not needed to provide the function's
15660 Add support for an optional <command>INTO</> clause to
15661 PL/PgSQL's <command>EXECUTE</> statement (Pavel Stehule, Neil)
15667 Make <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> set <command>ROW_COUNT</> (Tom)
15673 Define <literal>SQLSTATE</> and <literal>SQLERRM</> to return
15674 the <literal>SQLSTATE</> and error message of the current
15675 exception (Pavel Stehule, Neil)
15678 These variables are only defined inside exception blocks.
15684 Allow the parameters to the <command>RAISE</> statement to be
15685 expressions (Pavel Stehule, Neil)
15691 Add a loop <command>CONTINUE</> statement (Pavel Stehule, Neil)
15697 Allow block and loop labels (Pavel Stehule)
15706 <title>PL/Perl Server-Side Language Changes</title>
15711 Allow large result sets to be returned efficiently (Abhijit
15715 This allows functions to use <function>return_next()</> to avoid
15716 building the entire result set in memory.
15722 Allow one-row-at-a-time retrieval of query results (Abhijit Menon-Sen)
15725 This allows functions to use <function>spi_query()</> and
15726 <function>spi_fetchrow()</> to avoid accumulating the entire
15727 result set in memory.
15733 Force PL/Perl to handle strings as <literal>UTF8</> if the
15734 server encoding is <literal>UTF8</> (David Kamholz)
15740 Add a validator function for PL/Perl (Andrew)
15743 This allows syntax errors to be reported at definition time,
15744 rather than execution time.
15750 Allow PL/Perl to return a Perl array when the function returns
15751 an array type (Andrew)
15754 This basically maps <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> arrays
15761 Allow Perl nonfatal warnings to generate <command>NOTICE</>
15768 Allow Perl's <literal>strict</> mode to be enabled (Andrew)
15777 <title><application>psql</> Changes</title>
15782 Add <command>\set ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK</> to allow statements in
15783 a transaction to error without affecting the rest of the
15784 transaction (Greg Sabino Mullane)
15787 This is basically implemented by wrapping every statement in a
15794 Add support for <literal>\x</> hex strings in
15795 <application>psql</> variables (Bruce)
15798 Octal escapes were already supported.
15804 Add support for <command>troff -ms</> output format (Roger
15811 Allow the history file location to be controlled by
15812 <envar>HISTFILE</> (Andreas Seltenreich)
15815 This allows configuration of per-database history storage.
15821 Prevent <command>\x</> (expanded mode) from affecting
15822 the output of <command>\d tablename</> (Neil)
15828 Add <option>-L</> option to <application>psql</application> to
15829 log sessions (Lorne Sunley)
15832 This option was added because some operating systems do not have
15833 simple command-line activity logging functionality.
15839 Make <command>\d</> show the tablespaces of indexes (Qingqing
15846 Allow <application>psql</application> help (<command>\h</>) to
15847 make a best guess on the proper help information (Greg Sabino
15851 This allows the user to just add <command>\h</> to the front of
15852 the syntax error query and get help on the supported syntax.
15853 Previously any additional query text beyond the command name
15854 had to be removed to use <command>\h</>.
15860 Add <command>\pset numericlocale</> to allow numbers to be
15861 output in a locale-aware format (Eugen Nedelcu)
15864 For example, using <literal>C</> locale <literal>100000</> would
15865 be output as <literal>100,000.0</> while a European locale might
15866 output this value as <literal>100.000,0</>.
15872 Make startup banner show both server version number and
15873 <application>psql</>'s version number, when they are different (Bruce)
15876 Also, a warning will be shown if the server and <application>psql</>
15877 are from different major releases.
15886 <title><application>pg_dump</> Changes</title>
15891 Add <option>-n</> / <option>--schema</> switch to
15892 <application>pg_restore</> (Richard van den Berg)
15895 This allows just the objects in a specified schema to be restored.
15901 Allow <application>pg_dump</> to dump large objects even in
15905 With this change, large objects are now always dumped; the former
15906 <option>-b</> switch is a no-op.
15912 Allow <application>pg_dump</> to dump a consistent snapshot of
15913 large objects (Tom)
15919 Dump comments for large objects (Tom)
15925 Add <option>--encoding</> to <application>pg_dump</>
15929 This allows a database to be dumped in an encoding that is
15930 different from the server's encoding. This is valuable when
15931 transferring the dump to a machine with a different encoding.
15937 Rely on <structname>pg_pltemplate</> for procedural languages (Tom)
15940 If the call handler for a procedural language is in the
15941 <literal>pg_catalog</> schema, <application>pg_dump</> does not
15942 dump the handler. Instead, it dumps the language using just
15943 <command>CREATE LANGUAGE <replaceable>name</></command>,
15944 relying on the <structname>pg_pltemplate</> catalog to provide
15945 the language's creation parameters at load time.
15954 <title><application>libpq</application> Changes</title>
15959 Add a <envar>PGPASSFILE</> environment variable to specify the
15960 password file's filename (Andrew)
15966 Add <function>lo_create()</>, that is similar to
15967 <function>lo_creat()</> but allows the OID of the large object
15968 to be specified (Tom)
15974 Make <application>libpq</application> consistently return an error
15975 to the client application on <function>malloc()</function>
15984 <title>Source Code Changes</title>
15989 Fix <application>pgxs</> to support building against a relocated
15996 Add spinlock support for the Itanium processor using Intel
15997 compiler (Vikram Kalsi)
16003 Add Kerberos 5 support for Windows (Magnus)
16009 Add Chinese FAQ (laser@pgsqldb.com)
16015 Rename Rendezvous to Bonjour to match OS/X feature renaming
16022 Add support for <literal>fsync_writethrough</literal> on
16023 Darwin (Chris Campbell)
16029 Streamline the passing of information within the server, the
16030 optimizer, and the lock system (Tom)
16036 Allow <application>pg_config</> to be compiled using MSVC (Andrew)
16039 This is required to build DBD::Pg using <application>MSVC</>.
16045 Remove support for Kerberos V4 (Magnus)
16048 Kerberos 4 had security vulnerabilities and is no longer
16055 Code cleanups (Coverity static analysis performed by
16062 Modify <filename>postgresql.conf</> to use documentation defaults
16063 <literal>on</>/<literal>off</> rather than
16064 <literal>true</>/<literal>false</> (Bruce)
16070 Enhance <application>pg_config</> to be able to report more
16071 build-time values (Tom)
16077 Allow <application>libpq</application> to be built thread-safe
16078 on Windows (Dave Page)
16084 Allow IPv6 connections to be used on Windows (Andrew)
16090 Add Server Administration documentation about I/O subsystem
16091 reliability (Bruce)
16097 Move private declarations from <filename>gist.h</filename> to
16098 <filename>gist_private.h</filename> (Neil)
16102 In previous releases, <filename>gist.h</> contained both the
16103 public GiST API (intended for use by authors of GiST index
16104 implementations) as well as some private declarations used by
16105 the implementation of GiST itself. The latter have been moved
16106 to a separate file, <filename>gist_private.h</>. Most GiST
16107 index implementations should be unaffected.
16113 Overhaul GiST memory management (Neil)
16117 GiST methods are now always invoked in a short-lived memory
16118 context. Therefore, memory allocated via <function>palloc()</>
16119 will be reclaimed automatically, so GiST index implementations
16120 do not need to manually release allocated memory via
16121 <function>pfree()</>.
16129 <title>Contrib Changes</title>
16134 Add <filename>/contrib/pg_buffercache</> contrib module (Mark
16138 This displays the contents of the buffer cache, for debugging and
16139 performance tuning purposes.
16145 Remove <filename>/contrib/array</> because it is obsolete (Tom)
16151 Clean up the <filename>/contrib/lo</> module (Tom)
16157 Move <filename>/contrib/findoidjoins</> to
16158 <filename>/src/tools</> (Tom)
16164 Remove the <literal><<</>, <literal>>></>,
16165 <literal>&<</>, and <literal>&></> operators from
16166 <filename>/contrib/cube</>
16169 These operators were not useful.
16175 Improve <filename>/contrib/btree_gist</> (Janko Richter)
16181 Improve <filename>/contrib/pgbench</> (Tomoaki Sato, Tatsuo)
16184 There is now a facility for testing with SQL command scripts given
16185 by the user, instead of only a hard-wired command sequence.
16191 Improve <filename>/contrib/pgcrypto</> (Marko Kreen)
16198 Implementation of OpenPGP symmetric-key and public-key encryption
16201 Both RSA and Elgamal public-key algorithms are supported.
16207 Stand alone build: include SHA256/384/512 hashes, Fortuna PRNG
16213 OpenSSL build: support 3DES, use internal AES with OpenSSL < 0.9.7
16219 Take build parameters (OpenSSL, zlib) from <filename>configure</> result
16222 There is no need to edit the <filename>Makefile</> anymore.
16228 Remove support for <filename>libmhash</> and <filename>libmcrypt</>
16241 <sect1 id="release-8-0-21">
16242 <title>Release 8.0.21</title>
16245 <title>Release date</title>
16246 <simpara>2009-03-16</simpara>
16250 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.20.
16251 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
16252 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
16256 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.21</title>
16259 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X.
16260 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6,
16261 see the release notes for 8.0.6.
16267 <title>Changes</title>
16273 Prevent error recursion crashes when encoding conversion fails (Tom)
16277 This change extends fixes made in the last two minor releases for
16278 related failure scenarios. The previous fixes were narrowly tailored
16279 for the original problem reports, but we have now recognized that
16280 <emphasis>any</> error thrown by an encoding conversion function could
16281 potentially lead to infinite recursion while trying to report the
16282 error. The solution therefore is to disable translation and encoding
16283 conversion and report the plain-ASCII form of any error message,
16284 if we find we have gotten into a recursive error reporting situation.
16291 Disallow <command>CREATE CONVERSION</> with the wrong encodings
16292 for the specified conversion function (Heikki)
16296 This prevents one possible scenario for encoding conversion failure.
16297 The previous change is a backstop to guard against other kinds of
16298 failures in the same area.
16304 Fix core dump when <function>to_char()</> is given format codes that
16305 are inappropriate for the type of the data argument (Tom)
16311 Add <literal>MUST</> (Mauritius Island Summer Time) to the default list
16312 of known timezone abbreviations (Xavier Bugaud)
16321 <sect1 id="release-8-0-20">
16322 <title>Release 8.0.20</title>
16325 <title>Release date</title>
16326 <simpara>2009-02-02</simpara>
16330 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.19.
16331 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
16332 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
16336 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.20</title>
16339 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X.
16340 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6,
16341 see the release notes for 8.0.6.
16347 <title>Changes</title>
16353 Improve handling of URLs in <function>headline()</> function (Teodor)
16359 Improve handling of overlength headlines in <function>headline()</>
16366 Prevent possible Assert failure or misconversion if an encoding
16367 conversion is created with the wrong conversion function for the
16368 specified pair of encodings (Tom, Heikki)
16374 Avoid unnecessary locking of small tables in <command>VACUUM</>
16381 Fix uninitialized variables in <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>'s
16382 <function>get_covers()</> function (Teodor)
16388 Make all documentation reference <literal>pgsql-bugs</> and/or
16389 <literal>pgsql-hackers</> as appropriate, instead of the
16390 now-decommissioned <literal>pgsql-ports</> and <literal>pgsql-patches</>
16391 mailing lists (Tom)
16397 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2009a (for
16398 Kathmandu and historical DST corrections in Switzerland, Cuba)
16407 <sect1 id="release-8-0-19">
16408 <title>Release 8.0.19</title>
16411 <title>Release date</title>
16412 <simpara>2008-11-03</simpara>
16416 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.18.
16417 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
16418 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
16422 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.19</title>
16425 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X.
16426 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6,
16427 see the release notes for 8.0.6.
16433 <title>Changes</title>
16439 Fix backend crash when the client encoding cannot represent a localized
16440 error message (Tom)
16444 We have addressed similar issues before, but it would still fail if
16445 the <quote>character has no equivalent</> message itself couldn't
16446 be converted. The fix is to disable localization and send the plain
16447 ASCII error message when we detect such a situation.
16453 Fix possible crash when deeply nested functions are invoked from
16460 Ensure an error is reported when a newly-defined PL/pgSQL trigger
16461 function is invoked as a normal function (Tom)
16467 Fix incorrect tsearch2 headline generation when single query
16468 item matches first word of text (Sushant Sinha)
16474 Fix improper display of fractional seconds in interval values when
16475 using a non-ISO datestyle in an <option>--enable-integer-datetimes</>
16482 Ensure <function>SPI_getvalue</> and <function>SPI_getbinval</>
16483 behave correctly when the passed tuple and tuple descriptor have
16484 different numbers of columns (Tom)
16488 This situation is normal when a table has had columns added or removed,
16489 but these two functions didn't handle it properly.
16490 The only likely consequence is an incorrect error indication.
16496 Fix <application>ecpg</>'s parsing of <command>CREATE USER</> (Michael)
16502 Fix recent breakage of <literal>pg_ctl restart</> (Tom)
16508 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008i (for
16509 DST law changes in Argentina, Brazil, Mauritius, Syria)
16518 <sect1 id="release-8-0-18">
16519 <title>Release 8.0.18</title>
16522 <title>Release date</title>
16523 <simpara>2008-09-22</simpara>
16527 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.17.
16528 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
16529 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
16533 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.18</title>
16536 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X.
16537 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6,
16538 see the release notes for 8.0.6.
16544 <title>Changes</title>
16550 Widen local lock counters from 32 to 64 bits (Tom)
16554 This responds to reports that the counters could overflow in
16555 sufficiently long transactions, leading to unexpected <quote>lock is
16556 already held</> errors.
16562 Add checks in executor startup to ensure that the tuples produced by an
16563 <command>INSERT</> or <command>UPDATE</> will match the target table's
16564 current rowtype (Tom)
16568 <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</>, followed by re-use of a previously
16569 cached plan, could produce this type of situation. The check protects
16570 against data corruption and/or crashes that could ensue.
16576 Fix datetime input functions to correctly detect integer overflow when
16577 running on a 64-bit platform (Tom)
16583 Improve performance of writing very long log messages to syslog (Tom)
16589 Fix bug in backwards scanning of a cursor on a <literal>SELECT DISTINCT
16596 Fix planner to estimate that <literal>GROUP BY</> expressions yielding
16597 boolean results always result in two groups, regardless of the
16598 expressions' contents (Tom)
16602 This is very substantially more accurate than the regular <literal>GROUP
16603 BY</> estimate for certain boolean tests like <replaceable>col</>
16604 <literal>IS NULL</>.
16610 Fix PL/Tcl to behave correctly with Tcl 8.5, and to be more careful
16611 about the encoding of data sent to or from Tcl (Tom)
16617 Fix PL/Python to work with Python 2.5
16621 This is a back-port of fixes made during the 8.2 development cycle.
16627 Improve <application>pg_dump</> and <application>pg_restore</>'s
16628 error reporting after failure to send a SQL command (Tom)
16634 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to properly preserve postmaster
16635 command-line arguments across a <literal>restart</> (Bruce)
16641 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008f (for
16642 DST law changes in Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Mauritius, Morocco,
16643 Pakistan, Palestine, and Paraguay)
16652 <sect1 id="release-8-0-17">
16653 <title>Release 8.0.17</title>
16656 <title>Release date</title>
16657 <simpara>2008-06-12</simpara>
16661 This release contains one serious bug fix over 8.0.16.
16662 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
16663 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
16667 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.17</title>
16670 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X.
16671 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6,
16672 see the release notes for 8.0.6.
16678 <title>Changes</title>
16684 Make <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> parenthesize negative constants (Tom)
16688 Before this fix, a negative constant in a view or rule might be dumped
16689 as, say, <literal>-42::integer</>, which is subtly incorrect: it should
16690 be <literal>(-42)::integer</> due to operator precedence rules.
16691 Usually this would make little difference, but it could interact with
16692 another recent patch to cause
16693 <productname>PostgreSQL</> to reject what had been a valid
16694 <command>SELECT DISTINCT</> view query. Since this could result in
16695 <application>pg_dump</> output failing to reload, it is being treated
16696 as a high-priority fix. The only released versions in which dump
16697 output is actually incorrect are 8.3.1 and 8.2.7.
16706 <sect1 id="release-8-0-16">
16707 <title>Release 8.0.16</title>
16710 <title>Release date</title>
16711 <simpara>never released</simpara>
16715 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.15.
16716 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
16717 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
16721 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.16</title>
16724 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X.
16725 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6,
16726 see the release notes for 8.0.6.
16732 <title>Changes</title>
16738 Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN ... PRIMARY KEY</> so that the new
16739 column is correctly checked to see if it's been initialized to all
16740 non-nulls (Brendan Jurd)
16744 Previous versions neglected to check this requirement at all.
16750 Fix possible <command>CREATE TABLE</> failure when inheriting the
16751 <quote>same</> constraint from multiple parent relations that
16752 inherited that constraint from a common ancestor (Tom)
16758 Fix conversions between ISO-8859-5 and other encodings to handle
16759 Cyrillic <quote>Yo</> characters (<literal>e</> and <literal>E</> with
16760 two dots) (Sergey Burladyan)
16766 Fix a few datatype input functions
16767 that were allowing unused bytes in their results to contain
16768 uninitialized, unpredictable values (Tom)
16772 This could lead to failures in which two apparently identical literal
16773 values were not seen as equal, resulting in the parser complaining
16774 about unmatched <literal>ORDER BY</> and <literal>DISTINCT</>
16781 Fix a corner case in regular-expression substring matching
16782 (<literal>substring(<replaceable>string</> from
16783 <replaceable>pattern</>)</literal>) (Tom)
16787 The problem occurs when there is a match to the pattern overall but
16788 the user has specified a parenthesized subexpression and that
16789 subexpression hasn't got a match. An example is
16790 <literal>substring('foo' from 'foo(bar)?')</>.
16791 This should return NULL, since <literal>(bar)</> isn't matched, but
16792 it was mistakenly returning the whole-pattern match instead (ie,
16799 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008c (for
16800 DST law changes in Morocco, Iraq, Choibalsan, Pakistan, Syria, Cuba,
16801 Argentina/San_Luis, and Chile)
16807 Fix incorrect result from <application>ecpg</>'s
16808 <function>PGTYPEStimestamp_sub()</> function (Michael)
16814 Fix core dump in <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s
16815 <function>xpath_table()</> function when the input query returns a
16822 Fix <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s makefile to not override
16823 <literal>CFLAGS</> (Tom)
16829 Fix <literal>DatumGetBool</> macro to not fail with <application>gcc</>
16834 This problem affects <quote>old style</> (V0) C functions that
16835 return boolean. The fix is already in 8.3, but the need to
16836 back-patch it was not realized at the time.
16842 Fix longstanding <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</>
16843 race condition (Tom)
16847 In rare cases a session that had just executed a
16848 <command>LISTEN</> might not get a notification, even though
16849 one would be expected because the concurrent transaction executing
16850 <command>NOTIFY</> was observed to commit later.
16854 A side effect of the fix is that a transaction that has executed
16855 a not-yet-committed <command>LISTEN</> command will not see any
16856 row in <structname>pg_listener</> for the <command>LISTEN</>,
16857 should it choose to look; formerly it would have. This behavior
16858 was never documented one way or the other, but it is possible that
16859 some applications depend on the old behavior.
16865 Fix rare crash when an error occurs during a query using a hash index
16872 Fix input of datetime values for February 29 in years BC (Tom)
16876 The former coding was mistaken about which years were leap years.
16882 Fix <quote>unrecognized node type</> error in some variants of
16883 <command>ALTER OWNER</> (Tom)
16889 Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to correctly extract the postmaster's port
16890 number from command-line options (Itagaki Takahiro, Tom)
16894 Previously, <literal>pg_ctl start -w</> could try to contact the
16895 postmaster on the wrong port, leading to bogus reports of startup
16902 Use <option>-fwrapv</> to defend against possible misoptimization
16903 in recent <application>gcc</> versions (Tom)
16907 This is known to be necessary when building <productname>PostgreSQL</>
16908 with <application>gcc</> 4.3 or later.
16914 Fix display of constant expressions in <literal>ORDER BY</>
16915 and <literal>GROUP BY</> (Tom)
16919 An explictly casted constant would be shown incorrectly. This could
16920 for example lead to corruption of a view definition during
16927 Fix <application>libpq</> to handle NOTICE messages correctly
16928 during COPY OUT (Tom)
16932 This failure has only been observed to occur when a user-defined
16933 datatype's output routine issues a NOTICE, but there is no
16934 guarantee it couldn't happen due to other causes.
16943 <sect1 id="release-8-0-15">
16944 <title>Release 8.0.15</title>
16947 <title>Release date</title>
16948 <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara>
16952 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.14,
16953 including fixes for significant security issues.
16954 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
16955 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
16959 This is the last 8.0.X release for which the <productname>PostgreSQL</>
16960 community will produce binary packages for <productname>Windows</>.
16961 Windows users are encouraged to move to 8.2.X or later,
16962 since there are Windows-specific fixes in 8.2.X that
16963 are impractical to back-port. 8.0.X will continue to
16964 be supported on other platforms.
16968 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.15</title>
16971 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
16972 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
16979 <title>Changes</title>
16985 Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of
16986 the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom)
16990 Functions used in index expressions and partial-index
16991 predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has
16992 long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code
16993 execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user.
16994 (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the
16995 same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger
16996 because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations
16997 such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed
16998 automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user
16999 can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a
17000 trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum.
17001 The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations
17002 (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>,
17003 and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than
17004 the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already
17005 used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing
17006 this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION
17007 AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a
17008 <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600)
17014 Repair assorted bugs in the regular-expression package (Tom, Will Drewry)
17018 Suitably crafted regular-expression patterns could cause crashes,
17019 infinite or near-infinite looping, and/or massive memory consumption,
17020 all of which pose denial-of-service hazards for applications that
17021 accept regex search patterns from untrustworthy sources.
17022 (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)
17028 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
17029 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
17033 The fix that appeared for this in 8.0.14 was incomplete, as it plugged
17034 the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601,
17041 Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2007k
17042 (in particular, recent Argentina changes) (Tom)
17048 Fix planner failure in some cases of <literal>WHERE false AND var IN
17049 (SELECT ...)</> (Tom)
17055 Preserve the tablespace of indexes that are
17056 rebuilt by <command>ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> (Tom)
17062 Make archive recovery always start a new WAL timeline, rather than only
17063 when a recovery stop time was used (Simon)
17067 This avoids a corner-case risk of trying to overwrite an existing
17068 archived copy of the last WAL segment, and seems simpler and cleaner
17069 than the original definition.
17075 Make <command>VACUUM</> not use all of <varname>maintenance_work_mem</>
17076 when the table is too small for it to be useful (Alvaro)
17082 Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte
17083 database encoding (Tom)
17089 Fix PL/Perl to cope when platform's Perl defines type <literal>bool</>
17090 as <literal>int</> rather than <literal>char</> (Tom)
17094 While this could theoretically happen anywhere, no standard build of
17095 Perl did things this way ... until <productname>Mac OS X</> 10.5.
17101 Fix PL/Python to not crash on long exception messages (Alvaro)
17107 Fix <application>pg_dump</> to correctly handle inheritance child tables
17108 that have default expressions different from their parent's (Tom)
17114 <application>ecpg</> parser fixes (Michael)
17120 Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle
17121 NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe)
17127 Fix <type>tsvector</> and <type>tsquery</> output routines to
17128 escape backslashes correctly (Teodor, Bruce)
17134 Fix crash of <function>to_tsvector()</> on huge input strings (Teodor)
17140 Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used
17141 when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter)
17145 This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made
17146 to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of
17147 <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions.
17148 You can remove the version check if you really want to use a
17149 different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's
17150 your responsibility whether the result works or not.
17159 <sect1 id="release-8-0-14">
17160 <title>Release 8.0.14</title>
17163 <title>Release date</title>
17164 <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
17168 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.13.
17169 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17170 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17174 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.14</title>
17177 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17178 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17185 <title>Changes</title>
17191 Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
17192 then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
17193 on the same table (Tom)
17199 Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
17205 Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
17211 Fix logging so that log messages are never interleaved when using
17212 the syslogger process (Andrew)
17218 Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
17225 Fix incorrect handling of some foreign-key corner cases (Tom)
17231 Prevent <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
17232 due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
17238 Update the time zone database rules, particularly New Zealand's upcoming changes (Tom)
17244 Windows socket improvements (Magnus)
17250 Suppress timezone name (<literal>%Z</>) in log timestamps on Windows
17251 because of possible encoding mismatches (Tom)
17257 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
17258 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
17267 <sect1 id="release-8-0-13">
17268 <title>Release 8.0.13</title>
17271 <title>Release date</title>
17272 <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
17276 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.12,
17277 including a security fix.
17278 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17279 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17283 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.13</title>
17286 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17287 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17294 <title>Changes</title>
17300 Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
17301 <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
17302 and operators (Tom)
17305 This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
17306 truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
17307 an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
17308 with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
17309 See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
17315 <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
17321 Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
17322 <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
17328 Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 8.0.10)
17335 Fix POSIX-style timezone specs to follow new USA DST rules (Tom)
17344 <sect1 id="release-8-0-12">
17345 <title>Release 8.0.12</title>
17348 <title>Release date</title>
17349 <simpara>2007-02-07</simpara>
17353 This release contains one fix from 8.0.11.
17354 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17355 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17359 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.12</title>
17362 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17363 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17370 <title>Changes</title>
17376 Remove overly-restrictive check for type length in constraints and
17377 functional indexes(Tom)
17386 <sect1 id="release-8-0-11">
17387 <title>Release 8.0.11</title>
17390 <title>Release date</title>
17391 <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
17395 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.10, including
17397 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17398 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17402 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.11</title>
17405 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17406 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17413 <title>Changes</title>
17419 Remove security vulnerabilities that allowed connected users
17420 to read backend memory (Tom)
17423 The vulnerabilities involve suppressing the normal check that a SQL
17424 function returns the data type it's declared to, and changing the
17425 data type of a table column (CVE-2007-0555, CVE-2007-0556). These
17426 errors can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
17427 principle might be used to read database content that the user
17428 should not be able to access.
17434 Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
17435 due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
17441 Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
17447 Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
17448 over three bytes long (Tom)
17457 <sect1 id="release-8-0-10">
17458 <title>Release 8.0.10</title>
17461 <title>Release date</title>
17462 <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
17466 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.9.
17467 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17468 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17472 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.10</title>
17475 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17476 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17483 <title>Changes</title>
17489 Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom)
17493 This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector,
17494 among other things.
17500 Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
17501 <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
17507 Fix race condition for truncation of a large relation across a
17508 gigabyte boundary by <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
17514 Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
17520 Fix possible deadlock in Windows signal handling (Teodor)
17526 Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple
17527 empty elements (Tom)
17533 Fix ecpg memory leak during connection (Michael)
17539 <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
17540 are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
17541 new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
17545 This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
17546 change the output of these functions.
17552 Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
17556 This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
17562 Update timezone database
17566 This affects Australian and Canadian daylight-savings rules in
17576 <sect1 id="release-8-0-9">
17577 <title>Release 8.0.9</title>
17580 <title>Release date</title>
17581 <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
17585 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.8.
17586 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17587 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17591 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.9</title>
17594 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17595 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17602 <title>Changes</title>
17605 <listitem><para>Fix crash when referencing <literal>NEW</> row
17606 values in rule WHERE expressions (Tom)</para></listitem>
17607 <listitem><para>Fix core dump when an untyped literal is taken as
17608 ANYARRAY</para></listitem>
17609 <listitem><para>Fix mishandling of AFTER triggers when query contains a SQL
17610 function returning multiple rows (Tom)</para></listitem>
17611 <listitem><para>Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ... TYPE</> to recheck
17612 <literal>NOT NULL</> for <literal>USING</> clause (Tom)</para></listitem>
17613 <listitem><para>Fix <function>string_to_array()</> to handle overlapping
17614 matches for the separator string</para>
17615 <para>For example, <literal>string_to_array('123xx456xxx789', 'xx')</>.
17617 <listitem><para>Fix corner cases in pattern matching for
17618 <application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
17619 <listitem><para>Fix index-corrupting bugs in /contrib/ltree
17620 (Teodor)</para></listitem>
17621 <listitem><para>Numerous robustness fixes in <application>ecpg</> (Joachim
17622 Wieland)</para></listitem>
17623 <listitem><para>Fix backslash escaping in /contrib/dbmirror</para></listitem>
17624 <listitem><para>Fix instability of statistics collection on Win32 (Tom, Andrew)</para></listitem>
17625 <listitem><para>Fixes for <systemitem class="osname">AIX</> and
17626 <productname>Intel</> compilers (Tom)</para></listitem>
17632 <sect1 id="release-8-0-8">
17633 <title>Release 8.0.8</title>
17636 <title>Release date</title>
17637 <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
17641 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.7,
17642 including patches for extremely serious security issues.
17643 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17644 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17648 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.8</title>
17651 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17652 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17657 Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
17658 CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
17659 code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
17660 into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
17661 ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
17662 most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
17663 libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
17664 <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
17665 rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
17670 <title>Changes</title>
17673 <listitem><para>Change the server to reject invalidly-encoded multibyte
17674 characters in all cases (Tatsuo, Tom)</para>
17675 <para>While <productname>PostgreSQL</> has been moving in this direction for
17676 some time, the checks are now applied uniformly to all encodings and all
17677 textual input, and are now always errors not merely warnings. This change
17678 defends against SQL-injection attacks of the type described in CVE-2006-2313.
17681 <listitem><para>Reject unsafe uses of <literal>\'</> in string literals</para>
17682 <para>As a server-side defense against SQL-injection attacks of the type
17683 described in CVE-2006-2314, the server now only accepts <literal>''</> and not
17684 <literal>\'</> as a representation of ASCII single quote in SQL string
17685 literals. By default, <literal>\'</> is rejected only when
17686 <varname>client_encoding</> is set to a client-only encoding (SJIS, BIG5, GBK,
17687 GB18030, or UHC), which is the scenario in which SQL injection is possible.
17688 A new configuration parameter <varname>backslash_quote</> is available to
17689 adjust this behavior when needed. Note that full security against
17690 CVE-2006-2314 might require client-side changes; the purpose of
17691 <varname>backslash_quote</> is in part to make it obvious that insecure
17692 clients are insecure.
17695 <listitem><para>Modify <application>libpq</>'s string-escaping routines to be
17696 aware of encoding considerations and
17697 <varname>standard_conforming_strings</></para>
17698 <para>This fixes <application>libpq</>-using applications for the security
17699 issues described in CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314, and also future-proofs
17700 them against the planned changeover to SQL-standard string literal syntax.
17701 Applications that use multiple <productname>PostgreSQL</> connections
17702 concurrently should migrate to <function>PQescapeStringConn()</> and
17703 <function>PQescapeByteaConn()</> to ensure that escaping is done correctly
17704 for the settings in use in each database connection. Applications that
17705 do string escaping <quote>by hand</> should be modified to rely on library
17709 <listitem><para>Fix some incorrect encoding conversion functions</para>
17710 <para><function>win1251_to_iso</>, <function>alt_to_iso</>,
17711 <function>euc_tw_to_big5</>, <function>euc_tw_to_mic</>,
17712 <function>mic_to_euc_tw</> were all broken to varying
17716 <listitem><para>Clean up stray remaining uses of <literal>\'</> in strings
17717 (Bruce, Jan)</para></listitem>
17719 <listitem><para>Fix bug that sometimes caused OR'd index scans to
17720 miss rows they should have returned</para></listitem>
17722 <listitem><para>Fix WAL replay for case where a btree index has been
17723 truncated</para></listitem>
17725 <listitem><para>Fix <literal>SIMILAR TO</> for patterns involving
17726 <literal>|</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
17728 <listitem><para>Fix <command>SELECT INTO</> and <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> to
17729 create tables in the default tablespace, not the base directory (Kris
17730 Jurka)</para></listitem>
17732 <listitem><para>Fix server to use custom DH SSL parameters correctly (Michael
17733 Fuhr)</para></listitem>
17735 <listitem><para>Fix for Bonjour on Intel Macs (Ashley Clark)</para></listitem>
17737 <listitem><para>Fix various minor memory leaks</para></listitem>
17739 <listitem><para>Fix problem with password prompting on some Win32 systems
17740 (Robert Kinberg)</para></listitem>
17746 <sect1 id="release-8-0-7">
17747 <title>Release 8.0.7</title>
17750 <title>Release date</title>
17751 <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
17755 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.6.
17756 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17757 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17761 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.7</title>
17764 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17765 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.6, see the release
17771 <title>Changes</title>
17775 <listitem><para>Fix potential crash in <command>SET
17776 SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> (CVE-2006-0553)</para>
17777 <para>An unprivileged user could crash the server process, resulting in
17778 momentary denial of service to other users, if the server has been compiled
17779 with Asserts enabled (which is not the default).
17780 Thanks to Akio Ishida for reporting this problem.
17783 <listitem><para>Fix bug with row visibility logic in self-inserted
17785 <para>Under rare circumstances a row inserted by the current command
17786 could be seen as already valid, when it should not be. Repairs bug
17787 created in 8.0.4, 7.4.9, and 7.3.11 releases.
17790 <listitem><para>Fix race condition that could lead to <quote>file already
17791 exists</> errors during pg_clog and pg_subtrans file creation
17792 (Tom)</para></listitem>
17794 <listitem><para>Fix cases that could lead to crashes if a cache-invalidation
17795 message arrives at just the wrong time (Tom)</para></listitem>
17797 <listitem><para>Properly check <literal>DOMAIN</> constraints for
17798 <literal>UNKNOWN</> parameters in prepared statements
17799 (Neil)</para></listitem>
17801 <listitem><para>Ensure <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> will process
17802 <literal>FOREIGN KEY</>, <literal>UNIQUE</>, and <literal>PRIMARY KEY</>
17803 constraints in the proper order (Nakano Yoshihisa)</para></listitem>
17805 <listitem><para>Fixes to allow restoring dumps that have cross-schema
17806 references to custom operators or operator classes (Tom)</para></listitem>
17808 <listitem><para>Allow <application>pg_restore</> to continue properly after a
17809 <command>COPY</> failure; formerly it tried to treat the remaining
17810 <command>COPY</> data as SQL commands (Stephen Frost)</para></listitem>
17812 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_ctl</> <literal>unregister</> crash
17813 when the data directory is not specified (Magnus)</para></listitem>
17815 <listitem><para>Fix <application>ecpg</> crash on AMD64 and PPC
17816 (Neil)</para></listitem>
17818 <listitem><para>Recover properly if error occurs during argument passing
17819 in <application>PL/python</> (Neil)</para></listitem>
17821 <listitem><para>Fix <application>PL/perl</>'s handling of locales on
17822 Win32 to match the backend (Andrew)</para></listitem>
17824 <listitem><para>Fix crash when <literal>log_min_messages</> is set to
17825 <literal>DEBUG3</> or above in <filename>postgresql.conf</> on Win32
17826 (Bruce)</para></listitem>
17828 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pgxs</> <literal>-L</> library path
17829 specification for Win32, Cygwin, OS X, AIX (Bruce)</para></listitem>
17831 <listitem><para>Check that SID is enabled while checking for Win32 admin
17832 privileges (Magnus)</para></listitem>
17834 <listitem><para>Properly reject out-of-range date inputs (Kris
17835 Jurka)</para></listitem>
17837 <listitem><para>Portability fix for testing presence of <function>finite</>
17838 and <function>isinf</> during configure (Tom)</para></listitem>
17845 <sect1 id="release-8-0-6">
17846 <title>Release 8.0.6</title>
17849 <title>Release date</title>
17850 <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
17854 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.5.
17855 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17856 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17860 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.6</title>
17863 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17864 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
17866 Also, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
17867 columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
17868 <application>plperl</> issues described below.
17873 <title>Changes</title>
17877 <listitem><para>Fix Windows code so that postmaster will continue rather
17878 than exit if there is no more room in ShmemBackendArray (Magnus)</para>
17879 <para>The previous behavior could lead to a denial-of-service situation if too
17880 many connection requests arrive close together. This applies
17881 <emphasis>only</> to the Windows port.</para></listitem>
17883 <listitem><para>Fix bug introduced in 8.0 that could allow ReadBuffer
17884 to return an already-used page as new, potentially causing loss of
17885 recently-committed data (Tom)</para></listitem>
17887 <listitem><para>Fix for protocol-level Describe messages issued
17888 outside a transaction or in a failed transaction (Tom)</para></listitem>
17890 <listitem><para>Fix character string comparison for locales that consider
17891 different character combinations as equal, such as Hungarian (Tom)</para>
17892 <para>This might require <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
17893 textual columns.</para></listitem>
17895 <listitem><para>Set locale environment variables during postmaster startup
17896 to ensure that <application>plperl</> won't change the locale later</para>
17897 <para>This fixes a problem that occurred if the <application>postmaster</> was
17898 started with environment variables specifying a different locale than what
17899 <application>initdb</> had been told. Under these conditions, any use of
17900 <application>plperl</> was likely to lead to corrupt indexes. You might need
17901 <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
17902 textual columns if this has happened to you.</para></listitem>
17904 <listitem><para>Allow more flexible relocation of installation
17905 directories (Tom)</para>
17906 <para>Previous releases supported relocation only if all installation
17907 directory paths were the same except for the last component.</para></listitem>
17909 <listitem><para>Fix longstanding bug in strpos() and regular expression
17910 handling in certain rarely used Asian multi-byte character sets (Tatsuo)
17913 <listitem><para>Various fixes for functions returning <literal>RECORD</>s
17914 (Tom) </para></listitem>
17916 <listitem><para>Fix bug in <filename>/contrib/pgcrypto</> gen_salt,
17917 which caused it not to use all available salt space for MD5 and
17918 XDES algorithms (Marko Kreen, Solar Designer)</para>
17919 <para>Salts for Blowfish and standard DES are unaffected.</para></listitem>
17921 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to throw an error,
17922 rather than crashing, when the number of columns specified is different from
17923 what's actually returned by the query (Joe)</para></listitem>
17930 <sect1 id="release-8-0-5">
17931 <title>Release 8.0.5</title>
17934 <title>Release date</title>
17935 <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
17939 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.4.
17940 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
17941 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
17945 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.5</title>
17948 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
17949 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
17955 <title>Changes</title>
17959 <listitem><para>Fix race condition in transaction log management</para>
17960 <para>There was a narrow window in which an I/O operation could be initiated
17961 for the wrong page, leading to an Assert failure or data
17965 <listitem><para>Fix bgwriter problems after recovering from errors
17968 The background writer was found to leak buffer pins after write errors.
17969 While not fatal in itself, this might lead to mysterious blockages of
17970 later VACUUM commands.
17974 <listitem><para>Prevent failure if client sends Bind protocol message
17975 when current transaction is already aborted</para></listitem>
17977 <listitem><para><filename>/contrib/ltree</> fixes (Teodor)</para></listitem>
17979 <listitem><para>AIX and HPUX compile fixes (Tom)</para></listitem>
17981 <listitem><para>Retry file reads and writes after Windows
17982 NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES error (Qingqing Zhou)</para></listitem>
17984 <listitem><para>Fix intermittent failure when <varname>log_line_prefix</>
17985 includes <literal>%i</></para></listitem>
17987 <listitem><para>Fix <application>psql</> performance issue with long scripts
17988 on Windows (Merlin Moncure)</para></listitem>
17990 <listitem><para>Fix missing updates of <filename>pg_group</> flat
17991 file</para></listitem>
17993 <listitem><para>Fix longstanding planning error for outer joins</para>
17994 <para>This bug sometimes caused a bogus error <quote>RIGHT JOIN is
17995 only supported with merge-joinable join conditions</>.</para></listitem>
17997 <listitem><para>Postpone timezone initialization until after
17998 <filename>postmaster.pid</> is created</para>
17999 <para>This avoids confusing startup scripts that expect the pid file to appear
18000 quickly.</para></listitem>
18002 <listitem><para>Prevent core dump in <application>pg_autovacuum</> when a
18003 table has been dropped</para></listitem>
18005 <listitem><para>Fix problems with whole-row references (<literal>foo.*</>)
18006 to subquery results</para></listitem>
18012 <sect1 id="release-8-0-4">
18013 <title>Release 8.0.4</title>
18016 <title>Release date</title>
18017 <simpara>2005-10-04</simpara>
18021 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.3.
18022 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
18023 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
18027 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.4</title>
18030 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
18031 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.0.3, see the release
18037 <title>Changes</title>
18040 <listitem><para>Fix error that allowed <command>VACUUM</> to remove
18041 <literal>ctid</> chains too soon, and add more checking in code that follows
18042 <literal>ctid</> links</para>
18043 <para>This fixes a long-standing problem that could cause crashes in very rare
18044 circumstances.</para></listitem>
18045 <listitem><para>Fix <type>CHAR()</> to properly pad spaces to the specified
18046 length when using a multiple-byte character set (Yoshiyuki Asaba)</para>
18047 <para>In prior releases, the padding of <type>CHAR()</> was incorrect
18048 because it only padded to the specified number of bytes without
18049 considering how many characters were stored.</para></listitem>
18050 <listitem><para>Force a checkpoint before committing <command>CREATE
18052 <para>This should fix recent reports of <quote>index is not a btree</>
18053 failures when a crash occurs shortly after <command>CREATE
18054 DATABASE</>.</para></listitem>
18055 <listitem><para>Fix the sense of the test for read-only transaction
18056 in <command>COPY</></para>
18057 <para>The code formerly prohibited <command>COPY TO</>, where it should
18058 prohibit <command>COPY FROM</>.
18060 <listitem><para>Handle consecutive embedded newlines in <command>COPY</>
18061 CSV-mode input</para></listitem>
18062 <listitem><para>Fix <function>date_trunc(week)</> for dates near year
18063 end</para></listitem>
18064 <listitem><para>Fix planning problem with outer-join ON clauses that reference
18065 only the inner-side relation</para></listitem>
18066 <listitem><para>Further fixes for <literal>x FULL JOIN y ON true</> corner
18067 cases</para></listitem>
18068 <listitem><para>Fix overenthusiastic optimization of <literal>x IN (SELECT
18069 DISTINCT ...)</> and related cases</para></listitem>
18070 <listitem><para>Fix mis-planning of queries with small <literal>LIMIT</>
18071 values due to poorly thought out <quote>fuzzy</> cost
18072 comparison</para></listitem>
18073 <listitem><para>Make <function>array_in</> and <function>array_recv</> more
18074 paranoid about validating their OID parameter</para></listitem>
18075 <listitem><para>Fix missing rows in queries like <literal>UPDATE a=... WHERE
18076 a...</> with GiST index on column <literal>a</></para></listitem>
18077 <listitem><para>Improve robustness of datetime parsing</para></listitem>
18078 <listitem><para>Improve checking for partially-written WAL
18079 pages</para></listitem>
18080 <listitem><para>Improve robustness of signal handling when SSL is
18081 enabled</para></listitem>
18082 <listitem><para>Improve MIPS and M68K spinlock code</para></listitem>
18083 <listitem><para>Don't try to open more than <literal>max_files_per_process</>
18084 files during postmaster startup</para></listitem>
18085 <listitem><para>Various memory leakage fixes</para></listitem>
18086 <listitem><para>Various portability improvements</para></listitem>
18087 <listitem><para>Update timezone data files</para></listitem>
18088 <listitem><para>Improve handling of DLL load failures on Windows</para></listitem>
18089 <listitem><para>Improve random-number generation on Windows</para></listitem>
18090 <listitem><para>Make <literal>psql -f filename</> return a nonzero exit code
18091 when opening the file fails</para></listitem>
18092 <listitem><para>Change <application>pg_dump</> to handle inherited check
18093 constraints more reliably</para></listitem>
18094 <listitem><para>Fix password prompting in <application>pg_restore</> on
18095 Windows</para></listitem>
18096 <listitem><para>Fix PL/PgSQL to handle <literal>var := var</> correctly when
18097 the variable is of pass-by-reference type</para></listitem>
18098 <listitem><para>Fix PL/Perl <literal>%_SHARED</> so it's actually
18099 shared</para></listitem>
18100 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>contrib/pg_autovacuum</> to allow sleep
18101 intervals over 2000 sec</para></listitem>
18102 <listitem><para>Update <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> to use current Snowball
18103 code</para></listitem>
18109 <sect1 id="release-8-0-3">
18110 <title>Release 8.0.3</title>
18113 <title>Release date</title>
18114 <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
18118 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.2, including several
18119 security-related issues.
18120 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
18121 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
18125 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.3</title>
18128 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.X. However,
18129 it is one possible way of handling two significant security problems
18130 that have been found in the initial contents of 8.0.X system
18131 catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 8.0.3's initdb will
18132 automatically correct these problems.
18136 The larger security problem is that the built-in character set encoding
18137 conversion functions can be invoked from SQL commands by unprivileged
18138 users, but the functions were not designed for such use and are not
18139 secure against malicious choices of arguments. The fix involves changing
18140 the declared parameter list of these functions so that they can no longer
18141 be invoked from SQL commands. (This does not affect their normal use
18142 by the encoding conversion machinery.)
18146 The lesser problem is that the <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> module
18147 creates several functions that are improperly declared to return
18148 <type>internal</> when they do not accept <type>internal</> arguments.
18149 This breaks type safety for all functions using <type>internal</>
18154 It is strongly recommended that all installations repair these errors,
18155 either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedure given
18156 below. The errors at least allow unprivileged database users to crash
18157 their server process, and might allow unprivileged users to gain the
18158 privileges of a database superuser.
18162 If you wish not to do an initdb, perform the same manual repair
18163 procedures shown in the <link linkend="release-7-4-8">7.4.8 release
18169 <title>Changes</title>
18172 <listitem><para>Change encoding function signature to prevent
18173 misuse</para></listitem>
18174 <listitem><para>Change <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> to avoid unsafe use of
18175 <type>INTERNAL</> function results</para></listitem>
18176 <listitem><para>Guard against incorrect second parameter to
18177 <function>record_out</></para></listitem>
18178 <listitem><para>Repair ancient race condition that allowed a transaction to be
18179 seen as committed for some purposes (eg SELECT FOR UPDATE) slightly sooner
18180 than for other purposes</para>
18181 <para>This is an extremely serious bug since it could lead to apparent
18182 data inconsistencies being briefly visible to applications.</para></listitem>
18183 <listitem><para>Repair race condition between relation extension and
18185 <para>This could theoretically have caused loss of a page's worth of
18186 freshly-inserted data, although the scenario seems of very low probability.
18187 There are no known cases of it having caused more than an Assert failure.
18189 <listitem><para>Fix comparisons of <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> values</para>
18191 The comparison code was wrong in the case where the
18192 <literal>--enable-integer-datetimes</> configuration switch had been used.
18193 NOTE: if you have an index on a <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> column,
18194 it will need to be <command>REINDEX</>ed after installing this update, because
18195 the fix corrects the sort order of column values.
18197 <listitem><para>Fix <function>EXTRACT(EPOCH)</> for
18198 <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> values</para></listitem>
18199 <listitem><para>Fix mis-display of negative fractional seconds in
18200 <type>INTERVAL</> values</para>
18202 This error only occurred when the
18203 <literal>--enable-integer-datetimes</> configuration switch had been used.
18205 <listitem><para>Fix pg_dump to dump trigger names containing <literal>%</>
18206 correctly (Neil)</para></listitem>
18207 <listitem><para>Still more 64-bit fixes for
18208 <filename>contrib/intagg</></para></listitem>
18209 <listitem><para>Prevent incorrect optimization of functions returning
18210 <type>RECORD</></para></listitem>
18211 <listitem><para>Prevent crash on <literal>COALESCE(NULL,NULL)</></para></listitem>
18212 <listitem><para>Fix Borland makefile for libpq</para></listitem>
18213 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>contrib/btree_gist</> for <type>timetz</> type
18214 (Teodor)</para></listitem>
18215 <listitem><para>Make <command>pg_ctl</> check the PID found in
18216 <filename>postmaster.pid</> to see if it is still a live
18217 process</para></listitem>
18218 <listitem><para>Fix <command>pg_dump</>/<command>pg_restore</> problems caused
18219 by addition of dump timestamps</para></listitem>
18220 <listitem><para>Fix interaction between materializing holdable cursors and
18221 firing deferred triggers during transaction commit</para></listitem>
18222 <listitem><para>Fix memory leak in SQL functions returning pass-by-reference
18223 data types</para></listitem>
18229 <sect1 id="release-8-0-2">
18230 <title>Release 8.0.2</title>
18233 <title>Release date</title>
18234 <simpara>2005-04-07</simpara>
18238 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.1.
18239 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
18240 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
18244 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.2</title>
18247 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.*.
18248 This release updates the major version number of the
18249 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> libraries, so it might be
18250 necessary to re-link some user applications if they cannot
18251 find the properly-numbered shared library.
18256 <title>Changes</title>
18259 <listitem><para>Increment the major version number of all interface
18260 libraries (Bruce)</para>
18262 This should have been done in 8.0.0. It is required so 7.4.X versions
18263 of PostgreSQL client applications, like <application>psql</>,
18264 can be used on the same machine as 8.0.X applications. This might require
18265 re-linking user applications that use these libraries.
18267 <listitem><para>Add Windows-only <varname>wal_sync_method</> setting of
18268 <option>fsync_writethrough</> (Magnus, Bruce)</para>
18270 This setting causes <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> to write through
18271 any disk-drive write cache when writing to WAL.
18272 This behavior was formerly called <option>fsync</>, but was
18273 renamed because it acts quite differently from <option>fsync</> on other
18277 <listitem><para>Enable the <varname>wal_sync_method</> setting of
18278 <option>open_datasync</> on Windows, and make it the default for that
18279 platform (Magnus, Bruce)</para>
18281 Because the default is no longer <option>fsync_writethrough</>,
18282 data loss is possible during a power failure if the disk drive has
18283 write caching enabled. To turn off the write cache on Windows,
18284 from the <application>Device Manager</>, choose the drive properties,
18285 then <literal>Policies</>.
18288 <listitem><para>New cache management algorithm <acronym>2Q</> replaces
18289 <acronym>ARC</> (Tom)</para>
18291 This was done to avoid a pending US patent on <acronym>ARC</>. The
18292 <acronym>2Q</> code might be a few percentage points slower than
18293 <acronym>ARC</> for some work loads. A better cache management algorithm
18294 will appear in 8.1.
18296 <listitem><para>Planner adjustments to improve behavior on freshly-created
18297 tables (Tom)</para></listitem>
18298 <listitem><para>Allow plpgsql to assign to an element of an array that is
18299 initially <literal>NULL</> (Tom)</para>
18301 Formerly the array would remain <literal>NULL</>, but now it becomes a
18302 single-element array. The main SQL engine was changed to handle
18303 <command>UPDATE</> of a null array value this way in 8.0, but the similar
18304 case in plpgsql was overlooked.
18307 <listitem><para>Convert <literal>\r\n</> and <literal>\r</> to <literal>\n</>
18308 in plpython function bodies (Michael Fuhr)</para>
18310 This prevents syntax errors when plpython code is written on a Windows or
18314 <listitem><para>Allow SPI cursors to handle utility commands that return rows,
18315 such as <command>EXPLAIN</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
18316 <listitem><para>Fix <command>CLUSTER</> failure after <command>ALTER TABLE
18317 SET WITHOUT OIDS</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
18318 <listitem><para>Reduce memory usage of <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN</>
18319 (Neil)</para></listitem>
18320 <listitem><para>Fix <command>ALTER LANGUAGE RENAME</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
18321 <listitem><para>Document the Windows-only <literal>register</> and
18322 <literal>unregister</> options of <application>pg_ctl</> (Magnus)</para></listitem>
18323 <listitem><para>Ensure operations done during backend shutdown are counted by
18324 statistics collector</para>
18326 This is expected to resolve reports of <application>pg_autovacuum</>
18327 not vacuuming the system catalogs often enough — it was not being
18328 told about catalog deletions caused by temporary table removal during
18331 <listitem><para>Change the Windows default for configuration parameter
18332 <varname>log_destination</> to <option>eventlog</> (Magnus)</para>
18334 By default, a server running on Windows will now send log output to the
18335 Windows event logger rather than standard error.
18337 <listitem><para>Make Kerberos authentication work on Windows (Magnus)</para></listitem>
18338 <listitem><para>Allow <command>ALTER DATABASE RENAME</> by superusers
18339 who aren't flagged as having CREATEDB privilege (Tom)</para></listitem>
18340 <listitem><para>Modify WAL log entries for <command>CREATE</> and
18341 <command>DROP DATABASE</> to not specify absolute paths (Tom)</para>
18342 <para>This allows point-in-time recovery on a different machine with possibly
18343 different database location. Note that <command>CREATE TABLESPACE</> still
18344 poses a hazard in such situations.
18346 <listitem><para>Fix crash from a backend exiting with an open transaction
18347 that created a table and opened a cursor on it (Tom)</para></listitem>
18348 <listitem><para>Fix <function>array_map()</> so it can call PL functions
18349 (Tom)</para></listitem>
18350 <listitem><para>Several <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> and
18351 <filename>contrib/btree_gist</> fixes (Teodor)
18353 <listitem><para>Fix crash of some <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</>
18354 functions on some platforms (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
18355 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>contrib/intagg</> for 64-bit platforms
18356 (Tom)</para></listitem>
18357 <listitem><para>Fix ecpg bugs in parsing of <command>CREATE</> statement
18358 (Michael)</para></listitem>
18359 <listitem><para>Work around gcc bug on powerpc and amd64 causing problems in
18360 ecpg (Christof Petig)</para></listitem>
18361 <listitem><para>Do not use locale-aware versions of <function>upper()</>,
18362 <function>lower()</>, and <function>initcap()</> when the locale is
18363 <literal>C</> (Bruce)</para>
18365 This allows these functions to work on platforms that generate errors
18366 for non-7-bit data when the locale is <literal>C</>.
18368 <listitem><para>Fix <function>quote_ident()</> to quote names that match keywords (Tom)</para></listitem>
18369 <listitem><para>Fix <function>to_date()</> to behave reasonably when
18370 <literal>CC</> and <literal>YY</> fields are both used (Karel)</para></listitem>
18371 <listitem><para>Prevent <function>to_char(interval)</> from failing
18372 when given a zero-month interval (Tom)</para></listitem>
18373 <listitem><para>Fix wrong week returned by <function>date_trunc('week')</>
18376 <function>date_trunc('week')</>
18377 returned the wrong year for the first few days of January in some years.
18379 <listitem><para>Use the correct default mask length for class <literal>D</>
18380 addresses in <type>INET</> data types (Tom)</para></listitem>
18386 <sect1 id="release-8-0-1">
18387 <title>Release 8.0.1</title>
18390 <title>Release date</title>
18391 <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
18395 This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.0.0, including several
18396 security-related issues.
18397 For information about new features in the 8.0 major release, see
18398 <xref linkend="release-8-0">.
18402 <title>Migration to Version 8.0.1</title>
18405 A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.0.0.
18410 <title>Changes</title>
18413 <listitem><para>Disallow <command>LOAD</> to non-superusers</para>
18415 On platforms that will automatically execute initialization functions of a
18416 shared library (this includes at least Windows and ELF-based Unixen),
18417 <command>LOAD</> can be used to make the server execute arbitrary code.
18418 Thanks to NGS Software for reporting this.</para></listitem>
18419 <listitem><para>Check that creator of an aggregate function has the right to
18420 execute the specified transition functions</para>
18422 This oversight made it possible to bypass denial of EXECUTE
18423 permission on a function.</para></listitem>
18424 <listitem><para>Fix security and 64-bit issues in
18425 contrib/intagg</para></listitem>
18426 <listitem><para>Add needed STRICT marking to some contrib functions (Kris
18427 Jurka)</para></listitem>
18428 <listitem><para>Avoid buffer overrun when plpgsql cursor declaration has too
18429 many parameters (Neil)</para></listitem>
18430 <listitem><para>Make <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN</> enforce domain
18431 constraints in all cases</para></listitem>
18432 <listitem><para>Fix planning error for FULL and RIGHT outer joins</para>
18434 The result of the join was mistakenly supposed to be sorted the same as the
18435 left input. This could not only deliver mis-sorted output to the user, but
18436 in case of nested merge joins could give outright wrong answers.
18438 <listitem><para>Improve planning of grouped aggregate queries</para></listitem>
18439 <listitem><para><command>ROLLBACK TO <replaceable>savepoint</></command>
18440 closes cursors created since the savepoint</para></listitem>
18441 <listitem><para>Fix inadequate backend stack size on Windows</para></listitem>
18442 <listitem><para>Avoid SHGetSpecialFolderPath() on Windows
18443 (Magnus)</para></listitem>
18444 <listitem><para>Fix some problems in running pg_autovacuum as a Windows
18445 service (Dave Page)</para></listitem>
18446 <listitem><para>Multiple minor bug fixes in
18447 pg_dump/pg_restore</para></listitem>
18448 <listitem><para>Fix ecpg segfault with named structs used in
18449 typedefs (Michael)</para></listitem>
18455 <sect1 id="release-8-0">
18456 <title>Release 8.0</title>
18459 <title>Release date</title>
18460 <simpara>2005-01-19</simpara>
18464 <title>Overview</title>
18467 Major changes in this release:
18473 Microsoft Windows Native Server
18478 This is the first <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> release
18479 to run natively on <trademark class="registered">Microsoft Windows</> as
18480 a server. It can run as a <productname>Windows</> service. This
18481 release supports NT-based Windows releases like
18482 <productname>Windows 2000 SP4</>, <productname>Windows XP</>, and
18483 <productname>Windows 2003</>. Older releases like
18484 <productname>Windows 95</>, <productname>Windows 98</>, and
18485 <productname>Windows ME</> are not supported because these operating
18486 systems do not have the infrastructure to support
18487 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>. A separate installer
18488 project has been created to ease installation on
18489 <productname>Windows</> — see <ulink
18490 url="http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/win32/"></ulink>.
18494 Although tested throughout our release cycle, the Windows port
18495 does not have the benefit of years of use in production
18496 environments that <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> has on
18497 Unix platforms. Therefore it should be treated with the same
18498 level of caution as you would a new product.
18502 Previous releases required the Unix emulation toolkit
18503 <productname>Cygwin</> in order to run the server on Windows
18504 operating systems. <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> has
18505 supported native clients on Windows for many years.
18517 Savepoints allow specific parts of a transaction to be aborted
18518 without affecting the remainder of the transaction. Prior
18519 releases had no such capability; there was no way to recover
18520 from a statement failure within a transaction except by
18521 aborting the whole transaction. This feature is valuable for
18522 application writers who require error recovery within a
18523 complex transaction.
18530 Point-In-Time Recovery
18535 In previous releases there was no way to recover from disk
18536 drive failure except to restore from a previous backup or use
18537 a standby replication server. Point-in-time recovery allows
18538 continuous backup of the server. You can recover either to
18539 the point of failure or to some transaction in the past.
18551 Tablespaces allow administrators to select different file systems
18552 for storage of individual tables, indexes, and databases.
18553 This improves performance and control over disk space
18554 usage. Prior releases used <application>initlocation</> and
18555 manual symlink management for such tasks.
18562 Improved Buffer Management, <command>CHECKPOINT</command>,
18563 <command>VACUUM</command>
18568 This release has a more intelligent buffer replacement strategy,
18569 which will make better use of available shared buffers and
18570 improve performance. The performance impact of vacuum and
18571 checkpoints is also lessened.
18578 Change Column Types
18583 A column's data type can now be changed with <command>ALTER
18591 New Perl Server-Side Language
18596 A new version of the <application>plperl</> server-side language now
18597 supports a persistent shared storage area, triggers, returning records
18598 and arrays of records, and SPI calls to access the database.
18605 Comma-separated-value (CSV) support in <command>COPY</command>
18610 <command>COPY</command> can now read and write
18611 comma-separated-value files. It has the flexibility to
18612 interpret nonstandard quoting and separation characters too.
18621 <title>Migration to Version 8.0</title>
18624 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
18625 required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
18630 Observe the following incompatibilities:
18637 In <option>READ COMMITTED</> serialization mode, volatile functions
18638 now see the results of concurrent transactions committed up to the
18639 beginning of each statement within the function, rather than up to the
18640 beginning of the interactive command that called the function.
18646 Functions declared <option>STABLE</> or <option>IMMUTABLE</> always
18647 use the snapshot of the calling query, and therefore do not see the
18648 effects of actions taken after the calling query starts, whether in
18649 their own transaction or other transactions. Such a function must be
18650 read-only, too, meaning that it cannot use any SQL commands other than
18651 <command>SELECT</>.
18657 Nondeferred <option>AFTER</> triggers are now fired immediately
18658 after completion of the triggering query, rather than upon
18659 finishing the current interactive command. This makes a
18660 difference when the triggering query occurred within a function:
18661 the trigger is invoked before the function proceeds to its next
18668 Server configuration parameters <varname>virtual_host</> and
18669 <varname>tcpip_socket</> have been replaced with a more general
18670 parameter <varname>listen_addresses</>. Also, the server now listens on
18671 <literal>localhost</> by default, which eliminates the need for the
18672 <literal>-i</> postmaster switch in many scenarios.
18678 Server configuration parameters <varname>SortMem</> and
18679 <varname>VacuumMem</> have been renamed to <varname>work_mem</>
18680 and <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> to better reflect their
18681 use. The original names are still supported in
18682 <command>SET</command> and <command>SHOW</command>.
18688 Server configuration parameters <varname>log_pid</>,
18689 <varname>log_timestamp</>, and <varname>log_source_port</> have been
18690 replaced with a more general parameter <varname>log_line_prefix</>.
18696 Server configuration parameter <varname>syslog</> has been
18697 replaced with a more logical <varname>log_destination</> variable to
18698 control the log output destination.
18704 Server configuration parameter <varname>log_statement</> has been
18705 changed so it can selectively log just database modification or
18706 data definition statements. Server configuration parameter
18707 <varname>log_duration</> now prints only when <varname>log_statement</>
18714 Server configuration parameter <varname>max_expr_depth</> parameter has
18715 been replaced with <varname>max_stack_depth</> which measures the
18716 physical stack size rather than the expression nesting depth. This
18717 helps prevent session termination due to stack overflow caused by
18718 recursive functions.
18724 The <function>length()</> function no longer counts trailing spaces in
18725 <type>CHAR(n)</> values.
18731 Casting an integer to <type>BIT(N)</> selects the rightmost N bits of the
18732 integer, not the leftmost N bits as before.
18738 Updating an element or slice of a NULL array value now produces
18739 a nonnull array result, namely an array containing
18740 just the assigned-to positions.
18746 Syntax checking of array input values has been tightened up
18747 considerably. Junk that was previously allowed in odd places with
18748 odd results now causes an error. Empty-string element values
18749 must now be written as <literal>""</>, rather than writing nothing.
18750 Also changed behavior with respect to whitespace surrounding
18751 array elements: trailing whitespace is now ignored, for symmetry
18752 with leading whitespace (which has always been ignored).
18758 Overflow in integer arithmetic operations is now detected and
18759 reported as an error.
18765 The arithmetic operators associated with the single-byte
18766 <type>"char"</> data type have been removed.
18772 The <function>extract()</> function (also called
18773 <function>date_part</>) now returns the proper year for BC dates.
18774 It previously returned one less than the correct year. The
18775 function now also returns the proper values for millennium and
18782 <type>CIDR</> values now must have their nonmasked bits be zero.
18783 For example, we no longer allow
18784 <literal>204.248.199.1/31</literal> as a <type>CIDR</> value. Such
18785 values should never have been accepted by
18786 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> and will now be rejected.
18792 <command>EXECUTE</command> now returns a completion tag that
18793 matches the executed statement.
18799 <application>psql</>'s <command>\copy</> command now reads or
18800 writes to the query's <literal>stdin/stdout</>, rather than
18801 <application>psql</>'s <literal>stdin/stdout</>. The previous
18802 behavior can be accessed via new
18803 <option>pstdin</>/<option>pstdout</> parameters.
18809 The JDBC client interface has been removed from the core
18810 distribution, and is now hosted at <ulink url=
18811 "http://jdbc.postgresql.org"></ulink>.
18817 The Tcl client interface has also been removed. There are several
18818 Tcl interfaces now hosted at <ulink url=
18819 "http://gborg.postgresql.org"></ulink>.
18825 The server now uses its own time zone database, rather than the
18826 one supplied by the operating system. This will provide consistent
18827 behavior across all platforms. In most cases, there should be
18828 little noticeable difference in time zone behavior, except that
18829 the time zone names used by <command>SET</>/<command>SHOW</>
18830 <varname>TimeZone</> might be different from what your platform provides.
18836 <application>Configure</>'s threading option no longer requires
18837 users to run tests or edit configuration files; threading options
18838 are now detected automatically.
18844 Now that tablespaces have been implemented,
18845 <application>initlocation</> has been removed.
18851 The API for user-defined GiST indexes has been changed. The
18852 Union and PickSplit methods are now passed a pointer to a
18853 special <structname>GistEntryVector</structname> structure,
18854 rather than a <type>bytea</type>.
18862 <title>Deprecated Features</title>
18865 Some aspects of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s behavior
18866 have been determined to be suboptimal. For the sake of backward
18867 compatibility these have not been removed in 8.0, but they are
18868 considered deprecated and will be removed in the next major
18875 The 8.1 release will remove the <function>to_char()</> function
18882 The server now warns of empty strings passed to
18883 <type>oid</type>/<type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> data
18884 types, but continues to interpret them as zeroes as before.
18885 In the next major release, empty strings will be considered
18886 invalid input for these data types.
18892 By default, tables in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.0
18893 and earlier are created with <type>OID</>s. In the next release,
18894 this will <emphasis>not</emphasis> be the case: to create a table
18895 that contains <type>OID</>s, the <option>WITH OIDS</> clause must
18896 be specified or the <varname>default_with_oids</varname>
18897 configuration parameter must be set. Users are encouraged to
18898 explicitly specify <option>WITH OIDS</> if their tables
18899 require OIDs for compatibility with future releases of
18900 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
18908 <title>Changes</title>
18911 Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
18912 release 8.0 and the previous major release.
18916 <title>Performance Improvements</title>
18921 Support cross-data-type index usage (Tom)
18924 Before this change, many queries would not use an index if the data
18925 types did not match exactly. This improvement makes index usage more
18926 intuitive and consistent.
18932 New buffer replacement strategy that improves caching (Jan)
18935 Prior releases used a least-recently-used (LRU) cache to keep
18936 recently referenced pages in memory. The LRU algorithm
18937 did not consider the number of times a specific cache entry was
18938 accessed, so large table scans could force out useful cache pages.
18939 The new cache algorithm uses four separate lists to track most
18940 recently used and most frequently used cache pages and dynamically
18941 optimize their replacement based on the work load. This should
18942 lead to much more efficient use of the shared buffer cache.
18943 Administrators who have tested shared buffer sizes in the past
18944 should retest with this new cache replacement policy.
18950 Add subprocess to write dirty buffers periodically to reduce
18951 checkpoint writes (Jan)
18954 In previous releases, the checkpoint process, which runs every few
18955 minutes, would write all dirty buffers to the operating system's
18956 buffer cache then flush all dirty operating system buffers to
18957 disk. This resulted in a periodic spike in disk usage that often
18958 hurt performance. The new code uses a background writer to trickle
18959 disk writes at a steady pace so checkpoints have far fewer dirty
18960 pages to write to disk. Also, the new code does not issue a global
18961 <function>sync()</> call, but instead <function>fsync()</>s just
18962 the files written since the last checkpoint. This should improve
18963 performance and minimize degradation during checkpoints.
18969 Add ability to prolong vacuum to reduce performance impact (Jan)
18972 On busy systems, <command>VACUUM</command> performs many I/O
18973 requests which can hurt performance for other users. This
18974 release allows you to slow down <command>VACUUM</command> to
18975 reduce its impact on other users, though this increases the
18976 total duration of <command>VACUUM</command>.
18982 Improve B-tree index performance for duplicate keys (Dmitry Tkach, Tom)
18985 This improves the way indexes are scanned when many duplicate
18986 values exist in the index.
18992 Use dynamically-generated table size estimates while planning (Tom)
18995 Formerly the planner estimated table sizes using the values seen
18996 by the last <command>VACUUM</command> or <command>ANALYZE</command>,
18997 both as to physical table size (number of pages) and number of rows.
18998 Now, the current physical table size is obtained from the kernel,
18999 and the number of rows is estimated by multiplying the table size
19000 by the row density (rows per page) seen by the last
19001 <command>VACUUM</command> or <command>ANALYZE</command>. This should
19002 produce more reliable estimates in cases where the table size has
19003 changed significantly since the last housekeeping command.
19009 Improved index usage with <literal>OR</> clauses (Tom)
19012 This allows the optimizer to use indexes in statements with many OR
19013 clauses that would not have been indexed in the past. It can also use
19014 multi-column indexes where the first column is specified and the second
19015 column is part of an <literal>OR</> clause.
19021 Improve matching of partial index clauses (Tom)
19024 The server is now smarter about using partial indexes in queries
19025 involving complex <option>WHERE</> clauses.
19031 Improve performance of the GEQO optimizer (Tom)
19034 The GEQO optimizer is used to plan queries involving many tables (by
19035 default, twelve or more). This release speeds up the way queries are
19036 analyzed to decrease time spent in optimization.
19042 Miscellaneous optimizer improvements
19045 There is not room here to list all the minor improvements made, but
19046 numerous special cases work better than in prior releases.
19052 Improve lookup speed for C functions (Tom)
19055 This release uses a hash table to lookup information for dynamically
19056 loaded C functions. This improves their speed so they perform nearly as
19057 quickly as functions that are built into the server executable.
19063 Add type-specific <command>ANALYZE</command> statistics
19064 capability (Mark Cave-Ayland)
19067 This feature allows more flexibility in generating statistics
19068 for nonstandard data types.
19074 <command>ANALYZE</command> now collects statistics for
19075 expression indexes (Tom)
19078 Expression indexes (also called functional indexes) allow users to
19079 index not just columns but the results of expressions and function
19080 calls. With this release, the optimizer can gather and use statistics
19081 about the contents of expression indexes. This will greatly improve
19082 the quality of planning for queries in which an expression index is
19089 New two-stage sampling method for <command>ANALYZE</command>
19093 This gives better statistics when the density of valid rows is very
19094 different in different regions of a table.
19100 Speed up <command>TRUNCATE</command> (Tom)
19103 This buys back some of the performance loss observed in 7.4, while still
19104 keeping <command>TRUNCATE</command> transaction-safe.
19113 <title>Server Changes</title>
19118 Add WAL file archiving and point-in-time recovery (Simon Riggs)
19124 Add tablespaces so admins can control disk layout (Gavin)
19130 Add a built-in log rotation program (Andreas Pflug)
19133 It is now possible to log server messages conveniently without
19134 relying on either <application>syslog</> or an external log
19141 Add new read-only server configuration parameters to show server
19142 compile-time settings: <varname>block_size</>,
19143 <varname>integer_datetimes</>, <varname>max_function_args</>,
19144 <varname>max_identifier_length</>, <varname>max_index_keys</> (Joe)
19150 Make quoting of <literal>sameuser</>, <literal>samegroup</>, and
19151 <literal>all</> remove special meaning of these terms in
19152 <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Andrew)
19158 Use clearer IPv6 name <literal>::1/128</> for
19159 <literal>localhost</> in default <filename>pg_hba.conf</> (Andrew)
19165 Use CIDR format in <filename>pg_hba.conf</> examples (Andrew)
19171 Rename server configuration parameters <varname>SortMem</> and
19172 <varname>VacuumMem</> to <varname>work_mem</> and
19173 <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> (Old names still supported) (Tom)
19176 This change was made to clarify that bulk operations such as index and
19177 foreign key creation use <varname>maintenance_work_mem</>, while
19178 <varname>work_mem</> is for workspaces used during query execution.
19184 Allow logging of session disconnections using server configuration
19185 <varname>log_disconnections</> (Andrew)
19191 Add new server configuration parameter <varname>log_line_prefix</> to
19192 allow control of information emitted in each log line (Andrew)
19195 Available information includes user name, database name, remote IP
19196 address, and session start time.
19202 Remove server configuration parameters <varname>log_pid</>,
19203 <varname>log_timestamp</>, <varname>log_source_port</>; functionality
19204 superseded by <varname>log_line_prefix</> (Andrew)
19210 Replace the <varname>virtual_host</> and <varname>tcpip_socket</>
19211 parameters with a unified <varname>listen_addresses</> parameter
19215 <varname>virtual_host</> could only specify a single IP address to
19216 listen on. <varname>listen_addresses</> allows multiple addresses
19223 Listen on localhost by default, which eliminates the need for the
19224 <option>-i</> postmaster switch in many scenarios (Andrew)
19227 Listening on localhost (<literal>127.0.0.1</>) opens no new
19228 security holes but allows configurations like Windows and JDBC,
19229 which do not support local sockets, to work without special
19236 Remove <varname>syslog</> server configuration parameter, and add more
19237 logical <varname>log_destination</> variable to control log output
19244 Change server configuration parameter <varname>log_statement</> to take
19245 values <varname>all</>, <varname>mod</>, <varname>ddl</>, or
19246 <varname>none</> to select which queries are logged (Bruce)
19249 This allows administrators to log only data definition changes or
19250 only data modification statements.
19256 Some logging-related configuration parameters could formerly be adjusted
19257 by ordinary users, but only in the <quote>more verbose</> direction.
19258 They are now treated more strictly: only superusers can set them.
19259 However, a superuser can use <command>ALTER USER</> to provide per-user
19260 settings of these values for non-superusers. Also, it is now possible
19261 for superusers to set values of superuser-only configuration parameters
19262 via <literal>PGOPTIONS</>.
19268 Allow configuration files to be placed outside the data directory (mlw)
19271 By default, configuration files are kept in the cluster's top directory.
19272 With this addition, configuration files can be placed outside the
19273 data directory, easing administration.
19279 Plan prepared queries only when first executed so constants can be
19280 used for statistics (Oliver Jowett)
19283 Prepared statements plan queries once and execute them many
19284 times. While prepared queries avoid the overhead of re-planning
19285 on each use, the quality of the plan suffers from not knowing the exact
19286 parameters to be used in the query. In this release, planning of
19287 unnamed prepared statements is delayed until the first execution,
19288 and the actual parameter values of that execution are used as
19289 optimization hints. This allows use of out-of-line parameter passing
19290 without incurring a performance penalty.
19296 Allow <command>DECLARE CURSOR</command> to take parameters
19300 It is now useful to issue <command>DECLARE CURSOR</command> in a
19301 <function>Parse</> message with parameters. The parameter values
19302 sent at <function>Bind</> time will be substituted into the
19303 execution of the cursor's query.
19309 Fix hash joins and aggregates of <type>inet</type> and
19310 <type>cidr</type> data types (Tom)
19313 Release 7.4 handled hashing of mixed <type>inet</type> and
19314 <type>cidr</type> values incorrectly. (This bug did not exist
19315 in prior releases because they wouldn't try to hash either
19322 Make <varname>log_duration</> print only when <varname>log_statement</>
19323 prints the query (Ed L.)
19332 <title>Query Changes</title>
19337 Add savepoints (nested transactions) (Alvaro)
19343 Unsupported isolation levels are now accepted and promoted to the
19344 nearest supported level (Peter)
19347 The SQL specification states that if a database doesn't support a
19348 specific isolation level, it should use the next more restrictive level.
19349 This change complies with that recommendation.
19355 Allow <command>BEGIN WORK</command> to specify transaction
19356 isolation levels like <command>START TRANSACTION</command> does
19363 Fix table permission checking for cases in which rules generate
19364 a query type different from the originally submitted query (Tom)
19370 Implement dollar quoting to simplify single-quote usage (Andrew, Tom,
19374 In previous releases, because single quotes had to be used to
19375 quote a function's body, the use of single quotes inside the
19376 function text required use of two single quotes or other error-prone
19377 notations. With this release we add the ability to use "dollar
19378 quoting" to quote a block of text. The ability to use different
19379 quoting delimiters at different nesting levels greatly simplifies
19380 the task of quoting correctly, especially in complex functions.
19381 Dollar quoting can be used anywhere quoted text is needed.
19387 Make <literal>CASE val WHEN compval1 THEN ...</> evaluate <literal>val</> only once (Tom)
19390 <option>CASE</> no longer evaluates the tested expression multiple
19391 times. This has benefits when the expression is complex or is
19398 Test <option>HAVING</> before computing target list of an
19399 aggregate query (Tom)
19402 Fixes improper failure of cases such as <literal>SELECT SUM(win)/SUM(lose)
19403 ... GROUP BY ... HAVING SUM(lose) > 0</>. This should work but formerly
19404 could fail with divide-by-zero.
19410 Replace <varname>max_expr_depth</> parameter with
19411 <varname>max_stack_depth</> parameter, measured in kilobytes of stack
19415 This gives us a fairly bulletproof defense against crashing due to
19416 runaway recursive functions. Instead of measuring the depth of expression
19417 nesting, we now directly measure the size of the execution stack.
19423 Allow arbitrary row expressions (Tom)
19426 This release allows SQL expressions to contain arbitrary composite
19427 types, that is, row values. It also allows functions to more easily
19428 take rows as arguments and return row values.
19434 Allow <option>LIKE</>/<option>ILIKE</> to be used as the operator
19435 in row and subselect comparisons (Fabien Coelho)
19441 Avoid locale-specific case conversion of basic ASCII letters in
19442 identifiers and keywords (Tom)
19445 This solves the <quote>Turkish problem</> with mangling of words
19446 containing <literal>I</> and <literal>i</>. Folding of characters
19447 outside the 7-bit-ASCII set is still locale-aware.
19453 Improve syntax error reporting (Fabien, Tom)
19456 Syntax error reports are more useful than before.
19462 Change <command>EXECUTE</command> to return a completion tag
19463 matching the executed statement (Kris Jurka)
19466 Previous releases return an <command>EXECUTE</command> tag for
19467 any <command>EXECUTE</command> call. In this release, the tag
19468 returned will reflect the command executed.
19474 Avoid emitting <option>NATURAL CROSS JOIN</> in rule listings (Tom)
19477 Such a clause makes no logical sense, but in some cases the rule
19478 decompiler formerly produced this syntax.
19487 <title>Object Manipulation Changes</title>
19492 Add <command>COMMENT ON</> for casts, conversions, languages,
19493 operator classes, and large objects (Christopher)
19499 Add new server configuration parameter <varname>default_with_oids</> to
19500 control whether tables are created with <type>OID</>s by default (Neil)
19503 This allows administrators to control whether <command>CREATE
19504 TABLE</command> commands create tables with or without <type>OID</>
19505 columns by default. (Note: the current factory default setting for
19506 <varname>default_with_oids</> is <literal>TRUE</>, but the default
19507 will become <literal>FALSE</> in future releases.)
19513 Add <option>WITH</> / <option>WITHOUT OIDS</> clause to
19514 <command>CREATE TABLE AS</command> (Neil)
19520 Allow <command>ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN</> to drop an <type>OID</>
19521 column (<command>ALTER TABLE SET WITHOUT OIDS</> still works)
19528 Allow composite types as table columns (Tom)
19534 Allow <command>ALTER ... ADD COLUMN</> with defaults and
19535 <option>NOT NULL</> constraints; works per SQL spec (Rod)
19538 It is now possible for <option>ADD COLUMN</> to create a column
19539 that is not initially filled with NULLs, but with a specified
19546 Add <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> to change column's type (Rod)
19549 It is now possible to alter a column's data type without dropping
19550 and re-adding the column.
19556 Allow multiple <command>ALTER</> actions in a single <command>ALTER
19557 TABLE</command> command (Rod)
19560 This is particularly useful for <command>ALTER</> commands that
19561 rewrite the table (which include <option>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> and
19562 <option>ADD COLUMN</> with a default). By grouping
19563 <command>ALTER</> commands together, the table need be rewritten
19570 Allow <command>ALTER TABLE</command> to add <type>SERIAL</type>
19574 This falls out from the new capability of specifying defaults for new
19581 Allow changing the owners of aggregates, conversions, databases,
19582 functions, operators, operator classes, schemas, types, and tablespaces
19583 (Christopher, Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
19586 Previously this required modifying the system tables directly.
19592 Allow temporary object creation to be limited to <option>SECURITY
19593 DEFINER</> functions (Sean Chittenden)
19599 Add <option>ALTER TABLE ... SET WITHOUT CLUSTER</> (Christopher)
19602 Prior to this release, there was no way to clear an auto-cluster
19603 specification except to modify the system tables.
19609 Constraint/Index/<type>SERIAL</> names are now
19610 <replaceable>table_column_type</>
19611 with numbers appended to guarantee uniqueness within the schema
19615 The SQL specification states that such names should be unique
19622 Add <function>pg_get_serial_sequence()</> to return a
19623 <type>SERIAL</> column's sequence name (Christopher)
19626 This allows automated scripts to reliably find the <type>SERIAL</>
19633 Warn when primary/foreign key data type mismatch requires costly lookup
19639 New <command>ALTER INDEX</> command to allow moving of indexes
19640 between tablespaces (Gavin)
19646 Make <command>ALTER TABLE OWNER</> change dependent sequence
19647 ownership too (Alvaro)
19657 <title>Utility Command Changes</title>
19662 Allow <command>CREATE SCHEMA</command> to create triggers,
19663 indexes, and sequences (Neil)
19669 Add <option>ALSO</> keyword to <command>CREATE RULE</command> (Fabien
19673 This allows <option>ALSO</> to be added to rule creation to contrast it with
19674 <option>INSTEAD</> rules.
19680 Add <option>NOWAIT</> option to <command>LOCK</command> (Tatsuo)
19683 This allows the <command>LOCK</command> command to fail if it
19684 would have to wait for the requested lock.
19690 Allow <command>COPY</command> to read and write
19691 comma-separated-value (CSV) files (Andrew, Bruce)
19697 Generate error if the <command>COPY</command> delimiter and NULL
19698 string conflict (Bruce)
19704 <command>GRANT</command>/<command>REVOKE</command> behavior
19705 follows the SQL spec more closely
19711 Avoid locking conflict between <command>CREATE INDEX</command>
19712 and <command>CHECKPOINT</command> (Tom)
19715 In 7.3 and 7.4, a long-running B-tree index build could block concurrent
19716 <command>CHECKPOINT</>s from completing, thereby causing WAL bloat because the
19717 WAL log could not be recycled.
19723 Database-wide <command>ANALYZE</command> does not hold locks
19724 across tables (Tom)
19727 This reduces the potential for deadlocks against other backends
19728 that want exclusive locks on tables. To get the benefit of this
19729 change, do not execute database-wide <command>ANALYZE</command>
19730 inside a transaction block (<command>BEGIN</command> block); it
19731 must be able to commit and start a new transaction for each
19738 <command>REINDEX</command> does not exclusively lock the index's
19739 parent table anymore
19742 The index itself is still exclusively locked, but readers of the
19743 table can continue if they are not using the particular index
19750 Erase MD5 user passwords when a user is renamed (Bruce)
19753 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> uses the user name as salt
19754 when encrypting passwords via MD5. When a user's name is changed,
19755 the salt will no longer match the stored MD5 password, so the
19756 stored password becomes useless. In this release a notice is
19757 generated and the password is cleared. A new password must then
19758 be assigned if the user is to be able to log in with a password.
19764 New <application>pg_ctl</> <option>kill</> option for Windows (Andrew)
19767 Windows does not have a <literal>kill</> command to send signals to
19768 backends so this capability was added to <application>pg_ctl</>.
19774 Information schema improvements
19780 Add <option>--pwfile</> option to
19781 <application>initdb</application> so the initial password can be
19782 set by GUI tools (Magnus)
19788 Detect locale/encoding mismatch in
19789 <application>initdb</application> (Peter)
19795 Add <option>register</> command to <application>pg_ctl</> to
19796 register Windows operating system service (Dave Page)
19805 <title>Data Type and Function Changes</title>
19810 More complete support for composite types (row types) (Tom)
19813 Composite values can be used in many places where only scalar values
19820 Reject nonrectangular array values as erroneous (Joe)
19823 Formerly, <function>array_in</> would silently build a
19830 Overflow in integer arithmetic operations is now detected (Tom)
19836 The arithmetic operators associated with the single-byte
19837 <type>"char"</> data type have been removed.
19840 Formerly, the parser would select these operators in many situations
19841 where an <quote>unable to select an operator</> error would be more
19842 appropriate, such as <literal>null * null</>. If you actually want
19843 to do arithmetic on a <type>"char"</> column, you can cast it to
19844 integer explicitly.
19850 Syntax checking of array input values considerably tightened up (Joe)
19853 Junk that was previously allowed in odd places with odd results
19854 now causes an <literal>ERROR</>, for example, non-whitespace
19855 after the closing right brace.
19861 Empty-string array element values must now be written as
19862 <literal>""</>, rather than writing nothing (Joe)
19865 Formerly, both ways of writing an empty-string element value were
19866 allowed, but now a quoted empty string is required. The case where
19867 nothing at all appears will probably be considered to be a NULL
19868 element value in some future release.
19874 Array element trailing whitespace is now ignored (Joe)
19877 Formerly leading whitespace was ignored, but trailing whitespace
19878 between an element value and the delimiter or right brace was
19879 significant. Now trailing whitespace is also ignored.
19885 Emit array values with explicit array bounds when lower bound is not one
19892 Accept <literal>YYYY-monthname-DD</> as a date string (Tom)
19898 Make <function>netmask</> and <function>hostmask</> functions
19899 return maximum-length mask length (Tom)
19905 Change factorial function to return <type>numeric</type> (Gavin)
19908 Returning <type>numeric</type> allows the factorial function to
19909 work for a wider range of input values.
19915 <function>to_char</>/<function>to_date()</> date conversion
19916 improvements (Kurt Roeckx, Fabien Coelho)
19922 Make <function>length()</> disregard trailing spaces in
19923 <type>CHAR(n)</> (Gavin)
19926 This change was made to improve consistency: trailing spaces are
19927 semantically insignificant in <type>CHAR(n)</> data, so they
19928 should not be counted by <function>length()</>.
19934 Warn about empty string being passed to
19935 <type>OID</>/<type>float4</>/<type>float8</> data types (Neil)
19938 8.1 will throw an error instead.
19944 Allow leading or trailing whitespace in
19945 <type>int2</>/<type>int4</>/<type>int8</>/<type>float4</>/<type>float8</>
19953 Better support for IEEE <literal>Infinity</> and <literal>NaN</>
19954 values in <type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> (Neil)
19957 These should now work on all platforms that support IEEE-compliant
19958 floating point arithmetic.
19964 Add <option>week</> option to <function>date_trunc()</> (Robert Creager)
19970 Fix <function>to_char</function> for <literal>1 BC</>
19971 (previously it returned <literal>1 AD</>) (Bruce)
19977 Fix <function>date_part(year)</> for BC dates (previously it
19978 returned one less than the correct year) (Bruce)
19984 Fix <function>date_part()</> to return the proper millennium and
19985 century (Fabien Coelho)
19988 In previous versions, the century and millennium results had a wrong
19989 number and started in the wrong year, as compared to standard
19990 reckoning of such things.
19996 Add <function>ceiling()</> as an alias for <function>ceil()</>,
19997 and <function>power()</> as an alias for <function>pow()</> for
19998 standards compliance (Neil)
20004 Change <function>ln()</>, <function>log()</>,
20005 <function>power()</>, and <function>sqrt()</> to emit the correct
20006 <literal>SQLSTATE</> error codes for certain error conditions, as
20007 specified by SQL:2003 (Neil)
20013 Add <function>width_bucket()</> function as defined by SQL:2003 (Neil)
20019 Add <function>generate_series()</> functions to simplify working
20020 with numeric sets (Joe)
20026 Fix <function>upper/lower/initcap()</> functions to work with
20027 multibyte encodings (Tom)
20033 Add boolean and bitwise integer <option>AND</>/<option>OR</>
20034 aggregates (Fabien Coelho)
20040 New session information functions to return network addresses for client
20041 and server (Sean Chittenden)
20047 Add function to determine the area of a closed path (Sean Chittenden)
20053 Add function to send cancel request to other backends (Magnus)
20059 Add <type>interval</> plus <type>datetime</> operators (Tom)
20062 The reverse ordering, <type>datetime</> plus <type>interval</>,
20063 was already supported, but both are required by the SQL standard.
20069 Casting an integer to <type>BIT(N)</> selects the rightmost N bits
20074 In prior releases, the leftmost N bits were selected, but this was
20075 deemed unhelpful, not to mention inconsistent with casting from bit
20082 Require <type>CIDR</> values to have all nonmasked bits be zero
20092 <title>Server-Side Language Changes</title>
20097 In <literal>READ COMMITTED</> serialization mode, volatile functions
20098 now see the results of concurrent transactions committed up to the
20099 beginning of each statement within the function, rather than up to the
20100 beginning of the interactive command that called the function.
20106 Functions declared <literal>STABLE</> or <literal>IMMUTABLE</> always
20107 use the snapshot of the calling query, and therefore do not see the
20108 effects of actions taken after the calling query starts, whether in
20109 their own transaction or other transactions. Such a function must be
20110 read-only, too, meaning that it cannot use any SQL commands other than
20111 <command>SELECT</>. There is a considerable performance gain from
20112 declaring a function <literal>STABLE</> or <literal>IMMUTABLE</>
20113 rather than <literal>VOLATILE</>.
20119 Nondeferred <option>AFTER</> triggers are now fired immediately
20120 after completion of the triggering query, rather than upon
20121 finishing the current interactive command. This makes a difference
20122 when the triggering query occurred within a function: the trigger
20123 is invoked before the function proceeds to its next operation. For
20124 example, if a function inserts a new row into a table, any
20125 nondeferred foreign key checks occur before proceeding with the
20132 Allow function parameters to be declared with names (Dennis Björklund)
20135 This allows better documentation of functions. Whether the names
20136 actually do anything depends on the specific function language
20143 Allow PL/pgSQL parameter names to be referenced in the function (Dennis Björklund)
20146 This basically creates an automatic alias for each named parameter.
20152 Do minimal syntax checking of PL/pgSQL functions at creation time (Tom)
20155 This allows us to catch simple syntax errors sooner.
20161 More support for composite types (row and record variables) in PL/pgSQL
20164 For example, it now works to pass a rowtype variable to another function
20165 as a single variable.
20171 Default values for PL/pgSQL variables can now reference previously
20178 Improve parsing of PL/pgSQL FOR loops (Tom)
20181 Parsing is now driven by presence of <literal>".."</> rather than
20182 data type of <option>FOR</> variable. This makes no difference for
20183 correct functions, but should result in more understandable error
20184 messages when a mistake is made.
20190 Major overhaul of PL/Perl server-side language (Command Prompt, Andrew Dunstan)
20196 In PL/Tcl, SPI commands are now run in subtransactions. If an error
20197 occurs, the subtransaction is cleaned up and the error is reported
20198 as an ordinary Tcl error, which can be trapped with <literal>catch</>.
20199 Formerly, it was not possible to catch such errors.
20205 Accept <command>ELSEIF</> in PL/pgSQL (Neil)
20208 Previously PL/pgSQL only allowed <command>ELSIF</>, but many people
20209 are accustomed to spelling this keyword <command>ELSEIF</>.
20218 <title><application>psql</> Changes</title>
20223 Improve <application>psql</> information display about database
20224 objects (Christopher)
20230 Allow <application>psql</> to display group membership in
20231 <command>\du</> and <command>\dg</> (Markus Bertheau)
20237 Prevent <application>psql</> <command>\dn</command> from showing
20238 temporary schemas (Bruce)
20244 Allow <application>psql</> to handle tilde user expansion for file
20251 Allow <application>psql</> to display fancy prompts, including
20252 color, via <application>readline</> (Reece Hart, Chet Ramey)
20258 Make <application>psql</> <command>\copy</> match <command>COPY</command> command syntax
20265 Show the location of syntax errors (Fabien Coelho, Tom)
20271 Add <command>CLUSTER</command> information to <application>psql</>
20272 <command>\d</> display
20279 Change <application>psql</> <command>\copy stdin/stdout</> to read
20280 from command input/output (Bruce)
20286 Add <option>pstdin</>/<option>pstdout</> to read from
20287 <application>psql</>'s <literal>stdin</>/<literal>stdout</> (Mark
20294 Add global <application>psql</> configuration file, <filename>psqlrc.sample</filename>
20298 This allows a central file where global <application>psql</> startup commands can
20305 Have <application>psql</> <command>\d+</> indicate if the table
20306 has an <type>OID</> column (Neil)
20312 On Windows, use binary mode in <application>psql</> when reading files so control-Z
20313 is not seen as end-of-file
20319 Have <command>\dn+</> show permissions and description for schemas (Dennis
20326 Improve tab completion support (Stefan Kaltenbrunn, Greg Sabino Mullane)
20332 Allow boolean settings to be set using upper or lower case (Michael Paesold)
20341 <title><application>pg_dump</> Changes</title>
20346 Use dependency information to improve the reliability of
20347 <application>pg_dump</> (Tom)
20350 This should solve the longstanding problems with related objects
20351 sometimes being dumped in the wrong order.
20357 Have <application>pg_dump</> output objects in alphabetical order if possible (Tom)
20360 This should make it easier to identify changes between
20367 Allow <application>pg_restore</> to ignore some SQL errors (Fabien Coelho)
20370 This makes <application>pg_restore</>'s behavior similar to the
20371 results of feeding a <application>pg_dump</> output script to
20372 <application>psql</>. In most cases, ignoring errors and plowing
20373 ahead is the most useful thing to do. Also added was a pg_restore
20374 option to give the old behavior of exiting on an error.
20380 <application>pg_restore</> <option>-l</> display now includes
20381 objects' schema names
20387 New begin/end markers in <application>pg_dump</> text output (Bruce)
20393 Add start/stop times for
20394 <application>pg_dump</>/<application>pg_dumpall</> in verbose mode
20401 Allow most <application>pg_dump</> options in
20402 <application>pg_dumpall</> (Christopher)
20408 Have <application>pg_dump</> use <command>ALTER OWNER</> rather
20409 than <command>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> by default
20419 <title>libpq Changes</title>
20424 Make libpq's <option>SIGPIPE</> handling thread-safe (Bruce)
20430 Add <function>PQmbdsplen()</> which returns the display length
20431 of a character (Tatsuo)
20437 Add thread locking to <application>SSL</> and
20438 <application>Kerberos</> connections (Manfred Spraul)
20444 Allow <function>PQoidValue()</>, <function>PQcmdTuples()</>, and
20445 <function>PQoidStatus()</> to work on <command>EXECUTE</command>
20452 Add <function>PQserverVersion()</> to provide more convenient
20453 access to the server version number (Greg Sabino Mullane)
20459 Add <function>PQprepare/PQsendPrepared()</> functions to support
20460 preparing statements without necessarily specifying the data types
20461 of their parameters (Abhijit Menon-Sen)
20467 Many ECPG improvements, including <command>SET DESCRIPTOR</> (Michael)
20476 <title>Source Code Changes</title>
20481 Allow the database server to run natively on Windows (Claudio, Magnus, Andrew)
20487 Shell script commands converted to C versions for Windows support (Andrew)
20493 Create an extension makefile framework (Fabien Coelho, Peter)
20496 This simplifies the task of building extensions outside the original
20503 Support relocatable installations (Bruce)
20506 Directory paths for installed files (such as the
20507 <filename>/share</> directory) are now computed relative to the
20508 actual location of the executables, so that an installation tree
20509 can be moved to another place without reconfiguring and
20516 Use <option>--with-docdir</> to choose installation location of documentation; also
20517 allow <option>--infodir</> (Peter)
20523 Add <option>--without-docdir</> to prevent installation of documentation (Peter)
20529 Upgrade to <application>DocBook</> V4.2 SGML (Peter)
20535 New <literal>PostgreSQL</> <application>CVS</> tag (Marc)
20538 This was done to make it easier for organizations to manage their
20539 own copies of the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
20540 <application>CVS</> repository. File version stamps from the master
20541 repository will not get munged by checking into or out of a copied
20548 Clarify locking code (Manfred Koizar)
20554 Buffer manager cleanup (Neil)
20560 Decouple platform tests from CPU spinlock code (Bruce, Tom)
20566 Add inlined test-and-set code on PA-RISC for <application>gcc</>
20573 Improve i386 spinlock code (Manfred Spraul)
20579 Clean up spinlock assembly code to avoid warnings from newer
20580 <application>gcc</> releases (Tom)
20586 Remove JDBC from source tree; now a separate project
20592 Remove the libpgtcl client interface; now a separate project
20598 More accurately estimate memory and file descriptor usage (Tom)
20604 Improvements to the Mac OS X startup scripts (Ray A.)
20610 New <function>fsync()</> test program (Bruce)
20616 Major documentation improvements (Neil, Peter)
20622 Remove <application>pg_encoding</application>; not needed
20629 Remove <application>pg_id</application>; not needed anymore
20635 Remove <application>initlocation</application>; not needed
20642 Auto-detect thread flags (no more manual testing) (Bruce)
20648 Use Olson's public domain <application>timezone</> library (Magnus)
20654 With threading enabled, use thread flags on Unixware for
20655 backend executables too (Bruce)
20658 Unixware cannot mix threaded and nonthreaded object files in the
20659 same executable, so everything must be compiled as threaded.
20665 <application>psql</> now uses a <application>flex</>-generated
20666 lexical analyzer to process command strings
20672 Reimplement the linked list data structure used throughout the
20676 This improves performance by allowing list append and length
20677 operations to be more efficient.
20683 Allow dynamically loaded modules to create their own server configuration
20684 parameters (Thomas Hallgren)
20690 New Brazilian version of FAQ (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
20696 Add French FAQ (Guillaume Lelarge)
20702 New <application>pgevent</> for Windows logging
20708 Make libpq and ECPG build as proper shared libraries on OS X (Tom)
20717 <title>Contrib Changes</title>
20722 Overhaul of <filename>contrib/dblink</> (Joe)
20728 <filename>contrib/dbmirror</> improvements (Steven Singer)
20734 New <filename>contrib/xml2</> (John Gray, Torchbox)
20740 Updated <filename>contrib/mysql</filename>
20746 New version of <filename>contrib/btree_gist</> (Teodor)
20752 New <filename>contrib/trgm</>, trigram matching for
20753 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> (Teodor)
20759 Many <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> improvements (Teodor)
20765 Add double metaphone to <filename>contrib/fuzzystrmatch</> (Andrew)
20771 Allow <filename>contrib/pg_autovacuum</> to run as a Windows service (Dave Page)
20777 Add functions to <filename>contrib/dbsize</> (Andreas Pflug)
20783 Removed <filename>contrib/pg_logger</>: obsoleted by integrated logging
20790 Removed <filename>contrib/rserv</>: obsoleted by various separate projects
20800 <sect1 id="release-7-4-25">
20801 <title>Release 7.4.25</title>
20804 <title>Release date</title>
20805 <simpara>2009-03-16</simpara>
20809 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.24.
20810 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
20811 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
20815 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.25</title>
20818 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
20819 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11,
20820 see the release notes for 7.4.11.
20826 <title>Changes</title>
20832 Prevent error recursion crashes when encoding conversion fails (Tom)
20836 This change extends fixes made in the last two minor releases for
20837 related failure scenarios. The previous fixes were narrowly tailored
20838 for the original problem reports, but we have now recognized that
20839 <emphasis>any</> error thrown by an encoding conversion function could
20840 potentially lead to infinite recursion while trying to report the
20841 error. The solution therefore is to disable translation and encoding
20842 conversion and report the plain-ASCII form of any error message,
20843 if we find we have gotten into a recursive error reporting situation.
20850 Disallow <command>CREATE CONVERSION</> with the wrong encodings
20851 for the specified conversion function (Heikki)
20855 This prevents one possible scenario for encoding conversion failure.
20856 The previous change is a backstop to guard against other kinds of
20857 failures in the same area.
20863 Fix core dump when <function>to_char()</> is given format codes that
20864 are inappropriate for the type of the data argument (Tom)
20870 Add <literal>MUST</> (Mauritius Island Summer Time) to the default list
20871 of known timezone abbreviations (Xavier Bugaud)
20880 <sect1 id="release-7-4-24">
20881 <title>Release 7.4.24</title>
20884 <title>Release date</title>
20885 <simpara>2009-02-02</simpara>
20889 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.23.
20890 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
20891 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
20895 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.24</title>
20898 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
20899 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11,
20900 see the release notes for 7.4.11.
20906 <title>Changes</title>
20912 Improve handling of URLs in <function>headline()</> function (Teodor)
20918 Improve handling of overlength headlines in <function>headline()</>
20925 Prevent possible Assert failure or misconversion if an encoding
20926 conversion is created with the wrong conversion function for the
20927 specified pair of encodings (Tom, Heikki)
20933 Avoid unnecessary locking of small tables in <command>VACUUM</>
20940 Fix uninitialized variables in <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>'s
20941 <function>get_covers()</> function (Teodor)
20947 Fix bug in <function>to_char()</>'s handling of <literal>TH</>
20948 format codes (Andreas Scherbaum)
20954 Make all documentation reference <literal>pgsql-bugs</> and/or
20955 <literal>pgsql-hackers</> as appropriate, instead of the
20956 now-decommissioned <literal>pgsql-ports</> and <literal>pgsql-patches</>
20957 mailing lists (Tom)
20966 <sect1 id="release-7-4-23">
20967 <title>Release 7.4.23</title>
20970 <title>Release date</title>
20971 <simpara>2008-11-03</simpara>
20975 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.22.
20976 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
20977 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
20981 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.23</title>
20984 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
20985 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11,
20986 see the release notes for 7.4.11.
20992 <title>Changes</title>
20998 Fix backend crash when the client encoding cannot represent a localized
20999 error message (Tom)
21003 We have addressed similar issues before, but it would still fail if
21004 the <quote>character has no equivalent</> message itself couldn't
21005 be converted. The fix is to disable localization and send the plain
21006 ASCII error message when we detect such a situation.
21012 Fix incorrect tsearch2 headline generation when single query
21013 item matches first word of text (Sushant Sinha)
21019 Fix improper display of fractional seconds in interval values when
21020 using a non-ISO datestyle in an <option>--enable-integer-datetimes</>
21027 Ensure <function>SPI_getvalue</> and <function>SPI_getbinval</>
21028 behave correctly when the passed tuple and tuple descriptor have
21029 different numbers of columns (Tom)
21033 This situation is normal when a table has had columns added or removed,
21034 but these two functions didn't handle it properly.
21035 The only likely consequence is an incorrect error indication.
21041 Fix <application>ecpg</>'s parsing of <command>CREATE USER</> (Michael)
21050 <sect1 id="release-7-4-22">
21051 <title>Release 7.4.22</title>
21054 <title>Release date</title>
21055 <simpara>2008-09-22</simpara>
21059 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.21.
21060 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21061 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21065 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.22</title>
21068 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
21069 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11,
21070 see the release notes for 7.4.11.
21076 <title>Changes</title>
21082 Fix datetime input functions to correctly detect integer overflow when
21083 running on a 64-bit platform (Tom)
21089 Improve performance of writing very long log messages to syslog (Tom)
21095 Fix bug in backwards scanning of a cursor on a <literal>SELECT DISTINCT
21102 Fix planner to estimate that <literal>GROUP BY</> expressions yielding
21103 boolean results always result in two groups, regardless of the
21104 expressions' contents (Tom)
21108 This is very substantially more accurate than the regular <literal>GROUP
21109 BY</> estimate for certain boolean tests like <replaceable>col</>
21110 <literal>IS NULL</>.
21116 Improve <application>pg_dump</> and <application>pg_restore</>'s
21117 error reporting after failure to send a SQL command (Tom)
21126 <sect1 id="release-7-4-21">
21127 <title>Release 7.4.21</title>
21130 <title>Release date</title>
21131 <simpara>2008-06-12</simpara>
21135 This release contains one serious bug fix over 7.4.20.
21136 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21137 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21141 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.21</title>
21144 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
21145 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11,
21146 see the release notes for 7.4.11.
21152 <title>Changes</title>
21158 Make <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> parenthesize negative constants (Tom)
21162 Before this fix, a negative constant in a view or rule might be dumped
21163 as, say, <literal>-42::integer</>, which is subtly incorrect: it should
21164 be <literal>(-42)::integer</> due to operator precedence rules.
21165 Usually this would make little difference, but it could interact with
21166 another recent patch to cause
21167 <productname>PostgreSQL</> to reject what had been a valid
21168 <command>SELECT DISTINCT</> view query. Since this could result in
21169 <application>pg_dump</> output failing to reload, it is being treated
21170 as a high-priority fix. The only released versions in which dump
21171 output is actually incorrect are 8.3.1 and 8.2.7.
21180 <sect1 id="release-7-4-20">
21181 <title>Release 7.4.20</title>
21184 <title>Release date</title>
21185 <simpara>never released</simpara>
21189 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.19.
21190 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21191 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21195 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.20</title>
21198 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
21199 However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11,
21200 see the release notes for 7.4.11.
21206 <title>Changes</title>
21212 Fix conversions between ISO-8859-5 and other encodings to handle
21213 Cyrillic <quote>Yo</> characters (<literal>e</> and <literal>E</> with
21214 two dots) (Sergey Burladyan)
21220 Fix a few datatype input functions
21221 that were allowing unused bytes in their results to contain
21222 uninitialized, unpredictable values (Tom)
21226 This could lead to failures in which two apparently identical literal
21227 values were not seen as equal, resulting in the parser complaining
21228 about unmatched <literal>ORDER BY</> and <literal>DISTINCT</>
21235 Fix a corner case in regular-expression substring matching
21236 (<literal>substring(<replaceable>string</> from
21237 <replaceable>pattern</>)</literal>) (Tom)
21241 The problem occurs when there is a match to the pattern overall but
21242 the user has specified a parenthesized subexpression and that
21243 subexpression hasn't got a match. An example is
21244 <literal>substring('foo' from 'foo(bar)?')</>.
21245 This should return NULL, since <literal>(bar)</> isn't matched, but
21246 it was mistakenly returning the whole-pattern match instead (ie,
21253 Fix incorrect result from <application>ecpg</>'s
21254 <function>PGTYPEStimestamp_sub()</> function (Michael)
21260 Fix <literal>DatumGetBool</> macro to not fail with <application>gcc</>
21265 This problem affects <quote>old style</> (V0) C functions that
21266 return boolean. The fix is already in 8.3, but the need to
21267 back-patch it was not realized at the time.
21273 Fix longstanding <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</>
21274 race condition (Tom)
21278 In rare cases a session that had just executed a
21279 <command>LISTEN</> might not get a notification, even though
21280 one would be expected because the concurrent transaction executing
21281 <command>NOTIFY</> was observed to commit later.
21285 A side effect of the fix is that a transaction that has executed
21286 a not-yet-committed <command>LISTEN</> command will not see any
21287 row in <structname>pg_listener</> for the <command>LISTEN</>,
21288 should it choose to look; formerly it would have. This behavior
21289 was never documented one way or the other, but it is possible that
21290 some applications depend on the old behavior.
21296 Fix display of constant expressions in <literal>ORDER BY</>
21297 and <literal>GROUP BY</> (Tom)
21301 An explictly casted constant would be shown incorrectly. This could
21302 for example lead to corruption of a view definition during
21309 Fix <application>libpq</> to handle NOTICE messages correctly
21310 during COPY OUT (Tom)
21314 This failure has only been observed to occur when a user-defined
21315 datatype's output routine issues a NOTICE, but there is no
21316 guarantee it couldn't happen due to other causes.
21325 <sect1 id="release-7-4-19">
21326 <title>Release 7.4.19</title>
21329 <title>Release date</title>
21330 <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara>
21334 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.18,
21335 including fixes for significant security issues.
21336 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21337 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21341 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.19</title>
21344 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21345 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21352 <title>Changes</title>
21358 Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of
21359 the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom)
21363 Functions used in index expressions and partial-index
21364 predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has
21365 long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code
21366 execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user.
21367 (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the
21368 same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger
21369 because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations
21370 such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed
21371 automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user
21372 can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a
21373 trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum.
21374 The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations
21375 (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>,
21376 and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than
21377 the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already
21378 used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing
21379 this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION
21380 AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a
21381 <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600)
21387 Repair assorted bugs in the regular-expression package (Tom, Will Drewry)
21391 Suitably crafted regular-expression patterns could cause crashes,
21392 infinite or near-infinite looping, and/or massive memory consumption,
21393 all of which pose denial-of-service hazards for applications that
21394 accept regex search patterns from untrustworthy sources.
21395 (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)
21401 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
21402 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
21406 The fix that appeared for this in 7.4.18 was incomplete, as it plugged
21407 the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601,
21414 Fix planner failure in some cases of <literal>WHERE false AND var IN
21415 (SELECT ...)</> (Tom)
21421 Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte
21422 database encoding (Tom)
21428 Fix PL/Python to not crash on long exception messages (Alvaro)
21434 <application>ecpg</> parser fixes (Michael)
21440 Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle
21441 NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe)
21447 Fix <type>tsvector</> and <type>tsquery</> output routines to
21448 escape backslashes correctly (Teodor, Bruce)
21454 Fix crash of <function>to_tsvector()</> on huge input strings (Teodor)
21460 Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used
21461 when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter)
21465 This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made
21466 to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of
21467 <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions.
21468 You can remove the version check if you really want to use a
21469 different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's
21470 your responsibility whether the result works or not.
21479 <sect1 id="release-7-4-18">
21480 <title>Release 7.4.18</title>
21483 <title>Release date</title>
21484 <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
21488 This release contains fixes from 7.4.17.
21489 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21490 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21494 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.18</title>
21497 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21498 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21505 <title>Changes</title>
21511 Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
21512 then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
21513 on the same table (Tom)
21519 Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
21525 Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom)
21531 Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
21538 Prevent <command>CLUSTER</> from failing
21539 due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro)
21545 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
21546 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
21555 <sect1 id="release-7-4-17">
21556 <title>Release 7.4.17</title>
21559 <title>Release date</title>
21560 <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
21564 This release contains fixes from 7.4.16,
21565 including a security fix.
21566 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21567 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21571 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.17</title>
21574 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21575 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21582 <title>Changes</title>
21588 Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
21589 <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
21590 and operators (Tom)
21593 This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
21594 truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
21595 an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
21596 with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
21597 See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
21603 <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor)
21609 Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
21610 <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
21616 Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 7.4.15)
21626 <sect1 id="release-7-4-16">
21627 <title>Release 7.4.16</title>
21630 <title>Release date</title>
21631 <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
21635 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.15, including
21637 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21638 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21642 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.16</title>
21645 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21646 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21653 <title>Changes</title>
21659 Remove security vulnerability that allowed connected users
21660 to read backend memory (Tom)
21663 The vulnerability involves suppressing the normal check that a SQL
21664 function returns the data type it's declared to, or changing the
21665 data type of a table column used in a SQL function (CVE-2007-0555).
21666 This error can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
21667 principle might be used to read database content that the user
21668 should not be able to access.
21674 Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
21675 due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
21681 Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom)
21687 Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
21688 over three bytes long (Tom)
21697 <sect1 id="release-7-4-15">
21698 <title>Release 7.4.15</title>
21701 <title>Release date</title>
21702 <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
21706 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.14.
21707 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21708 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21712 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.15</title>
21715 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21716 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21723 <title>Changes</title>
21729 Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom)
21733 This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector,
21734 among other things.
21740 Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in
21741 <command>VACUUM</> (Tom)
21747 Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom)
21753 Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple
21754 empty elements (Tom)
21760 <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
21761 are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
21762 new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
21766 This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
21767 change the output of these functions.
21773 Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
21777 This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
21786 <sect1 id="release-7-4-14">
21787 <title>Release 7.4.14</title>
21790 <title>Release date</title>
21791 <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
21795 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.13.
21796 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21797 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21801 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.14</title>
21804 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21805 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21812 <title>Changes</title>
21815 <listitem><para>Fix core dump when an untyped literal is taken as
21816 ANYARRAY</para></listitem>
21817 <listitem><para>Fix <function>string_to_array()</> to handle overlapping
21818 matches for the separator string</para>
21819 <para>For example, <literal>string_to_array('123xx456xxx789', 'xx')</>.
21821 <listitem><para>Fix corner cases in pattern matching for
21822 <application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
21823 <listitem><para>Fix index-corrupting bugs in /contrib/ltree
21824 (Teodor)</para></listitem>
21825 <listitem><para>Fix backslash escaping in /contrib/dbmirror</para></listitem>
21826 <listitem><para>Adjust regression tests for recent changes in US DST laws
21827 </para> </listitem>
21833 <sect1 id="release-7-4-13">
21834 <title>Release 7.4.13</title>
21837 <title>Release date</title>
21838 <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
21842 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.12,
21843 including patches for extremely serious security issues.
21844 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21845 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21849 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.13</title>
21852 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21853 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21858 Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
21859 CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
21860 code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
21861 into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
21862 ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
21863 most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
21864 libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
21865 <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
21866 rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
21871 <title>Changes</title>
21874 <listitem><para>Change the server to reject invalidly-encoded multibyte
21875 characters in all cases (Tatsuo, Tom)</para>
21876 <para>While <productname>PostgreSQL</> has been moving in this direction for
21877 some time, the checks are now applied uniformly to all encodings and all
21878 textual input, and are now always errors not merely warnings. This change
21879 defends against SQL-injection attacks of the type described in CVE-2006-2313.
21882 <listitem><para>Reject unsafe uses of <literal>\'</> in string literals</para>
21883 <para>As a server-side defense against SQL-injection attacks of the type
21884 described in CVE-2006-2314, the server now only accepts <literal>''</> and not
21885 <literal>\'</> as a representation of ASCII single quote in SQL string
21886 literals. By default, <literal>\'</> is rejected only when
21887 <varname>client_encoding</> is set to a client-only encoding (SJIS, BIG5, GBK,
21888 GB18030, or UHC), which is the scenario in which SQL injection is possible.
21889 A new configuration parameter <varname>backslash_quote</> is available to
21890 adjust this behavior when needed. Note that full security against
21891 CVE-2006-2314 might require client-side changes; the purpose of
21892 <varname>backslash_quote</> is in part to make it obvious that insecure
21893 clients are insecure.
21896 <listitem><para>Modify <application>libpq</>'s string-escaping routines to be
21897 aware of encoding considerations and
21898 <varname>standard_conforming_strings</></para>
21899 <para>This fixes <application>libpq</>-using applications for the security
21900 issues described in CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314, and also future-proofs
21901 them against the planned changeover to SQL-standard string literal syntax.
21902 Applications that use multiple <productname>PostgreSQL</> connections
21903 concurrently should migrate to <function>PQescapeStringConn()</> and
21904 <function>PQescapeByteaConn()</> to ensure that escaping is done correctly
21905 for the settings in use in each database connection. Applications that
21906 do string escaping <quote>by hand</> should be modified to rely on library
21910 <listitem><para>Fix some incorrect encoding conversion functions</para>
21911 <para><function>win1251_to_iso</>, <function>alt_to_iso</>,
21912 <function>euc_tw_to_big5</>, <function>euc_tw_to_mic</>,
21913 <function>mic_to_euc_tw</> were all broken to varying
21917 <listitem><para>Clean up stray remaining uses of <literal>\'</> in strings
21918 (Bruce, Jan)</para></listitem>
21920 <listitem><para>Fix bug that sometimes caused OR'd index scans to
21921 miss rows they should have returned</para></listitem>
21923 <listitem><para>Fix WAL replay for case where a btree index has been
21924 truncated</para></listitem>
21926 <listitem><para>Fix <literal>SIMILAR TO</> for patterns involving
21927 <literal>|</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
21929 <listitem><para>Fix server to use custom DH SSL parameters correctly (Michael
21930 Fuhr)</para></listitem>
21932 <listitem><para>Fix for Bonjour on Intel Macs (Ashley Clark)</para></listitem>
21934 <listitem><para>Fix various minor memory leaks</para></listitem>
21940 <sect1 id="release-7-4-12">
21941 <title>Release 7.4.12</title>
21944 <title>Release date</title>
21945 <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
21949 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.11.
21950 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
21951 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
21955 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.12</title>
21958 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
21959 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.11, see the release
21965 <title>Changes</title>
21969 <listitem><para>Fix potential crash in <command>SET
21970 SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> (CVE-2006-0553)</para>
21971 <para>An unprivileged user could crash the server process, resulting in
21972 momentary denial of service to other users, if the server has been compiled
21973 with Asserts enabled (which is not the default).
21974 Thanks to Akio Ishida for reporting this problem.
21977 <listitem><para>Fix bug with row visibility logic in self-inserted
21979 <para>Under rare circumstances a row inserted by the current command
21980 could be seen as already valid, when it should not be. Repairs bug
21981 created in 7.4.9 and 7.3.11 releases.
21984 <listitem><para>Fix race condition that could lead to <quote>file already
21985 exists</> errors during pg_clog file creation
21986 (Tom)</para></listitem>
21988 <listitem><para>Properly check <literal>DOMAIN</> constraints for
21989 <literal>UNKNOWN</> parameters in prepared statements
21990 (Neil)</para></listitem>
21992 <listitem><para>Fix to allow restoring dumps that have cross-schema
21993 references to custom operators (Tom)</para></listitem>
21995 <listitem><para>Portability fix for testing presence of <function>finite</>
21996 and <function>isinf</> during configure (Tom)</para></listitem>
22003 <sect1 id="release-7-4-11">
22004 <title>Release 7.4.11</title>
22007 <title>Release date</title>
22008 <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
22012 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.10.
22013 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22014 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22018 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.11</title>
22021 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
22022 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
22024 Also, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
22025 columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
22026 <application>plperl</> issues described below.
22031 <title>Changes</title>
22035 <listitem><para>Fix for protocol-level Describe messages issued
22036 outside a transaction or in a failed transaction (Tom)</para></listitem>
22038 <listitem><para>Fix character string comparison for locales that consider
22039 different character combinations as equal, such as Hungarian (Tom)</para>
22040 <para>This might require <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
22041 textual columns.</para></listitem>
22043 <listitem><para>Set locale environment variables during postmaster startup
22044 to ensure that <application>plperl</> won't change the locale later</para>
22045 <para>This fixes a problem that occurred if the <application>postmaster</> was
22046 started with environment variables specifying a different locale than what
22047 <application>initdb</> had been told. Under these conditions, any use of
22048 <application>plperl</> was likely to lead to corrupt indexes. You might need
22049 <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
22050 textual columns if this has happened to you.</para></listitem>
22052 <listitem><para>Fix longstanding bug in strpos() and regular expression
22053 handling in certain rarely used Asian multi-byte character sets (Tatsuo)
22056 <listitem><para>Fix bug in <filename>/contrib/pgcrypto</> gen_salt,
22057 which caused it not to use all available salt space for MD5 and
22058 XDES algorithms (Marko Kreen, Solar Designer)</para>
22059 <para>Salts for Blowfish and standard DES are unaffected.</para></listitem>
22061 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to throw an error,
22062 rather than crashing, when the number of columns specified is different from
22063 what's actually returned by the query (Joe)</para></listitem>
22070 <sect1 id="release-7-4-10">
22071 <title>Release 7.4.10</title>
22074 <title>Release date</title>
22075 <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
22079 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.9.
22080 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22081 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22085 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.10</title>
22088 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
22089 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
22095 <title>Changes</title>
22099 <listitem><para>Fix race condition in transaction log management</para>
22100 <para>There was a narrow window in which an I/O operation could be initiated
22101 for the wrong page, leading to an Assert failure or data
22105 <listitem><para>Prevent failure if client sends Bind protocol message
22106 when current transaction is already aborted</para></listitem>
22108 <listitem><para><filename>/contrib/ltree</> fixes (Teodor)</para></listitem>
22110 <listitem><para>AIX and HPUX compile fixes (Tom)</para></listitem>
22112 <listitem><para>Fix longstanding planning error for outer joins</para>
22113 <para>This bug sometimes caused a bogus error <quote>RIGHT JOIN is
22114 only supported with merge-joinable join conditions</>.</para></listitem>
22116 <listitem><para>Prevent core dump in <application>pg_autovacuum</> when a
22117 table has been dropped</para></listitem>
22123 <sect1 id="release-7-4-9">
22124 <title>Release 7.4.9</title>
22127 <title>Release date</title>
22128 <simpara>2005-10-04</simpara>
22132 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.8.
22133 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22134 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22138 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.9</title>
22141 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
22142 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.4.8, see the release
22148 <title>Changes</title>
22151 <listitem><para>Fix error that allowed <command>VACUUM</> to remove
22152 <literal>ctid</> chains too soon, and add more checking in code that follows
22153 <literal>ctid</> links</para>
22154 <para>This fixes a long-standing problem that could cause crashes in very rare
22155 circumstances.</para></listitem>
22156 <listitem><para>Fix <type>CHAR()</> to properly pad spaces to the specified
22157 length when using a multiple-byte character set (Yoshiyuki Asaba)</para>
22158 <para>In prior releases, the padding of <type>CHAR()</> was incorrect
22159 because it only padded to the specified number of bytes without
22160 considering how many characters were stored.</para></listitem>
22161 <listitem><para>Fix the sense of the test for read-only transaction
22162 in <command>COPY</></para>
22163 <para>The code formerly prohibited <command>COPY TO</>, where it should
22164 prohibit <command>COPY FROM</>.
22166 <listitem><para>Fix planning problem with outer-join ON clauses that reference
22167 only the inner-side relation</para></listitem>
22168 <listitem><para>Further fixes for <literal>x FULL JOIN y ON true</> corner
22169 cases</para></listitem>
22170 <listitem><para>Make <function>array_in</> and <function>array_recv</> more
22171 paranoid about validating their OID parameter</para></listitem>
22172 <listitem><para>Fix missing rows in queries like <literal>UPDATE a=... WHERE
22173 a...</> with GiST index on column <literal>a</></para></listitem>
22174 <listitem><para>Improve robustness of datetime parsing</para></listitem>
22175 <listitem><para>Improve checking for partially-written WAL
22176 pages</para></listitem>
22177 <listitem><para>Improve robustness of signal handling when SSL is
22178 enabled</para></listitem>
22179 <listitem><para>Don't try to open more than <literal>max_files_per_process</>
22180 files during postmaster startup</para></listitem>
22181 <listitem><para>Various memory leakage fixes</para></listitem>
22182 <listitem><para>Various portability improvements</para></listitem>
22183 <listitem><para>Fix PL/PgSQL to handle <literal>var := var</> correctly when
22184 the variable is of pass-by-reference type</para></listitem>
22185 <listitem><para>Update <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> to use current Snowball
22186 code</para></listitem>
22192 <sect1 id="release-7-4-8">
22193 <title>Release 7.4.8</title>
22196 <title>Release date</title>
22197 <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
22201 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.7, including several
22202 security-related issues.
22203 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22204 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22208 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.8</title>
22211 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
22212 it is one possible way of handling two significant security problems
22213 that have been found in the initial contents of 7.4.X system
22214 catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 7.4.8's initdb will
22215 automatically correct these problems.
22219 The larger security problem is that the built-in character set encoding
22220 conversion functions can be invoked from SQL commands by unprivileged
22221 users, but the functions were not designed for such use and are not
22222 secure against malicious choices of arguments. The fix involves changing
22223 the declared parameter list of these functions so that they can no longer
22224 be invoked from SQL commands. (This does not affect their normal use
22225 by the encoding conversion machinery.)
22229 The lesser problem is that the <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> module
22230 creates several functions that are misdeclared to return
22231 <type>internal</> when they do not accept <type>internal</> arguments.
22232 This breaks type safety for all functions using <type>internal</>
22237 It is strongly recommended that all installations repair these errors,
22238 either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedures given
22239 below. The errors at least allow unprivileged database users to crash
22240 their server process, and might allow unprivileged users to gain the
22241 privileges of a database superuser.
22245 If you wish not to do an initdb, perform the following procedures instead.
22246 As the database superuser, do:
22250 UPDATE pg_proc SET proargtypes[3] = 'internal'::regtype
22251 WHERE pronamespace = 11 AND pronargs = 5
22252 AND proargtypes[2] = 'cstring'::regtype;
22253 -- The command should report having updated 90 rows;
22254 -- if not, rollback and investigate instead of committing!
22258 Next, if you have installed <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>, do:
22262 UPDATE pg_proc SET proargtypes[0] = 'internal'::regtype
22264 'dex_init(text)'::regprocedure,
22265 'snb_en_init(text)'::regprocedure,
22266 'snb_ru_init(text)'::regprocedure,
22267 'spell_init(text)'::regprocedure,
22268 'syn_init(text)'::regprocedure
22270 -- The command should report having updated 5 rows;
22271 -- if not, rollback and investigate instead of committing!
22275 If this command fails with a message like <quote>function
22276 "dex_init(text)" does not exist</>, then either <filename>tsearch2</>
22277 is not installed in this database, or you already did the update.
22281 The above procedures must be carried out in <emphasis>each</> database
22282 of an installation, including <literal>template1</>, and ideally
22283 including <literal>template0</> as well. If you do not fix the
22284 template databases then any subsequently created databases will contain
22285 the same errors. <literal>template1</> can be fixed in the same way
22286 as any other database, but fixing <literal>template0</> requires
22287 additional steps. First, from any database issue:
22289 UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = true WHERE datname = 'template0';
22291 Next connect to <literal>template0</> and perform the above repair
22292 procedures. Finally, do:
22294 -- re-freeze template0:
22296 -- and protect it against future alterations:
22297 UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = false WHERE datname = 'template0';
22303 <title>Changes</title>
22306 <listitem><para>Change encoding function signature to prevent
22307 misuse</para></listitem>
22308 <listitem><para>Change <filename>contrib/tsearch2</> to avoid unsafe use of
22309 <type>INTERNAL</> function results</para></listitem>
22310 <listitem><para>Repair ancient race condition that allowed a transaction to be
22311 seen as committed for some purposes (eg SELECT FOR UPDATE) slightly sooner
22312 than for other purposes</para>
22313 <para>This is an extremely serious bug since it could lead to apparent
22314 data inconsistencies being briefly visible to applications.</para></listitem>
22315 <listitem><para>Repair race condition between relation extension and
22317 <para>This could theoretically have caused loss of a page's worth of
22318 freshly-inserted data, although the scenario seems of very low probability.
22319 There are no known cases of it having caused more than an Assert failure.
22321 <listitem><para>Fix comparisons of <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> values</para>
22323 The comparison code was wrong in the case where the
22324 <literal>--enable-integer-datetimes</> configuration switch had been used.
22325 NOTE: if you have an index on a <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> column,
22326 it will need to be <command>REINDEX</>ed after installing this update, because
22327 the fix corrects the sort order of column values.
22329 <listitem><para>Fix <function>EXTRACT(EPOCH)</> for
22330 <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> values</para></listitem>
22331 <listitem><para>Fix mis-display of negative fractional seconds in
22332 <type>INTERVAL</> values</para>
22334 This error only occurred when the
22335 <literal>--enable-integer-datetimes</> configuration switch had been used.
22337 <listitem><para>Ensure operations done during backend shutdown are counted by
22338 statistics collector</para>
22340 This is expected to resolve reports of <application>pg_autovacuum</>
22341 not vacuuming the system catalogs often enough — it was not being
22342 told about catalog deletions caused by temporary table removal during
22345 <listitem><para>Additional buffer overrun checks in plpgsql
22346 (Neil)</para></listitem>
22347 <listitem><para>Fix pg_dump to dump trigger names containing <literal>%</>
22348 correctly (Neil)</para></listitem>
22349 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</> for newer OpenSSL builds
22350 (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
22351 <listitem><para>Still more 64-bit fixes for
22352 <filename>contrib/intagg</></para></listitem>
22353 <listitem><para>Prevent incorrect optimization of functions returning
22354 <type>RECORD</></para></listitem>
22355 <listitem><para>Prevent <function>to_char(interval)</> from dumping core for
22356 month-related formats</para></listitem>
22357 <listitem><para>Prevent crash on <literal>COALESCE(NULL,NULL)</></para></listitem>
22358 <listitem><para>Fix <function>array_map</> to call PL functions correctly</para></listitem>
22359 <listitem><para>Fix permission checking in <command>ALTER DATABASE RENAME</></para></listitem>
22360 <listitem><para>Fix <command>ALTER LANGUAGE RENAME</></para></listitem>
22361 <listitem><para>Make <function>RemoveFromWaitQueue</> clean up after itself</para>
22363 This fixes a lock management error that would only be visible if a transaction
22364 was kicked out of a wait for a lock (typically by query cancel) and then the
22365 holder of the lock released it within a very narrow window.
22367 <listitem><para>Fix problem with untyped parameter appearing in
22368 <command>INSERT ... SELECT</></para></listitem>
22369 <listitem><para>Fix <command>CLUSTER</> failure after
22370 <command>ALTER TABLE SET WITHOUT OIDS</></para></listitem>
22376 <sect1 id="release-7-4-7">
22377 <title>Release 7.4.7</title>
22380 <title>Release date</title>
22381 <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
22385 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.6, including several
22386 security-related issues.
22387 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22388 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22392 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.7</title>
22395 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
22400 <title>Changes</title>
22403 <listitem><para>Disallow <command>LOAD</> to non-superusers</para>
22405 On platforms that will automatically execute initialization functions of a
22406 shared library (this includes at least Windows and ELF-based Unixen),
22407 <command>LOAD</> can be used to make the server execute arbitrary code.
22408 Thanks to NGS Software for reporting this.</para></listitem>
22409 <listitem><para>Check that creator of an aggregate function has the right to
22410 execute the specified transition functions</para>
22412 This oversight made it possible to bypass denial of EXECUTE
22413 permission on a function.</para></listitem>
22414 <listitem><para>Fix security and 64-bit issues in
22415 contrib/intagg</para></listitem>
22416 <listitem><para>Add needed STRICT marking to some contrib functions (Kris
22417 Jurka)</para></listitem>
22418 <listitem><para>Avoid buffer overrun when plpgsql cursor declaration has too
22419 many parameters (Neil)</para></listitem>
22420 <listitem><para>Fix planning error for FULL and RIGHT outer joins</para>
22422 The result of the join was mistakenly supposed to be sorted the same as the
22423 left input. This could not only deliver mis-sorted output to the user, but
22424 in case of nested merge joins could give outright wrong answers.
22426 <listitem><para>Fix plperl for quote marks in tuple fields</para></listitem>
22427 <listitem><para>Fix display of negative intervals in SQL and GERMAN
22428 datestyles</para></listitem>
22429 <listitem><para>Make age(timestamptz) do calculation in local timezone not
22430 GMT</para></listitem>
22436 <sect1 id="release-7-4-6">
22437 <title>Release 7.4.6</title>
22440 <title>Release date</title>
22441 <simpara>2004-10-22</simpara>
22445 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.5.
22446 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22447 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22452 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.6</title>
22455 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
22460 <title>Changes</title>
22463 <listitem><para>Repair possible failure to update hint bits on disk</para>
22465 Under rare circumstances this oversight could lead to
22466 <quote>could not access transaction status</> failures, which qualifies
22467 it as a potential-data-loss bug.
22469 <listitem><para>Ensure that hashed outer join does not miss tuples</para>
22471 Very large left joins using a hash join plan could fail to output unmatched
22472 left-side rows given just the right data distribution.
22474 <listitem><para>Disallow running <application>pg_ctl</> as root</para>
22476 This is to guard against any possible security issues.
22478 <listitem><para>Avoid using temp files in <filename>/tmp</> in <command>make_oidjoins_check</command></para>
22480 This has been reported as a security issue, though it's hardly worthy of
22481 concern since there is no reason for non-developers to use this script anyway.
22483 <listitem><para>Prevent forced backend shutdown from re-emitting prior command
22486 In rare cases, a client might think that its last command had succeeded when
22487 it really had been aborted by forced database shutdown.
22489 <listitem><para>Repair bug in <function>pg_stat_get_backend_idset</function></para>
22491 This could lead to misbehavior in some of the system-statistics views.
22493 <listitem><para>Fix small memory leak in postmaster</para></listitem>
22494 <listitem><para>Fix <quote>expected both swapped tables to have TOAST
22495 tables</> bug</para>
22497 This could arise in cases such as CLUSTER after ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN.
22499 <listitem><para>Prevent <literal>pg_ctl restart</> from adding <literal>-D</> multiple times</para></listitem>
22500 <listitem><para>Fix problem with NULL values in GiST indexes</para></listitem>
22501 <listitem><para><literal>::</> is no longer interpreted as a variable in an
22502 ECPG prepare statement</para></listitem>
22508 <sect1 id="release-7-4-5">
22509 <title>Release 7.4.5</title>
22512 <title>Release date</title>
22513 <simpara>2004-08-18</simpara>
22517 This release contains one serious bug fix over 7.4.4.
22518 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22519 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22524 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.5</title>
22527 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
22532 <title>Changes</title>
22535 <listitem><para>Repair possible crash during concurrent B-tree index insertions</para>
22537 This patch fixes a rare case in which concurrent insertions into a B-tree index
22538 could result in a server panic. No permanent damage would result, but it's
22539 still worth a re-release. The bug does not exist in pre-7.4 releases.
22546 <sect1 id="release-7-4-4">
22547 <title>Release 7.4.4</title>
22550 <title>Release date</title>
22551 <simpara>2004-08-16</simpara>
22555 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.3.
22556 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22557 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22562 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.4</title>
22565 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
22570 <title>Changes</title>
22573 <listitem><para>Prevent possible loss of committed transactions during crash</para>
22575 Due to insufficient interlocking between transaction commit and checkpointing,
22576 it was possible for transactions committed just before the most recent
22577 checkpoint to be lost, in whole or in part, following a database crash and
22578 restart. This is a serious bug that has existed
22579 since <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 7.1.
22581 <listitem><para>Check HAVING restriction before evaluating result list of an
22582 aggregate plan</para></listitem>
22583 <listitem><para>Avoid crash when session's current user ID is deleted</para></listitem>
22584 <listitem><para>Fix hashed crosstab for zero-rows case (Joe)</para></listitem>
22585 <listitem><para>Force cache update after renaming a column in a foreign key</para></listitem>
22586 <listitem><para>Pretty-print UNION queries correctly</para></listitem>
22587 <listitem><para>Make psql handle <literal>\r\n</> newlines properly in COPY IN</para></listitem>
22588 <listitem><para><application>pg_dump</> handled ACLs with grant options incorrectly</para></listitem>
22589 <listitem><para>Fix thread support for OS X and Solaris</para></listitem>
22590 <listitem><para>Updated JDBC driver (build 215) with various fixes</para></listitem>
22591 <listitem><para>ECPG fixes</para></listitem>
22592 <listitem><para>Translation updates (various contributors)</para></listitem>
22598 <sect1 id="release-7-4-3">
22599 <title>Release 7.4.3</title>
22602 <title>Release date</title>
22603 <simpara>2004-06-14</simpara>
22607 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.2.
22608 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22609 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22614 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.3</title>
22617 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X.
22622 <title>Changes</title>
22625 <listitem><para>Fix temporary memory leak when using non-hashed aggregates (Tom)</para></listitem>
22626 <listitem><para>ECPG fixes, including some for Informix compatibility (Michael)</para></listitem>
22627 <listitem><para>Fixes for compiling with thread-safety, particularly Solaris (Bruce)</para></listitem>
22628 <listitem><para>Fix error in COPY IN termination when using the old network protocol (ljb)</para></listitem>
22629 <listitem><para>Several important fixes in pg_autovacuum, including fixes for
22630 large tables, unsigned oids, stability, temp tables, and debug mode
22631 (Matthew T. O'Connor)</para></listitem>
22632 <listitem><para>Fix problem with reading tar-format dumps on NetBSD and BSD/OS (Bruce)</para></listitem>
22633 <listitem><para>Several JDBC fixes</para></listitem>
22634 <listitem><para>Fix ALTER SEQUENCE RESTART where last_value equals the restart value (Tom)</para></listitem>
22635 <listitem><para>Repair failure to recalculate nested sub-selects (Tom)</para></listitem>
22636 <listitem><para>Fix problems with non-constant expressions in LIMIT/OFFSET</para></listitem>
22637 <listitem><para>Support FULL JOIN with no join clause, such as X FULL JOIN Y ON TRUE (Tom)</para></listitem>
22638 <listitem><para>Fix another zero-column table bug (Tom)</para></listitem>
22639 <listitem><para>Improve handling of non-qualified identifiers in GROUP BY clauses in sub-selects (Tom)</para>
22641 Select-list aliases within the sub-select will now take precedence over
22642 names from outer query levels.
22644 <listitem><para>Do not generate <quote>NATURAL CROSS JOIN</> when decompiling rules (Tom)</para></listitem>
22645 <listitem><para>Add checks for invalid field length in binary COPY (Tom)</para>
22647 This fixes a difficult-to-exploit security hole.
22649 <listitem><para>Avoid locking conflict between <command>ANALYZE</command> and <command>LISTEN</command>/<command>NOTIFY</command></para></listitem>
22650 <listitem><para>Numerous translation updates (various contributors)</para></listitem>
22656 <sect1 id="release-7-4-2">
22657 <title>Release 7.4.2</title>
22660 <title>Release date</title>
22661 <simpara>2004-03-08</simpara>
22665 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.1.
22666 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22667 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22672 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.2</title>
22675 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.4.X. However,
22676 it might be advisable as the easiest method of incorporating fixes for
22677 two errors that have been found in the initial contents of 7.4.X system
22678 catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 7.4.2's initdb will
22679 automatically correct these problems.
22683 The more severe of the two errors is that data type <type>anyarray</>
22684 has the wrong alignment label; this is a problem because the
22685 <structname>pg_statistic</> system catalog uses <type>anyarray</>
22686 columns. The mislabeling can cause planner misestimations and even
22687 crashes when planning queries that involve <literal>WHERE</> clauses on
22688 double-aligned columns (such as <type>float8</> and <type>timestamp</>).
22689 It is strongly recommended that all installations repair this error,
22690 either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedure given
22695 The lesser error is that the system view <structname>pg_settings</>
22696 ought to be marked as having public update access, to allow
22697 <literal>UPDATE pg_settings</> to be used as a substitute for
22698 <command>SET</>. This can also be fixed either by initdb or manually,
22699 but it is not necessary to fix unless you want to use <literal>UPDATE
22704 If you wish not to do an initdb, the following procedure will work
22705 for fixing <structname>pg_statistic</>. As the database superuser,
22709 -- clear out old data in pg_statistic:
22710 DELETE FROM pg_statistic;
22711 VACUUM pg_statistic;
22712 -- this should update 1 row:
22713 UPDATE pg_type SET typalign = 'd' WHERE oid = 2277;
22714 -- this should update 6 rows:
22715 UPDATE pg_attribute SET attalign = 'd' WHERE atttypid = 2277;
22717 -- At this point you MUST start a fresh backend to avoid a crash!
22719 -- repopulate pg_statistic:
22723 This can be done in a live database, but beware that all backends
22724 running in the altered database must be restarted before it is safe to
22725 repopulate <structname>pg_statistic</>.
22729 To repair the <structname>pg_settings</> error, simply do:
22731 GRANT SELECT, UPDATE ON pg_settings TO PUBLIC;
22736 The above procedures must be carried out in <emphasis>each</> database
22737 of an installation, including <literal>template1</>, and ideally
22738 including <literal>template0</> as well. If you do not fix the
22739 template databases then any subsequently created databases will contain
22740 the same errors. <literal>template1</> can be fixed in the same way
22741 as any other database, but fixing <literal>template0</> requires
22742 additional steps. First, from any database issue:
22744 UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = true WHERE datname = 'template0';
22746 Next connect to <literal>template0</> and perform the above repair
22747 procedures. Finally, do:
22749 -- re-freeze template0:
22751 -- and protect it against future alterations:
22752 UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = false WHERE datname = 'template0';
22758 <title>Changes</title>
22761 Release 7.4.2 incorporates all the fixes included in release 7.3.6,
22762 plus the following fixes:
22766 <listitem><para>Fix <structname>pg_statistics</> alignment bug that could crash optimizer</para>
22767 <para>See above for details about this problem.</para></listitem>
22768 <listitem><para>Allow non-super users to update <structname>pg_settings</></para></listitem>
22769 <listitem><para>Fix several optimizer bugs, most of which led to
22770 <quote>variable not found in subplan target lists</> errors</para></listitem>
22771 <listitem><para>Avoid out-of-memory failure during startup of large multiple
22772 index scan</para></listitem>
22773 <listitem><para>Fix multibyte problem that could lead to <quote>out of
22774 memory</> error during <command>COPY IN</></para></listitem>
22775 <listitem><para>Fix problems with <command>SELECT INTO</> / <command>CREATE
22776 TABLE AS</> from tables without OIDs</para></listitem>
22777 <listitem><para>Fix problems with <filename>alter_table</> regression test
22778 during parallel testing</para></listitem>
22779 <listitem><para>Fix problems with hitting open file limit, especially on OS X (Tom)</para></listitem>
22780 <listitem><para>Partial fix for Turkish-locale issues</para>
22781 <para>initdb will succeed now in Turkish locale, but there are still some
22782 inconveniences associated with the <literal>i/I</> problem.</para></listitem>
22783 <listitem><para>Make pg_dump set client encoding on restore</para></listitem>
22784 <listitem><para>Other minor pg_dump fixes</para></listitem>
22785 <listitem><para>Allow ecpg to again use C keywords as column names (Michael)</para></listitem>
22786 <listitem><para>Added ecpg <literal>WHENEVER NOT_FOUND</> to
22787 <literal>SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE</> (Michael)</para></listitem>
22788 <listitem><para>Fix ecpg crash for queries calling set-returning functions (Michael)</para></listitem>
22789 <listitem><para>Various other ecpg fixes (Michael)</para></listitem>
22790 <listitem><para>Fixes for Borland compiler</para></listitem>
22791 <listitem><para>Thread build improvements (Bruce)</para></listitem>
22792 <listitem><para>Various other build fixes</para></listitem>
22793 <listitem><para>Various JDBC fixes</para></listitem>
22799 <sect1 id="release-7-4-1">
22800 <title>Release 7.4.1</title>
22803 <title>Release date</title>
22804 <simpara>2003-12-22</simpara>
22808 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.4.
22809 For information about new features in the 7.4 major release, see
22810 <xref linkend="release-7-4">.
22815 <title>Migration to Version 7.4.1</title>
22818 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
22823 If you want to install the fixes in the information schema
22824 you need to reload it into the database.
22825 This is either accomplished by initializing a new cluster
22826 by running <command>initdb</command>, or by running the following
22827 sequence of SQL commands in each database (ideally including
22828 <literal>template1</literal>) as a superuser in
22829 <application>psql</application>, after installing the new release:
22831 DROP SCHEMA information_schema CASCADE;
22832 \i /usr/local/pgsql/share/information_schema.sql
22834 Substitute your installation path in the second command.
22840 <title>Changes</title>
22843 <listitem><para>Fixed bug in <command>CREATE SCHEMA</command> parsing in ECPG (Michael)</para></listitem>
22844 <listitem><para>Fix compile error when <option>--enable-thread-safety</option> and <option>--with-perl</option> are used together (Peter)</para></listitem>
22845 <listitem><para>Fix for subqueries that used hash joins (Tom)</para>
22847 Certain subqueries that used hash joins would crash because of
22848 improperly shared structures.
22850 <listitem><para>Fix free space map compaction bug (Tom)</para>
22852 This fixes a bug where compaction of the free space map could lead
22853 to a database server shutdown.
22856 <listitem><para>Fix for Borland compiler build of libpq (Bruce)</para></listitem>
22857 <listitem><para>Fix <function>netmask()</function> and <function>hostmask()</function> to return the maximum-length masklen (Tom)</para>
22859 Fix these functions to return values consistent with pre-7.4
22863 <listitem><para>Several <filename>contrib/pg_autovacuum</filename> fixes</para>
22865 Fixes include improper variable initialization, missing vacuum after
22866 <command>TRUNCATE</command>, and duration computation overflow for long vacuums.
22869 <listitem><para>Allow compile of <filename>contrib/cube</filename> under Cygwin (Jason Tishler)</para></listitem>
22870 <listitem><para>Fix Solaris use of password file when no passwords are defined (Tom)</para>
22872 Fix crash on Solaris caused by use of any type of password
22873 authentication when no passwords were defined.
22876 <listitem><para>JDBC fix for thread problems, other fixes</para></listitem>
22877 <listitem><para>Fix for <type>bytea</type> index lookups (Joe)</para></listitem>
22878 <listitem><para>Fix information schema for bit data types (Peter)</para></listitem>
22879 <listitem><para>Force zero_damaged_pages to be on during recovery from WAL</para></listitem>
22880 <listitem><para>Prevent some obscure cases of <quote>variable not in subplan target lists</quote></para></listitem>
22881 <listitem><para>Make <function>PQescapeBytea</function> and <function>byteaout</function> consistent with each other (Joe)</para></listitem>
22882 <listitem><para>Escape <type>bytea</type> output for bytes > 0x7e(Joe)</para>
22884 If different client encodings are used for <type>bytea</type> output and input, it
22885 is possible for <type>bytea</type> values to be corrupted by the differing
22886 encodings. This fix escapes all bytes that might be affected.
22889 <listitem><para>Added missing <function>SPI_finish()</function> calls to dblink's <function>get_tuple_of_interest()</function> (Joe)</para></listitem>
22890 <listitem><para>New Czech FAQ</para></listitem>
22891 <listitem><para>Fix information schema view <literal>constraint_column_usage</literal> for foreign keys (Peter)</para></listitem>
22892 <listitem><para>ECPG fixes (Michael)</para></listitem>
22893 <listitem><para>Fix bug with multiple <literal>IN</literal> subqueries and joins in the subqueries (Tom)</para></listitem>
22894 <listitem><para>Allow <literal>COUNT('x')</literal> to work (Tom)</para></listitem>
22895 <listitem><para>Install ECPG include files for Informix compatibility into separate directory (Peter)</para>
22897 Some names of ECPG include files for Informix compatibility conflicted with operating system include files.
22898 By installing them in their own directory, name conflicts have been reduced.
22901 <listitem><para>Fix SSL memory leak (Neil)</para>
22903 This release fixes a bug in 7.4 where SSL didn't free all memory it allocated.
22906 <listitem><para>Prevent <filename>pg_service.conf</filename> from using service name as default dbname (Bruce)</para></listitem>
22907 <listitem><para>Fix local ident authentication on FreeBSD (Tom)</para></listitem>
22913 <sect1 id="release-7-4">
22914 <title>Release 7.4</title>
22917 <title>Release date</title>
22918 <simpara>2003-11-17</simpara>
22922 <title>Overview</title>
22925 Major changes in this release:
22931 <literal>IN</literal> / <literal>NOT IN</literal> subqueries are
22932 now much more efficient
22937 In previous releases, <literal>IN</literal>/<literal>NOT
22938 IN</literal> subqueries were joined to the upper query by
22939 sequentially scanning the subquery looking for a match. The
22940 7.4 code uses the same sophisticated techniques used by
22941 ordinary joins and so is much faster. An
22942 <literal>IN</literal> will now usually be as fast as or faster
22943 than an equivalent <literal>EXISTS</literal> subquery; this
22944 reverses the conventional wisdom that applied to previous
22952 Improved <literal>GROUP BY</literal> processing by using hash buckets
22957 In previous releases, rows to be grouped had to be sorted
22958 first. The 7.4 code can do <literal>GROUP BY</literal>
22959 without sorting, by accumulating results into a hash table
22960 with one entry per group. It will still use the sort
22961 technique, however, if the hash table is estimated to be too
22962 large to fit in <varname>sort_mem</>.
22969 New multikey hash join capability
22974 In previous releases, hash joins could only occur on single
22975 keys. This release allows multicolumn hash joins.
22982 Queries using the explicit <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax are
22983 now better optimized
22988 Prior releases evaluated queries using the explicit
22989 <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax only in the order implied by
22990 the syntax. 7.4 allows full optimization of these queries,
22991 meaning the optimizer considers all possible join orderings
22992 and chooses the most efficient. Outer joins, however, must
22993 still follow the declared ordering.
23000 Faster and more powerful regular expression code
23005 The entire regular expression module has been replaced with a
23006 new version by Henry Spencer, originally written for Tcl. The
23007 code greatly improves performance and supports several flavors
23008 of regular expressions.
23015 Function-inlining for simple SQL functions
23020 Simple SQL functions can now be inlined by including their SQL
23021 in the main query. This improves performance by eliminating
23022 per-call overhead. That means simple SQL functions now
23023 behave like macros.
23030 Full support for IPv6 connections and IPv6 address data types
23035 Previous releases allowed only IPv4 connections, and the IP
23036 data types only supported IPv4 addresses. This release adds
23037 full IPv6 support in both of these areas.
23044 Major improvements in SSL performance and reliability
23049 Several people very familiar with the SSL API have overhauled
23050 our SSL code to improve SSL key negotiation and error
23058 Make free space map efficiently reuse empty index pages,
23059 and other free space management improvements
23064 In previous releases, B-tree index pages that were left empty
23065 because of deleted rows could only be reused by rows with
23066 index values similar to the rows originally indexed on that
23067 page. In 7.4, <command>VACUUM</command> records empty index
23068 pages and allows them to be reused for any future index rows.
23075 SQL-standard information schema
23080 The information schema provides a standardized and stable way
23081 to access information about the schema objects defined in a
23089 Cursors conform more closely to the SQL standard
23094 The commands <command>FETCH</command> and
23095 <command>MOVE</command> have been overhauled to conform more
23096 closely to the SQL standard.
23103 Cursors can exist outside transactions
23108 These cursors are also called holdable cursors.
23115 New client-to-server protocol
23120 The new protocol adds error codes, more status information,
23121 faster startup, better support for binary data transmission,
23122 parameter values separated from SQL commands, prepared
23123 statements available at the protocol level, and cleaner
23124 recovery from <command>COPY</command> failures. The older
23125 protocol is still supported by both server and clients.
23132 <application>libpq</application> and
23133 <application>ECPG</application> applications are now fully
23139 While previous <application>libpq</application> releases
23140 already supported threads, this release improves thread safety
23141 by fixing some non-thread-safe code that was used during
23142 database connection startup. The <command>configure</command>
23143 option <option>--enable-thread-safety</option> must be used to
23144 enable this feature.
23151 New version of full-text indexing
23156 A new full-text indexing suite is available in
23157 <filename>contrib/tsearch2</filename>.
23164 New autovacuum tool
23169 The new autovacuum tool in
23170 <filename>contrib/autovacuum</filename> monitors the database
23171 statistics tables for
23172 <command>INSERT</command>/<command>UPDATE</command>/<command>DELETE</command>
23173 activity and automatically vacuums tables when needed.
23180 Array handling has been improved and moved into the server core
23185 Many array limitations have been removed, and arrays behave
23186 more like fully-supported data types.
23195 <title>Migration to Version 7.4</title>
23198 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is
23199 required for those wishing to migrate data from any previous
23204 Observe the following incompatibilities:
23210 The server-side autocommit setting was removed and
23211 reimplemented in client applications and languages.
23212 Server-side autocommit was causing too many problems with
23213 languages and applications that wanted to control their own
23214 autocommit behavior, so autocommit was removed from the server
23215 and added to individual client APIs as appropriate.
23221 Error message wording has changed substantially in this
23222 release. Significant effort was invested to make the messages
23223 more consistent and user-oriented. If your applications try to
23224 detect different error conditions by parsing the error message,
23225 you are strongly encouraged to use the new error code facility instead.
23231 Inner joins using the explicit <literal>JOIN</literal> syntax
23232 might behave differently because they are now better
23239 A number of server configuration parameters have been renamed
23240 for clarity, primarily those related to
23247 <literal>FETCH 0</literal> or <literal>MOVE 0</literal> now
23248 does nothing. In prior releases, <literal>FETCH 0</literal>
23249 would fetch all remaining rows, and <literal>MOVE 0</literal>
23250 would move to the end of the cursor.
23256 <command>FETCH</command> and <command>MOVE</command> now return
23257 the actual number of rows fetched/moved, or zero if at the
23258 beginning/end of the cursor. Prior releases would return the
23259 row count passed to the command, not the number of rows
23260 actually fetched or moved.
23266 <command>COPY</command> now can process files that use
23267 carriage-return or carriage-return/line-feed end-of-line
23268 sequences. Literal carriage-returns and line-feeds are no
23269 longer accepted in data values; use <literal>\r</literal> and
23270 <literal>\n</literal> instead.
23276 Trailing spaces are now trimmed when converting from type
23277 <type>char(<replaceable>n</>)</type> to
23278 <type>varchar(<replaceable>n</>)</type> or <type>text</type>.
23279 This is what most people always expected to happen anyway.
23285 The data type <type>float(<replaceable>p</>)</type> now
23286 measures <replaceable>p</> in binary digits, not decimal
23287 digits. The new behavior follows the SQL standard.
23293 Ambiguous date values now must match the ordering specified by
23294 the <varname>datestyle</varname> setting. In prior releases, a
23295 date specification of <literal>10/20/03</> was interpreted as a
23296 date in October even if <varname>datestyle</> specified that
23297 the day should be first. 7.4 will throw an error if a date
23298 specification is invalid for the current setting of
23299 <varname>datestyle</>.
23305 The functions <function>oidrand</function>,
23306 <function>oidsrand</function>, and
23307 <function>userfntest</function> have been removed. These
23308 functions were determined to be no longer useful.
23314 String literals specifying time-varying date/time values, such
23315 as <literal>'now'</literal> or <literal>'today'</literal> will
23316 no longer work as expected in column default expressions; they
23317 now cause the time of the table creation to be the default, not
23318 the time of the insertion. Functions such as
23319 <function>now()</>, <function>current_timestamp</>, or
23320 <function>current_date</function> should be used instead.
23324 In previous releases, there was special code so that strings
23325 such as <literal>'now'</literal> were interpreted at
23326 <command>INSERT</> time and not at table creation time, but
23327 this work around didn't cover all cases. Release 7.4 now
23328 requires that defaults be defined properly using functions such
23329 as <function>now()</> or <function>current_timestamp</>. These
23330 will work in all situations.
23336 The dollar sign (<literal>$</>) is no longer allowed in
23337 operator names. It can instead be a non-first character in
23338 identifiers. This was done to improve compatibility with other
23339 database systems, and to avoid syntax problems when parameter
23340 placeholders (<literal>$<replaceable>n</></>) are written
23341 adjacent to operators.
23349 <title>Changes</title>
23352 Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
23353 release 7.4 and the previous major release.
23357 <title>Server Operation Changes</title>
23362 Allow IPv6 server connections (Nigel Kukard, Johan Jordaan,
23363 Bruce, Tom, Kurt Roeckx, Andrew Dunstan)
23369 Fix SSL to handle errors cleanly (Nathan Mueller)
23372 In prior releases, certain SSL API error reports were not
23373 handled correctly. This release fixes those problems.
23379 SSL protocol security and performance improvements (Sean Chittenden)
23382 SSL key renegotiation was happening too frequently, causing poor
23383 SSL performance. Also, initial key handling was improved.
23389 Print lock information when a deadlock is detected (Tom)
23392 This allows easier debugging of deadlock situations.
23398 Update <filename>/tmp</filename> socket modification times
23399 regularly to avoid their removal (Tom)
23402 This should help prevent <filename>/tmp</filename> directory
23403 cleaner administration scripts from removing server socket
23408 <listitem><para>Enable PAM for Mac OS X (Aaron Hillegass)</para></listitem>
23411 <para>Make B-tree indexes fully WAL-safe (Tom)</para>
23413 In prior releases, under certain rare cases, a server crash
23414 could cause B-tree indexes to become corrupt. This release
23415 removes those last few rare cases.
23419 <listitem><para>Allow B-tree index compaction and empty page reuse (Tom)</para></listitem>
23423 Fix inconsistent index lookups during split of first root page (Tom)
23426 In prior releases, when a single-page index split into two
23427 pages, there was a brief period when another database session
23428 could miss seeing an index entry. This release fixes that rare
23433 <listitem><para>Improve free space map allocation logic (Tom)</para></listitem>
23436 <para>Preserve free space information between server restarts (Tom)</para>
23438 In prior releases, the free space map was not saved when the
23439 postmaster was stopped, so newly started servers had no free
23440 space information. This release saves the free space map, and
23441 reloads it when the server is restarted.
23445 <listitem><para>Add start time to <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal> (Neil)</para></listitem>
23446 <listitem><para>New code to detect corrupt disk pages; erase with <varname>zero_damaged_pages</varname> (Tom)</para></listitem>
23447 <listitem><para>New client/server protocol: faster, no username length limit, allow clean exit from <command>COPY</command> (Tom)</para></listitem>
23448 <listitem><para>Add transaction status, table ID, column ID to client/server protocol (Tom)</para></listitem>
23449 <listitem><para>Add binary I/O to client/server protocol (Tom)</para></listitem>
23450 <listitem><para>Remove autocommit server setting; move to client applications (Tom)</para></listitem>
23451 <listitem><para>New error message wording, error codes, and three levels of error detail (Tom, Joe, Peter)</para></listitem>
23456 <title>Performance Improvements</title>
23459 <listitem><para>Add hashing for <literal>GROUP BY</literal> aggregates (Tom)</para></listitem>
23460 <listitem><para>Make nested-loop joins be smarter about multicolumn indexes (Tom)</para></listitem>
23461 <listitem><para>Allow multikey hash joins (Tom)</para></listitem>
23462 <listitem><para>Improve constant folding (Tom)</para></listitem>
23463 <listitem><para>Add ability to inline simple SQL functions (Tom)</para></listitem>
23466 <para>Reduce memory usage for queries using complex functions (Tom)</para>
23468 In prior releases, functions returning allocated memory would
23469 not free it until the query completed. This release allows the
23470 freeing of function-allocated memory when the function call
23471 completes, reducing the total memory used by functions.
23476 <para>Improve GEQO optimizer performance (Tom)</para>
23478 This release fixes several inefficiencies in the way the GEQO optimizer
23479 manages potential query paths.
23485 Allow <literal>IN</>/<literal>NOT IN</> to be handled via hash
23492 Improve <literal>NOT IN (<replaceable>subquery</>)</literal>
23499 Allow most <literal>IN</literal> subqueries to be processed as
23506 Pattern matching operations can use indexes regardless of
23510 There is no way for non-ASCII locales to use the standard
23511 indexes for <literal>LIKE</literal> comparisons. This release
23512 adds a way to create a special index for
23513 <literal>LIKE</literal>.
23518 <para>Allow the postmaster to preload libraries using <varname>preload_libraries</varname> (Joe)</para>
23520 For shared libraries that require a long time to load, this
23521 option is available so the library can be preloaded in the
23522 postmaster and inherited by all database sessions.
23528 Improve optimizer cost computations, particularly for subqueries (Tom)
23534 Avoid sort when subquery <literal>ORDER BY</literal> matches upper query (Tom)
23540 Deduce that <literal>WHERE a.x = b.y AND b.y = 42</literal> also
23541 means <literal>a.x = 42</literal> (Tom)
23547 Allow hash/merge joins on complex joins (Tom)
23553 Allow hash joins for more data types (Tom)
23559 Allow join optimization of explicit inner joins, disable with
23560 <varname>join_collapse_limit</varname> (Tom)
23566 Add parameter <varname>from_collapse_limit</varname> to control
23567 conversion of subqueries to joins (Tom)
23573 Use faster and more powerful regular expression code from Tcl
23574 (Henry Spencer, Tom)
23580 Use bit-mapped relation sets in the optimizer (Tom)
23585 <para>Improve connection startup time (Tom)</para>
23587 The new client/server protocol requires fewer network packets to
23588 start a database session.
23594 Improve trigger/constraint performance (Stephan)
23600 Improve speed of <literal>col IN (const, const, const, ...)</literal> (Tom)
23606 Fix hash indexes which were broken in rare cases (Tom)
23610 <listitem><para>Improve hash index concurrency and speed (Tom)</para>
23612 Prior releases suffered from poor hash index performance,
23613 particularly for high concurrency situations. This release fixes
23614 that, and the development group is interested in reports
23615 comparing B-tree and hash index performance.
23620 <para>Align shared buffers on 32-byte boundary for copy speed improvement (Manfred Spraul)</para>
23622 Certain CPU's perform faster data copies when addresses are
23628 <para>Data type <type>numeric</type> reimplemented for better performance (Tom)</para>
23630 <type>numeric</type> used to be stored in base 100. The new code
23631 uses base 10000, for significantly better performance.
23638 <title>Server Configuration Changes</title>
23642 <para>Rename server parameter <varname>server_min_messages</> to <varname>log_min_messages</> (Bruce)</para>
23644 This was done so most parameters that control the server logs
23645 begin with <literal>log_</>.
23649 <listitem><para>Rename <varname>show_*_stats</> to <varname>log_*_stats</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
23650 <listitem><para>Rename <varname>show_source_port</> to <varname>log_source_port</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
23651 <listitem><para>Rename <varname>hostname_lookup</> to <varname>log_hostname</> (Bruce)</para></listitem>
23654 <para>Add <varname>checkpoint_warning</> to warn of excessive checkpointing (Bruce)</para>
23656 In prior releases, it was difficult to determine if checkpoint
23657 was happening too frequently. This feature adds a warning to the
23658 server logs when excessive checkpointing happens.
23662 <listitem><para>New read-only server parameters for localization (Tom)</para></listitem>
23666 Change debug server log messages to output as <literal>DEBUG</>
23667 rather than <literal>LOG</> (Bruce)
23672 <para>Prevent server log variables from being turned off by non-superusers (Bruce)</para>
23674 This is a security feature so non-superusers cannot disable
23675 logging that was enabled by the administrator.
23681 <varname>log_min_messages</>/<varname>client_min_messages</> now
23682 controls <varname>debug_*</> output (Bruce)
23685 This centralizes client debug information so all debug output
23686 can be sent to either the client or server logs.
23691 <para>Add Mac OS X Rendezvous server support (Chris Campbell)</para>
23693 This allows Mac OS X hosts to query the network for available
23694 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> servers.
23700 Add ability to print only slow statements using
23701 <varname>log_min_duration_statement</varname>
23705 This is an often requested debugging feature that allows
23706 administrators to see only slow queries in their server logs.
23711 <para>Allow <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> to accept netmasks in CIDR format (Andrew Dunstan)</para>
23713 This allows administrators to merge the host IP address and
23714 netmask fields into a single CIDR field in <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename>.
23718 <listitem><para>New read-only parameter <varname>is_superuser</varname> (Tom)</para></listitem>
23721 <para>New parameter <varname>log_error_verbosity</varname> to control error detail (Tom)</para>
23723 This works with the new error reporting feature to supply
23724 additional error information like hints, file names and line
23730 <para><literal>postgres --describe-config</literal> now dumps server config variables (Aizaz Ahmed, Peter)</para>
23732 This option is useful for administration tools that need to know
23733 the configuration variable names and their minimums, maximums,
23734 defaults, and descriptions.
23740 Add new columns in <literal>pg_settings</literal>:
23741 <literal>context</>, <literal>type</>, <literal>source</>,
23742 <literal>min_val</>, <literal>max_val</> (Joe)
23748 Make default <varname>shared_buffers</> 1000 and
23749 <varname>max_connections</> 100, if possible (Tom)
23752 Prior versions defaulted to 64 shared buffers so <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
23753 would start on even very old systems. This release tests the
23754 amount of shared memory allowed by the platform and selects more
23755 reasonable default values if possible. Of course, users are
23756 still encouraged to evaluate their resource load and size
23757 <varname>shared_buffers</varname> accordingly.
23763 New <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> record type
23764 <literal>hostnossl</> to prevent SSL connections (Jon
23768 In prior releases, there was no way to prevent SSL connections
23769 if both the client and server supported SSL. This option allows
23776 Remove parameter <varname>geqo_random_seed</varname>
23783 Add server parameter <varname>regex_flavor</varname> to control regular expression processing (Tom)
23789 Make <command>pg_ctl</command> better handle nonstandard ports (Greg)
23796 <title>Query Changes</title>
23799 <listitem><para>New SQL-standard information schema (Peter)</para></listitem>
23800 <listitem><para>Add read-only transactions (Peter)</para></listitem>
23801 <listitem><para>Print key name and value in foreign-key violation messages (Dmitry Tkach)</para></listitem>
23804 <para>Allow users to see their own queries in <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal> (Kevin Brown)</para>
23806 In prior releases, only the superuser could see query strings
23807 using <literal>pg_stat_activity</literal>. Now ordinary users
23808 can see their own query strings.
23813 <para>Fix aggregates in subqueries to match SQL standard (Tom)</para>
23815 The SQL standard says that an aggregate function appearing
23816 within a nested subquery belongs to the outer query if its
23817 argument contains only outer-query variables. Prior
23818 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> releases did not handle
23819 this fine point correctly.
23824 <para>Add option to prevent auto-addition of tables referenced in query (Nigel J. Andrews)</para>
23826 By default, tables mentioned in the query are automatically
23827 added to the <literal>FROM</> clause if they are not already
23828 there. This is compatible with historic
23829 <productname>POSTGRES</productname> behavior but is contrary to
23830 the SQL standard. This option allows selecting
23831 standard-compatible behavior.
23836 <para>Allow <literal>UPDATE ... SET col = DEFAULT</literal> (Rod)</para>
23838 This allows <command>UPDATE</command> to set a column to its
23839 declared default value.
23844 <para>Allow expressions to be used in <literal>LIMIT</>/<literal>OFFSET</> (Tom)</para>
23846 In prior releases, <literal>LIMIT</>/<literal>OFFSET</> could
23847 only use constants, not expressions.
23852 <para>Implement <literal>CREATE TABLE AS EXECUTE</literal> (Neil, Peter)</para>
23858 <title>Object Manipulation Changes</title>
23862 <para>Make <command>CREATE SEQUENCE</command> grammar more conforming to SQL:2003 (Neil)</para>
23866 <para>Add statement-level triggers (Neil)</para>
23868 While this allows a trigger to fire at the end of a statement,
23869 it does not allow the trigger to access all rows modified by the
23870 statement. This capability is planned for a future release.
23875 <para>Add check constraints for domains (Rod)</para>
23877 This greatly increases the usefulness of domains by allowing
23878 them to use check constraints.
23883 <para>Add <command>ALTER DOMAIN</command> (Rod)</para>
23885 This allows manipulation of existing domains.
23890 <para>Fix several zero-column table bugs (Tom)</para>
23892 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> supports zero-column tables. This fixes various bugs
23893 that occur when using such tables.
23898 <para>Have <literal>ALTER TABLE ... ADD PRIMARY KEY</literal> add not-null constraint (Rod)</para>
23900 In prior releases, <literal>ALTER TABLE ... ADD
23901 PRIMARY</literal> would add a unique index, but not a not-null
23902 constraint. That is fixed in this release.
23906 <listitem><para>Add <literal>ALTER TABLE ... WITHOUT OIDS</literal> (Rod)</para>
23908 This allows control over whether new and updated rows will have
23909 an OID column. This is most useful for saving storage space.
23915 Add <literal>ALTER SEQUENCE</literal> to modify minimum, maximum,
23916 increment, cache, cycle values (Rod)
23921 <para>Add <literal>ALTER TABLE ... CLUSTER ON</literal> (Alvaro Herrera)</para>
23923 This command is used by <command>pg_dump</command> to record the
23924 cluster column for each table previously clustered. This
23925 information is used by database-wide cluster to cluster all
23926 previously clustered tables.
23930 <listitem><para>Improve automatic type casting for domains (Rod, Tom)</para></listitem>
23931 <listitem><para>Allow dollar signs in identifiers, except as first character (Tom)</para></listitem>
23932 <listitem><para>Disallow dollar signs in operator names, so <literal>x=$1</> works (Tom)</para></listitem>
23936 Allow copying table schema using <literal>LIKE
23937 <replaceable>subtable</replaceable></literal>, also SQL:2003
23938 feature <literal>INCLUDING DEFAULTS</literal> (Rod)
23944 Add <literal>WITH GRANT OPTION</literal> clause to
23945 <command>GRANT</command> (Peter)
23948 This enabled <command>GRANT</command> to give other users the
23949 ability to grant privileges on a object.
23956 <title>Utility Command Changes</title>
23960 <para>Add <literal>ON COMMIT</literal> clause to <command>CREATE TABLE</command> for temporary tables (Gavin)</para>
23962 This adds the ability for a table to be dropped or all rows
23963 deleted on transaction commit.
23968 <para>Allow cursors outside transactions using <literal>WITH HOLD</literal> (Neil)</para>
23970 In previous releases, cursors were removed at the end of the
23971 transaction that created them. Cursors can now be created with
23972 the <literal>WITH HOLD</literal> option, which allows them to
23973 continue to be accessed after the creating transaction has
23979 <para><literal>FETCH 0</literal> and <literal>MOVE 0 </literal> now do nothing (Bruce)</para>
23981 In previous releases, <literal>FETCH 0</literal> fetched all
23982 remaining rows, and <literal>MOVE 0</literal> moved to the end
23989 Cause <command>FETCH</command> and <command>MOVE</command> to
23990 return the number of rows fetched/moved, or zero if at the
23991 beginning/end of cursor, per SQL standard (Bruce)
23994 In prior releases, the row count returned by
23995 <command>FETCH</command> and <command>MOVE</command> did not
23996 accurately reflect the number of rows processed.
24001 <para>Properly handle <literal>SCROLL</literal> with cursors, or
24002 report an error (Neil)</para>
24004 Allowing random access (both forward and backward scrolling) to
24005 some kinds of queries cannot be done without some additional
24006 work. If <literal>SCROLL</literal> is specified when the cursor
24007 is created, this additional work will be performed. Furthermore,
24008 if the cursor has been created with <literal>NO SCROLL</literal>,
24009 no random access is allowed.
24015 Implement SQL-compatible options <literal>FIRST</>,
24016 <literal>LAST</>, <literal>ABSOLUTE <replaceable>n</></>,
24017 <literal>RELATIVE <replaceable>n</></> for
24018 <command>FETCH</command> and <command>MOVE</command> (Tom)
24023 <para>Allow <command>EXPLAIN</command> on <command>DECLARE CURSOR</command> (Tom)</para>
24027 <para>Allow <command>CLUSTER</command> to use index marked as pre-clustered by default (Alvaro Herrera)</para>
24031 <para>Allow <command>CLUSTER</command> to cluster all tables (Alvaro Herrera)</para>
24033 This allows all previously clustered tables in a database to be
24034 reclustered with a single command.
24038 <listitem><para>Prevent <command>CLUSTER</command> on partial indexes (Tom)</para></listitem>
24040 <listitem><para>Allow DOS and Mac line-endings in <command>COPY</> files (Bruce)</para></listitem>
24044 Disallow literal carriage return as a data value,
24045 backslash-carriage-return and <literal>\r</> are still allowed
24051 <para><command>COPY</> changes (binary, <literal>\.</>) (Tom)</para>
24055 <para>Recover from <command>COPY</command> failure cleanly (Tom)</para>
24059 <para>Prevent possible memory leaks in <command>COPY</command> (Tom)</para>
24063 <para>Make <command>TRUNCATE</command> transaction-safe (Rod)</para>
24065 <command>TRUNCATE</command> can now be used inside a
24066 transaction. If the transaction aborts, the changes made by the
24067 <command>TRUNCATE</command> are automatically rolled back.
24073 Allow prepare/bind of utility commands like
24074 <command>FETCH</command> and <command>EXPLAIN</command> (Tom)
24079 <para>Add <command>EXPLAIN EXECUTE</command> (Neil)</para>
24083 <para>Improve <command>VACUUM</command> performance on indexes by reducing WAL traffic (Tom)</para>
24087 <para>Functional indexes have been generalized into indexes on expressions (Tom)</para>
24089 In prior releases, functional indexes only supported a simple
24090 function applied to one or more column names. This release
24091 allows any type of scalar expression.
24097 Have <command>SHOW TRANSACTION ISOLATION</command> match input
24098 to <command>SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION</command>
24105 Have <command>COMMENT ON DATABASE</command> on nonlocal
24106 database generate a warning, rather than an error (Rod)
24110 Database comments are stored in database-local tables so
24111 comments on a database have to be stored in each database.
24117 Improve reliability of <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</> (Tom)
24122 <para>Allow <command>REINDEX</command> to reliably reindex nonshared system catalog indexes (Tom)</para>
24124 This allows system tables to be reindexed without the
24125 requirement of a standalone session, which was necessary in
24126 previous releases. The only tables that now require a standalone
24127 session for reindexing are the global system tables
24128 <literal>pg_database</>, <literal>pg_shadow</>, and
24129 <literal>pg_group</>.
24136 <title>Data Type and Function Changes</title>
24141 New server parameter <varname>extra_float_digits</varname> to
24142 control precision display of floating-point numbers (Pedro
24146 This controls output precision which was causing regression
24151 <listitem><para>Allow <literal>+1300</literal> as a numeric time-zone specifier, for FJST (Tom)</para></listitem>
24155 Remove rarely used functions <function>oidrand</>,
24156 <function>oidsrand</>, and <function>userfntest</> functions
24162 <para>Add <function>md5()</> function to main server, already in <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</filename> (Joe)</para>
24164 An MD5 function was frequently requested. For more complex
24165 encryption capabilities, use
24166 <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</filename>.
24170 <listitem><para>Increase date range of <type>timestamp</type> (John Cochran)</para></listitem>
24174 Change <literal>EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM timestamp)</literal> so
24175 <type>timestamp without time zone</type> is assumed to be in
24176 local time, not GMT (Tom)
24180 <listitem><para>Trap division by zero in case the operating system doesn't prevent it (Tom)</para></listitem>
24181 <listitem><para>Change the <type>numeric</type> data type internally to base 10000 (Tom)</para></listitem>
24182 <listitem><para>New <function>hostmask()</function> function (Greg Wickham)</para></listitem>
24183 <listitem><para>Fixes for <function>to_char()</function> and <function>to_timestamp()</function> (Karel)</para></listitem>
24187 Allow functions that can take any argument data type and return
24188 any data type, using <type>anyelement</type> and
24189 <type>anyarray</type> (Joe)
24192 This allows the creation of functions that can work with any
24199 Arrays can now be specified as <literal>ARRAY[1,2,3]</literal>,
24200 <literal>ARRAY[['a','b'],['c','d']]</literal>, or
24201 <literal>ARRAY[ARRAY[ARRAY[2]]]</literal> (Joe)
24207 Allow proper comparisons for arrays, including <literal>ORDER
24208 BY</literal> and <literal>DISTINCT</literal> support
24213 <listitem><para>Allow indexes on array columns (Joe)</para></listitem>
24214 <listitem><para>Allow array concatenation with <literal>||</literal> (Joe)</para></listitem>
24218 Allow <literal>WHERE</literal> qualification
24219 <literal><replaceable>expr</> <replaceable>op</> ANY/SOME/ALL
24220 (<replaceable>array_expr</>)</literal> (Joe)
24223 This allows arrays to behave like a list of values, for purposes
24224 like <literal>SELECT * FROM tab WHERE col IN
24225 (array_val)</literal>.
24231 New array functions <function>array_append</>,
24232 <function>array_cat</>, <function>array_lower</>,
24233 <function>array_prepend</>, <function>array_to_string</>,
24234 <function>array_upper</>, <function>string_to_array</> (Joe)
24238 <listitem><para>Allow user defined aggregates to use polymorphic functions (Joe)</para></listitem>
24239 <listitem><para>Allow assignments to empty arrays (Joe)</para></listitem>
24243 Allow 60 in seconds fields of <type>time</type>,
24244 <type>timestamp</type>, and <type>interval</type> input values
24248 Sixty-second values are needed for leap seconds.
24252 <listitem><para>Allow <type>cidr</type> data type to be cast to <type>text</type> (Tom)</para></listitem>
24254 <listitem><para>Disallow invalid time zone names in SET TIMEZONE</para></listitem>
24258 Trim trailing spaces when <type>char</type> is cast to
24259 <type>varchar</> or <type>text</> (Tom)
24265 Make <type>float(<replaceable>p</>)</> measure the precision
24266 <replaceable>p</> in binary digits, not decimal digits
24272 <para>Add IPv6 support to the <type>inet</type> and <type>cidr</type> data types (Michael Graff)</para>
24276 <para>Add <function>family()</function> function to report whether address is IPv4 or IPv6 (Michael Graff)</para>
24281 Have <literal>SHOW datestyle</literal> generate output similar
24282 to that used by <literal>SET datestyle</literal> (Tom)
24288 Make <literal>EXTRACT(TIMEZONE)</literal> and <literal>SET/SHOW
24289 TIME ZONE</literal> follow the SQL convention for the sign of
24290 time zone offsets, i.e., positive is east from UTC (Tom)
24295 <para>Fix <literal>date_trunc('quarter', ...)</literal> (Böjthe Zoltán)</para>
24297 Prior releases returned an incorrect value for this function call.
24302 <para>Make <function>initcap()</function> more compatible with Oracle (Mike Nolan)</para>
24304 <function>initcap()</function> now uppercases a letter appearing
24305 after any non-alphanumeric character, rather than only after
24311 <para>Allow only <varname>datestyle</varname> field order for date values not in ISO-8601 format (Greg)</para>
24316 Add new <varname>datestyle</varname> values <literal>MDY</>,
24317 <literal>DMY</>, and <literal>YMD</> to set input field order;
24318 honor <literal>US</> and <literal>European</> for backward
24319 compatibility (Tom)
24325 String literals like <literal>'now'</literal> or
24326 <literal>'today'</literal> will no longer work as a column
24327 default. Use functions such as <function>now()</function>,
24328 <function>current_timestamp</function> instead. (change
24329 required for prepared statements) (Tom)
24334 <para>Treat NaN as larger than any other value in <function>min()</>/<function>max()</> (Tom)</para>
24336 NaN was already sorted after ordinary numeric values for most
24337 purposes, but <function>min()</> and <function>max()</> didn't
24343 <para>Prevent interval from suppressing <literal>:00</literal>
24344 seconds display</para>
24349 New functions <function>pg_get_triggerdef(prettyprint)</function>
24350 and <function>pg_conversion_is_visible()</function> (Christopher)
24355 <para>Allow time to be specified as <literal>040506</> or <literal>0405</> (Tom)</para>
24360 Input date order must now be <literal>YYYY-MM-DD</literal> (with 4-digit year) or
24361 match <varname>datestyle</varname>
24367 Make <function>pg_get_constraintdef</function> support
24368 unique, primary-key, and check constraints (Christopher)
24375 <title>Server-Side Language Changes</title>
24380 Prevent PL/pgSQL crash when <literal>RETURN NEXT</literal> is
24381 used on a zero-row record variable (Tom)
24387 Make PL/Python's <function>spi_execute</function> interface
24388 handle null values properly (Andrew Bosma)
24393 <para>Allow PL/pgSQL to declare variables of composite types without <literal>%ROWTYPE</literal> (Tom)</para>
24397 <para>Fix PL/Python's <function>_quote()</function> function to handle big integers</para>
24401 <para>Make PL/Python an untrusted language, now called <literal>plpythonu</literal> (Kevin Jacobs, Tom)</para>
24403 The Python language no longer supports a restricted execution
24404 environment, so the trusted version of PL/Python was removed. If
24405 this situation changes, a version of PL/Python that can be used
24406 by non-superusers will be readded.
24411 <para>Allow polymorphic PL/pgSQL functions (Joe, Tom)</para>
24415 <para>Allow polymorphic SQL functions (Joe)</para>
24420 Improved compiled function caching mechanism in PL/pgSQL with
24421 full support for polymorphism (Joe)
24427 Add new parameter <literal>$0</> in PL/pgSQL representing the
24428 function's actual return type (Joe)
24434 Allow PL/Tcl and PL/Python to use the same trigger on multiple tables (Tom)
24440 Fixed PL/Tcl's <function>spi_prepare</function> to accept fully
24441 qualified type names in the parameter type list
24449 <title>psql Changes</title>
24453 <para>Add <literal>\pset pager always</literal> to always use pager (Greg)</para>
24455 This forces the pager to be used even if the number of rows is
24456 less than the screen height. This is valuable for rows that
24457 wrap across several screen rows.
24461 <listitem><para>Improve tab completion (Rod, Ross Reedstrom, Ian Barwick)</para></listitem>
24462 <listitem><para>Reorder <literal>\?</> help into groupings (Harald Armin Massa, Bruce)</para></listitem>
24463 <listitem><para>Add backslash commands for listing schemas, casts, and conversions (Christopher)</para></listitem>
24467 <command>\encoding</> now changes based on the server parameter
24468 <varname>client_encoding</varname> (Tom)
24471 In previous versions, <command>\encoding</command> was not aware
24472 of encoding changes made using <literal>SET
24473 client_encoding</literal>.
24478 <para>Save editor buffer into readline history (Ross)</para>
24480 When <command>\e</> is used to edit a query, the result is saved
24481 in the readline history for retrieval using the up arrow.
24485 <listitem><para>Improve <command>\d</command> display (Christopher)</para></listitem>
24486 <listitem><para>Enhance HTML mode to be more standards-conforming (Greg)</para></listitem>
24489 <para>New <command>\set AUTOCOMMIT off</command> capability (Tom)</para>
24491 This takes the place of the removed server parameter <varname>autocommit</varname>.
24496 <para>New <command>\set VERBOSITY</command> to control error detail (Tom)</para>
24498 This controls the new error reporting details.
24502 <listitem><para>New prompt escape sequence <literal>%x</literal> to show transaction status (Tom)</para></listitem>
24503 <listitem><para>Long options for <application>psql</application> are now available on all platforms</para></listitem>
24508 <title>pg_dump Changes</title>
24511 <listitem><para>Multiple pg_dump fixes, including tar format and large objects</para></listitem>
24512 <listitem><para>Allow pg_dump to dump specific schemas (Neil)</para></listitem>
24515 <para>Make pg_dump preserve column storage characteristics (Christopher)</para>
24517 This preserves <literal>ALTER TABLE ... SET STORAGE</literal> information.
24521 <listitem><para>Make pg_dump preserve <command>CLUSTER</command> characteristics (Christopher)</para></listitem>
24525 Have pg_dumpall use <command>GRANT</>/<command>REVOKE</> to dump database-level privileges (Tom)
24531 Allow pg_dumpall to support the options <option>-a</>,
24532 <option>-s</>, <option>-x</> of pg_dump (Tom)
24536 <listitem><para>Prevent pg_dump from lowercasing identifiers specified on the command line (Tom)</para></listitem>
24540 pg_dump options <option>--use-set-session-authorization</option>
24541 and <option>--no-reconnect</option> now do nothing, all dumps
24542 use <command>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</command>
24545 pg_dump no longer reconnects to switch users, but instead always
24546 uses <command>SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION</command>. This will
24547 reduce password prompting during restores.
24552 <para>Long options for <application>pg_dump</application> are now available on all platforms</para>
24554 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> now includes its own
24555 long-option processing routines.
24562 <title>libpq Changes</title>
24567 Add function <function>PQfreemem</function> for freeing memory on
24568 Windows, suggested for <command>NOTIFY</command> (Bruce)
24571 Windows requires that memory allocated in a library be freed by
24572 a function in the same library, hence
24573 <function>free()</function> doesn't work for freeing memory
24574 allocated by libpq. <function>PQfreemem</function> is the proper
24575 way to free libpq memory, especially on Windows, and is
24576 recommended for other platforms as well.
24581 <para>Document service capability, and add sample file (Bruce)</para>
24583 This allows clients to look up connection information in a
24584 central file on the client machine.
24590 Make <function>PQsetdbLogin</function> have the same defaults as
24591 <function>PQconnectdb</function> (Tom)
24595 <listitem><para>Allow libpq to cleanly fail when result sets are too large (Tom)</para></listitem>
24599 Improve performance of function <function>PQunescapeBytea</function> (Ben Lamb)
24605 Allow thread-safe libpq with <filename>configure</filename>
24606 option <option>--enable-thread-safety</option> (Lee Kindness,
24613 Allow function <function>pqInternalNotice</function> to accept a
24614 format string and arguments instead of just a preformatted
24615 message (Tom, Sean Chittenden)
24621 Control SSL negotiation with <literal>sslmode</literal> values
24622 <literal>disable</literal>, <literal>allow</literal>,
24623 <literal>prefer</literal>, and <literal>require</literal> (Jon
24629 <para>Allow new error codes and levels of text (Tom)</para>
24633 <para>Allow access to the underlying table and column of a query result (Tom)</para>
24635 This is helpful for query-builder applications that want to know
24636 the underlying table and column names associated with a specific
24641 <listitem><para>Allow access to the current transaction status (Tom)</para></listitem>
24642 <listitem><para>Add ability to pass binary data directly to the server (Tom)</para></listitem>
24646 Add function <function>PQexecPrepared</function> and
24647 <function>PQsendQueryPrepared</function> functions which perform
24648 bind/execute of previously prepared statements (Tom)
24655 <title>JDBC Changes</title>
24658 <listitem><para>Allow <function>setNull</function> on updateable result sets</para></listitem>
24659 <listitem><para>Allow <function>executeBatch</function> on a prepared statement (Barry)</para></listitem>
24660 <listitem><para>Support SSL connections (Barry)</para></listitem>
24661 <listitem><para>Handle schema names in result sets (Paul Sorenson)</para></listitem>
24662 <listitem><para>Add refcursor support (Nic Ferrier)</para></listitem>
24667 <title>Miscellaneous Interface Changes</title>
24671 <para>Prevent possible memory leak or core dump during libpgtcl shutdown (Tom)</para>
24674 <para>Add Informix compatibility to ECPG (Michael)</para>
24676 This allows ECPG to process embedded C programs that were
24677 written using certain Informix extensions.
24682 <para>Add type <type>decimal</type> to ECPG that is fixed length, for Informix (Michael)</para>
24687 Allow thread-safe embedded SQL programs with
24688 <filename>configure</filename> option
24689 <option>--enable-thread-safety</option> (Lee Kindness, Bruce)
24692 This allows multiple threads to access the database at the same
24698 <para>Moved Python client PyGreSQL to <ulink url="http://www.pygresql.org"></ulink> (Marc)</para>
24704 <title>Source Code Changes</title>
24707 <listitem><para>Prevent need for separate platform geometry regression result files (Tom)</para></listitem>
24708 <listitem><para>Improved PPC locking primitive (Reinhard Max)</para></listitem>
24709 <listitem><para>New function <function>palloc0</function> to allocate and clear memory (Bruce)</para></listitem>
24710 <listitem><para>Fix locking code for s390x CPU (64-bit) (Tom)</para></listitem>
24711 <listitem><para>Allow OpenBSD to use local ident credentials (William Ahern)</para></listitem>
24712 <listitem><para>Make query plan trees read-only to executor (Tom)</para></listitem>
24713 <listitem><para>Add Darwin startup scripts (David Wheeler)</para></listitem>
24714 <listitem><para>Allow libpq to compile with Borland C++ compiler (Lester Godwin, Karl Waclawek)</para></listitem>
24715 <listitem><para>Use our own version of <function>getopt_long()</function> if needed (Peter)</para></listitem>
24716 <listitem><para>Convert administration scripts to C (Peter)</para></listitem>
24717 <listitem><para> Bison >= 1.85 is now required to build the <productname>PostgreSQL</> grammar, if building from CVS</para></listitem>
24718 <listitem><para>Merge documentation into one book (Peter)</para></listitem>
24719 <listitem><para>Add Windows compatibility functions (Bruce)</para></listitem>
24720 <listitem><para>Allow client interfaces to compile under MinGW (Bruce)</para></listitem>
24721 <listitem><para>New <function>ereport()</function> function for error reporting (Tom)</para></listitem>
24722 <listitem><para>Support Intel compiler on Linux (Peter)</para></listitem>
24723 <listitem><para>Improve Linux startup scripts (Slawomir Sudnik, Darko Prenosil)</para></listitem>
24724 <listitem><para>Add support for AMD Opteron and Itanium (Jeffrey W. Baker, Bruce)</para></listitem>
24726 <para>Remove <option>--enable-recode</option> option from <command>configure</command></para>
24728 This was no longer needed now that we have <command>CREATE CONVERSION</command>.
24732 <para>Generate a compile error if spinlock code is not found (Bruce)</para>
24734 Platforms without spinlock code will now fail to compile, rather
24735 than silently using semaphores. This failure can be disabled
24736 with a new <command>configure</command> option.
24743 <title>Contrib Changes</title>
24746 <listitem><para>Change dbmirror license to BSD</para></listitem>
24747 <listitem><para>Improve earthdistance (Bruno Wolff III)</para></listitem>
24748 <listitem><para>Portability improvements to pgcrypto (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
24749 <listitem><para>Prevent crash in xml (John Gray, Michael Richards)</para></listitem>
24750 <listitem><para>Update oracle</para></listitem>
24751 <listitem><para>Update mysql</para></listitem>
24752 <listitem><para>Update cube (Bruno Wolff III)</para></listitem>
24753 <listitem><para>Update earthdistance to use cube (Bruno Wolff III)</para></listitem>
24754 <listitem><para>Update btree_gist (Oleg)</para></listitem>
24755 <listitem><para>New tsearch2 full-text search module (Oleg, Teodor)</para></listitem>
24756 <listitem><para>Add hash-based crosstab function to tablefuncs (Joe)</para></listitem>
24757 <listitem><para>Add serial column to order <function>connectby()</> siblings in tablefuncs (Nabil Sayegh,Joe)</para></listitem>
24758 <listitem><para>Add named persistent connections to dblink (Shridhar Daithanka)</para></listitem>
24759 <listitem><para>New pg_autovacuum allows automatic <command>VACUUM</command> (Matthew T. O'Connor)</para></listitem>
24760 <listitem><para>Make pgbench honor environment variables <envar>PGHOST</>, <envar>PGPORT</>, <envar>PGUSER</> (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
24761 <listitem><para>Improve intarray (Teodor Sigaev)</para></listitem>
24762 <listitem><para>Improve pgstattuple (Rod)</para></listitem>
24763 <listitem><para>Fix bug in <function>metaphone()</function> in fuzzystrmatch</para></listitem>
24764 <listitem><para>Improve adddepend (Rod)</para></listitem>
24765 <listitem><para>Update spi/timetravel (Böjthe Zoltán)</para></listitem>
24766 <listitem><para>Fix dbase <option>-s</> option and improve non-ASCII handling (Thomas Behr, Márcio Smiderle)</para></listitem>
24767 <listitem><para>Remove array module because features now included by default (Joe)</para></listitem>
24773 <sect1 id="release-7-3-21">
24774 <title>Release 7.3.21</title>
24777 <title>Release date</title>
24778 <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara>
24782 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.20,
24783 including fixes for significant security issues.
24787 This is expected to be the last <productname>PostgreSQL</> release
24788 in the 7.3.X series. Users are encouraged to update to a newer
24789 release branch soon.
24793 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.21</title>
24796 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
24797 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
24804 <title>Changes</title>
24810 Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of
24811 the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom)
24815 Functions used in index expressions and partial-index
24816 predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has
24817 long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code
24818 execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user.
24819 (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the
24820 same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger
24821 because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations
24822 such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed
24823 automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user
24824 can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a
24825 trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum.
24826 The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations
24827 (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>,
24828 and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than
24829 the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already
24830 used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing
24831 this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION
24832 AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a
24833 <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600)
24839 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
24840 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
24844 The fix that appeared for this in 7.3.20 was incomplete, as it plugged
24845 the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601,
24852 Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte
24853 database encoding (Tom)
24859 Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle
24860 NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe)
24866 Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used
24867 when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter)
24871 This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made
24872 to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of
24873 <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions.
24874 You can remove the version check if you really want to use a
24875 different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's
24876 your responsibility whether the result works or not.
24885 <sect1 id="release-7-3-20">
24886 <title>Release 7.3.20</title>
24889 <title>Release date</title>
24890 <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara>
24894 This release contains fixes from 7.3.19.
24898 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.20</title>
24901 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
24902 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
24909 <title>Changes</title>
24915 Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and
24916 then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</>
24917 on the same table (Tom)
24923 Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom)
24929 Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out
24936 Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only
24937 password authentication, as a security measure (Joe)
24946 <sect1 id="release-7-3-19">
24947 <title>Release 7.3.19</title>
24950 <title>Release date</title>
24951 <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara>
24955 This release contains fixes from 7.3.18,
24956 including a security fix.
24960 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.19</title>
24963 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
24964 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
24971 <title>Changes</title>
24977 Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within
24978 <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions
24979 and operators (Tom)
24982 This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a
24983 truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it,
24984 an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code
24985 with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138).
24986 See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information.
24992 Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles
24993 <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee)
25002 <sect1 id="release-7-3-18">
25003 <title>Release 7.3.18</title>
25006 <title>Release date</title>
25007 <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara>
25011 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.17, including
25016 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.18</title>
25019 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25020 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
25027 <title>Changes</title>
25033 Remove security vulnerability that allowed connected users
25034 to read backend memory (Tom)
25037 The vulnerability involves changing the
25038 data type of a table column used in a SQL function (CVE-2007-0555).
25039 This error can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in
25040 principle might be used to read database content that the user
25041 should not be able to access.
25047 Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail
25048 due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas)
25054 Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences
25055 over three bytes long (Tom)
25064 <sect1 id="release-7-3-17">
25065 <title>Release 7.3.17</title>
25068 <title>Release date</title>
25069 <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara>
25073 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.16.
25077 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.17</title>
25080 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25081 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
25088 <title>Changes</title>
25094 <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</>
25095 are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for
25096 new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom)
25100 This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially
25101 change the output of these functions.
25107 Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom)
25111 This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also.
25120 <sect1 id="release-7-3-16">
25121 <title>Release 7.3.16</title>
25124 <title>Release date</title>
25125 <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara>
25129 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.15.
25133 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.16</title>
25136 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25137 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
25144 <title>Changes</title>
25147 <listitem><para>Fix corner cases in pattern matching for
25148 <application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem>
25149 <listitem><para>Fix index-corrupting bugs in /contrib/ltree
25150 (Teodor)</para></listitem>
25151 <listitem><para>Back-port 7.4 spinlock code to improve performance and support
25152 64-bit architectures better</para> </listitem>
25153 <listitem><para>Fix SSL-related memory leak in libpq</para> </listitem>
25154 <listitem><para>Fix backslash escaping in /contrib/dbmirror</para></listitem>
25155 <listitem><para>Adjust regression tests for recent changes in US DST laws
25156 </para> </listitem>
25162 <sect1 id="release-7-3-15">
25163 <title>Release 7.3.15</title>
25166 <title>Release date</title>
25167 <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara>
25171 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.14,
25172 including patches for extremely serious security issues.
25176 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.15</title>
25179 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25180 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
25185 Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in
25186 CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application
25187 code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings
25188 into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to
25189 ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In
25190 most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by
25191 libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s
25192 <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping,
25193 rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it.
25198 <title>Changes</title>
25201 <listitem><para>Change the server to reject invalidly-encoded multibyte
25202 characters in all cases (Tatsuo, Tom)</para>
25203 <para>While <productname>PostgreSQL</> has been moving in this direction for
25204 some time, the checks are now applied uniformly to all encodings and all
25205 textual input, and are now always errors not merely warnings. This change
25206 defends against SQL-injection attacks of the type described in CVE-2006-2313.
25209 <listitem><para>Reject unsafe uses of <literal>\'</> in string literals</para>
25210 <para>As a server-side defense against SQL-injection attacks of the type
25211 described in CVE-2006-2314, the server now only accepts <literal>''</> and not
25212 <literal>\'</> as a representation of ASCII single quote in SQL string
25213 literals. By default, <literal>\'</> is rejected only when
25214 <varname>client_encoding</> is set to a client-only encoding (SJIS, BIG5, GBK,
25215 GB18030, or UHC), which is the scenario in which SQL injection is possible.
25216 A new configuration parameter <varname>backslash_quote</> is available to
25217 adjust this behavior when needed. Note that full security against
25218 CVE-2006-2314 might require client-side changes; the purpose of
25219 <varname>backslash_quote</> is in part to make it obvious that insecure
25220 clients are insecure.
25223 <listitem><para>Modify <application>libpq</>'s string-escaping routines to be
25224 aware of encoding considerations</para>
25225 <para>This fixes <application>libpq</>-using applications for the security
25226 issues described in CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314.
25227 Applications that use multiple <productname>PostgreSQL</> connections
25228 concurrently should migrate to <function>PQescapeStringConn()</> and
25229 <function>PQescapeByteaConn()</> to ensure that escaping is done correctly
25230 for the settings in use in each database connection. Applications that
25231 do string escaping <quote>by hand</> should be modified to rely on library
25235 <listitem><para>Fix some incorrect encoding conversion functions</para>
25236 <para><function>win1251_to_iso</>, <function>alt_to_iso</>,
25237 <function>euc_tw_to_big5</>, <function>euc_tw_to_mic</>,
25238 <function>mic_to_euc_tw</> were all broken to varying
25242 <listitem><para>Clean up stray remaining uses of <literal>\'</> in strings
25243 (Bruce, Jan)</para></listitem>
25245 <listitem><para>Fix server to use custom DH SSL parameters correctly (Michael
25246 Fuhr)</para></listitem>
25248 <listitem><para>Fix various minor memory leaks</para></listitem>
25254 <sect1 id="release-7-3-14">
25255 <title>Release 7.3.14</title>
25258 <title>Release date</title>
25259 <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara>
25263 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.13.
25267 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.14</title>
25270 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25271 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.13, see the release
25277 <title>Changes</title>
25281 <listitem><para>Fix potential crash in <command>SET
25282 SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> (CVE-2006-0553)</para>
25283 <para>An unprivileged user could crash the server process, resulting in
25284 momentary denial of service to other users, if the server has been compiled
25285 with Asserts enabled (which is not the default).
25286 Thanks to Akio Ishida for reporting this problem.
25289 <listitem><para>Fix bug with row visibility logic in self-inserted
25291 <para>Under rare circumstances a row inserted by the current command
25292 could be seen as already valid, when it should not be. Repairs bug
25293 created in 7.3.11 release.
25296 <listitem><para>Fix race condition that could lead to <quote>file already
25297 exists</> errors during pg_clog file creation
25298 (Tom)</para></listitem>
25300 <listitem><para>Fix to allow restoring dumps that have cross-schema
25301 references to custom operators (Tom)</para></listitem>
25303 <listitem><para>Portability fix for testing presence of <function>finite</>
25304 and <function>isinf</> during configure (Tom)</para></listitem>
25311 <sect1 id="release-7-3-13">
25312 <title>Release 7.3.13</title>
25315 <title>Release date</title>
25316 <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara>
25320 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.12.
25324 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.13</title>
25327 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25328 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.10, see the release
25330 Also, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual
25331 columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or
25332 <application>plperl</> issues described below.
25337 <title>Changes</title>
25341 <listitem><para>Fix character string comparison for locales that consider
25342 different character combinations as equal, such as Hungarian (Tom)</para>
25343 <para>This might require <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
25344 textual columns.</para></listitem>
25346 <listitem><para>Set locale environment variables during postmaster startup
25347 to ensure that <application>plperl</> won't change the locale later</para>
25348 <para>This fixes a problem that occurred if the <application>postmaster</> was
25349 started with environment variables specifying a different locale than what
25350 <application>initdb</> had been told. Under these conditions, any use of
25351 <application>plperl</> was likely to lead to corrupt indexes. You might need
25352 <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on
25353 textual columns if this has happened to you.</para></listitem>
25355 <listitem><para>Fix longstanding bug in strpos() and regular expression
25356 handling in certain rarely used Asian multi-byte character sets (Tatsuo)
25359 <listitem><para>Fix bug in <filename>/contrib/pgcrypto</> gen_salt,
25360 which caused it not to use all available salt space for MD5 and
25361 XDES algorithms (Marko Kreen, Solar Designer)</para>
25362 <para>Salts for Blowfish and standard DES are unaffected.</para></listitem>
25364 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to throw an error,
25365 rather than crashing, when the number of columns specified is different from
25366 what's actually returned by the query (Joe)</para></listitem>
25373 <sect1 id="release-7-3-12">
25374 <title>Release 7.3.12</title>
25377 <title>Release date</title>
25378 <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara>
25382 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.11.
25386 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.12</title>
25389 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25390 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.10, see the release
25396 <title>Changes</title>
25400 <listitem><para>Fix race condition in transaction log management</para>
25401 <para>There was a narrow window in which an I/O operation could be initiated
25402 for the wrong page, leading to an Assert failure or data
25406 <listitem><para><filename>/contrib/ltree</> fixes (Teodor)</para></listitem>
25408 <listitem><para>Fix longstanding planning error for outer joins</para>
25409 <para>This bug sometimes caused a bogus error <quote>RIGHT JOIN is
25410 only supported with merge-joinable join conditions</>.</para></listitem>
25412 <listitem><para>Prevent core dump in <application>pg_autovacuum</> when a
25413 table has been dropped</para></listitem>
25420 <sect1 id="release-7-3-11">
25421 <title>Release 7.3.11</title>
25424 <title>Release date</title>
25425 <simpara>2005-10-04</simpara>
25429 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.10.
25433 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.11</title>
25436 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25437 if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 7.3.10, see the release
25443 <title>Changes</title>
25446 <listitem><para>Fix error that allowed <command>VACUUM</> to remove
25447 <literal>ctid</> chains too soon, and add more checking in code that follows
25448 <literal>ctid</> links</para>
25449 <para>This fixes a long-standing problem that could cause crashes in very rare
25450 circumstances.</para></listitem>
25451 <listitem><para>Fix <type>CHAR()</> to properly pad spaces to the specified
25452 length when using a multiple-byte character set (Yoshiyuki Asaba)</para>
25453 <para>In prior releases, the padding of <type>CHAR()</> was incorrect
25454 because it only padded to the specified number of bytes without
25455 considering how many characters were stored.</para></listitem>
25456 <listitem><para>Fix missing rows in queries like <literal>UPDATE a=... WHERE
25457 a...</> with GiST index on column <literal>a</></para></listitem>
25458 <listitem><para>Improve checking for partially-written WAL
25459 pages</para></listitem>
25460 <listitem><para>Improve robustness of signal handling when SSL is
25461 enabled</para></listitem>
25462 <listitem><para>Various memory leakage fixes</para></listitem>
25463 <listitem><para>Various portability improvements</para></listitem>
25464 <listitem><para>Fix PL/PgSQL to handle <literal>var := var</> correctly when
25465 the variable is of pass-by-reference type</para></listitem>
25471 <sect1 id="release-7-3-10">
25472 <title>Release 7.3.10</title>
25475 <title>Release date</title>
25476 <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
25480 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.9, including several
25481 security-related issues.
25485 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.10</title>
25488 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X. However,
25489 it is one possible way of handling a significant security problem
25490 that has been found in the initial contents of 7.3.X system
25491 catalogs. A dump/initdb/reload sequence using 7.3.10's initdb will
25492 automatically correct this problem.
25496 The security problem is that the built-in character set encoding
25497 conversion functions can be invoked from SQL commands by unprivileged
25498 users, but the functions were not designed for such use and are not
25499 secure against malicious choices of arguments. The fix involves changing
25500 the declared parameter list of these functions so that they can no longer
25501 be invoked from SQL commands. (This does not affect their normal use
25502 by the encoding conversion machinery.)
25503 It is strongly recommended that all installations repair this error,
25504 either by initdb or by following the manual repair procedure given
25505 below. The error at least allows unprivileged database users to crash
25506 their server process, and might allow unprivileged users to gain the
25507 privileges of a database superuser.
25511 If you wish not to do an initdb, perform the following procedure instead.
25512 As the database superuser, do:
25516 UPDATE pg_proc SET proargtypes[3] = 'internal'::regtype
25517 WHERE pronamespace = 11 AND pronargs = 5
25518 AND proargtypes[2] = 'cstring'::regtype;
25519 -- The command should report having updated 90 rows;
25520 -- if not, rollback and investigate instead of committing!
25526 The above procedure must be carried out in <emphasis>each</> database
25527 of an installation, including <literal>template1</>, and ideally
25528 including <literal>template0</> as well. If you do not fix the
25529 template databases then any subsequently created databases will contain
25530 the same error. <literal>template1</> can be fixed in the same way
25531 as any other database, but fixing <literal>template0</> requires
25532 additional steps. First, from any database issue:
25534 UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = true WHERE datname = 'template0';
25536 Next connect to <literal>template0</> and perform the above repair
25537 procedure. Finally, do:
25539 -- re-freeze template0:
25541 -- and protect it against future alterations:
25542 UPDATE pg_database SET datallowconn = false WHERE datname = 'template0';
25548 <title>Changes</title>
25551 <listitem><para>Change encoding function signature to prevent
25552 misuse</para></listitem>
25553 <listitem><para>Repair ancient race condition that allowed a transaction to be
25554 seen as committed for some purposes (eg SELECT FOR UPDATE) slightly sooner
25555 than for other purposes</para>
25556 <para>This is an extremely serious bug since it could lead to apparent
25557 data inconsistencies being briefly visible to applications.</para></listitem>
25558 <listitem><para>Repair race condition between relation extension and
25560 <para>This could theoretically have caused loss of a page's worth of
25561 freshly-inserted data, although the scenario seems of very low probability.
25562 There are no known cases of it having caused more than an Assert failure.
25564 <listitem><para>Fix comparisons of <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> values</para>
25566 The comparison code was wrong in the case where the
25567 <literal>--enable-integer-datetimes</> configuration switch had been used.
25568 NOTE: if you have an index on a <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> column,
25569 it will need to be <command>REINDEX</>ed after installing this update, because
25570 the fix corrects the sort order of column values.
25572 <listitem><para>Fix <function>EXTRACT(EPOCH)</> for
25573 <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> values</para></listitem>
25574 <listitem><para>Fix mis-display of negative fractional seconds in
25575 <type>INTERVAL</> values</para>
25577 This error only occurred when the
25578 <literal>--enable-integer-datetimes</> configuration switch had been used.
25580 <listitem><para>Additional buffer overrun checks in plpgsql
25581 (Neil)</para></listitem>
25582 <listitem><para>Fix pg_dump to dump trigger names containing <literal>%</>
25583 correctly (Neil)</para></listitem>
25584 <listitem><para>Prevent <function>to_char(interval)</> from dumping core for
25585 month-related formats</para></listitem>
25586 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</> for newer OpenSSL builds
25587 (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
25588 <listitem><para>Still more 64-bit fixes for
25589 <filename>contrib/intagg</></para></listitem>
25590 <listitem><para>Prevent incorrect optimization of functions returning
25591 <type>RECORD</></para></listitem>
25597 <sect1 id="release-7-3-9">
25598 <title>Release 7.3.9</title>
25601 <title>Release date</title>
25602 <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
25606 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.8, including several
25607 security-related issues.
25611 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.9</title>
25614 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X.
25619 <title>Changes</title>
25622 <listitem><para>Disallow <command>LOAD</> to non-superusers</para>
25624 On platforms that will automatically execute initialization functions of a
25625 shared library (this includes at least Windows and ELF-based Unixen),
25626 <command>LOAD</> can be used to make the server execute arbitrary code.
25627 Thanks to NGS Software for reporting this.</para></listitem>
25628 <listitem><para>Check that creator of an aggregate function has the right to
25629 execute the specified transition functions</para>
25631 This oversight made it possible to bypass denial of EXECUTE
25632 permission on a function.</para></listitem>
25633 <listitem><para>Fix security and 64-bit issues in
25634 contrib/intagg</para></listitem>
25635 <listitem><para>Add needed STRICT marking to some contrib functions (Kris
25636 Jurka)</para></listitem>
25637 <listitem><para>Avoid buffer overrun when plpgsql cursor declaration has too
25638 many parameters (Neil)</para></listitem>
25639 <listitem><para>Fix planning error for FULL and RIGHT outer joins</para>
25641 The result of the join was mistakenly supposed to be sorted the same as the
25642 left input. This could not only deliver mis-sorted output to the user, but
25643 in case of nested merge joins could give outright wrong answers.
25645 <listitem><para>Fix plperl for quote marks in tuple fields</para></listitem>
25646 <listitem><para>Fix display of negative intervals in SQL and GERMAN
25647 datestyles</para></listitem>
25653 <sect1 id="release-7-3-8">
25654 <title>Release 7.3.8</title>
25657 <title>Release date</title>
25658 <simpara>2004-10-22</simpara>
25662 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.7.
25667 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.8</title>
25670 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X.
25675 <title>Changes</title>
25678 <listitem><para>Repair possible failure to update hint bits on disk</para>
25680 Under rare circumstances this oversight could lead to
25681 <quote>could not access transaction status</> failures, which qualifies
25682 it as a potential-data-loss bug.
25684 <listitem><para>Ensure that hashed outer join does not miss tuples</para>
25686 Very large left joins using a hash join plan could fail to output unmatched
25687 left-side rows given just the right data distribution.
25689 <listitem><para>Disallow running pg_ctl as root</para>
25691 This is to guard against any possible security issues.
25693 <listitem><para>Avoid using temp files in /tmp in make_oidjoins_check</para>
25695 This has been reported as a security issue, though it's hardly worthy of
25696 concern since there is no reason for non-developers to use this script anyway.
25703 <sect1 id="release-7-3-7">
25704 <title>Release 7.3.7</title>
25707 <title>Release date</title>
25708 <simpara>2004-08-16</simpara>
25712 This release contains one critical fix over 7.3.6, and some minor items.
25717 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.7</title>
25720 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.3.X.
25725 <title>Changes</title>
25728 <listitem><para>Prevent possible loss of committed transactions during crash</para>
25730 Due to insufficient interlocking between transaction commit and checkpointing,
25731 it was possible for transactions committed just before the most recent
25732 checkpoint to be lost, in whole or in part, following a database crash and
25733 restart. This is a serious bug that has existed
25734 since <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 7.1.
25736 <listitem><para>Remove asymmetrical word processing in tsearch (Teodor)</para></listitem>
25737 <listitem><para>Properly schema-qualify function names when pg_dump'ing a CAST</para></listitem>
25743 <sect1 id="release-7-3-6">
25744 <title>Release 7.3.6</title>
25747 <title>Release date</title>
25748 <simpara>2004-03-02</simpara>
25752 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.3.5.
25757 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.6</title>
25760 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
25767 <title>Changes</title>
25770 <listitem><para>Revert erroneous changes in rule permissions checking</para>
25771 <para>A patch applied in 7.3.3 to fix a corner case in rule permissions checks
25772 turns out to have disabled rule-related permissions checks in many
25773 not-so-corner cases. This would for example allow users to insert into views
25774 they weren't supposed to have permission to insert into. We have therefore
25775 reverted the 7.3.3 patch. The original bug will be fixed in 8.0.
25777 <listitem><para>Repair incorrect order of operations in
25778 GetNewTransactionId()</para>
25780 This bug could result in failure under out-of-disk-space conditions, including
25781 inability to restart even after disk space is freed.
25783 <listitem><para>Ensure configure selects -fno-strict-aliasing even when
25784 an external value for CFLAGS is supplied</para>
25786 On some platforms, building with -fstrict-aliasing causes bugs.
25788 <listitem><para>Make pg_restore handle 64-bit off_t correctly</para>
25790 This bug prevented proper restoration from archive files exceeding 4 GB.
25792 <listitem><para>Make contrib/dblink not assume that local and remote type OIDs
25793 match (Joe)</para></listitem>
25794 <listitem><para>Quote connectby()'s start_with argument properly (Joe)</para></listitem>
25795 <listitem><para>Don't crash when a rowtype argument to a plpgsql function is
25796 NULL</para></listitem>
25797 <listitem><para>Avoid generating invalid character encoding sequences in
25798 corner cases when planning LIKE operations</para></listitem>
25799 <listitem><para>Ensure text_position() cannot scan past end of source string
25800 in multibyte cases (Korea PostgreSQL Users' Group)</para></listitem>
25801 <listitem><para>Fix index optimization and selectivity estimates for LIKE
25802 operations on bytea columns (Joe)</para></listitem>
25808 <sect1 id="release-7-3-5">
25809 <title>Release 7.3.5</title>
25812 <title>Release date</title>
25813 <simpara>2003-12-03</simpara>
25817 This has a variety of fixes from 7.3.4.
25822 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.5</title>
25825 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
25831 <title>Changes</title>
25834 <listitem><para>Force zero_damaged_pages to be on during recovery from WAL</para></listitem>
25835 <listitem><para>Prevent some obscure cases of <quote>variable not in subplan target lists</quote></para></listitem>
25836 <listitem><para>Force stats processes to detach from shared memory, ensuring cleaner shutdown</para></listitem>
25837 <listitem><para>Make PQescapeBytea and byteaout consistent with each other (Joe)</para></listitem>
25838 <listitem><para>Added missing SPI_finish() calls to dblink's get_tuple_of_interest() (Joe)</para></listitem>
25839 <listitem><para>Fix for possible foreign key violation when rule rewrites INSERT (Jan)</para></listitem>
25840 <listitem><para>Support qualified type names in PL/Tcl's spi_prepare command (Jan)</para></listitem>
25841 <listitem><para>Make pg_dump handle a procedural language handler located in pg_catalog</para></listitem>
25842 <listitem><para>Make pg_dump handle cases where a custom opclass is in another schema</para></listitem>
25843 <listitem><para>Make pg_dump dump binary-compatible casts correctly (Jan)</para></listitem>
25844 <listitem><para>Fix insertion of expressions containing subqueries into rule bodies</para></listitem>
25845 <listitem><para>Fix incorrect argument processing in clusterdb script (Anand Ranganathan)</para></listitem>
25846 <listitem><para>Fix problems with dropped columns in plpython triggers</para></listitem>
25847 <listitem><para>Repair problems with to_char() reading past end of its input string (Karel)</para></listitem>
25848 <listitem><para>Fix GB18030 mapping errors (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
25849 <listitem><para>Fix several problems with SSL error handling and asynchronous SSL I/O</para></listitem>
25850 <listitem><para>Remove ability to bind a list of values to a single parameter in JDBC
25851 (prevents possible SQL-injection attacks)</para></listitem>
25852 <listitem><para>Fix some errors in HAVE_INT64_TIMESTAMP code paths</para></listitem>
25853 <listitem><para>Fix corner case for btree search in parallel with first root page split</para></listitem>
25859 <sect1 id="release-7-3-4">
25860 <title>Release 7.3.4</title>
25863 <title>Release date</title>
25864 <simpara>2003-07-24</simpara>
25868 This has a variety of fixes from 7.3.3.
25873 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.4</title>
25876 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
25882 <title>Changes</title>
25885 <listitem><para>Repair breakage in timestamp-to-date conversion for dates before 2000</para></listitem>
25886 <listitem><para>Prevent rare possibility of server startup failure (Tom)</para></listitem>
25887 <listitem><para>Fix bugs in interval-to-time conversion (Tom)</para></listitem>
25888 <listitem><para>Add constraint names in a few places in pg_dump (Rod)</para></listitem>
25889 <listitem><para>Improve performance of functions with many parameters (Tom)</para></listitem>
25890 <listitem><para>Fix to_ascii() buffer overruns (Tom)</para></listitem>
25891 <listitem><para>Prevent restore of database comments from throwing an error (Tom)</para></listitem>
25892 <listitem><para>Work around buggy strxfrm() present in some Solaris releases (Tom)</para></listitem>
25893 <listitem><para>Properly escape jdbc setObject() strings to improve security (Barry)</para></listitem>
25899 <sect1 id="release-7-3-3">
25900 <title>Release 7.3.3</title>
25903 <title>Release date</title>
25904 <simpara>2003-05-22</simpara>
25908 This release contains a variety of fixes for version 7.3.2.
25912 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.3</title>
25915 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
25916 running version 7.3.*.
25921 <title>Changes</title>
25924 <listitem><para>Repair sometimes-incorrect computation of StartUpID after a crash</para></listitem>
25925 <listitem><para>Avoid slowness with lots of deferred triggers in one transaction (Stephan)</para></listitem>
25926 <listitem><para>Don't lock referenced row when <command>UPDATE</command> doesn't change foreign key's value (Jan)</para></listitem>
25927 <listitem><para>Use <command>-fPIC</command> not <command>-fpic</command> on Sparc (Tom Callaway)</para></listitem>
25928 <listitem><para>Repair lack of schema-awareness in contrib/reindexdb</para></listitem>
25929 <listitem><para>Fix contrib/intarray error for zero-element result array (Teodor)</para></listitem>
25930 <listitem><para>Ensure createuser script will exit on control-C (Oliver)</para></listitem>
25931 <listitem><para>Fix errors when the type of a dropped column has itself been dropped</para></listitem>
25932 <listitem><para><command>CHECKPOINT</command> does not cause database panic on failure in noncritical steps</para></listitem>
25933 <listitem><para>Accept 60 in seconds fields of timestamp, time, interval input values</para></listitem>
25934 <listitem><para>Issue notice, not error, if <type>TIMESTAMP</type>,
25935 <type> TIME</type>, or <type>INTERVAL</type> precision too large</para></listitem>
25936 <listitem><para>Fix <function>abstime-to-time</function> cast function (fix is
25937 not applied unless you <application>initdb</application>)</para></listitem>
25938 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_proc</application> entry for
25939 <type>timestampt_izone</type> (fix is not applied unless you
25940 <application>initdb</application>)</para></listitem>
25941 <listitem><para>Make <function>EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM timestamp without time zone)</function> treat input as local time</para></listitem>
25942 <listitem><para><command>'now'::timestamptz</command> gave wrong answer if timezone changed earlier in transaction</para></listitem>
25943 <listitem><para><envar>HAVE_INT64_TIMESTAMP</envar> code for time with timezone overwrote its input</para></listitem>
25944 <listitem><para>Accept <command>GLOBAL TEMP/TEMPORARY</command> as a
25945 synonym for <command>TEMPORARY</command></para></listitem>
25946 <listitem><para>Avoid improper schema-privilege-check failure in foreign-key triggers</para></listitem>
25947 <listitem><para>Fix bugs in foreign-key triggers for <command>SET DEFAULT</command> action</para></listitem>
25948 <listitem><para>Fix incorrect time-qual check in row fetch for
25949 <command>UPDATE</command> and <command>DELETE</command> triggers</para></listitem>
25950 <listitem><para>Foreign-key clauses were parsed but ignored in
25951 <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN</command></para></listitem>
25952 <listitem><para>Fix createlang script breakage for case where handler function already exists</para></listitem>
25953 <listitem><para>Fix misbehavior on zero-column tables in <application>pg_dump</application>, COPY, ANALYZE, other places</para></listitem>
25954 <listitem><para>Fix misbehavior of <function>func_error()</function> on type names containing '%'</para></listitem>
25955 <listitem><para>Fix misbehavior of <function>replace()</function> on strings containing '%'</para></listitem>
25956 <listitem><para>Regular-expression patterns containing certain multibyte characters failed</para></listitem>
25957 <listitem><para>Account correctly for <command>NULL</command>s in more cases in join size estimation</para></listitem>
25958 <listitem><para>Avoid conflict with system definition of <function>isblank()</function> function or macro</para></listitem>
25959 <listitem><para>Fix failure to convert large code point values in EUC_TW conversions (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
25960 <listitem><para>Fix error recovery for <function>SSL_read</function>/<function>SSL_write</function> calls</para></listitem>
25961 <listitem><para>Don't do early constant-folding of type coercion expressions</para></listitem>
25962 <listitem><para>Validate page header fields immediately after reading in any page</para></listitem>
25963 <listitem><para>Repair incorrect check for ungrouped variables in unnamed joins</para></listitem>
25964 <listitem><para>Fix buffer overrun in <function>to_ascii</function> (Guido Notari)</para></listitem>
25965 <listitem><para>contrib/ltree fixes (Teodor)</para></listitem>
25966 <listitem><para>Fix core dump in deadlock detection on machines where char is unsigned</para></listitem>
25967 <listitem><para>Avoid running out of buffers in many-way indexscan (bug introduced in 7.3)</para></listitem>
25968 <listitem><para>Fix planner's selectivity estimation functions to handle domains properly</para></listitem>
25969 <listitem><para>Fix <application>dbmirror</application> memory-allocation bug (Steven Singer)</para></listitem>
25970 <listitem><para>Prevent infinite loop in <function>ln(numeric)</function> due to roundoff error</para></listitem>
25971 <listitem><para><command>GROUP BY</command> got confused if there were multiple equal GROUP BY items</para></listitem>
25972 <listitem><para>Fix bad plan when inherited <command>UPDATE</command>/<command>DELETE</command> references another inherited table</para></listitem>
25973 <listitem><para>Prevent clustering on incomplete (partial or non-NULL-storing) indexes</para></listitem>
25974 <listitem><para>Service shutdown request at proper time if it arrives while still starting up</para></listitem>
25975 <listitem><para>Fix left-links in temporary indexes (could make backwards scans miss entries)</para></listitem>
25976 <listitem><para>Fix incorrect handling of client_encoding setting in postgresql.conf (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
25977 <listitem><para>Fix failure to respond to <command>pg_ctl stop -m fast</command> after Async_NotifyHandler runs</para></listitem>
25978 <listitem><para>Fix SPI for case where rule contains multiple statements of the same type</para></listitem>
25979 <listitem><para>Fix problem with checking for wrong type of access privilege in rule query</para></listitem>
25980 <listitem><para>Fix problem with <command>EXCEPT</command> in <command>CREATE RULE</command></para></listitem>
25981 <listitem><para>Prevent problem with dropping temp tables having serial columns</para></listitem>
25982 <listitem><para>Fix replace_vars_with_subplan_refs failure in complex views</para></listitem>
25983 <listitem><para>Fix regexp slowness in single-byte encodings (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
25984 <listitem><para>Allow qualified type names in <command>CREATE CAST</command>
25985 and <command> DROP CAST</command></para></listitem>
25986 <listitem><para>Accept <function>SETOF type[]</function>, which formerly had to
25987 be written <function>SETOF _type</function></para></listitem>
25988 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_dump</application> core dump in some cases with procedural languages</para></listitem>
25989 <listitem><para>Force ISO datestyle in <application>pg_dump</application> output, for portability (Oliver)</para></listitem>
25990 <listitem><para><application>pg_dump</application> failed to handle error return
25991 from <function>lo_read</function> (Oleg Drokin)</para></listitem>
25992 <listitem><para><application>pg_dumpall</application> failed with groups having no members (Nick Eskelinen)</para></listitem>
25993 <listitem><para><application>pg_dumpall</application> failed to recognize --globals-only switch</para></listitem>
25994 <listitem><para>pg_restore failed to restore blobs if -X disable-triggers is specified</para></listitem>
25995 <listitem><para>Repair intrafunction memory leak in plpgsql</para></listitem>
25996 <listitem><para>pltcl's <command>elog</command> command dumped core if given wrong parameters (Ian Harding)</para></listitem>
25997 <listitem><para>plpython used wrong value of <envar>atttypmod</envar> (Brad McLean)</para></listitem>
25998 <listitem><para>Fix improper quoting of boolean values in Python interface (D'Arcy)</para></listitem>
25999 <listitem><para>Added <function>addDataType()</function> method to PGConnection interface for JDBC</para></listitem>
26000 <listitem><para>Fixed various problems with updateable ResultSets for JDBC (Shawn Green)</para></listitem>
26001 <listitem><para>Fixed various problems with DatabaseMetaData for JDBC (Kris Jurka, Peter Royal)</para></listitem>
26002 <listitem><para>Fixed problem with parsing table ACLs in JDBC</para></listitem>
26003 <listitem><para>Better error message for character set conversion problems in JDBC</para></listitem>
26009 <sect1 id="release-7-3-2">
26010 <title>Release 7.3.2</title>
26013 <title>Release date</title>
26014 <simpara>2003-02-04</simpara>
26018 This release contains a variety of fixes for version 7.3.1.
26023 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.2</title>
26026 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
26027 running version 7.3.*.
26032 <title>Changes</title>
26035 <listitem><para>Restore creation of OID column in CREATE TABLE AS / SELECT INTO</para></listitem>
26036 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_dump</> core dump when dumping views having comments</para></listitem>
26037 <listitem><para>Dump DEFERRABLE/INITIALLY DEFERRED constraints properly</para></listitem>
26038 <listitem><para>Fix UPDATE when child table's column numbering differs from parent</para></listitem>
26039 <listitem><para>Increase default value of max_fsm_relations</para></listitem>
26040 <listitem><para>Fix problem when fetching backwards in a cursor for a single-row query</para></listitem>
26041 <listitem><para>Make backward fetch work properly with cursor on SELECT DISTINCT query</para></listitem>
26042 <listitem><para>Fix problems with loading <application>pg_dump</> files containing contrib/lo usage</para></listitem>
26043 <listitem><para>Fix problem with all-numeric user names</para></listitem>
26044 <listitem><para>Fix possible memory leak and core dump during disconnect in libpgtcl</para></listitem>
26045 <listitem><para>Make plpython's spi_execute command handle nulls properly (Andrew Bosma)</para></listitem>
26046 <listitem><para>Adjust plpython error reporting so that its regression test passes again</para></listitem>
26047 <listitem><para>Work with bison 1.875</para></listitem>
26048 <listitem><para>Handle mixed-case names properly in plpgsql's %type (Neil)</para></listitem>
26049 <listitem><para>Fix core dump in pltcl when executing a query rewritten by a rule</para></listitem>
26050 <listitem><para>Repair array subscript overruns (per report from Yichen Xie)</para></listitem>
26051 <listitem><para>Reduce MAX_TIME_PRECISION from 13 to 10 in floating-point case</para></listitem>
26052 <listitem><para>Correctly case-fold variable names in per-database and per-user settings</para></listitem>
26053 <listitem><para>Fix coredump in plpgsql's RETURN NEXT when SELECT into record returns no rows</para></listitem>
26054 <listitem><para>Fix outdated use of pg_type.typprtlen in python client interface</para></listitem>
26055 <listitem><para>Correctly handle fractional seconds in timestamps in JDBC driver</para></listitem>
26056 <listitem><para>Improve performance of getImportedKeys() in JDBC</para></listitem>
26057 <listitem><para>Make shared-library symlinks work standardly on HPUX (Giles)</para></listitem>
26058 <listitem><para>Repair inconsistent rounding behavior for timestamp, time, interval</para></listitem>
26059 <listitem><para>SSL negotiation fixes (Nathan Mueller)</para></listitem>
26060 <listitem><para>Make libpq's ~/.pgpass feature work when connecting with PQconnectDB</para></listitem>
26061 <listitem><para>Update my2pg, ora2pg</para></listitem>
26062 <listitem><para>Translation updates</para></listitem>
26063 <listitem><para>Add casts between types lo and oid in contrib/lo</para></listitem>
26064 <listitem><para>fastpath code now checks for privilege to call function</para></listitem>
26070 <sect1 id="release-7-3-1">
26071 <title>Release 7.3.1</title>
26074 <title>Release date</title>
26075 <simpara>2002-12-18</simpara>
26079 This release contains a variety of fixes for version 7.3.
26084 <title>Migration to Version 7.3.1</title>
26087 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
26088 running version 7.3. However, it should be noted that the main
26089 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> interface library, libpq,
26090 has a new major version number for this release, which might require
26091 recompilation of client code in certain cases.
26096 <title>Changes</title>
26099 <listitem><para>Fix a core dump of COPY TO when client/server encodings don't match (Tom)</para></listitem>
26100 <listitem><para>Allow <application>pg_dump</> to work with pre-7.2 servers (Philip)</para></listitem>
26101 <listitem><para>contrib/adddepend fixes (Tom)</para></listitem>
26102 <listitem><para>Fix problem with deletion of per-user/per-database config settings (Tom)</para></listitem>
26103 <listitem><para>contrib/vacuumlo fix (Tom)</para></listitem>
26104 <listitem><para>Allow 'password' encryption even when pg_shadow contains MD5 passwords (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26105 <listitem><para>contrib/dbmirror fix (Steven Singer)</para></listitem>
26106 <listitem><para>Optimizer fixes (Tom)</para></listitem>
26107 <listitem><para>contrib/tsearch fixes (Teodor Sigaev, Magnus)</para></listitem>
26108 <listitem><para>Allow locale names to be mixed case (Nicolai Tufar)</para></listitem>
26109 <listitem><para>Increment libpq library's major version number (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26110 <listitem><para>pg_hba.conf error reporting fixes (Bruce, Neil)</para></listitem>
26111 <listitem><para>Add SCO Openserver 5.0.4 as a supported platform (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26112 <listitem><para>Prevent EXPLAIN from crashing server (Tom)</para></listitem>
26113 <listitem><para>SSL fixes (Nathan Mueller)</para></listitem>
26114 <listitem><para>Prevent composite column creation via ALTER TABLE (Tom)</para></listitem>
26120 <sect1 id="release-7-3">
26121 <title>Release 7.3</title>
26124 <title>Release date</title>
26125 <simpara>2002-11-27</simpara>
26129 <title>Overview</title>
26132 Major changes in this release:
26137 <term>Schemas</term>
26140 Schemas allow users to create objects in separate namespaces,
26141 so two people or applications can have tables with the same
26142 name. There is also a public schema for shared tables.
26143 Table/index creation can be restricted by removing privileges
26144 on the public schema.
26150 <term>Drop Column</term>
26153 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> now supports the
26154 <literal>ALTER TABLE ... DROP COLUMN</literal> functionality.
26160 <term>Table Functions</term>
26163 Functions returning multiple rows and/or multiple columns are
26164 now much easier to use than before. You can call such a
26165 <quote>table function</quote> in the <literal>SELECT</literal>
26166 <literal>FROM</literal> clause, treating its output like a
26167 table. Also, <application>PL/pgSQL</application> functions can
26174 <term>Prepared Queries</term>
26177 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> now supports prepared
26178 queries, for improved performance.
26184 <term>Dependency Tracking</term>
26187 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> now records object
26188 dependencies, which allows improvements in many areas.
26189 <command>DROP</command> statements now take either
26190 <literal>CASCADE</> or <literal>RESTRICT</> to control whether
26191 dependent objects are also dropped.
26197 <term>Privileges</term>
26200 Functions and procedural languages now have privileges, and
26201 functions can be defined to run with the privileges of their
26208 <term>Internationalization</term>
26211 Both multibyte and locale support are now always enabled.
26217 <term>Logging</term>
26220 A variety of logging options have been enhanced.
26226 <term>Interfaces</term>
26229 A large number of interfaces have been moved to <ulink
26230 url="http://gborg.postgresql.org">http://gborg.postgresql.org</>
26231 where they can be developed and released independently.
26237 <term>Functions/Identifiers</term>
26240 By default, functions can now take up to 32 parameters, and
26241 identifiers can be up to 63 bytes long. Also, <literal>OPAQUE</>
26242 is now deprecated: there are specific <quote>pseudo-datatypes</>
26243 to represent each of the former meanings of <literal>OPAQUE</>
26244 in function argument and result types.
26253 <title>Migration to Version 7.3</title>
26256 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</> is required for those
26257 wishing to migrate data from any previous release. If your
26258 application examines the system catalogs, additional changes will
26259 be required due to the introduction of schemas in 7.3; for more
26260 information, see: <ulink
26261 url="http://developer.postgresql.org/~momjian/upgrade_tips_7.3"></>.
26265 Observe the following incompatibilities:
26271 Pre-6.3 clients are no longer supported.
26277 <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> now has a column for the user
26278 name and additional features. Existing files need to be
26285 Several <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> logging parameters
26292 <literal>LIMIT #,#</literal> has been disabled; use
26293 <literal>LIMIT # OFFSET #</literal>.
26299 <command>INSERT</command> statements with column lists must
26300 specify a value for each specified column. For example,
26301 <literal>INSERT INTO tab (col1, col2) VALUES ('val1')</literal>
26302 is now invalid. It's still allowed to supply fewer columns than
26303 expected if the <command>INSERT</command> does not have a column list.
26309 <type>serial</type> columns are no longer automatically
26310 <literal>UNIQUE</>; thus, an index will not automatically be
26317 A <command>SET</command> command inside an aborted transaction
26318 is now rolled back.
26324 <command>COPY</command> no longer considers missing trailing
26325 columns to be null. All columns need to be specified.
26326 (However, one can achieve a similar effect by specifying a
26327 column list in the <command>COPY</command> command.)
26333 The data type <type>timestamp</type> is now equivalent to
26334 <type>timestamp without time zone</type>, instead of
26335 <type>timestamp with time zone</type>.
26341 Pre-7.3 databases loaded into 7.3 will not have the new object
26342 dependencies for <type>serial</type> columns, unique
26343 constraints, and foreign keys. See the directory
26344 <filename>contrib/adddepend/</filename> for a detailed
26345 description and a script that will add such dependencies.
26351 An empty string (<literal>''</literal>) is no longer allowed as
26352 the input into an integer field. Formerly, it was silently
26361 <title>Changes</title>
26364 <title>Server Operation</title>
26366 <listitem><para>Add pg_locks view to show locks (Neil)</para></listitem>
26367 <listitem><para>Security fixes for password negotiation memory allocation (Neil)</para></listitem>
26368 <listitem><para>Remove support for version 0 FE/BE protocol (<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 6.2 and earlier) (Tom)</para></listitem>
26369 <listitem><para>Reserve the last few backend slots for superusers, add parameter superuser_reserved_connections to control this (Nigel J. Andrews)</para></listitem>
26374 <title>Performance</title>
26376 <listitem><para>Improve startup by calling localtime() only once (Tom)</para></listitem>
26377 <listitem><para>Cache system catalog information in flat files for faster startup (Tom)</para></listitem>
26378 <listitem><para>Improve caching of index information (Tom)</para></listitem>
26379 <listitem><para>Optimizer improvements (Tom, Fernando Nasser)</para></listitem>
26380 <listitem><para>Catalog caches now store failed lookups (Tom)</para></listitem>
26381 <listitem><para>Hash function improvements (Neil)</para></listitem>
26382 <listitem><para>Improve performance of query tokenization and network handling (Peter)</para></listitem>
26383 <listitem><para>Speed improvement for large object restore (Mario Weilguni)</para></listitem>
26384 <listitem><para>Mark expired index entries on first lookup, saving later heap fetches (Tom)</para></listitem>
26385 <listitem><para>Avoid excessive NULL bitmap padding (Manfred Koizar)</para></listitem>
26386 <listitem><para>Add BSD-licensed qsort() for Solaris, for performance (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26387 <listitem><para>Reduce per-row overhead by four bytes (Manfred Koizar)</para></listitem>
26388 <listitem><para>Fix GEQO optimizer bug (Neil Conway)</para></listitem>
26389 <listitem><para>Make WITHOUT OID actually save four bytes per row (Manfred Koizar)</para></listitem>
26390 <listitem><para>Add default_statistics_target variable to specify ANALYZE buckets (Neil)</para></listitem>
26391 <listitem><para>Use local buffer cache for temporary tables so no WAL overhead (Tom)</para></listitem>
26392 <listitem><para>Improve free space map performance on large tables (Stephen Marshall, Tom)</para></listitem>
26393 <listitem><para>Improved WAL write concurrency (Tom)</para></listitem>
26398 <title>Privileges</title>
26400 <listitem><para>Add privileges on functions and procedural languages (Peter)</para></listitem>
26401 <listitem><para>Add OWNER to CREATE DATABASE so superusers can create databases on behalf of unprivileged users (Gavin Sherry, Tom)</para></listitem>
26402 <listitem><para>Add new object privilege bits EXECUTE and USAGE (Tom)</para></listitem>
26403 <listitem><para>Add SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION DEFAULT and RESET SESSION AUTHORIZATION (Tom)</para></listitem>
26404 <listitem><para>Allow functions to be executed with the privilege of the function owner (Peter)</para></listitem>
26409 <title>Server Configuration</title>
26411 <listitem><para>Server log messages now tagged with LOG, not DEBUG (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26412 <listitem><para>Add user column to pg_hba.conf (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26413 <listitem><para>Have log_connections output two lines in log file (Tom)</para></listitem>
26414 <listitem><para>Remove debug_level from postgresql.conf, now server_min_messages (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26415 <listitem><para>New ALTER DATABASE/USER ... SET command for per-user/database initialization (Peter)</para></listitem>
26416 <listitem><para>New parameters server_min_messages and client_min_messages to control which messages are sent to the server logs or client applications (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26417 <listitem><para>Allow pg_hba.conf to specify lists of users/databases separated by commas, group names prepended with +, and file names prepended with @ (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26418 <listitem><para>Remove secondary password file capability and pg_password utility (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26419 <listitem><para>Add variable db_user_namespace for database-local user names (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26420 <listitem><para>SSL improvements (Bear Giles)</para></listitem>
26421 <listitem><para>Make encryption of stored passwords the default (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26422 <listitem><para>Allow pg_statistics to be reset by calling pg_stat_reset() (Christopher)</para></listitem>
26423 <listitem><para>Add log_duration parameter (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26424 <listitem><para>Rename debug_print_query to log_statement (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26425 <listitem><para>Rename show_query_stats to show_statement_stats (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26426 <listitem><para>Add param log_min_error_statement to print commands to logs on error (Gavin)</para></listitem>
26431 <title>Queries</title>
26433 <listitem><para>Make cursors insensitive, meaning their contents do not change (Tom)</para></listitem>
26434 <listitem><para>Disable LIMIT #,# syntax; now only LIMIT # OFFSET # supported (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26435 <listitem><para>Increase identifier length to 63 (Neil, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26436 <listitem><para>UNION fixes for merging >= 3 columns of different lengths (Tom)</para></listitem>
26437 <listitem><para>Add DEFAULT key word to INSERT, e.g., INSERT ... (..., DEFAULT, ...) (Rod)</para></listitem>
26438 <listitem><para>Allow views to have default values using ALTER COLUMN ... SET DEFAULT (Neil)</para></listitem>
26439 <listitem><para>Fail on INSERTs with column lists that don't supply all column values, e.g., INSERT INTO tab (col1, col2) VALUES ('val1'); (Rod)</para></listitem>
26440 <listitem><para>Fix for join aliases (Tom)</para></listitem>
26441 <listitem><para>Fix for FULL OUTER JOINs (Tom)</para></listitem>
26442 <listitem><para>Improve reporting of invalid identifier and location (Tom, Gavin)</para></listitem>
26443 <listitem><para>Fix OPEN cursor(args) (Tom)</para></listitem>
26444 <listitem><para>Allow 'ctid' to be used in a view and currtid(viewname) (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
26445 <listitem><para>Fix for CREATE TABLE AS with UNION (Tom)</para></listitem>
26446 <listitem><para>SQL99 syntax improvements (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26447 <listitem><para>Add statement_timeout variable to cancel queries (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26448 <listitem><para>Allow prepared queries with PREPARE/EXECUTE (Neil)</para></listitem>
26449 <listitem><para>Allow FOR UPDATE to appear after LIMIT/OFFSET (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26450 <listitem><para>Add variable autocommit (Tom, David Van Wie)</para></listitem>
26455 <title>Object Manipulation</title>
26457 <listitem><para>Make equals signs optional in CREATE DATABASE (Gavin Sherry)</para></listitem>
26458 <listitem><para>Make ALTER TABLE OWNER change index ownership too (Neil)</para></listitem>
26459 <listitem><para>New ALTER TABLE tabname ALTER COLUMN colname SET STORAGE controls TOAST storage, compression (John Gray)</para></listitem>
26460 <listitem><para>Add schema support, CREATE/DROP SCHEMA (Tom)</para></listitem>
26461 <listitem><para>Create schema for temporary tables (Tom)</para></listitem>
26462 <listitem><para>Add variable search_path for schema search (Tom)</para></listitem>
26463 <listitem><para>Add ALTER TABLE SET/DROP NOT NULL (Christopher)</para></listitem>
26464 <listitem><para>New CREATE FUNCTION volatility levels (Tom)</para></listitem>
26465 <listitem><para>Make rule names unique only per table (Tom)</para></listitem>
26466 <listitem><para>Add 'ON tablename' clause to DROP RULE and COMMENT ON RULE (Tom)</para></listitem>
26467 <listitem><para>Add ALTER TRIGGER RENAME (Joe)</para></listitem>
26468 <listitem><para>New current_schema() and current_schemas() inquiry functions (Tom)</para></listitem>
26469 <listitem><para>Allow functions to return multiple rows (table functions) (Joe)</para></listitem>
26470 <listitem><para>Make WITH optional in CREATE DATABASE, for consistency (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26471 <listitem><para>Add object dependency tracking (Rod, Tom)</para></listitem>
26472 <listitem><para>Add RESTRICT/CASCADE to DROP commands (Rod)</para></listitem>
26473 <listitem><para>Add ALTER TABLE DROP for non-CHECK CONSTRAINT (Rod)</para></listitem>
26474 <listitem><para>Autodestroy sequence on DROP of table with SERIAL (Rod)</para></listitem>
26475 <listitem><para>Prevent column dropping if column is used by foreign key (Rod)</para></listitem>
26476 <listitem><para>Automatically drop constraints/functions when object is dropped (Rod)</para></listitem>
26477 <listitem><para>Add CREATE/DROP OPERATOR CLASS (Bill Studenmund, Tom)</para></listitem>
26478 <listitem><para>Add ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN (Christopher, Tom, Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
26479 <listitem><para>Prevent inherited columns from being removed or renamed (Alvaro Herrera)</para></listitem>
26480 <listitem><para>Fix foreign key constraints to not error on intermediate database states (Stephan)</para></listitem>
26481 <listitem><para>Propagate column or table renaming to foreign key constraints</para></listitem>
26482 <listitem><para>Add CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW (Gavin, Neil, Tom)</para></listitem>
26483 <listitem><para>Add CREATE OR REPLACE RULE (Gavin, Neil, Tom)</para></listitem>
26484 <listitem><para>Have rules execute alphabetically, returning more predictable values (Tom)</para></listitem>
26485 <listitem><para>Triggers are now fired in alphabetical order (Tom)</para></listitem>
26486 <listitem><para>Add /contrib/adddepend to handle pre-7.3 object dependencies (Rod)</para></listitem>
26487 <listitem><para>Allow better casting when inserting/updating values (Tom)</para></listitem>
26492 <title>Utility Commands</title>
26494 <listitem><para>Have COPY TO output embedded carriage returns and newlines as \r and \n (Tom)</para></listitem>
26495 <listitem><para>Allow DELIMITER in COPY FROM to be 8-bit clean (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26496 <listitem><para>Make <application>pg_dump</> use ALTER TABLE ADD PRIMARY KEY, for performance (Neil)</para></listitem>
26497 <listitem><para>Disable brackets in multistatement rules (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26498 <listitem><para>Disable VACUUM from being called inside a function (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26499 <listitem><para>Allow dropdb and other scripts to use identifiers with spaces (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26500 <listitem><para>Restrict database comment changes to the current database</para></listitem>
26501 <listitem><para>Allow comments on operators, independent of the underlying function (Rod)</para></listitem>
26502 <listitem><para>Rollback SET commands in aborted transactions (Tom)</para></listitem>
26503 <listitem><para>EXPLAIN now outputs as a query (Tom)</para></listitem>
26504 <listitem><para>Display condition expressions and sort keys in EXPLAIN (Tom)</para></listitem>
26505 <listitem><para>Add 'SET LOCAL var = value' to set configuration variables for a single transaction (Tom)</para></listitem>
26506 <listitem><para>Allow ANALYZE to run in a transaction (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26507 <listitem><para>Improve COPY syntax using new WITH clauses, keep backward compatibility (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26508 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_dump</> to consistently output tags in non-ASCII dumps (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26509 <listitem><para>Make foreign key constraints clearer in dump file (Rod)</para></listitem>
26510 <listitem><para>Add COMMENT ON CONSTRAINT (Rod)</para></listitem>
26511 <listitem><para>Allow COPY TO/FROM to specify column names (Brent Verner)</para></listitem>
26512 <listitem><para>Dump UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints as ALTER TABLE (Rod)</para></listitem>
26513 <listitem><para>Have SHOW output a query result (Joe)</para></listitem>
26514 <listitem><para>Generate failure on short COPY lines rather than pad NULLs (Neil)</para></listitem>
26515 <listitem><para>Fix CLUSTER to preserve all table attributes (Alvaro Herrera)</para></listitem>
26516 <listitem><para>New pg_settings table to view/modify GUC settings (Joe)</para></listitem>
26517 <listitem><para>Add smart quoting, portability improvements to <application>pg_dump</> output (Peter)</para></listitem>
26518 <listitem><para>Dump serial columns out as SERIAL (Tom)</para></listitem>
26519 <listitem><para>Enable large file support, >2G for <application>pg_dump</> (Peter, Philip Warner, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26520 <listitem><para>Disallow TRUNCATE on tables that are involved in referential constraints (Rod)</para></listitem>
26521 <listitem><para>Have TRUNCATE also auto-truncate the toast table of the relation (Tom)</para></listitem>
26522 <listitem><para>Add clusterdb utility that will auto-cluster an entire database based on previous CLUSTER operations (Alvaro Herrera)</para></listitem>
26523 <listitem><para>Overhaul pg_dumpall (Peter)</para></listitem>
26524 <listitem><para>Allow REINDEX of TOAST tables (Tom)</para></listitem>
26525 <listitem><para>Implemented START TRANSACTION, per SQL99 (Neil)</para></listitem>
26526 <listitem><para>Fix rare index corruption when a page split affects bulk delete (Tom)</para></listitem>
26527 <listitem><para>Fix ALTER TABLE ... ADD COLUMN for inheritance (Alvaro Herrera)</para></listitem>
26532 <title>Data Types and Functions</title>
26534 <listitem><para>Fix factorial(0) to return 1 (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26535 <listitem><para>Date/time/timezone improvements (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26536 <listitem><para>Fix for array slice extraction (Tom)</para></listitem>
26537 <listitem><para>Fix extract/date_part to report proper microseconds for timestamp (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26538 <listitem><para>Allow text_substr() and bytea_substr() to read TOAST values more efficiently (John Gray)</para></listitem>
26539 <listitem><para>Add domain support (Rod)</para></listitem>
26540 <listitem><para>Make WITHOUT TIME ZONE the default for TIMESTAMP and TIME data types (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26541 <listitem><para>Allow alternate storage scheme of 64-bit integers for date/time types using --enable-integer-datetimes in configure (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26542 <listitem><para>Make timezone(timestamptz) return timestamp rather than a string (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26543 <listitem><para>Allow fractional seconds in date/time types for dates prior to 1BC (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26544 <listitem><para>Limit timestamp data types to 6 decimal places of precision (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26545 <listitem><para>Change timezone conversion functions from timetz() to timezone() (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26546 <listitem><para>Add configuration variables datestyle and timezone (Tom)</para></listitem>
26547 <listitem><para>Add OVERLAY(), which allows substitution of a substring in a string (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26548 <listitem><para>Add SIMILAR TO (Thomas, Tom)</para></listitem>
26549 <listitem><para>Add regular expression SUBSTRING(string FROM pat FOR escape) (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26550 <listitem><para>Add LOCALTIME and LOCALTIMESTAMP functions (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26551 <listitem><para>Add named composite types using CREATE TYPE typename AS (column) (Joe)</para></listitem>
26552 <listitem><para>Allow composite type definition in the table alias clause (Joe)</para></listitem>
26553 <listitem><para>Add new API to simplify creation of C language table functions (Joe)</para></listitem>
26554 <listitem><para>Remove ODBC-compatible empty parentheses from calls to SQL99 functions for which these parentheses do not match the standard (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26555 <listitem><para>Allow macaddr data type to accept 12 hex digits with no separators (Mike Wyer)</para></listitem>
26556 <listitem><para>Add CREATE/DROP CAST (Peter)</para></listitem>
26557 <listitem><para>Add IS DISTINCT FROM operator (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26558 <listitem><para>Add SQL99 TREAT() function, synonym for CAST() (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26559 <listitem><para>Add pg_backend_pid() to output backend pid (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26560 <listitem><para>Add IS OF / IS NOT OF type predicate (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26561 <listitem><para>Allow bit string constants without fully-specified length (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26562 <listitem><para>Allow conversion between 8-byte integers and bit strings (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26563 <listitem><para>Implement hex literal conversion to bit string literal (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26564 <listitem><para>Allow table functions to appear in the FROM clause (Joe)</para></listitem>
26565 <listitem><para>Increase maximum number of function parameters to 32 (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26566 <listitem><para>No longer automatically create index for SERIAL column (Tom)</para></listitem>
26567 <listitem><para>Add current_database() (Rod)</para></listitem>
26568 <listitem><para>Fix cash_words() to not overflow buffer (Tom)</para></listitem>
26569 <listitem><para>Add functions replace(), split_part(), to_hex() (Joe)</para></listitem>
26570 <listitem><para>Fix LIKE for bytea as a right-hand argument (Joe)</para></listitem>
26571 <listitem><para>Prevent crashes caused by SELECT cash_out(2) (Tom)</para></listitem>
26572 <listitem><para>Fix to_char(1,'FM999.99') to return a period (Karel)</para></listitem>
26573 <listitem><para>Fix trigger/type/language functions returning OPAQUE to return proper type (Tom)</para></listitem>
26578 <title>Internationalization</title>
26580 <listitem><para>Add additional encodings: Korean (JOHAB), Thai (WIN874), Vietnamese (TCVN), Arabic (WIN1256), Simplified Chinese (GBK), Korean (UHC) (Eiji Tokuya)</para></listitem>
26581 <listitem><para>Enable locale support by default (Peter)</para></listitem>
26582 <listitem><para>Add locale variables (Peter)</para></listitem>
26583 <listitem><para>Escape byes >= 0x7f for multibyte in PQescapeBytea/PQunescapeBytea (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26584 <listitem><para>Add locale awareness to regular expression character classes</para></listitem>
26585 <listitem><para>Enable multibyte support by default (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26586 <listitem><para>Add GB18030 multibyte support (Bill Huang)</para></listitem>
26587 <listitem><para>Add CREATE/DROP CONVERSION, allowing loadable encodings (Tatsuo, Kaori)</para></listitem>
26588 <listitem><para>Add pg_conversion table (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26589 <listitem><para>Add SQL99 CONVERT() function (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26590 <listitem><para>pg_dumpall, pg_controldata, and pg_resetxlog now national-language aware (Peter)</para></listitem>
26591 <listitem><para>New and updated translations</para></listitem>
26596 <title>Server-side Languages</title>
26598 <listitem><para>Allow recursive SQL function (Peter)</para></listitem>
26599 <listitem><para>Change PL/Tcl build to use configured compiler and Makefile.shlib (Peter)</para></listitem>
26600 <listitem><para>Overhaul the PL/pgSQL FOUND variable to be more Oracle-compatible (Neil, Tom)</para></listitem>
26601 <listitem><para>Allow PL/pgSQL to handle quoted identifiers (Tom)</para></listitem>
26602 <listitem><para>Allow set-returning PL/pgSQL functions (Neil)</para></listitem>
26603 <listitem><para>Make PL/pgSQL schema-aware (Joe)</para></listitem>
26604 <listitem><para>Remove some memory leaks (Nigel J. Andrews, Tom)</para></listitem>
26609 <title>psql</title>
26611 <listitem><para>Don't lowercase psql \connect database name for 7.2.0 compatibility (Tom)</para></listitem>
26612 <listitem><para>Add psql \timing to time user queries (Greg Sabino Mullane)</para></listitem>
26613 <listitem><para>Have psql \d show index information (Greg Sabino Mullane)</para></listitem>
26614 <listitem><para>New psql \dD shows domains (Jonathan Eisler)</para></listitem>
26615 <listitem><para>Allow psql to show rules on views (Paul ?)</para></listitem>
26616 <listitem><para>Fix for psql variable substitution (Tom)</para></listitem>
26617 <listitem><para>Allow psql \d to show temporary table structure (Tom)</para></listitem>
26618 <listitem><para>Allow psql \d to show foreign keys (Rod)</para></listitem>
26619 <listitem><para>Fix \? to honor \pset pager (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26620 <listitem><para>Have psql reports its version number on startup (Tom)</para></listitem>
26621 <listitem><para>Allow \copy to specify column names (Tom)</para></listitem>
26626 <title>libpq</title>
26628 <listitem><para>Add ~/.pgpass to store host/user password combinations (Alvaro Herrera)</para></listitem>
26629 <listitem><para>Add PQunescapeBytea() function to libpq (Patrick Welche)</para></listitem>
26630 <listitem><para>Fix for sending large queries over non-blocking connections (Bernhard Herzog)</para></listitem>
26631 <listitem><para>Fix for libpq using timers on Win9X (David Ford)</para></listitem>
26632 <listitem><para>Allow libpq notify to handle servers with different-length identifiers (Tom)</para></listitem>
26633 <listitem><para>Add libpq PQescapeString() and PQescapeBytea() to Windows (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26634 <listitem><para>Fix for SSL with non-blocking connections (Jack Bates)</para></listitem>
26635 <listitem><para>Add libpq connection timeout parameter (Denis A Ustimenko)</para></listitem>
26640 <title>JDBC</title>
26642 <listitem><para>Allow JDBC to compile with JDK 1.4 (Dave)</para></listitem>
26643 <listitem><para>Add JDBC 3 support (Barry)</para></listitem>
26644 <listitem><para>Allows JDBC to set loglevel by adding ?loglevel=X to the connection URL (Barry)</para></listitem>
26645 <listitem><para>Add Driver.info() message that prints out the version number (Barry)</para></listitem>
26646 <listitem><para>Add updateable result sets (Raghu Nidagal, Dave)</para></listitem>
26647 <listitem><para>Add support for callable statements (Paul Bethe)</para></listitem>
26648 <listitem><para>Add query cancel capability</para></listitem>
26649 <listitem><para>Add refresh row (Dave)</para></listitem>
26650 <listitem><para>Fix MD5 encryption handling for multibyte servers (Jun Kawai)</para></listitem>
26651 <listitem><para>Add support for prepared statements (Barry)</para></listitem>
26656 <title>Miscellaneous Interfaces</title>
26658 <listitem><para>Fixed ECPG bug concerning octal numbers in single quotes (Michael)</para></listitem>
26659 <listitem><para>Move src/interfaces/libpgeasy to http://gborg.postgresql.org (Marc, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26660 <listitem><para>Improve Python interface (Elliot Lee, Andrew Johnson, Greg Copeland)</para></listitem>
26661 <listitem><para>Add libpgtcl connection close event (Gerhard Hintermayer)</para></listitem>
26662 <listitem><para>Move src/interfaces/libpq++ to http://gborg.postgresql.org (Marc, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26663 <listitem><para>Move src/interfaces/odbc to http://gborg.postgresql.org (Marc)</para></listitem>
26664 <listitem><para>Move src/interfaces/libpgeasy to http://gborg.postgresql.org (Marc, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26665 <listitem><para>Move src/interfaces/perl5 to http://gborg.postgresql.org (Marc, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26666 <listitem><para>Remove src/bin/pgaccess from main tree, now at http://www.pgaccess.org (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26667 <listitem><para>Add pg_on_connection_loss command to libpgtcl (Gerhard Hintermayer, Tom)</para></listitem>
26672 <title>Source Code</title>
26674 <listitem><para>Fix for parallel make (Peter)</para></listitem>
26675 <listitem><para>AIX fixes for linking Tcl (Andreas Zeugswetter)</para></listitem>
26676 <listitem><para>Allow PL/Perl to build under Cygwin (Jason Tishler)</para></listitem>
26677 <listitem><para>Improve MIPS compiles (Peter, Oliver Elphick)</para></listitem>
26678 <listitem><para>Require Autoconf version 2.53 (Peter)</para></listitem>
26679 <listitem><para>Require readline and zlib by default in configure (Peter)</para></listitem>
26680 <listitem><para>Allow Solaris to use Intimate Shared Memory (ISM), for performance (Scott Brunza, P.J. Josh Rovero)</para></listitem>
26681 <listitem><para>Always enable syslog in compile, remove --enable-syslog option (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26682 <listitem><para>Always enable multibyte in compile, remove --enable-multibyte option (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
26683 <listitem><para>Always enable locale in compile, remove --enable-locale option (Peter)</para></listitem>
26684 <listitem><para>Fix for Win9x DLL creation (Magnus Naeslund)</para></listitem>
26685 <listitem><para>Fix for link() usage by WAL code on Windows, BeOS (Jason Tishler)</para></listitem>
26686 <listitem><para>Add sys/types.h to c.h, remove from main files (Peter, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26687 <listitem><para>Fix AIX hang on SMP machines (Tomoyuki Niijima)</para></listitem>
26688 <listitem><para>AIX SMP hang fix (Tomoyuki Niijima)</para></listitem>
26689 <listitem><para>Fix pre-1970 date handling on newer glibc libraries (Tom)</para></listitem>
26690 <listitem><para>Fix PowerPC SMP locking (Tom)</para></listitem>
26691 <listitem><para>Prevent gcc -ffast-math from being used (Peter, Tom)</para></listitem>
26692 <listitem><para>Bison >= 1.50 now required for developer builds</para></listitem>
26693 <listitem><para>Kerberos 5 support now builds with Heimdal (Peter)</para></listitem>
26694 <listitem><para>Add appendix in the User's Guide which lists SQL features (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26695 <listitem><para>Improve loadable module linking to use RTLD_NOW (Tom)</para></listitem>
26696 <listitem><para>New error levels WARNING, INFO, LOG, DEBUG[1-5] (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26697 <listitem><para>New src/port directory holds replaced libc functions (Peter, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26698 <listitem><para>New pg_namespace system catalog for schemas (Tom)</para></listitem>
26699 <listitem><para>Add pg_class.relnamespace for schemas (Tom)</para></listitem>
26700 <listitem><para>Add pg_type.typnamespace for schemas (Tom)</para></listitem>
26701 <listitem><para>Add pg_proc.pronamespace for schemas (Tom)</para></listitem>
26702 <listitem><para>Restructure aggregates to have pg_proc entries (Tom)</para></listitem>
26703 <listitem><para>System relations now have their own namespace, pg_* test not required (Fernando Nasser)</para></listitem>
26704 <listitem><para>Rename TOAST index names to be *_index rather than *_idx (Neil)</para></listitem>
26705 <listitem><para>Add namespaces for operators, opclasses (Tom)</para></listitem>
26706 <listitem><para>Add additional checks to server control file (Thomas)</para></listitem>
26707 <listitem><para>New Polish FAQ (Marcin Mazurek)</para></listitem>
26708 <listitem><para>Add Posix semaphore support (Tom)</para></listitem>
26709 <listitem><para>Document need for reindex (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26710 <listitem><para>Rename some internal identifiers to simplify Windows compile (Jan, Katherine Ward)</para></listitem>
26711 <listitem><para>Add documentation on computing disk space (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26712 <listitem><para>Remove KSQO from GUC (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26713 <listitem><para>Fix memory leak in rtree (Kenneth Been)</para></listitem>
26714 <listitem><para>Modify a few error messages for consistency (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26715 <listitem><para>Remove unused system table columns (Peter)</para></listitem>
26716 <listitem><para>Make system columns NOT NULL where appropriate (Tom)</para></listitem>
26717 <listitem><para>Clean up use of sprintf in favor of snprintf() (Neil, Jukka Holappa)</para></listitem>
26718 <listitem><para>Remove OPAQUE and create specific subtypes (Tom)</para></listitem>
26719 <listitem><para>Cleanups in array internal handling (Joe, Tom)</para></listitem>
26720 <listitem><para>Disallow pg_atoi('') (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26721 <listitem><para>Remove parameter wal_files because WAL files are now recycled (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26722 <listitem><para>Add version numbers to heap pages (Tom)</para></listitem>
26727 <title>Contrib</title>
26729 <listitem><para>Allow inet arrays in /contrib/array (Neil)</para></listitem>
26730 <listitem><para>GiST fixes (Teodor Sigaev, Neil)</para></listitem>
26731 <listitem><para>Upgrade /contrib/mysql</para></listitem>
26732 <listitem><para>Add /contrib/dbsize which shows table sizes without vacuum (Peter)</para></listitem>
26733 <listitem><para>Add /contrib/intagg, integer aggregator routines (mlw)</para></listitem>
26734 <listitem><para>Improve /contrib/oid2name (Neil, Bruce)</para></listitem>
26735 <listitem><para>Improve /contrib/tsearch (Oleg, Teodor Sigaev)</para></listitem>
26736 <listitem><para>Cleanups of /contrib/rserver (Alexey V. Borzov)</para></listitem>
26737 <listitem><para>Update /contrib/oracle conversion utility (Gilles Darold)</para></listitem>
26738 <listitem><para>Update /contrib/dblink (Joe)</para></listitem>
26739 <listitem><para>Improve options supported by /contrib/vacuumlo (Mario Weilguni)</para></listitem>
26740 <listitem><para>Improvements to /contrib/intarray (Oleg, Teodor Sigaev, Andrey Oktyabrski)</para></listitem>
26741 <listitem><para>Add /contrib/reindexdb utility (Shaun Thomas)</para></listitem>
26742 <listitem><para>Add indexing to /contrib/isbn_issn (Dan Weston)</para></listitem>
26743 <listitem><para>Add /contrib/dbmirror (Steven Singer)</para></listitem>
26744 <listitem><para>Improve /contrib/pgbench (Neil)</para></listitem>
26745 <listitem><para>Add /contrib/tablefunc table function examples (Joe)</para></listitem>
26746 <listitem><para>Add /contrib/ltree data type for tree structures (Teodor Sigaev, Oleg Bartunov)</para></listitem>
26747 <listitem><para>Move /contrib/pg_controldata, pg_resetxlog into main tree (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26748 <listitem><para>Fixes to /contrib/cube (Bruno Wolff)</para></listitem>
26749 <listitem><para>Improve /contrib/fulltextindex (Christopher)</para></listitem>
26756 <sect1 id="release-7-2-8">
26757 <title>Release 7.2.8</title>
26760 <title>Release date</title>
26761 <simpara>2005-05-09</simpara>
26765 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.2.7, including one
26766 security-related issue.
26770 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.8</title>
26773 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.2.X.
26778 <title>Changes</title>
26781 <listitem><para>Repair ancient race condition that allowed a transaction to be
26782 seen as committed for some purposes (eg SELECT FOR UPDATE) slightly sooner
26783 than for other purposes</para>
26784 <para>This is an extremely serious bug since it could lead to apparent
26785 data inconsistencies being briefly visible to applications.</para></listitem>
26786 <listitem><para>Repair race condition between relation extension and
26788 <para>This could theoretically have caused loss of a page's worth of
26789 freshly-inserted data, although the scenario seems of very low probability.
26790 There are no known cases of it having caused more than an Assert failure.
26792 <listitem><para>Fix <function>EXTRACT(EPOCH)</> for
26793 <type>TIME WITH TIME ZONE</> values</para></listitem>
26794 <listitem><para>Additional buffer overrun checks in plpgsql
26795 (Neil)</para></listitem>
26796 <listitem><para>Fix pg_dump to dump index names and trigger names containing
26797 <literal>%</> correctly (Neil)</para></listitem>
26798 <listitem><para>Prevent <function>to_char(interval)</> from dumping core for
26799 month-related formats</para></listitem>
26800 <listitem><para>Fix <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</> for newer OpenSSL builds
26801 (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
26807 <sect1 id="release-7-2-7">
26808 <title>Release 7.2.7</title>
26811 <title>Release date</title>
26812 <simpara>2005-01-31</simpara>
26816 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.2.6, including several
26817 security-related issues.
26821 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.7</title>
26824 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.2.X.
26829 <title>Changes</title>
26832 <listitem><para>Disallow <command>LOAD</> to non-superusers</para>
26834 On platforms that will automatically execute initialization functions of a
26835 shared library (this includes at least Windows and ELF-based Unixen),
26836 <command>LOAD</> can be used to make the server execute arbitrary code.
26837 Thanks to NGS Software for reporting this.</para></listitem>
26838 <listitem><para>Add needed STRICT marking to some contrib functions (Kris
26839 Jurka)</para></listitem>
26840 <listitem><para>Avoid buffer overrun when plpgsql cursor declaration has too
26841 many parameters (Neil)</para></listitem>
26842 <listitem><para>Fix planning error for FULL and RIGHT outer joins</para>
26844 The result of the join was mistakenly supposed to be sorted the same as the
26845 left input. This could not only deliver mis-sorted output to the user, but
26846 in case of nested merge joins could give outright wrong answers.
26848 <listitem><para>Fix display of negative intervals in SQL and GERMAN
26849 datestyles</para></listitem>
26855 <sect1 id="release-7-2-6">
26856 <title>Release 7.2.6</title>
26859 <title>Release date</title>
26860 <simpara>2004-10-22</simpara>
26864 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.2.5.
26869 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.6</title>
26872 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.2.X.
26877 <title>Changes</title>
26880 <listitem><para>Repair possible failure to update hint bits on disk</para>
26882 Under rare circumstances this oversight could lead to
26883 <quote>could not access transaction status</> failures, which qualifies
26884 it as a potential-data-loss bug.
26886 <listitem><para>Ensure that hashed outer join does not miss tuples</para>
26888 Very large left joins using a hash join plan could fail to output unmatched
26889 left-side rows given just the right data distribution.
26891 <listitem><para>Disallow running pg_ctl as root</para>
26893 This is to guard against any possible security issues.
26895 <listitem><para>Avoid using temp files in /tmp in make_oidjoins_check</para>
26897 This has been reported as a security issue, though it's hardly worthy of
26898 concern since there is no reason for non-developers to use this script anyway.
26900 <listitem><para>Update to newer versions of Bison</para></listitem>
26906 <sect1 id="release-7-2-5">
26907 <title>Release 7.2.5</title>
26910 <title>Release date</title>
26911 <simpara>2004-08-16</simpara>
26915 This release contains a variety of fixes from 7.2.4.
26920 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.5</title>
26923 A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.2.X.
26928 <title>Changes</title>
26931 <listitem><para>Prevent possible loss of committed transactions during crash</para>
26933 Due to insufficient interlocking between transaction commit and checkpointing,
26934 it was possible for transactions committed just before the most recent
26935 checkpoint to be lost, in whole or in part, following a database crash and
26936 restart. This is a serious bug that has existed
26937 since <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 7.1.
26939 <listitem><para>Fix corner case for btree search in parallel with first root page split</para></listitem>
26940 <listitem><para>Fix buffer overrun in <function>to_ascii</function> (Guido Notari)</para></listitem>
26941 <listitem><para>Fix core dump in deadlock detection on machines where char is unsigned</para></listitem>
26942 <listitem><para>Fix failure to respond to <command>pg_ctl stop -m fast</command> after Async_NotifyHandler runs</para></listitem>
26943 <listitem><para>Repair memory leaks in pg_dump</para></listitem>
26944 <listitem><para>Avoid conflict with system definition of <function>isblank()</function> function or macro</para></listitem>
26949 <sect1 id="release-7-2-4">
26950 <title>Release 7.2.4</title>
26953 <title>Release date</title>
26954 <simpara>2003-01-30</simpara>
26958 This release contains a variety of fixes for version 7.2.3,
26959 including fixes to prevent possible data loss.
26963 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.4</title>
26966 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
26967 running version 7.2.*.
26972 <title>Changes</title>
26975 <listitem><para>Fix some additional cases of VACUUM "No one parent tuple was found" error</para></listitem>
26976 <listitem><para>Prevent VACUUM from being called inside a function (Bruce)</para></listitem>
26977 <listitem><para>Ensure pg_clog updates are sync'd to disk before marking checkpoint complete</para></listitem>
26978 <listitem><para>Avoid integer overflow during large hash joins</para></listitem>
26979 <listitem><para>Make GROUP commands work when pg_group.grolist is large enough to be toasted</para></listitem>
26980 <listitem><para>Fix errors in datetime tables; some timezone names weren't being recognized</para></listitem>
26981 <listitem><para>Fix integer overflows in circle_poly(), path_encode(), path_add() (Neil)</para></listitem>
26982 <listitem><para>Repair long-standing logic errors in lseg_eq(), lseg_ne(), lseg_center()</para></listitem>
26988 <sect1 id="release-7-2-3">
26989 <title>Release 7.2.3</title>
26992 <title>Release date</title>
26993 <simpara>2002-10-01</simpara>
26997 This release contains a variety of fixes for version 7.2.2,
26998 including fixes to prevent possible data loss.
27002 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.3</title>
27005 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
27006 running version 7.2.*.
27011 <title>Changes</title>
27014 <listitem><para>Prevent possible compressed transaction log loss (Tom)</para></listitem>
27015 <listitem><para>Prevent non-superuser from increasing most recent vacuum info (Tom)</para></listitem>
27016 <listitem><para>Handle pre-1970 date values in newer versions of glibc (Tom)</para></listitem>
27017 <listitem><para>Fix possible hang during server shutdown</para></listitem>
27018 <listitem><para>Prevent spinlock hangs on SMP PPC machines (Tomoyuki Niijima)</para></listitem>
27019 <listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_dump</> to properly dump FULL JOIN USING (Tom)</para></listitem>
27025 <sect1 id="release-7-2-2">
27026 <title>Release 7.2.2</title>
27029 <title>Release date</title>
27030 <simpara>2002-08-23</simpara>
27034 This release contains a variety of fixes for version 7.2.1.
27038 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.2</title>
27041 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
27042 running version 7.2.*.
27047 <title>Changes</title>
27050 <listitem><para>Allow EXECUTE of "CREATE TABLE AS ... SELECT" in PL/pgSQL (Tom)</para></listitem>
27051 <listitem><para>Fix for compressed transaction log id wraparound (Tom)</para></listitem>
27052 <listitem><para>Fix PQescapeBytea/PQunescapeBytea so that they handle bytes > 0x7f (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27053 <listitem><para>Fix for psql and <application>pg_dump</> crashing when invoked with non-existent long options (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27054 <listitem><para>Fix crash when invoking geometric operators (Tom)</para></listitem>
27055 <listitem><para>Allow OPEN cursor(args) (Tom)</para></listitem>
27056 <listitem><para>Fix for rtree_gist index build (Teodor)</para></listitem>
27057 <listitem><para>Fix for dumping user-defined aggregates (Tom)</para></listitem>
27058 <listitem><para>contrib/intarray fixes (Oleg)</para></listitem>
27059 <listitem><para>Fix for complex UNION/EXCEPT/INTERSECT queries using parens (Tom)</para></listitem>
27060 <listitem><para>Fix to pg_convert (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27061 <listitem><para>Fix for crash with long DATA strings (Thomas, Neil)</para></listitem>
27062 <listitem><para>Fix for repeat(), lpad(), rpad() and long strings (Neil)</para></listitem>
27068 <sect1 id="release-7-2-1">
27069 <title>Release 7.2.1</title>
27072 <title>Release date</title>
27073 <simpara>2002-03-21</simpara>
27077 This release contains a variety of fixes for version 7.2.
27081 <title>Migration to Version 7.2.1</title>
27084 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those
27085 running version 7.2.
27090 <title>Changes</title>
27093 <listitem><para>Ensure that sequence counters do not go backwards after a crash (Tom)</para></listitem>
27094 <listitem><para>Fix pgaccess kanji-conversion key binding (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27095 <listitem><para>Optimizer improvements (Tom)</para></listitem>
27096 <listitem><para>Cash I/O improvements (Tom)</para></listitem>
27097 <listitem><para>New Russian FAQ</para></listitem>
27098 <listitem><para>Compile fix for missing AuthBlockSig (Heiko)</para></listitem>
27099 <listitem><para>Additional time zones and time zone fixes (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27100 <listitem><para>Allow psql \connect to handle mixed case database and user names (Tom)</para></listitem>
27101 <listitem><para>Return proper OID on command completion even with ON INSERT rules (Tom)</para></listitem>
27102 <listitem><para>Allow COPY FROM to use 8-bit DELIMITERS (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27103 <listitem><para>Fix bug in extract/date_part for milliseconds/microseconds (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27104 <listitem><para>Improve handling of multiple UNIONs with different lengths (Tom)</para></listitem>
27105 <listitem><para>contrib/btree_gist improvements (Teodor Sigaev)</para></listitem>
27106 <listitem><para>contrib/tsearch dictionary improvements, see README.tsearch for an additional installation step (Thomas T. Thai, Teodor Sigaev)</para></listitem>
27107 <listitem><para>Fix for array subscripts handling (Tom)</para></listitem>
27108 <listitem><para>Allow EXECUTE of "CREATE TABLE AS ... SELECT" in PL/pgSQL (Tom)</para></listitem>
27114 <sect1 id="release-7-2">
27115 <title>Release 7.2</title>
27118 <title>Release date</title>
27119 <simpara>2002-02-04</simpara>
27123 <title>Overview</title>
27126 This release improves <productname>PostgreSQL</> for use in
27127 high-volume applications.
27131 Major changes in this release:
27136 <term>VACUUM</term>
27139 Vacuuming no longer locks tables, thus allowing normal user
27140 access during the vacuum. A new <command>VACUUM FULL</>
27141 command does old-style vacuum by locking the table and
27142 shrinking the on-disk copy of the table.
27148 <term>Transactions</term>
27151 There is no longer a problem with installations that exceed
27152 four billion transactions.
27161 OIDs are now optional. Users can now create tables without
27162 OIDs for cases where OID usage is excessive.
27168 <term>Optimizer</term>
27171 The system now computes histogram column statistics during
27172 <command>ANALYZE</>, allowing much better optimizer choices.
27178 <term>Security</term>
27181 A new MD5 encryption option allows more secure storage and
27182 transfer of passwords. A new Unix-domain socket
27183 authentication option is available on Linux and BSD systems.
27189 <term>Statistics</term>
27192 Administrators can use the new table access statistics module
27193 to get fine-grained information about table and index usage.
27199 <term>Internationalization</term>
27202 Program and library messages can now be displayed in several
27212 <title>Migration to Version 7.2</title>
27215 A dump/restore using <command>pg_dump</command> is required for
27216 those wishing to migrate data from any previous release.
27220 Observe the following incompatibilities:
27226 The semantics of the <command>VACUUM</command> command have
27227 changed in this release. You might wish to update your
27228 maintenance procedures accordingly.
27234 In this release, comparisons using <literal>= NULL</literal>
27235 will always return false (or NULL, more precisely). Previous
27236 releases automatically transformed this syntax to <literal>IS
27237 NULL</literal>. The old behavior can be re-enabled using a
27238 <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> parameter.
27244 The <filename>pg_hba.conf</> and <filename>pg_ident.conf</>
27245 configuration is now only reloaded after receiving a
27246 <systemitem>SIGHUP</> signal, not with each connection.
27252 The function <filename>octet_length()</> now returns the uncompressed data length.
27258 The date/time value <literal>'current'</literal> is no longer
27259 available. You will need to rewrite your applications.
27265 The <literal>timestamp()</literal>, <literal>time()</literal>,
27266 and <literal>interval()</literal> functions are no longer
27267 available. Instead of <literal>timestamp()</literal>, use
27268 <literal>timestamp 'string'</literal> or <literal>CAST</literal>.
27275 The <literal>SELECT ... LIMIT #,#</literal> syntax will be removed
27276 in the next release. You should change your queries to use
27277 separate LIMIT and OFFSET clauses, e.g. <literal>LIMIT 10 OFFSET
27283 <title>Changes</title>
27286 <title>Server Operation</title>
27288 <listitem><para>Create temporary files in a separate directory (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27289 <listitem><para>Delete orphaned temporary files on postmaster startup (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27290 <listitem><para>Added unique indexes to some system tables (Tom)</para></listitem>
27291 <listitem><para>System table operator reorganization (Oleg Bartunov, Teodor Sigaev, Tom)</para></listitem>
27292 <listitem><para>Renamed pg_log to pg_clog (Tom)</para></listitem>
27293 <listitem><para>Enable SIGTERM, SIGQUIT to kill backends (Jan)</para></listitem>
27294 <listitem><para>Removed compile-time limit on number of backends (Tom)</para></listitem>
27295 <listitem><para>Better cleanup for semaphore resource failure (Tatsuo, Tom)</para></listitem>
27296 <listitem><para>Allow safe transaction ID wraparound (Tom)</para></listitem>
27297 <listitem><para>Removed OIDs from some system tables (Tom)</para></listitem>
27298 <listitem><para>Removed "triggered data change violation" error check (Tom)</para></listitem>
27299 <listitem><para>SPI portal creation of prepared/saved plans (Jan)</para></listitem>
27300 <listitem><para>Allow SPI column functions to work for system columns (Tom)</para></listitem>
27301 <listitem><para>Long value compression improvement (Tom)</para></listitem>
27302 <listitem><para>Statistics collector for table, index access (Jan)</para></listitem>
27303 <listitem><para>Truncate extra-long sequence names to a reasonable value (Tom)</para></listitem>
27304 <listitem><para>Measure transaction times in milliseconds (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27305 <listitem><para>Fix TID sequential scans (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27306 <listitem><para>Superuser ID now fixed at 1 (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27307 <listitem><para>New pg_ctl "reload" option (Tom)</para></listitem>
27312 <title>Performance</title>
27314 <listitem><para>Optimizer improvements (Tom)</para></listitem>
27315 <listitem><para>New histogram column statistics for optimizer (Tom)</para></listitem>
27316 <listitem><para>Reuse write-ahead log files rather than discarding them (Tom)</para></listitem>
27317 <listitem><para>Cache improvements (Tom)</para></listitem>
27318 <listitem><para>IS NULL, IS NOT NULL optimizer improvement (Tom)</para></listitem>
27319 <listitem><para>Improve lock manager to reduce lock contention (Tom)</para></listitem>
27320 <listitem><para>Keep relcache entries for index access support functions (Tom)</para></listitem>
27321 <listitem><para>Allow better selectivity with NaN and infinities in NUMERIC (Tom)</para></listitem>
27322 <listitem><para>R-tree performance improvements (Kenneth Been)</para></listitem>
27323 <listitem><para>B-tree splits more efficient (Tom)</para></listitem>
27328 <title>Privileges</title>
27330 <listitem><para>Change UPDATE, DELETE privileges to be distinct (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27331 <listitem><para>New REFERENCES, TRIGGER privileges (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27332 <listitem><para>Allow GRANT/REVOKE to/from more than one user at a time (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27333 <listitem><para>New has_table_privilege() function (Joe Conway)</para></listitem>
27334 <listitem><para>Allow non-superuser to vacuum database (Tom)</para></listitem>
27335 <listitem><para>New SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION command (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27336 <listitem><para>Fix bug in privilege modifications on newly created tables (Tom)</para></listitem>
27337 <listitem><para>Disallow access to pg_statistic for non-superuser, add user-accessible views (Tom)</para></listitem>
27342 <title>Client Authentication</title>
27344 <listitem><para>Fork postmaster before doing authentication to prevent hangs (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27345 <listitem><para>Add ident authentication over Unix domain sockets on Linux, *BSD (Helge Bahmann, Oliver Elphick, Teodor Sigaev, Bruce)</para></listitem>
27346 <listitem><para>Add a password authentication method that uses MD5 encryption (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27347 <listitem><para>Allow encryption of stored passwords using MD5 (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27348 <listitem><para>PAM authentication (Dominic J. Eidson)</para></listitem>
27349 <listitem><para>Load pg_hba.conf and pg_ident.conf only on startup and SIGHUP (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27354 <title>Server Configuration</title>
27356 <listitem><para>Interpretation of some time zone abbreviations as Australian rather than North American now settable at run time (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27357 <listitem><para>New parameter to set default transaction isolation level (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27358 <listitem><para>New parameter to enable conversion of "expr = NULL" into "expr IS NULL", off by default (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27359 <listitem><para>New parameter to control memory usage by VACUUM (Tom)</para></listitem>
27360 <listitem><para>New parameter to set client authentication timeout (Tom)</para></listitem>
27361 <listitem><para>New parameter to set maximum number of open files (Tom)</para></listitem>
27366 <title>Queries</title>
27368 <listitem><para>Statements added by INSERT rules now execute after the INSERT (Jan)</para></listitem>
27369 <listitem><para>Prevent unadorned relation names in target list (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27370 <listitem><para>NULLs now sort after all normal values in ORDER BY (Tom)</para></listitem>
27371 <listitem><para>New IS UNKNOWN, IS NOT UNKNOWN Boolean tests (Tom)</para></listitem>
27372 <listitem><para>New SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock mode (Tom)</para></listitem>
27373 <listitem><para>New EXPLAIN ANALYZE command that shows run times and row counts (Martijn van Oosterhout)</para></listitem>
27374 <listitem><para>Fix problem with LIMIT and subqueries (Tom)</para></listitem>
27375 <listitem><para>Fix for LIMIT, DISTINCT ON pushed into subqueries (Tom)</para></listitem>
27376 <listitem><para>Fix nested EXCEPT/INTERSECT (Tom)</para></listitem>
27381 <title>Schema Manipulation</title>
27383 <listitem><para>Fix SERIAL in temporary tables (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27384 <listitem><para>Allow temporary sequences (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27385 <listitem><para>Sequences now use int8 internally (Tom)</para></listitem>
27386 <listitem><para>New SERIAL8 creates int8 columns with sequences, default still SERIAL4 (Tom)</para></listitem>
27387 <listitem><para>Make OIDs optional using WITHOUT OIDS (Tom)</para></listitem>
27388 <listitem><para>Add %TYPE syntax to CREATE TYPE (Ian Lance Taylor)</para></listitem>
27389 <listitem><para>Add ALTER TABLE / DROP CONSTRAINT for CHECK constraints (Christopher Kings-Lynne)</para></listitem>
27390 <listitem><para>New CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION to alter existing function (preserving the function OID) (Gavin Sherry)</para></listitem>
27391 <listitem><para>Add ALTER TABLE / ADD [ UNIQUE | PRIMARY ] (Christopher Kings-Lynne)</para></listitem>
27392 <listitem><para>Allow column renaming in views</para></listitem>
27393 <listitem><para>Make ALTER TABLE / RENAME COLUMN update column names of indexes (Brent Verner)</para></listitem>
27394 <listitem><para>Fix for ALTER TABLE / ADD CONSTRAINT ... CHECK with inherited tables (Stephan Szabo)</para></listitem>
27395 <listitem><para>ALTER TABLE RENAME update foreign-key trigger arguments correctly (Brent Verner)</para></listitem>
27396 <listitem><para>DROP AGGREGATE and COMMENT ON AGGREGATE now accept an aggtype (Tom)</para></listitem>
27397 <listitem><para>Add automatic return type data casting for SQL functions (Tom)</para></listitem>
27398 <listitem><para>Allow GiST indexes to handle NULLs and multikey indexes (Oleg Bartunov, Teodor Sigaev, Tom)</para></listitem>
27399 <listitem><para>Enable partial indexes (Martijn van Oosterhout)</para></listitem>
27404 <title>Utility Commands</title>
27406 <listitem><para>Add RESET ALL, SHOW ALL (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
27407 <listitem><para>CREATE/ALTER USER/GROUP now allow options in any order (Vince)</para></listitem>
27408 <listitem><para>Add LOCK A, B, C functionality (Neil Padgett)</para></listitem>
27409 <listitem><para>New ENCRYPTED/UNENCRYPTED option to CREATE/ALTER USER (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27410 <listitem><para>New light-weight VACUUM does not lock table; old semantics are available as VACUUM FULL (Tom)</para></listitem>
27411 <listitem><para>Disable COPY TO/FROM on views (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27412 <listitem><para>COPY DELIMITERS string must be exactly one character (Tom)</para></listitem>
27413 <listitem><para>VACUUM warning about index tuples fewer than heap now only appears when appropriate (Martijn van Oosterhout)</para></listitem>
27414 <listitem><para>Fix privilege checks for CREATE INDEX (Tom)</para></listitem>
27415 <listitem><para>Disallow inappropriate use of CREATE/DROP INDEX/TRIGGER/VIEW (Tom)</para></listitem>
27420 <title>Data Types and Functions</title>
27422 <listitem><para>SUM(), AVG(), COUNT() now uses int8 internally for speed (Tom)</para></listitem>
27423 <listitem><para>Add convert(), convert2() (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27424 <listitem><para>New function bit_length() (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27425 <listitem><para>Make the "n" in CHAR(n)/VARCHAR(n) represents letters, not bytes (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27426 <listitem><para>CHAR(), VARCHAR() now reject strings that are too long (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27427 <listitem><para>BIT VARYING now rejects bit strings that are too long (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27428 <listitem><para>BIT now rejects bit strings that do not match declared size (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27429 <listitem><para>INET, CIDR text conversion functions (Alex Pilosov)</para></listitem>
27430 <listitem><para>INET, CIDR operators << and <<= indexable (Alex Pilosov)</para></listitem>
27431 <listitem><para>Bytea \### now requires valid three digit octal number</para></listitem>
27432 <listitem><para>Bytea comparison improvements, now supports =, <>, >, >=, <, and <=</para></listitem>
27433 <listitem><para>Bytea now supports B-tree indexes</para></listitem>
27434 <listitem><para>Bytea now supports LIKE, LIKE...ESCAPE, NOT LIKE, NOT LIKE...ESCAPE</para></listitem>
27435 <listitem><para>Bytea now supports concatenation</para></listitem>
27436 <listitem><para>New bytea functions: position, substring, trim, btrim, and length</para></listitem>
27437 <listitem><para>New encode() function mode, "escaped", converts minimally escaped bytea to/from text</para></listitem>
27438 <listitem><para>Add pg_database_encoding_max_length() (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27439 <listitem><para>Add pg_client_encoding() function (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27440 <listitem><para>now() returns time with millisecond precision (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27441 <listitem><para>New TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIMEZONE data type (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27442 <listitem><para>Add ISO date/time specification with "T", yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27443 <listitem><para>New xid/int comparison functions (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27444 <listitem><para>Add precision to TIME, TIMESTAMP, and INTERVAL data types (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27445 <listitem><para>Modify type coercion logic to attempt binary-compatible functions first (Tom)</para></listitem>
27446 <listitem><para>New encode() function installed by default (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
27447 <listitem><para>Improved to_*() conversion functions (Karel Zak)</para></listitem>
27448 <listitem><para>Optimize LIKE/ILIKE when using single-byte encodings (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27449 <listitem><para>New functions in contrib/pgcrypto: crypt(), hmac(), encrypt(), gen_salt() (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
27450 <listitem><para>Correct description of translate() function (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27451 <listitem><para>Add INTERVAL argument for SET TIME ZONE (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27452 <listitem><para>Add INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH (etc.) syntax (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27453 <listitem><para>Optimize length functions when using single-byte encodings (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27454 <listitem><para>Fix path_inter, path_distance, path_length, dist_ppath to handle closed paths (Curtis Barrett, Tom)</para></listitem>
27455 <listitem><para>octet_length(text) now returns non-compressed length (Tatsuo, Bruce)</para></listitem>
27456 <listitem><para>Handle "July" full name in date/time literals (Greg Sabino Mullane)</para></listitem>
27457 <listitem><para>Some datatype() function calls now evaluated differently</para></listitem>
27458 <listitem><para>Add support for Julian and ISO time specifications (Thomas)</para></listitem>
27463 <title>Internationalization</title>
27465 <listitem><para>National language support in psql, <application>pg_dump</>, libpq, and server (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27466 <listitem><para>Message translations in Chinese (simplified, traditional), Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Russian, Swedish (Peter E, Serguei A. Mokhov, Karel Zak, Weiping He, Zhenbang Wei, Kovacs Zoltan)</para></listitem>
27467 <listitem><para>Make trim, ltrim, rtrim, btrim, lpad, rpad, translate multibyte aware (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27468 <listitem><para>Add LATIN5,6,7,8,9,10 support (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27469 <listitem><para>Add ISO 8859-5,6,7,8 support (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27470 <listitem><para>Correct LATIN5 to mean ISO-8859-9, not ISO-8859-5 (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27471 <listitem><para>Make mic2ascii() non-ASCII aware (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27472 <listitem><para>Reject invalid multibyte character sequences (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27477 <title><application>PL/pgSQL</></title>
27479 <listitem><para>Now uses portals for SELECT loops, allowing huge result sets (Jan)</para></listitem>
27480 <listitem><para>CURSOR and REFCURSOR support (Jan)</para></listitem>
27481 <listitem><para>Can now return open cursors (Jan)</para></listitem>
27482 <listitem><para>Add ELSEIF (Klaus Reger)</para></listitem>
27483 <listitem><para>Improve PL/pgSQL error reporting, including location of error (Tom)</para></listitem>
27484 <listitem><para>Allow IS or FOR key words in cursor declaration, for compatibility (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27485 <listitem><para>Fix for SELECT ... FOR UPDATE (Tom)</para></listitem>
27486 <listitem><para>Fix for PERFORM returning multiple rows (Tom)</para></listitem>
27487 <listitem><para>Make PL/pgSQL use the server's type coercion code (Tom)</para></listitem>
27488 <listitem><para>Memory leak fix (Jan, Tom)</para></listitem>
27489 <listitem><para>Make trailing semicolon optional (Tom)</para></listitem>
27494 <title>PL/Perl</title>
27496 <listitem><para>New untrusted PL/Perl (Alex Pilosov)</para></listitem>
27497 <listitem><para>PL/Perl is now built on some platforms even if libperl is not shared (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27502 <title>PL/Tcl</title>
27504 <listitem><para>Now reports errorInfo (Vsevolod Lobko)</para></listitem>
27505 <listitem><para>Add spi_lastoid function (bob@redivi.com)</para></listitem>
27510 <title>PL/Python</title>
27512 <listitem><para>...is new (Andrew Bosma)</para></listitem>
27517 <title><application>psql</></title>
27519 <listitem><para>\d displays indexes in unique, primary groupings (Christopher Kings-Lynne)</para></listitem>
27520 <listitem><para>Allow trailing semicolons in backslash commands (Greg Sabino Mullane)</para></listitem>
27521 <listitem><para>Read password from /dev/tty if possible</para></listitem>
27522 <listitem><para>Force new password prompt when changing user and database (Tatsuo, Tom)</para></listitem>
27523 <listitem><para>Format the correct number of columns for Unicode (Patrice)</para></listitem>
27528 <title><application>libpq</></title>
27530 <listitem><para>New function PQescapeString() to escape quotes in command strings (Florian Weimer)</para></listitem>
27531 <listitem><para>New function PQescapeBytea() escapes binary strings for use as SQL string literals</para></listitem>
27536 <title>JDBC</title>
27538 <listitem><para>Return OID of INSERT (Ken K)</para></listitem>
27539 <listitem><para>Handle more data types (Ken K)</para></listitem>
27540 <listitem><para>Handle single quotes and newlines in strings (Ken K)</para></listitem>
27541 <listitem><para>Handle NULL variables (Ken K)</para></listitem>
27542 <listitem><para>Fix for time zone handling (Barry Lind)</para></listitem>
27543 <listitem><para>Improved Druid support</para></listitem>
27544 <listitem><para>Allow eight-bit characters with non-multibyte server (Barry Lind)</para></listitem>
27545 <listitem><para>Support BIT, BINARY types (Ned Wolpert)</para></listitem>
27546 <listitem><para>Reduce memory usage (Michael Stephens, Dave Cramer)</para></listitem>
27547 <listitem><para>Update DatabaseMetaData (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27548 <listitem><para>Add DatabaseMetaData.getCatalogs() (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27549 <listitem><para>Encoding fixes (Anders Bengtsson)</para></listitem>
27550 <listitem><para>Get/setCatalog methods (Jason Davies)</para></listitem>
27551 <listitem><para>DatabaseMetaData.getColumns() now returns column defaults (Jason Davies)</para></listitem>
27552 <listitem><para>DatabaseMetaData.getColumns() performance improvement (Jeroen van Vianen)</para></listitem>
27553 <listitem><para>Some JDBC1 and JDBC2 merging (Anders Bengtsson)</para></listitem>
27554 <listitem><para>Transaction performance improvements (Barry Lind)</para></listitem>
27555 <listitem><para>Array fixes (Greg Zoller)</para></listitem>
27556 <listitem><para>Serialize addition </para></listitem>
27557 <listitem><para>Fix batch processing (Rene Pijlman)</para></listitem>
27558 <listitem><para>ExecSQL method reorganization (Anders Bengtsson)</para></listitem>
27559 <listitem><para>GetColumn() fixes (Jeroen van Vianen)</para></listitem>
27560 <listitem><para>Fix isWriteable() function (Rene Pijlman)</para></listitem>
27561 <listitem><para>Improved passage of JDBC2 conformance tests (Rene Pijlman)</para></listitem>
27562 <listitem><para>Add bytea type capability (Barry Lind)</para></listitem>
27563 <listitem><para>Add isNullable() (Rene Pijlman)</para></listitem>
27564 <listitem><para>JDBC date/time test suite fixes (Liam Stewart)</para></listitem>
27565 <listitem><para>Fix for SELECT 'id' AS xxx FROM table (Dave Cramer)</para></listitem>
27566 <listitem><para>Fix DatabaseMetaData to show precision properly (Mark Lillywhite)</para></listitem>
27567 <listitem><para>New getImported/getExported keys (Jason Davies)</para></listitem>
27568 <listitem><para>MD5 password encryption support (Jeremy Wohl)</para></listitem>
27569 <listitem><para>Fix to actually use type cache (Ned Wolpert)</para></listitem>
27574 <title>ODBC</title>
27576 <listitem><para>Remove query size limit (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27577 <listitem><para>Remove text field size limit (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27578 <listitem><para>Fix for SQLPrimaryKeys in multibyte mode (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27579 <listitem><para>Allow ODBC procedure calls (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27580 <listitem><para>Improve boolean handing (Aidan Mountford)</para></listitem>
27581 <listitem><para>Most configuration options now settable via DSN (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27582 <listitem><para>Multibyte, performance fixes (Hiroshi)</para></listitem>
27583 <listitem><para>Allow driver to be used with iODBC or unixODBC (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27584 <listitem><para>MD5 password encryption support (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27585 <listitem><para>Add more compatibility functions to odbc.sql (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27590 <title><application>ECPG</></title>
27592 <listitem><para>EXECUTE ... INTO implemented (Christof Petig)</para></listitem>
27593 <listitem><para>Multiple row descriptor support (e.g. CARDINALITY) (Christof Petig)</para></listitem>
27594 <listitem><para>Fix for GRANT parameters (Lee Kindness)</para></listitem>
27595 <listitem><para>Fix INITIALLY DEFERRED bug</para></listitem>
27596 <listitem><para>Various bug fixes (Michael, Christof Petig)</para></listitem>
27597 <listitem><para>Auto allocation for indicator variable arrays (int *ind_p=NULL)</para></listitem>
27598 <listitem><para>Auto allocation for string arrays (char **foo_pp=NULL)</para></listitem>
27599 <listitem><para>ECPGfree_auto_mem fixed</para></listitem>
27600 <listitem><para>All function names with external linkage are now prefixed by ECPG</para></listitem>
27601 <listitem><para>Fixes for arrays of structures (Michael)</para></listitem>
27606 <title>Misc. Interfaces</title>
27608 <listitem><para>Python fix fetchone() (Gerhard Haring)</para></listitem>
27609 <listitem><para>Use UTF, Unicode in Tcl where appropriate (Vsevolod Lobko, Reinhard Max)</para></listitem>
27610 <listitem><para>Add Tcl COPY TO/FROM (ljb)</para></listitem>
27611 <listitem><para>Prevent output of default index op class in <application>pg_dump</> (Tom)</para></listitem>
27612 <listitem><para>Fix libpgeasy memory leak (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27617 <title>Build and Install</title>
27619 <listitem><para>Configure, dynamic loader, and shared library fixes (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27620 <listitem><para>Fixes in QNX 4 port (Bernd Tegge)</para></listitem>
27621 <listitem><para>Fixes in Cygwin and Windows ports (Jason Tishler, Gerhard Haring, Dmitry Yurtaev, Darko Prenosil, Mikhail Terekhov)</para></listitem>
27622 <listitem><para>Fix for Windows socket communication failures (Magnus, Mikhail Terekhov)</para></listitem>
27623 <listitem><para>Hurd compile fix (Oliver Elphick)</para></listitem>
27624 <listitem><para>BeOS fixes (Cyril Velter)</para></listitem>
27625 <listitem><para>Remove configure --enable-unicode-conversion, now enabled by multibyte (Tatsuo)</para></listitem>
27626 <listitem><para>AIX fixes (Tatsuo, Andreas)</para></listitem>
27627 <listitem><para>Fix parallel make (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27628 <listitem><para>Install SQL language manual pages into OS-specific directories (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27629 <listitem><para>Rename config.h to pg_config.h (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27630 <listitem><para>Reorganize installation layout of header files (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27635 <title>Source Code</title>
27637 <listitem><para>Remove SEP_CHAR (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27638 <listitem><para>New GUC hooks (Tom)</para></listitem>
27639 <listitem><para>Merge GUC and command line handling (Marko Kreen)</para></listitem>
27640 <listitem><para>Remove EXTEND INDEX (Martijn van Oosterhout, Tom)</para></listitem>
27641 <listitem><para>New pgjindent utility to indent java code (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27642 <listitem><para>Remove define of true/false when compiling under C++ (Leandro Fanzone, Tom)</para></listitem>
27643 <listitem><para>pgindent fixes (Bruce, Tom)</para></listitem>
27644 <listitem><para>Replace strcasecmp() with strcmp() where appropriate (Peter E)</para></listitem>
27645 <listitem><para>Dynahash portability improvements (Tom)</para></listitem>
27646 <listitem><para>Add 'volatile' usage in spinlock structures</para></listitem>
27647 <listitem><para>Improve signal handling logic (Tom)</para></listitem>
27652 <title>Contrib</title>
27654 <listitem><para>New contrib/rtree_gist (Oleg Bartunov, Teodor Sigaev)</para></listitem>
27655 <listitem><para>New contrib/tsearch full-text indexing (Oleg, Teodor Sigaev)</para></listitem>
27656 <listitem><para>Add contrib/dblink for remote database access (Joe Conway)</para></listitem>
27657 <listitem><para>contrib/ora2pg Oracle conversion utility (Gilles Darold)</para></listitem>
27658 <listitem><para>contrib/xml XML conversion utility (John Gray)</para></listitem>
27659 <listitem><para>contrib/fulltextindex fixes (Christopher Kings-Lynne)</para></listitem>
27660 <listitem><para>New contrib/fuzzystrmatch with levenshtein and metaphone, soundex merged (Joe Conway)</para></listitem>
27661 <listitem><para>Add contrib/intarray boolean queries, binary search, fixes (Oleg Bartunov)</para></listitem>
27662 <listitem><para>New pg_upgrade utility (Bruce)</para></listitem>
27663 <listitem><para>Add new pg_resetxlog options (Bruce, Tom)</para></listitem>
27670 <sect1 id="release-7-1-3">
27671 <title>Release 7.1.3</title>
27674 <title>Release date</title>
27675 <simpara>2001-08-15</simpara>
27679 <title>Migration to Version 7.1.3</title>
27682 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
27688 <title>Changes</title>
27692 Remove unused WAL segments of large transactions (Tom)
27693 Multiaction rule fix (Tom)
27694 PL/pgSQL memory allocation fix (Jan)
27695 VACUUM buffer fix (Tom)
27696 Regression test fixes (Tom)
27697 pg_dump fixes for GRANT/REVOKE/comments on views, user-defined types (Tom)
27698 Fix subselects with DISTINCT ON or LIMIT (Tom)
27700 Disable COPY TO/FROM a view (Tom)
27701 Cygwin build (Jason Tishler)
27708 <sect1 id="release-7-1-2">
27709 <title>Release 7.1.2</title>
27712 <title>Release date</title>
27713 <simpara>2001-05-11</simpara>
27717 This has one fix from 7.1.1.
27722 <title>Migration to Version 7.1.2</title>
27725 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
27731 <title>Changes</title>
27735 Fix PL/pgSQL SELECTs when returning no rows
27736 Fix for psql backslash core dump
27737 Referential integrity privilege fix
27746 <sect1 id="release-7-1-1">
27747 <title>Release 7.1.1</title>
27750 <title>Release date</title>
27751 <simpara>2001-05-05</simpara>
27755 This has a variety of fixes from 7.1.
27760 <title>Migration to Version 7.1.1</title>
27763 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
27769 <title>Changes</title>
27773 Fix for numeric MODULO operator (Tom)
27774 pg_dump fixes (Philip)
27775 pg_dump can dump 7.0 databases (Philip)
27776 readline 4.2 fixes (Peter E)
27778 AIX, MSWIN, VAX, N32K fixes (Tom)
27779 Multibytes fixes (Tom)
27780 Unicode fixes (Tatsuo)
27781 Optimizer improvements (Tom)
27782 Fix for whole rows in functions (Tom)
27783 Fix for pg_ctl and option strings with spaces (Peter E)
27784 ODBC fixes (Hiroshi)
27785 EXTRACT can now take string argument (Thomas)
27786 Python fixes (Darcy)
27793 <sect1 id="release-7-1">
27794 <title>Release 7.1</title>
27797 <title>Release date</title>
27798 <simpara>2001-04-13</simpara>
27802 This release focuses on removing limitations that have existed in the
27803 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> code for many years.
27807 Major changes in this release:
27813 Write-ahead Log (WAL)
27817 To maintain database consistency in case of an operating system crash,
27818 previous releases of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> have forced
27819 all data modifications to disk before each transaction commit. With
27820 WAL, only one log file must be flushed to disk, greatly improving
27821 performance. If you have been using -F in previous releases to
27822 disable disk flushes, you might want to consider discontinuing its use.
27833 TOAST - Previous releases had a compiled-in row length limit,
27834 typically 8k - 32k. This limit made storage of long text fields
27835 difficult. With TOAST, long rows of any length can be stored with good
27847 We now support outer joins. The UNION/NOT IN
27848 workaround for outer joins is no longer required. We use the SQL92
27860 The previous C function manager did not
27861 handle null values properly, nor did it support 64-bit <acronym>CPU</acronym>'s (Alpha). The new
27862 function manager does. You can continue using your old custom
27863 functions, but you might want to rewrite them in the future to use the new
27864 function manager call interface.
27875 A large number of complex queries that were
27876 unsupported in previous releases now work. Many combinations of views,
27877 aggregates, UNION, LIMIT, cursors, subqueries, and inherited tables
27878 now work properly. Inherited tables are now accessed by default.
27879 Subqueries in FROM are now supported.
27887 <title>Migration to Version 7.1</title>
27890 A dump/restore using pg_dump is required for those wishing to migrate
27891 data from any previous release.
27896 <title>Changes</title>
27902 Many multibyte/Unicode/locale fixes (Tatsuo and others)
27903 More reliable ALTER TABLE RENAME (Tom)
27904 Kerberos V fixes (David Wragg)
27905 Fix for INSERT INTO...SELECT where targetlist has subqueries (Tom)
27906 Prompt username/password on standard error (Bruce)
27907 Large objects inv_read/inv_write fixes (Tom)
27908 Fixes for to_char(), to_date(), to_ascii(), and to_timestamp() (Karel,
27910 Prevent query expressions from leaking memory (Tom)
27911 Allow UPDATE of arrays elements (Tom)
27912 Wake up lock waiters during cancel (Hiroshi)
27913 Fix rare cursor crash when using hash join (Tom)
27914 Fix for DROP TABLE/INDEX in rolled-back transaction (Hiroshi)
27915 Fix psql crash from \l+ if MULTIBYTE enabled (Peter E)
27916 Fix truncation of rule names during CREATE VIEW (Ross Reedstrom)
27917 Fix PL/perl (Alex Kapranoff)
27918 Disallow LOCK on views (Mark Hollomon)
27919 Disallow INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE on views (Mark Hollomon)
27920 Disallow DROP RULE, CREATE INDEX, TRUNCATE on views (Mark Hollomon)
27921 Allow PL/pgSQL accept non-ASCII identifiers (Tatsuo)
27922 Allow views to proper handle GROUP BY, aggregates, DISTINCT (Tom)
27923 Fix rare failure with TRUNCATE command (Tom)
27924 Allow UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT to be used with ALL, subqueries, views,
27925 DISTINCT, ORDER BY, SELECT...INTO (Tom)
27926 Fix parser failures during aborted transactions (Tom)
27927 Allow temporary relations to properly clean up indexes (Bruce)
27928 Fix VACUUM problem with moving rows in same page (Tom)
27929 Modify pg_dump to better handle user-defined items in template1 (Philip)
27930 Allow LIMIT in VIEW (Tom)
27931 Require cursor FETCH to honor LIMIT (Tom)
27932 Allow PRIMARY/FOREIGN Key definitions on inherited columns (Stephan)
27933 Allow ORDER BY, LIMIT in subqueries (Tom)
27934 Allow UNION in CREATE RULE (Tom)
27935 Make ALTER/DROP TABLE rollback-able (Vadim, Tom)
27936 Store initdb collation in pg_control so collation cannot be changed (Tom)
27937 Fix INSERT...SELECT with rules (Tom)
27938 Fix FOR UPDATE inside views and subselects (Tom)
27939 Fix OVERLAPS operators conform to SQL92 spec regarding NULLs (Tom)
27940 Fix lpad() and rpad() to handle length less than input string (Tom)
27941 Fix use of NOTIFY in some rules (Tom)
27942 Overhaul btree code (Tom)
27943 Fix NOT NULL use in Pl/pgSQL variables (Tom)
27944 Overhaul GIST code (Oleg)
27945 Fix CLUSTER to preserve constraints and column default (Tom)
27946 Improved deadlock detection handling (Tom)
27947 Allow multiple SERIAL columns in a table (Tom)
27948 Prevent occasional index corruption (Vadim)
27952 Add OUTER JOINs (Tom)
27953 Function manager overhaul (Tom)
27954 Allow ALTER TABLE RENAME on indexes (Tom)
27955 Improve CLUSTER (Tom)
27956 Improve ps status display for more platforms (Peter E, Marc)
27957 Improve CREATE FUNCTION failure message (Ross)
27958 JDBC improvements (Peter, Travis Bauer, Christopher Cain, William Webber,
27960 Grand Unified Configuration scheme/GUC. Many options can now be set in
27961 data/postgresql.conf, postmaster/postgres flags, or SET commands (Peter E)
27962 Improved handling of file descriptor cache (Tom)
27963 New warning code about auto-created table alias entries (Bruce)
27964 Overhaul initdb process (Tom, Peter E)
27965 Overhaul of inherited tables; inherited tables now accessed by default;
27966 new ONLY key word prevents it (Chris Bitmead, Tom)
27967 ODBC cleanups/improvements (Nick Gorham, Stephan Szabo, Zoltan Kovacs,
27969 Allow renaming of temp tables (Tom)
27970 Overhaul memory manager contexts (Tom)
27971 pg_dumpall uses CREATE USER or CREATE GROUP rather using COPY (Peter E)
27972 Overhaul pg_dump (Philip Warner)
27973 Allow pg_hba.conf secondary password file to specify only username (Peter E)
27974 Allow TEMPORARY or TEMP key word when creating temporary tables (Bruce)
27975 New memory leak checker (Karel)
27976 New SET SESSION CHARACTERISTICS (Thomas)
27977 Allow nested block comments (Thomas)
27978 Add WITHOUT TIME ZONE type qualifier (Thomas)
27979 New ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT (Stephan)
27980 Use NUMERIC accumulators for INTEGER aggregates (Tom)
27981 Overhaul aggregate code (Tom)
27982 New VARIANCE and STDDEV() aggregates
27983 Improve dependency ordering of pg_dump (Philip)
27984 New pg_restore command (Philip)
27985 New pg_dump tar output option (Philip)
27986 New pg_dump of large objects (Philip)
27987 New ESCAPE option to LIKE (Thomas)
27988 New case-insensitive LIKE - ILIKE (Thomas)
27989 Allow functional indexes to use binary-compatible type (Tom)
27990 Allow SQL functions to be used in more contexts (Tom)
27991 New pg_config utility (Peter E)
27992 New PL/pgSQL EXECUTE command which allows dynamic SQL and utility statements
27994 New PL/pgSQL GET DIAGNOSTICS statement for SPI value access (Jan)
27995 New quote_identifiers() and quote_literal() functions (Jan)
27996 New ALTER TABLE table OWNER TO user command (Mark Hollomon)
27997 Allow subselects in FROM, i.e. FROM (SELECT ...) [AS] alias (Tom)
27998 Update PyGreSQL to version 3.1 (D'Arcy)
27999 Store tables as files named by OID (Vadim)
28000 New SQL function setval(seq,val,bool) for use in pg_dump (Philip)
28001 Require DROP VIEW to remove views, no DROP TABLE (Mark)
28002 Allow DROP VIEW view1, view2 (Mark)
28003 Allow multiple objects in DROP INDEX, DROP RULE, and DROP TYPE (Tom)
28004 Allow automatic conversion to/from Unicode (Tatsuo, Eiji)
28005 New /contrib/pgcrypto hashing functions (Marko Kreen)
28006 New pg_dumpall --globals-only option (Peter E)
28007 New CHECKPOINT command for WAL which creates new WAL log file (Vadim)
28008 New AT TIME ZONE syntax (Thomas)
28009 Allow location of Unix domain socket to be configurable (David J. MacKenzie)
28010 Allow postmaster to listen on a specific IP address (David J. MacKenzie)
28011 Allow socket path name to be specified in hostname by using leading slash
28012 (David J. MacKenzie)
28013 Allow CREATE DATABASE to specify template database (Tom)
28014 New utility to convert MySQL schema dumps to SQL92 and PostgreSQL (Thomas)
28015 New /contrib/rserv replication toolkit (Vadim)
28016 New file format for COPY BINARY (Tom)
28017 New /contrib/oid2name to map numeric files to table names (B Palmer)
28018 New "idle in transaction" ps status message (Marc)
28019 Update to pgaccess 0.98.7 (Constantin Teodorescu)
28020 pg_ctl now defaults to -w (wait) on shutdown, new -l (log) option
28021 Add rudimentary dependency checking to pg_dump (Philip)
28025 Fix INET/CIDR type ordering and add new functions (Tom)
28026 Make OID behave as an unsigned type (Tom)
28027 Allow BIGINT as synonym for INT8 (Peter E)
28028 New int2 and int8 comparison operators (Tom)
28029 New BIT and BIT VARYING types (Adriaan Joubert, Tom, Peter E)
28030 CHAR() no longer faster than VARCHAR() because of TOAST (Tom)
28031 New GIST seg/cube examples (Gene Selkov)
28032 Improved round(numeric) handling (Tom)
28033 Fix CIDR output formatting (Tom)
28034 New CIDR abbrev() function (Tom)
28038 Write-Ahead Log (WAL) to provide crash recovery with less performance
28040 ANALYZE stage of VACUUM no longer exclusively locks table (Bruce)
28041 Reduced file seeks (Denis Perchine)
28042 Improve BTREE code for duplicate keys (Tom)
28043 Store all large objects in a single table (Denis Perchine, Tom)
28044 Improve memory allocation performance (Karel, Tom)
28048 New function manager call conventions (Tom)
28049 SGI portability fixes (David Kaelbling)
28050 New configure --enable-syslog option (Peter E)
28051 New BSDI README (Bruce)
28052 configure script moved to top level, not /src (Peter E)
28053 Makefile/configuration/compilation overhaul (Peter E)
28054 New configure --with-python option (Peter E)
28055 Solaris cleanups (Peter E)
28056 Overhaul /contrib Makefiles (Karel)
28057 New OpenSSL configuration option (Magnus, Peter E)
28058 AIX fixes (Andreas)
28059 QNX fixes (Maurizio)
28060 New heap_open(), heap_openr() API (Tom)
28061 Remove colon and semi-colon operators (Thomas)
28062 New pg_class.relkind value for views (Mark Hollomon)
28063 Rename ichar() to chr() (Karel)
28064 New documentation for btrim(), ascii(), chr(), repeat() (Karel)
28065 Fixes for NT/Cygwin (Pete Forman)
28066 AIX port fixes (Andreas)
28067 New BeOS port (David Reid, Cyril Velter)
28068 Add proofreader's changes to docs (Addison-Wesley, Bruce)
28069 New Alpha spinlock code (Adriaan Joubert, Compaq)
28070 UnixWare port overhaul (Peter E)
28071 New Darwin/MacOS X port (Peter Bierman, Bruce Hartzler)
28072 New FreeBSD Alpha port (Alfred)
28073 Overhaul shared memory segments (Tom)
28074 Add IBM S/390 support (Neale Ferguson)
28075 Moved macmanuf to /contrib (Larry Rosenman)
28076 Syslog improvements (Larry Rosenman)
28077 New template0 database that contains no user additions (Tom)
28078 New /contrib/cube and /contrib/seg GIST sample code (Gene Selkov)
28079 Allow NetBSD's libedit instead of readline (Peter)
28080 Improved assembly language source code format (Bruce)
28081 New contrib/pg_logger
28082 New --template option to createdb
28083 New contrib/pg_control utility (Oliver)
28084 New FreeBSD tools ipc_check, start-scripts/freebsd
28091 <sect1 id="release-7-0-3">
28092 <title>Release 7.0.3</title>
28095 <title>Release date</title>
28096 <simpara>2000-11-11</simpara>
28100 This has a variety of fixes from 7.0.2.
28105 <title>Migration to Version 7.0.3</title>
28108 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
28114 <title>Changes</title>
28119 Large object fix (Tom)
28120 Fix lean in COPY WITH OIDS leak (Tom)
28121 Fix backwards-index-scan (Tom)
28122 Fix SELECT ... FOR UPDATE so it checks for duplicate keys (Hiroshi)
28123 Add --enable-syslog to configure (Marc)
28124 Fix abort transaction at backend exit in rare cases (Tom)
28125 Fix for psql \l+ when multibyte enabled (Tatsuo)
28126 Allow PL/pgSQL to accept non ascii identifiers (Tatsuo)
28127 Make vacuum always flush buffers (Tom)
28128 Fix to allow cancel while waiting for a lock (Hiroshi)
28129 Fix for memory allocation problem in user authentication code (Tom)
28130 Remove bogus use of int4out() (Tom)
28131 Fixes for multiple subqueries in COALESCE or BETWEEN (Tom)
28132 Fix for failure of triggers on heap open in certain cases (Jeroen van
28134 Fix for erroneous selectivity of not-equals (Tom)
28135 Fix for erroneous use of strcmp() (Tom)
28136 Fix for bug where storage manager accesses items beyond end of file
28138 Fix to include kernel errno message in all smgr elog messages (Tom)
28139 Fix for '.' not in PATH at build time (SL Baur)
28140 Fix for out-of-file-descriptors error (Tom)
28141 Fix to make pg_dump dump 'iscachable' flag for functions (Tom)
28142 Fix for subselect in targetlist of Append node (Tom)
28143 Fix for mergejoin plans (Tom)
28144 Fix TRUNCATE failure on relations with indexes (Tom)
28145 Avoid database-wide restart on write error (Hiroshi)
28146 Fix nodeMaterial to honor chgParam by recomputing its output (Tom)
28147 Fix VACUUM problem with moving chain of update row versions when source
28148 and destination of a row version lie on the same page (Tom)
28149 Fix user.c CommandCounterIncrement (Tom)
28150 Fix for AM/PM boundary problem in to_char() (Karel Zak)
28151 Fix TIME aggregate handling (Tom)
28152 Fix to_char() to avoid coredump on NULL input (Tom)
28154 Fix for inserting/copying longer multibyte strings into char() data
28156 Fix for crash of backend, on abort (Tom)
28163 <sect1 id="release-7-0-2">
28164 <title>Release 7.0.2</title>
28167 <title>Release date</title>
28168 <simpara>2000-06-05</simpara>
28172 This is a repackaging of 7.0.1 with added documentation.
28177 <title>Migration to Version 7.0.2</title>
28180 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
28186 <title>Changes</title>
28190 Added documentation to tarball.
28197 <sect1 id="release-7-0-1">
28198 <title>Release 7.0.1</title>
28201 <title>Release date</title>
28202 <simpara>2000-06-01</simpara>
28206 This is a cleanup release for 7.0.
28210 <title>Migration to Version 7.0.1</title>
28213 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
28219 <title>Changes</title>
28223 Fix many CLUSTER failures (Tom)
28224 Allow ALTER TABLE RENAME works on indexes (Tom)
28225 Fix plpgsql to handle datetime->timestamp and timespan->interval (Bruce)
28226 New configure --with-setproctitle switch to use setproctitle() (Marc, Bruce)
28227 Fix the off by one errors in ResultSet from 6.5.3, and more.
28228 jdbc ResultSet fixes (Joseph Shraibman)
28229 optimizer tunings (Tom)
28230 Fix create user for pgaccess
28231 Fix for UNLISTEN failure
28232 IRIX fixes (David Kaelbling)
28233 QNX fixes (Andreas Kardos)
28234 Reduce COPY IN lock level (Tom)
28235 Change libpqeasy to use PQconnectdb() style parameters (Bruce)
28236 Fix pg_dump to handle OID indexes (Tom)
28237 Fix small memory leak (Tom)
28238 Solaris fix for createdb/dropdb (Tatsuo)
28239 Fix for non-blocking connections (Alfred Perlstein)
28240 Fix improper recovery after RENAME TABLE failures (Tom)
28241 Copy pg_ident.conf.sample into /lib directory in install (Bruce)
28242 Add SJIS UDC (NEC selection IBM kanji) support (Eiji Tokuya)
28243 Fix too long syslog message (Tatsuo)
28244 Fix problem with quoted indexes that are too long (Tom)
28245 JDBC ResultSet.getTimestamp() fix (Gregory Krasnow & Floyd Marinescu)
28246 ecpg changes (Michael)
28252 <sect1 id="release-7-0">
28253 <title>Release 7.0</title>
28256 <title>Release date</title>
28257 <simpara>2000-05-08</simpara>
28261 This release contains improvements in many areas, demonstrating
28262 the continued growth of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
28263 There are more improvements and fixes in 7.0 than in any previous
28264 release. The developers have confidence that this is the best
28265 release yet; we do our best to put out only solid releases, and
28266 this one is no exception.
28270 Major changes in this release:
28280 Foreign keys are now implemented, with the exception of PARTIAL MATCH
28281 foreign keys. Many users have been asking for this feature, and we are
28282 pleased to offer it.
28293 Continuing on work started a year ago, the optimizer has been
28294 improved, allowing better query plan selection and faster performance
28295 with less memory usage.
28302 Updated <application>psql</application>
28306 <application>psql</application>, our interactive terminal monitor, has been
28307 updated with a variety of new features. See the <application>psql</application> manual page for details.
28318 SQL92 join syntax is now supported, though only as
28319 <literal>INNER JOIN</> for this release. <literal>JOIN</>,
28320 <literal>NATURAL JOIN</>, <literal>JOIN</>/<literal>USING</>,
28321 and <literal>JOIN</>/<literal>ON</> are available, as are
28322 column correlation names.
28330 <title>Migration to Version 7.0</title>
28333 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application>
28334 is required for those wishing to migrate data from any
28335 previous release of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
28336 For those upgrading from 6.5.*, you can instead use
28337 <application>pg_upgrade</application> to upgrade to this
28338 release; however, a full dump/reload installation is always the
28339 most robust method for upgrades.
28343 Interface and compatibility issues to consider for the new
28350 The date/time types <type>datetime</type> and
28351 <type>timespan</type> have been superseded by the
28352 SQL92-defined types <type>timestamp</type> and
28353 <type>interval</type>. Although there has been some effort to
28354 ease the transition by allowing
28355 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> to recognize
28356 the deprecated type names and translate them to the new type
28357 names, this mechanism cannot be completely transparent to
28358 your existing application.
28364 The optimizer has been substantially improved in the area of
28365 query cost estimation. In some cases, this will result in
28366 decreased query times as the optimizer makes a better choice
28367 for the preferred plan. However, in a small number of cases,
28368 usually involving pathological distributions of data, your
28369 query times might go up. If you are dealing with large amounts
28370 of data, you might want to check your queries to verify
28377 The <acronym>JDBC</acronym> and <acronym>ODBC</acronym>
28378 interfaces have been upgraded and extended.
28384 The string function <function>CHAR_LENGTH</function> is now a
28385 native function. Previous versions translated this into a call
28386 to <function>LENGTH</function>, which could result in
28387 ambiguity with other types implementing
28388 <function>LENGTH</function> such as the geometric types.
28395 <title>Changes</title>
28401 Prevent function calls exceeding maximum number of arguments (Tom)
28402 Improve CASE construct (Tom)
28403 Fix SELECT coalesce(f1,0) FROM int4_tbl GROUP BY f1 (Tom)
28404 Fix SELECT sentence.words[0] FROM sentence GROUP BY sentence.words[0] (Tom)
28405 Fix GROUP BY scan bug (Tom)
28406 Improvements in SQL grammar processing (Tom)
28407 Fix for views involved in INSERT ... SELECT ... (Tom)
28408 Fix for SELECT a/2, a/2 FROM test_missing_target GROUP BY a/2 (Tom)
28409 Fix for subselects in INSERT ... SELECT (Tom)
28410 Prevent INSERT ... SELECT ... ORDER BY (Tom)
28411 Fixes for relations greater than 2GB, including vacuum
28412 Improve propagating system table changes to other backends (Tom)
28413 Improve propagating user table changes to other backends (Tom)
28414 Fix handling of temp tables in complex situations (Bruce, Tom)
28415 Allow table locking at table open, improving concurrent reliability (Tom)
28416 Properly quote sequence names in pg_dump (Ross J. Reedstrom)
28417 Prevent DROP DATABASE while others accessing
28418 Prevent any rows from being returned by GROUP BY if no rows processed (Tom)
28419 Fix SELECT COUNT(1) FROM table WHERE ...' if no rows matching WHERE (Tom)
28420 Fix pg_upgrade so it works for MVCC (Tom)
28421 Fix for SELECT ... WHERE x IN (SELECT ... HAVING SUM(x) > 1) (Tom)
28422 Fix for "f1 datetime DEFAULT 'now'" (Tom)
28423 Fix problems with CURRENT_DATE used in DEFAULT (Tom)
28424 Allow comment-only lines, and ;;; lines too. (Tom)
28425 Improve recovery after failed disk writes, disk full (Hiroshi)
28426 Fix cases where table is mentioned in FROM but not joined (Tom)
28427 Allow HAVING clause without aggregate functions (Tom)
28428 Fix for "--" comment and no trailing newline, as seen in perl interface
28429 Improve pg_dump failure error reports (Bruce)
28430 Allow sorts and hashes to exceed 2GB file sizes (Tom)
28431 Fix for pg_dump dumping of inherited rules (Tom)
28432 Fix for NULL handling comparisons (Tom)
28433 Fix inconsistent state caused by failed CREATE/DROP commands (Hiroshi)
28434 Fix for dbname with dash
28435 Prevent DROP INDEX from interfering with other backends (Tom)
28436 Fix file descriptor leak in verify_password()
28437 Fix for "Unable to identify an operator =$" problem
28438 Fix ODBC so no segfault if CommLog and Debug enabled (Dirk Niggemann)
28439 Fix for recursive exit call (Massimo)
28440 Fix for extra-long timezones (Jeroen van Vianen)
28441 Make pg_dump preserve primary key information (Peter E)
28442 Prevent databases with single quotes (Peter E)
28443 Prevent DROP DATABASE inside transaction (Peter E)
28444 ecpg memory leak fixes (Stephen Birch)
28445 Fix for SELECT null::text, SELECT int4fac(null) and SELECT 2 + (null) (Tom)
28446 Y2K timestamp fix (Massimo)
28447 Fix for VACUUM 'HEAP_MOVED_IN was not expected' errors (Tom)
28448 Fix for views with tables/columns containing spaces (Tom)
28449 Prevent privileges on indexes (Peter E)
28450 Fix for spinlock stuck problem when error is generated (Hiroshi)
28451 Fix ipcclean on Linux
28452 Fix handling of NULL constraint conditions (Tom)
28453 Fix memory leak in odbc driver (Nick Gorham)
28454 Fix for privilege check on UNION tables (Tom)
28455 Fix to allow SELECT 'a' LIKE 'a' (Tom)
28456 Fix for SELECT 1 + NULL (Tom)
28458 Fix log() on numeric type (Tom)
28459 Deprecate ':' and ';' operators
28460 Allow vacuum of temporary tables
28461 Disallow inherited columns with the same name as new columns
28462 Recover or force failure when disk space is exhausted (Hiroshi)
28463 Fix INSERT INTO ... SELECT with AS columns matching result columns
28464 Fix INSERT ... SELECT ... GROUP BY groups by target columns not source columns (Tom)
28465 Fix CREATE TABLE test (a char(5) DEFAULT text '', b int4) with INSERT (Tom)
28466 Fix UNION with LIMIT
28467 Fix CREATE TABLE x AS SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2
28468 Fix CREATE TABLE test(col char(2) DEFAULT user)
28469 Fix mismatched types in CREATE TABLE ... DEFAULT
28470 Fix SELECT * FROM pg_class where oid in (0,-1)
28471 Fix SELECT COUNT('asdf') FROM pg_class WHERE oid=12
28472 Prevent user who can create databases can modifying pg_database table (Peter E)
28473 Fix btree to give a useful elog when key > 1/2 (page - overhead) (Tom)
28474 Fix INSERT of 0.0 into DECIMAL(4,4) field (Tom)
28478 New CLI interface include file sqlcli.h, based on SQL3/SQL98
28479 Remove all limits on query length, row length limit still exists (Tom)
28480 Update jdbc protocol to 2.0 (Jens Glaser <email>jens@jens.de</email>)
28481 Add TRUNCATE command to quickly truncate relation (Mike Mascari)
28482 Fix to give super user and createdb user proper update catalog rights (Peter E)
28483 Allow ecpg bool variables to have NULL values (Christof)
28484 Issue ecpg error if NULL value for variable with no NULL indicator (Christof)
28485 Allow ^C to cancel COPY command (Massimo)
28486 Add SET FSYNC and SHOW PG_OPTIONS commands(Massimo)
28487 Function name overloading for dynamically-loaded C functions (Frankpitt)
28488 Add CmdTuples() to libpq++(Vince)
28489 New CREATE CONSTRAINT TRIGGER and SET CONSTRAINTS commands(Jan)
28490 Allow CREATE FUNCTION/WITH clause to be used for all language types
28491 configure --enable-debug adds -g (Peter E)
28492 configure --disable-debug removes -g (Peter E)
28493 Allow more complex default expressions (Tom)
28494 First real FOREIGN KEY constraint trigger functionality (Jan)
28495 Add FOREIGN KEY ... MATCH FULL ... ON DELETE CASCADE (Jan)
28496 Add FOREIGN KEY ... MATCH <unspecified> referential actions (Don Baccus)
28497 Allow WHERE restriction on ctid (physical heap location) (Hiroshi)
28498 Move pginterface from contrib to interface directory, rename to pgeasy (Bruce)
28499 Change pgeasy connectdb() parameter ordering (Bruce)
28500 Require SELECT DISTINCT target list to have all ORDER BY columns (Tom)
28501 Add Oracle's COMMENT ON command (Mike Mascari <email>mascarim@yahoo.com</email>)
28502 libpq's PQsetNoticeProcessor function now returns previous hook(Peter E)
28503 Prevent PQsetNoticeProcessor from being set to NULL (Peter E)
28504 Make USING in COPY optional (Bruce)
28505 Allow subselects in the target list (Tom)
28506 Allow subselects on the left side of comparison operators (Tom)
28507 New parallel regression test (Jan)
28508 Change backend-side COPY to write files with permissions 644 not 666 (Tom)
28509 Force permissions on PGDATA directory to be secure, even if it exists (Tom)
28510 Added psql LASTOID variable to return last inserted oid (Peter E)
28511 Allow concurrent vacuum and remove pg_vlock vacuum lock file (Tom)
28512 Add privilege check for vacuum (Peter E)
28513 New libpq functions to allow asynchronous connections: PQconnectStart(),
28514 PQconnectPoll(), PQresetStart(), PQresetPoll(), PQsetenvStart(),
28515 PQsetenvPoll(), PQsetenvAbort (Ewan Mellor)
28516 New libpq PQsetenv() function (Ewan Mellor)
28517 create/alter user extension (Peter E)
28518 New postmaster.pid and postmaster.opts under $PGDATA (Tatsuo)
28519 New scripts for create/drop user/db (Peter E)
28520 Major psql overhaul (Peter E)
28521 Add const to libpq interface (Peter E)
28522 New libpq function PQoidValue (Peter E)
28523 Show specific non-aggregate causing problem with GROUP BY (Tom)
28524 Make changes to pg_shadow recreate pg_pwd file (Peter E)
28525 Add aggregate(DISTINCT ...) (Tom)
28526 Allow flag to control COPY input/output of NULLs (Peter E)
28527 Make postgres user have a password by default (Peter E)
28528 Add CREATE/ALTER/DROP GROUP (Peter E)
28529 All administration scripts now support --long options (Peter E, Karel)
28530 Vacuumdb script now supports --all option (Peter E)
28531 ecpg new portable FETCH syntax
28532 Add ecpg EXEC SQL IFDEF, EXEC SQL IFNDEF, EXEC SQL ELSE, EXEC SQL ELIF
28533 and EXEC SQL ENDIF directives
28534 Add pg_ctl script to control backend start-up (Tatsuo)
28535 Add postmaster.opts.default file to store start-up flags (Tatsuo)
28536 Allow --with-mb=SQL_ASCII
28537 Increase maximum number of index keys to 16 (Bruce)
28538 Increase maximum number of function arguments to 16 (Bruce)
28539 Allow configuration of maximum number of index keys and arguments (Bruce)
28540 Allow unprivileged users to change their passwords (Peter E)
28541 Password authentication enabled; required for new users (Peter E)
28542 Disallow dropping a user who owns a database (Peter E)
28543 Change initdb option --with-mb to --enable-multibyte
28544 Add option for initdb to prompts for superuser password (Peter E)
28545 Allow complex type casts like col::numeric(9,2) and col::int2::float8 (Tom)
28546 Updated user interfaces on initdb, initlocation, pg_dump, ipcclean (Peter E)
28547 New pg_char_to_encoding() and pg_encoding_to_char() functions (Tatsuo)
28548 libpq non-blocking mode (Alfred Perlstein)
28549 Improve conversion of types in casts that don't specify a length
28550 New plperl internal programming language (Mark Hollomon)
28551 Allow COPY IN to read file that do not end with a newline (Tom)
28552 Indicate when long identifiers are truncated (Tom)
28553 Allow aggregates to use type equivalency (Peter E)
28554 Add Oracle's to_char(), to_date(), to_datetime(), to_timestamp(), to_number()
28555 conversion functions (Karel Zak <zakkr@zf.jcu.cz>)
28556 Add SELECT DISTINCT ON (expr [, expr ...]) targetlist ... (Tom)
28557 Check to be sure ORDER BY is compatible with the DISTINCT operation (Tom)
28558 Add NUMERIC and int8 types to ODBC
28559 Improve EXPLAIN results for Append, Group, Agg, Unique (Tom)
28560 Add ALTER TABLE ... ADD FOREIGN KEY (Stephan Szabo)
28561 Allow SELECT .. FOR UPDATE in PL/pgSQL (Hiroshi)
28562 Enable backward sequential scan even after reaching EOF (Hiroshi)
28563 Add btree indexing of boolean values, >= and <= (Don Baccus)
28564 Print current line number when COPY FROM fails (Massimo)
28565 Recognize POSIX time zone e.g. "PST+8" and "GMT-8" (Thomas)
28566 Add DEC as synonym for DECIMAL (Thomas)
28567 Add SESSION_USER as SQL92 key word, same as CURRENT_USER (Thomas)
28568 Implement SQL92 column aliases (aka correlation names) (Thomas)
28569 Implement SQL92 join syntax (Thomas)
28570 Make INTERVAL reserved word allowed as a column identifier (Thomas)
28571 Implement REINDEX command (Hiroshi)
28572 Accept ALL in aggregate function SUM(ALL col) (Tom)
28573 Prevent GROUP BY from using column aliases (Tom)
28574 New psql \encoding option (Tatsuo)
28575 Allow PQrequestCancel() to terminate when in waiting-for-lock state (Hiroshi)
28576 Allow negation of a negative number in all cases
28577 Add ecpg descriptors (Christof, Michael)
28578 Allow CREATE VIEW v AS SELECT f1::char(8) FROM tbl
28579 Allow casts with length, like foo::char(8)
28580 New libpq functions PQsetClientEncoding(), PQclientEncoding() (Tatsuo)
28581 Add support for SJIS user defined characters (Tatsuo)
28582 Larger views/rules supported
28583 Make libpq's PQconndefaults() thread-safe (Tom)
28584 Disable // as comment to be ANSI conforming, should use -- (Tom)
28585 Allow column aliases on views CREATE VIEW name (collist)
28586 Fixes for views with subqueries (Tom)
28587 Allow UPDATE table SET fld = (SELECT ...) (Tom)
28588 SET command options no longer require quotes
28589 Update pgaccess to 0.98.6
28590 New SET SEED command
28591 New pg_options.sample file
28592 New SET FSYNC command (Massimo)
28593 Allow pg_descriptions when creating tables
28594 Allow pg_descriptions when creating types, columns, and functions
28595 Allow psql \copy to allow delimiters (Peter E)
28596 Allow psql to print nulls as distinct from "" [null] (Peter E)
28600 Many array fixes (Tom)
28601 Allow bare column names to be subscripted as arrays (Tom)
28602 Improve type casting of int and float constants (Tom)
28603 Cleanups for int8 inputs, range checking, and type conversion (Tom)
28604 Fix for SELECT timespan('21:11:26'::time) (Tom)
28605 netmask('x.x.x.x/0') is 255.255.255.255 instead of 0.0.0.0 (Oleg Sharoiko)
28606 Add btree index on NUMERIC (Jan)
28607 Perl fix for large objects containing NUL characters (Douglas Thomson)
28608 ODBC fix for large objects (free)
28609 Fix indexing of cidr data type
28610 Fix for Ethernet MAC addresses (macaddr type) comparisons
28611 Fix for date/time types when overflows happened in computations (Tom)
28612 Allow array on int8 (Peter E)
28613 Fix for rounding/overflow of NUMERIC type, like NUMERIC(4,4) (Tom)
28614 Allow NUMERIC arrays
28615 Fix bugs in NUMERIC ceil() and floor() functions (Tom)
28616 Make char_length()/octet_length including trailing blanks (Tom)
28617 Made abstime/reltime use int4 instead of time_t (Peter E)
28618 New lztext data type for compressed text fields
28619 Revise code to handle coercion of int and float constants (Tom)
28620 Start at new code to implement a BIT and BIT VARYING type (Adriaan Joubert)
28621 NUMERIC now accepts scientific notation (Tom)
28622 NUMERIC to int4 rounds (Tom)
28623 Convert float4/8 to NUMERIC properly (Tom)
28624 Allow type conversion with NUMERIC (Thomas)
28625 Make ISO date style (2000-02-16 09:33) the default (Thomas)
28626 Add NATIONAL CHAR [ VARYING ] (Thomas)
28627 Allow NUMERIC round and trunc to accept negative scales (Tom)
28628 New TIME WITH TIME ZONE type (Thomas)
28629 Add MAX()/MIN() on time type (Thomas)
28630 Add abs(), mod(), fac() for int8 (Thomas)
28631 Rename functions to round(), sqrt(), cbrt(), pow() for float8 (Thomas)
28632 Add transcendental math functions (e.g. sin(), acos()) for float8 (Thomas)
28633 Add exp() and ln() for NUMERIC type
28634 Rename NUMERIC power() to pow() (Thomas)
28635 Improved TRANSLATE() function (Edwin Ramirez, Tom)
28636 Allow X=-Y operators (Tom)
28637 Allow SELECT float8(COUNT(*))/(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM t) FROM t GROUP BY f1; (Tom)
28638 Allow LOCALE to use indexes in regular expression searches (Tom)
28639 Allow creation of functional indexes to use default types
28643 Prevent exponential space consumption with many AND's and OR's (Tom)
28644 Collect attribute selectivity values for system columns (Tom)
28645 Reduce memory usage of aggregates (Tom)
28646 Fix for LIKE optimization to use indexes with multibyte encodings (Tom)
28647 Fix r-tree index optimizer selectivity (Thomas)
28648 Improve optimizer selectivity computations and functions (Tom)
28649 Optimize btree searching for cases where many equal keys exist (Tom)
28650 Enable fast LIKE index processing only if index present (Tom)
28651 Re-use free space on index pages with duplicates (Tom)
28652 Improve hash join processing (Tom)
28653 Prevent descending sort if result is already sorted(Hiroshi)
28654 Allow commuting of index scan query qualifications (Tom)
28655 Prefer index scans in cases where ORDER BY/GROUP BY is required (Tom)
28656 Allocate large memory requests in fix-sized chunks for performance (Tom)
28657 Fix vacuum's performance by reducing memory allocation requests (Tom)
28658 Implement constant-expression simplification (Bernard Frankpitt, Tom)
28659 Use secondary columns to be used to determine start of index scan (Hiroshi)
28660 Prevent quadruple use of disk space when doing internal sorting (Tom)
28661 Faster sorting by calling fewer functions (Tom)
28662 Create system indexes to match all system caches (Bruce, Hiroshi)
28663 Make system caches use system indexes (Bruce)
28664 Make all system indexes unique (Bruce)
28665 Improve pg_statistics management for VACUUM speed improvement (Tom)
28666 Flush backend cache less frequently (Tom, Hiroshi)
28667 COPY now reuses previous memory allocation, improving performance (Tom)
28668 Improve optimization cost estimation (Tom)
28669 Improve optimizer estimate of range queries x > lowbound AND x < highbound (Tom)
28670 Use DNF instead of CNF where appropriate (Tom, Taral)
28671 Further cleanup for OR-of-AND WHERE-clauses (Tom)
28672 Make use of index in OR clauses (x = 1 AND y = 2) OR (x = 2 AND y = 4) (Tom)
28673 Smarter optimizer computations for random index page access (Tom)
28674 New SET variable to control optimizer costs (Tom)
28675 Optimizer queries based on LIMIT, OFFSET, and EXISTS qualifications (Tom)
28676 Reduce optimizer internal housekeeping of join paths for speedup (Tom)
28677 Major subquery speedup (Tom)
28678 Fewer fsync writes when fsync is not disabled (Tom)
28679 Improved LIKE optimizer estimates (Tom)
28680 Prevent fsync in SELECT-only queries (Vadim)
28681 Make index creation use psort code, because it is now faster (Tom)
28682 Allow creation of sort temp tables > 1 Gig
28684 Source Tree Changes
28685 -------------------
28686 Fix for linux PPC compile
28687 New generic expression-tree-walker subroutine (Tom)
28688 Change form() to varargform() to prevent portability problems
28689 Improved range checking for large integers on Alphas
28690 Clean up #include in /include directory (Bruce)
28691 Add scripts for checking includes (Bruce)
28692 Remove un-needed #include's from *.c files (Bruce)
28693 Change #include's to use <> and "" as appropriate (Bruce)
28694 Enable Windows compilation of libpq
28695 Alpha spinlock fix from Uncle George <email>gatgul@voicenet.com</email>
28696 Overhaul of optimizer data structures (Tom)
28697 Fix to cygipc library (Yutaka Tanida)
28698 Allow pgsql to work on newer Cygwin snapshots (Dan)
28699 New catalog version number (Tom)
28701 Rename heap_replace to heap_update
28702 Update for QNX (Dr. Andreas Kardos)
28703 New platform-specific regression handling (Tom)
28704 Rename oid8 -> oidvector and int28 -> int2vector (Bruce)
28705 Included all yacc and lex files into the distribution (Peter E.)
28706 Remove lextest, no longer needed (Peter E)
28707 Fix for libpq and psql on Windows (Magnus)
28708 Internally change datetime and timespan into timestamp and interval (Thomas)
28709 Fix for plpgsql on BSD/OS
28710 Add SQL_ASCII test case to the regression test (Tatsuo)
28711 configure --with-mb now deprecated (Tatsuo)
28713 NetBSD fixes (Johnny C. Lam <email>lamj@stat.cmu.edu</email>)
28714 Fixes for Alpha compiles
28715 New multibyte encodings
28721 <sect1 id="release-6-5-3">
28722 <title>Release 6.5.3</title>
28725 <title>Release date</title>
28726 <simpara>1999-10-13</simpara>
28730 This is basically a cleanup release for 6.5.2. We have added a new
28731 <application>PgAccess</> that was missing in 6.5.2, and installed an NT-specific fix.
28736 <title>Migration to Version 6.5.3</title>
28739 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
28744 <title>Changes</title>
28748 Updated version of pgaccess 0.98
28750 Fix dumping rules on inherited tables
28757 <sect1 id="release-6-5-2">
28758 <title>Release 6.5.2</title>
28761 <title>Release date</title>
28762 <simpara>1999-09-15</simpara>
28766 This is basically a cleanup release for 6.5.1. We have fixed a variety of
28767 problems reported by 6.5.1 users.
28772 <title>Migration to Version 6.5.2</title>
28775 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
28781 <title>Changes</title>
28785 subselect+CASE fixes(Tom)
28786 Add SHLIB_LINK setting for solaris_i386 and solaris_sparc ports(Daren Sefcik)
28787 Fixes for CASE in WHERE join clauses(Tom)
28788 Fix BTScan abort(Tom)
28789 Repair the check for redundant UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY indexes(Thomas)
28790 Improve it so that it checks for multicolumn constraints(Thomas)
28791 Fix for Windows making problem with MB enabled(Hiroki Kataoka)
28792 Allow BSD yacc and bison to compile pl code(Bruce)
28793 Fix SET NAMES working
28795 Fix vacuum's memory consumption(Hiroshi,Tatsuo)
28796 Reduce the total memory consumption of vacuum(Tom)
28797 Fix for timestamp(datetime)
28798 Rule deparsing bugfixes(Tom)
28799 Fix quoting problems in mkMakefile.tcldefs.sh.in and mkMakefile.tkdefs.sh.in(Tom)
28800 This is to re-use space on index pages freed by vacuum(Vadim)
28801 document -x for pg_dump(Bruce)
28802 Fix for unary operators in rule deparser(Tom)
28803 Comment out FileUnlink of excess segments during mdtruncate()(Tom)
28804 IRIX linking fix from Yu Cao >yucao@falcon.kla-tencor.com<
28805 Repair logic error in LIKE: should not return LIKE_ABORT
28806 when reach end of pattern before end of text(Tom)
28807 Repair incorrect cleanup of heap memory allocation during transaction abort(Tom)
28808 Updated version of pgaccess 0.98
28814 <sect1 id="release-6-5-1">
28815 <title>Release 6.5.1</title>
28818 <title>Release date</title>
28819 <simpara>1999-07-15</simpara>
28823 This is basically a cleanup release for 6.5. We have fixed a variety of
28824 problems reported by 6.5 users.
28828 <title>Migration to Version 6.5.1</title>
28831 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
28837 <title>Changes</title>
28842 Portability fixes for linux_ppc, IRIX, linux_alpha, OpenBSD, alpha
28843 Remove QUERY_LIMIT, use SELECT...LIMIT
28844 Fix for EXPLAIN on inheritance(Tom)
28845 Patch to allow vacuum on multisegment tables(Hiroshi)
28846 R-Tree optimizer selectivity fix(Tom)
28847 ACL file descriptor leak fix(Atsushi Ogawa)
28848 New expression subtree code(Tom)
28849 Avoid disk writes for read-only transactions(Vadim)
28850 Fix for removal of temp tables if last transaction was aborted(Bruce)
28851 Fix to prevent too large row from being created(Bruce)
28853 Allow port numbers 32k - 64k(Bruce)
28854 Add ^ precedence(Bruce)
28855 Rename sort files called pg_temp to pg_sorttemp(Bruce)
28856 Fix for microseconds in time values(Tom)
28857 Tutorial source cleanup
28858 New linux_m68k port
28859 Fix for sorting of NULL's in some cases(Tom)
28860 Shared library dependencies fixed (Tom)
28861 Fixed glitches affecting GROUP BY in subselects(Tom)
28862 Fix some compiler warnings (Tomoaki Nishiyama)
28863 Add Win1250 (Czech) support (Pavel Behal)
28869 <sect1 id="release-6-5">
28870 <title>Release 6.5</title>
28873 <title>Release date</title>
28874 <simpara>1999-06-09</simpara>
28878 This release marks a major step in the development team's mastery of the source
28879 code we inherited from Berkeley. You will see we are now easily adding
28880 major features, thanks to the increasing size and experience of our
28881 world-wide development team.
28885 Here is a brief summary of the more notable changes:
28890 Multiversion concurrency control(MVCC)
28894 This removes our old table-level locking, and replaces it with
28895 a locking system that is superior to most commercial database
28896 systems. In a traditional system, each row that is modified
28897 is locked until committed, preventing reads by other users.
28898 MVCC uses the natural multiversion nature of
28899 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> to allow readers to
28900 continue reading consistent data during writer activity.
28901 Writers continue to use the compact pg_log transaction system.
28902 This is all performed without having to allocate a lock for
28903 every row like traditional database systems. So, basically,
28904 we no longer are restricted by simple table-level locking; we
28905 have something better than row-level locking.
28912 Hot backups from <application>pg_dump</application>
28916 <application>pg_dump</application> takes advantage of the new
28917 MVCC features to give a consistent database dump/backup while
28918 the database stays online and available for queries.
28929 We now have a true numeric data type, with
28930 user-specified precision.
28941 Temporary tables are guaranteed to have unique names
28942 within a database session, and are destroyed on session exit.
28953 We now have CASE, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT statement
28954 support. We have new LIMIT/OFFSET, SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL,
28955 SELECT ... FOR UPDATE, and an improved LOCK TABLE command.
28966 We continue to speed up <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>,
28967 thanks to the variety of talents within our team. We have
28968 sped up memory allocation, optimization, table joins, and row
28980 We continue to expand our port list, this time including
28981 <systemitem class="osname">Windows NT</>/<systemitem>ix86</> and <systemitem class="osname">NetBSD</>/<systemitem>arm32</>.
28992 Most interfaces have new versions, and existing functionality
29004 New and updated material is present throughout the
29005 documentation. New <acronym>FAQ</acronym>s have been
29006 contributed for <systemitem class="osname">SGI</> and <systemitem class="osname">AIX</> platforms.
29007 The <citetitle>Tutorial</citetitle> has introductory information
29008 on <acronym>SQL</acronym> from Stefan Simkovics.
29009 For the <citetitle>User's Guide</citetitle>, there are
29010 reference pages covering the postmaster and more utility
29011 programs, and a new appendix
29012 contains details on date/time behavior.
29013 The <citetitle>Administrator's Guide</citetitle> has a new
29014 chapter on troubleshooting from Tom Lane.
29015 And the <citetitle>Programmer's Guide</citetitle> has a
29016 description of query processing, also from Stefan, and details
29017 on obtaining the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> source
29018 tree via anonymous <productname>CVS</productname> and
29019 <productname>CVSup</productname>.
29027 <title>Migration to Version 6.5</title>
29030 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application>
29031 is required for those wishing to migrate data from any
29032 previous release of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
29033 <application>pg_upgrade</application> can <emphasis>not</emphasis>
29034 be used to upgrade to this release because the on-disk structure
29035 of the tables has changed compared to previous releases.
29039 The new Multiversion Concurrency Control (MVCC) features can
29040 give somewhat different behaviors in multiuser
29041 environments. <emphasis>Read and understand the following section
29042 to ensure that your existing applications will give you the
29043 behavior you need.</emphasis>
29047 <title>Multiversion Concurrency Control</title>
29050 Because readers in 6.5 don't lock data, regardless of transaction
29051 isolation level, data read by one transaction can be overwritten by
29052 another. In other words, if a row is returned by
29053 <command>SELECT</command> it doesn't mean that this row really exists
29054 at the time it is returned (i.e. sometime after the statement or
29055 transaction began) nor that the row is protected from being deleted or
29056 updated by concurrent transactions before the current transaction does
29057 a commit or rollback.
29061 To ensure the actual existence of a row and protect it against
29062 concurrent updates one must use <command>SELECT FOR UPDATE</command> or
29063 an appropriate <command>LOCK TABLE</command> statement. This should be
29064 taken into account when porting applications from previous releases of
29065 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> and other environments.
29069 Keep the above in mind if you are using
29070 <filename>contrib/refint.*</filename> triggers for
29071 referential integrity. Additional techniques are required now. One way is
29072 to use <command>LOCK parent_table IN SHARE ROW EXCLUSIVE MODE</command>
29073 command if a transaction is going to update/delete a primary key and
29074 use <command>LOCK parent_table IN SHARE MODE</command> command if a
29075 transaction is going to update/insert a foreign key.
29079 Note that if you run a transaction in SERIALIZABLE mode then you must
29080 execute the <command>LOCK</command> commands above before execution of any
29081 <acronym>DML</acronym> statement
29082 (<command>SELECT/INSERT/DELETE/UPDATE/FETCH/COPY_TO</command>) in the
29089 These inconveniences will disappear in the future
29090 when the ability to read dirty
29091 (uncommitted) data (regardless of isolation level) and true referential
29092 integrity will be implemented.
29098 <title>Changes</title>
29104 Fix text<->float8 and text<->float4 conversion functions(Thomas)
29105 Fix for creating tables with mixed-case constraints(Billy)
29106 Change exp()/pow() behavior to generate error on underflow/overflow(Jan)
29107 Fix bug in pg_dump -z
29108 Memory overrun cleanups(Tatsuo)
29109 Fix for lo_import crash(Tatsuo)
29110 Adjust handling of data type names to suppress double quotes(Thomas)
29111 Use type coercion for matching columns and DEFAULT(Thomas)
29112 Fix deadlock so it only checks once after one second of sleep(Bruce)
29113 Fixes for aggregates and PL/pgsql(Hiroshi)
29114 Fix for subquery crash(Vadim)
29115 Fix for libpq function PQfnumber and case-insensitive names(Bahman Rafatjoo)
29116 Fix for large object write-in-middle, no extra block, memory consumption(Tatsuo)
29117 Fix for pg_dump -d or -D and quote special characters in INSERT
29118 Repair serious problems with dynahash(Tom)
29119 Fix INET/CIDR portability problems
29120 Fix problem with selectivity error in ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN(Bruce)
29121 Fix executor so mergejoin of different column types works(Tom)
29122 Fix for Alpha OR selectivity bug
29123 Fix OR index selectivity problem(Bruce)
29124 Fix so \d shows proper length for char()/varchar()(Ryan)
29125 Fix tutorial code(Clark)
29126 Improve destroyuser checking(Oliver)
29127 Fix for Kerberos(Rodney McDuff)
29128 Fix for dropping database while dirty buffers(Bruce)
29129 Fix so sequence nextval() can be case-sensitive(Bruce)
29131 Drop buffers before destroying database files(Bruce)
29132 Fix case where executor evaluates functions twice(Tatsuo)
29133 Allow sequence nextval actions to be case-sensitive(Bruce)
29134 Fix optimizer indexing not working for negative numbers(Bruce)
29135 Fix for memory leak in executor with fjIsNull
29136 Fix for aggregate memory leaks(Erik Riedel)
29137 Allow user name containing a dash to grant privileges
29138 Cleanup of NULL in inet types
29139 Clean up system table bugs(Tom)
29140 Fix problems of PAGER and \? command(Masaaki Sakaida)
29141 Reduce default multisegment file size limit to 1GB(Peter)
29142 Fix for dumping of CREATE OPERATOR(Tom)
29143 Fix for backward scanning of cursors(Hiroshi Inoue)
29144 Fix for COPY FROM STDIN when using \i(Tom)
29145 Fix for subselect is compared inside an expression(Jan)
29146 Fix handling of error reporting while returning rows(Tom)
29147 Fix problems with reference to array types(Tom,Jan)
29148 Prevent UPDATE SET oid(Jan)
29149 Fix pg_dump so -t option can handle case-sensitive tablenames
29150 Fixes for GROUP BY in special cases(Tom, Jan)
29151 Fix for memory leak in failed queries(Tom)
29152 DEFAULT now supports mixed-case identifiers(Tom)
29153 Fix for multisegment uses of DROP/RENAME table, indexes(Ole Gjerde)
29154 Disable use of pg_dump with both -o and -d options(Bruce)
29155 Allow pg_dump to properly dump group privileges(Bruce)
29156 Fix GROUP BY in INSERT INTO table SELECT * FROM table2(Jan)
29157 Fix for computations in views(Jan)
29158 Fix for aggregates on array indexes(Tom)
29159 Fix for DEFAULT handles single quotes in value requiring too many quotes
29160 Fix security problem with non-super users importing/exporting large objects(Tom)
29161 Rollback of transaction that creates table cleaned up properly(Tom)
29162 Fix to allow long table and column names to generate proper serial names(Tom)
29166 Add "vacuumdb" utility
29167 Speed up libpq by allocating memory better(Tom)
29168 EXPLAIN all indexes used(Tom)
29169 Implement CASE, COALESCE, NULLIF expression(Thomas)
29170 New pg_dump table output format(Constantin)
29171 Add string min()/max() functions(Thomas)
29172 Extend new type coercion techniques to aggregates(Thomas)
29173 New moddatetime contrib(Terry)
29174 Update to pgaccess 0.96(Constantin)
29175 Add routines for single-byte "char" type(Thomas)
29176 Improved substr() function(Thomas)
29177 Improved multibyte handling(Tatsuo)
29178 Multiversion concurrency control/MVCC(Vadim)
29179 New Serialized mode(Vadim)
29180 Fix for tables over 2gigs(Peter)
29181 New SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL(Vadim)
29182 New LOCK TABLE IN ... MODE(Vadim)
29183 Update ODBC driver(Byron)
29184 New NUMERIC data type(Jan)
29185 New SELECT FOR UPDATE(Vadim)
29186 Handle "NaN" and "Infinity" for input values(Jan)
29187 Improved date/year handling(Thomas)
29188 Improved handling of backend connections(Magnus)
29189 New options ELOG_TIMESTAMPS and USE_SYSLOG options for log files(Massimo)
29190 New TCL_ARRAYS option(Massimo)
29191 New INTERSECT and EXCEPT(Stefan)
29192 New pg_index.indisprimary for primary key tracking(D'Arcy)
29193 New pg_dump option to allow dropping of tables before creation(Brook)
29194 Speedup of row output routines(Tom)
29195 New READ COMMITTED isolation level(Vadim)
29196 New TEMP tables/indexes(Bruce)
29197 Prevent sorting if result is already sorted(Jan)
29198 New memory allocation optimization(Jan)
29199 Allow psql to do \p\g(Bruce)
29200 Allow multiple rule actions(Jan)
29201 Added LIMIT/OFFSET functionality(Jan)
29202 Improve optimizer when joining a large number of tables(Bruce)
29203 New intro to SQL from S. Simkovics' Master's Thesis (Stefan, Thomas)
29204 New intro to backend processing from S. Simkovics' Master's Thesis (Stefan)
29205 Improved int8 support(Ryan Bradetich, Thomas, Tom)
29206 New routines to convert between int8 and text/varchar types(Thomas)
29207 New bushy plans, where meta-tables are joined(Bruce)
29208 Enable right-hand queries by default(Bruce)
29209 Allow reliable maximum number of backends to be set at configure time
29210 (--with-maxbackends and postmaster switch (-N backends))(Tom)
29211 GEQO default now 10 tables because of optimizer speedups(Tom)
29212 Allow NULL=Var for MS-SQL portability(Michael, Bruce)
29213 Modify contrib check_primary_key() so either "automatic" or "dependent"(Anand)
29214 Allow psql \d on a view show query(Ryan)
29215 Speedup for LIKE(Bruce)
29216 Ecpg fixes/features, see src/interfaces/ecpg/ChangeLog file(Michael)
29217 JDBC fixes/features, see src/interfaces/jdbc/CHANGELOG(Peter)
29218 Make % operator have precedence like /(Bruce)
29219 Add new postgres -O option to allow system table structure changes(Bruce)
29220 Update contrib/pginterface/findoidjoins script(Tom)
29221 Major speedup in vacuum of deleted rows with indexes(Vadim)
29222 Allow non-SQL functions to run different versions based on arguments(Tom)
29223 Add -E option that shows actual queries sent by \dt and friends(Masaaki Sakaida)
29224 Add version number in start-up banners for psql(Masaaki Sakaida)
29225 New contrib/vacuumlo removes large objects not referenced(Peter)
29226 New initialization for table sizes so non-vacuumed tables perform better(Tom)
29227 Improve error messages when a connection is rejected(Tom)
29228 Support for arrays of char() and varchar() fields(Massimo)
29229 Overhaul of hash code to increase reliability and performance(Tom)
29230 Update to PyGreSQL 2.4(D'Arcy)
29231 Changed debug options so -d4 and -d5 produce different node displays(Jan)
29232 New pg_options: pretty_plan, pretty_parse, pretty_rewritten(Jan)
29233 Better optimization statistics for system table access(Tom)
29234 Better handling of non-default block sizes(Massimo)
29235 Improve GEQO optimizer memory consumption(Tom)
29236 UNION now supports ORDER BY of columns not in target list(Jan)
29237 Major libpq++ improvements(Vince Vielhaber)
29238 pg_dump now uses -z(ACL's) as default(Bruce)
29239 backend cache, memory speedups(Tom)
29240 have pg_dump do everything in one snapshot transaction(Vadim)
29241 fix for large object memory leakage, fix for pg_dumping(Tom)
29242 INET type now respects netmask for comparisons
29243 Make VACUUM ANALYZE only use a readlock(Vadim)
29244 Allow VIEWs on UNIONS(Jan)
29245 pg_dump now can generate consistent snapshots on active databases(Vadim)
29247 Source Tree Changes
29248 -------------------
29249 Improve port matching(Tom)
29250 Portability fixes for SunOS
29251 Add Windows NT backend port and enable dynamic loading(Magnus and Daniel Horak)
29252 New port to Cobalt Qube(Mips) running Linux(Tatsuo)
29253 Port to NetBSD/m68k(Mr. Mutsuki Nakajima)
29254 Port to NetBSD/sun3(Mr. Mutsuki Nakajima)
29255 Port to NetBSD/macppc(Toshimi Aoki)
29256 Fix for tcl/tk configuration(Vince)
29257 Removed CURRENT key word for rule queries(Jan)
29258 NT dynamic loading now works(Daniel Horak)
29259 Add ARM32 support(Andrew McMurry)
29260 Better support for HP-UX 11 and UnixWare
29261 Improve file handling to be more uniform, prevent file descriptor leak(Tom)
29262 New install commands for plpgsql(Jan)
29269 <sect1 id="release-6-4-2">
29270 <title>Release 6.4.2</title>
29273 <title>Release date</title>
29274 <simpara>1998-12-20</simpara>
29278 The 6.4.1 release was improperly packaged. This also has one additional
29284 <title>Migration to Version 6.4.2</title>
29287 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
29292 <title>Changes</title>
29296 Fix for datetime constant problem on some platforms(Thomas)
29304 <sect1 id="release-6-4-1">
29305 <title>Release 6.4.1</title>
29308 <title>Release date</title>
29309 <simpara>1998-12-18</simpara>
29313 This is basically a cleanup release for 6.4. We have fixed a variety of
29314 problems reported by 6.4 users.
29319 <title>Migration to Version 6.4.1</title>
29322 A dump/restore is <emphasis>not</emphasis> required for those running
29327 <title>Changes</title>
29331 Add pg_dump -N flag to force double quotes around identifiers. This is
29332 the default(Thomas)
29333 Fix for NOT in where clause causing crash(Bruce)
29334 EXPLAIN VERBOSE coredump fix(Vadim)
29335 Fix shared-library problems on Linux
29336 Fix test for table existence to allow mixed-case and whitespace in
29337 the table name(Thomas)
29338 Fix a couple of pg_dump bugs
29339 Configure matches template/.similar entries better(Tom)
29340 Change builtin function names from SPI_* to spi_*
29341 OR WHERE clause fix(Vadim)
29342 Fixes for mixed-case table names(Billy)
29343 contrib/linux/postgres.init.csh/sh fix(Thomas)
29344 libpq memory overrun fix
29346 Change exp() behavior to generate error on underflow(Thomas)
29347 pg_dump fixes for memory leak, inheritance constraints, layout change
29348 update pgaccess to 0.93
29349 Fix prototype for 64-bit platforms
29350 Multibyte fixes(Tatsuo)
29352 Fix memory overruns(Tatsuo)
29353 Fix for lo_import() crash(Bruce)
29354 Better search for install program(Tom)
29355 Timezone fixes(Tom)
29357 Use implicit type coercion for matching DEFAULT values(Thomas)
29358 Add routines to help with single-byte (internal) character type(Thomas)
29359 Compilation of libpq for Windows fixes(Magnus)
29360 Upgrade to PyGreSQL 2.2(D'Arcy)
29368 <sect1 id="release-6-4">
29369 <title>Release 6.4</title>
29372 <title>Release date</title>
29373 <simpara>1998-10-30</simpara>
29377 There are <emphasis>many</emphasis> new features and improvements in this release.
29378 Thanks to our developers and maintainers, nearly every aspect of the system
29379 has received some attention since the previous release.
29380 Here is a brief, incomplete summary:
29385 Views and rules are now functional thanks to extensive new code in the
29386 rewrite rules system from Jan Wieck. He also wrote a chapter on it
29387 for the <citetitle>Programmer's Guide</citetitle>.
29392 Jan also contributed a second procedural language, <application>PL/pgSQL</application>, to go with the
29393 original <application>PL/pgTCL</application> procedural language he contributed last release.
29399 We have optional multiple-byte character set support from Tatsuo Ishii
29400 to complement our existing locale support.
29406 Client/server communications has been cleaned up, with better support for
29407 asynchronous messages and interrupts thanks to Tom Lane.
29413 The parser will now perform automatic type coercion to match arguments
29414 to available operators and functions, and to match columns and expressions
29415 with target columns. This uses a generic mechanism which supports
29416 the type extensibility features of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
29417 There is a new chapter in the <citetitle>User's Guide</citetitle>
29418 which covers this topic.
29424 Three new data types have been added.
29425 Two types, <type>inet</type> and <type>cidr</type>, support various forms
29426 of IP network, subnet, and machine addressing. There is now an 8-byte integer
29427 type available on some platforms. See the chapter on data types
29428 in the <citetitle>User's Guide</citetitle> for details.
29429 A fourth type, <type>serial</type>, is now supported by the parser as an
29430 amalgam of the <type>int4</type> type, a sequence, and a unique index.
29436 Several more <acronym>SQL92</acronym>-compatible syntax features have been
29437 added, including <command>INSERT DEFAULT VALUES</command>
29443 The automatic configuration and installation system has received some
29444 attention, and should be more robust for more platforms than it has ever
29453 <title>Migration to Version 6.4</title>
29456 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application>
29457 or <application>pg_dumpall</application>
29458 is required for those wishing to migrate data from any
29459 previous release of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
29464 <title>Changes</title>
29470 Fix for a tiny memory leak in PQsetdb/PQfinish(Bryan)
29471 Remove char2-16 data types, use char/varchar(Darren)
29472 Pqfn not handles a NOTICE message(Anders)
29473 Reduced busywaiting overhead for spinlocks with many backends (dg)
29474 Stuck spinlock detection (dg)
29475 Fix up "ISO-style" timespan decoding and encoding(Thomas)
29476 Fix problem with table drop after rollback of transaction(Vadim)
29477 Change error message and remove non-functional update message(Vadim)
29478 Fix for COPY array checking
29479 Fix for SELECT 1 UNION SELECT NULL
29480 Fix for buffer leaks in large object calls(Pascal)
29481 Change owner from oid to int4 type(Bruce)
29482 Fix a bug in the oracle compatibility functions btrim() ltrim() and rtrim()
29483 Fix for shared invalidation cache overflow(Massimo)
29484 Prevent file descriptor leaks in failed COPY's(Bruce)
29485 Fix memory leak in libpgtcl's pg_select(Constantin)
29486 Fix problems with username/passwords over 8 characters(Tom)
29487 Fix problems with handling of asynchronous NOTIFY in backend(Tom)
29488 Fix of many bad system table entries(Tom)
29492 Upgrade ecpg and ecpglib,see src/interfaces/ecpc/ChangeLog(Michael)
29493 Show the index used in an EXPLAIN(Zeugswetter)
29494 EXPLAIN invokes rule system and shows plan(s) for rewritten queries(Jan)
29495 Multibyte awareness of many data types and functions, via configure(Tatsuo)
29496 New configure --with-mb option(Tatsuo)
29497 New initdb --pgencoding option(Tatsuo)
29498 New createdb -E multibyte option(Tatsuo)
29499 Select version(); now returns PostgreSQL version(Jeroen)
29500 libpq now allows asynchronous clients(Tom)
29501 Allow cancel from client of backend query(Tom)
29502 psql now cancels query with Control-C(Tom)
29503 libpq users need not issue dummy queries to get NOTIFY messages(Tom)
29504 NOTIFY now sends sender's PID, so you can tell whether it was your own(Tom)
29505 PGresult struct now includes associated error message, if any(Tom)
29506 Define "tz_hour" and "tz_minute" arguments to date_part()(Thomas)
29507 Add routines to convert between varchar and bpchar(Thomas)
29508 Add routines to allow sizing of varchar and bpchar into target columns(Thomas)
29509 Add bit flags to support timezonehour and minute in data retrieval(Thomas)
29510 Allow more variations on valid floating point numbers (e.g. ".1", "1e6")(Thomas)
29511 Fixes for unary minus parsing with leading spaces(Thomas)
29512 Implement TIMEZONE_HOUR, TIMEZONE_MINUTE per SQL92 specs(Thomas)
29513 Check for and properly ignore FOREIGN KEY column constraints(Thomas)
29514 Define USER as synonym for CURRENT_USER per SQL92 specs(Thomas)
29515 Enable HAVING clause but no fixes elsewhere yet.
29516 Make "char" type a synonym for "char(1)" (actually implemented as bpchar)(Thomas)
29517 Save string type if specified for DEFAULT clause handling(Thomas)
29518 Coerce operations involving different data types(Thomas)
29519 Allow some index use for columns of different types(Thomas)
29520 Add capabilities for automatic type conversion(Thomas)
29521 Cleanups for large objects, so file is truncated on open(Peter)
29522 Readline cleanups(Tom)
29523 Allow psql \f \ to make spaces as delimiter(Bruce)
29524 Pass pg_attribute.atttypmod to the frontend for column field lengths(Tom,Bruce)
29525 Msql compatibility library in /contrib(Aldrin)
29526 Remove the requirement that ORDER/GROUP BY clause identifiers be
29527 included in the target list(David)
29528 Convert columns to match columns in UNION clauses(Thomas)
29529 Remove fork()/exec() and only do fork()(Bruce)
29530 Jdbc cleanups(Peter)
29531 Show backend status on ps command line(only works on some platforms)(Bruce)
29532 Pg_hba.conf now has a sameuser option in the database field
29533 Make lo_unlink take oid param, not int4
29534 New DISABLE_COMPLEX_MACRO for compilers that cannot handle our macros(Bruce)
29535 Libpgtcl now handles NOTIFY as a Tcl event, need not send dummy queries(Tom)
29536 libpgtcl cleanups(Tom)
29537 Add -error option to libpgtcl's pg_result command(Tom)
29538 New locale patch, see docs/README/locale(Oleg)
29539 Fix for pg_dump so CONSTRAINT and CHECK syntax is correct(ccb)
29540 New contrib/lo code for large object orphan removal(Peter)
29541 New psql command "SET CLIENT_ENCODING TO 'encoding'" for multibytes
29542 feature, see /doc/README.mb(Tatsuo)
29543 contrib/noupdate code to revoke update permission on a column
29544 libpq can now be compiled on Windows(Magnus)
29545 Add PQsetdbLogin() in libpq
29546 New 8-byte integer type, checked by configure for OS support(Thomas)
29547 Better support for quoted table/column names(Thomas)
29548 Surround table and column names with double-quotes in pg_dump(Thomas)
29549 PQreset() now works with passwords(Tom)
29550 Handle case of GROUP BY target list column number out of range(David)
29551 Allow UNION in subselects
29552 Add auto-size to screen to \d? commands(Bruce)
29553 Use UNION to show all \d? results in one query(Bruce)
29554 Add \d? field search feature(Bruce)
29555 Pg_dump issues fewer \connect requests(Tom)
29556 Make pg_dump -z flag work better, document it in manual page(Tom)
29557 Add HAVING clause with full support for subselects and unions(Stephan)
29558 Full text indexing routines in contrib/fulltextindex(Maarten)
29559 Transaction ids now stored in shared memory(Vadim)
29560 New PGCLIENTENCODING when issuing COPY command(Tatsuo)
29561 Support for SQL92 syntax "SET NAMES"(Tatsuo)
29562 Support for LATIN2-5(Tatsuo)
29563 Add UNICODE regression test case(Tatsuo)
29564 Lock manager cleanup, new locking modes for LLL(Vadim)
29565 Allow index use with OR clauses(Bruce)
29566 Allows "SELECT NULL ORDER BY 1;"
29567 Explain VERBOSE prints the plan, and now pretty-prints the plan to
29568 the postmaster log file(Bruce)
29569 Add indexes display to \d command(Bruce)
29570 Allow GROUP BY on functions(David)
29571 New pg_class.relkind for large objects(Bruce)
29572 New way to send libpq NOTICE messages to a different location(Tom)
29573 New \w write command to psql(Bruce)
29574 New /contrib/findoidjoins scans oid columns to find join relationships(Bruce)
29575 Allow binary-compatible indexes to be considered when checking for valid
29576 Indexes for restriction clauses containing a constant(Thomas)
29577 New ISBN/ISSN code in /contrib/isbn_issn
29578 Allow NOT LIKE, IN, NOT IN, BETWEEN, and NOT BETWEEN constraint(Thomas)
29579 New rewrite system fixes many problems with rules and views(Jan)
29580 * Rules on relations work
29581 * Event qualifications on insert/update/delete work
29582 * New OLD variable to reference CURRENT, CURRENT will be remove in future
29583 * Update rules can reference NEW and OLD in rule qualifications/actions
29584 * Insert/update/delete rules on views work
29585 * Multiple rule actions are now supported, surrounded by parentheses
29586 * Regular users can create views/rules on tables they have RULE permits
29587 * Rules and views inherit the privileges of the creator
29588 * No rules at the column level
29589 * No UPDATE NEW/OLD rules
29590 * New pg_tables, pg_indexes, pg_rules and pg_views system views
29591 * Only a single action on SELECT rules
29592 * Total rewrite overhaul, perhaps for 6.5
29593 * handle subselects
29594 * handle aggregates on views
29595 * handle insert into select from view works
29596 System indexes are now multikey(Bruce)
29597 Oidint2, oidint4, and oidname types are removed(Bruce)
29598 Use system cache for more system table lookups(Bruce)
29599 New backend programming language PL/pgSQL in backend/pl(Jan)
29600 New SERIAL data type, auto-creates sequence/index(Thomas)
29601 Enable assert checking without a recompile(Massimo)
29602 User lock enhancements(Massimo)
29603 New setval() command to set sequence value(Massimo)
29604 Auto-remove unix socket file on start-up if no postmaster running(Massimo)
29605 Conditional trace package(Massimo)
29606 New UNLISTEN command(Massimo)
29607 psql and libpq now compile under Windows using win32.mak(Magnus)
29608 Lo_read no longer stores trailing NULL(Bruce)
29609 Identifiers are now truncated to 31 characters internally(Bruce)
29610 Createuser options now available on the command line
29611 Code for 64-bit integer supported added, configure tested, int8 type(Thomas)
29612 Prevent file descriptor leaf from failed COPY(Bruce)
29613 New pg_upgrade command(Bruce)
29614 Updated /contrib directories(Massimo)
29615 New CREATE TABLE DEFAULT VALUES statement available(Thomas)
29616 New INSERT INTO TABLE DEFAULT VALUES statement available(Thomas)
29617 New DECLARE and FETCH feature(Thomas)
29618 libpq's internal structures now not exported(Tom)
29619 Allow up to 8 key indexes(Bruce)
29620 Remove ARCHIVE key word, that is no longer used(Thomas)
29621 pg_dump -n flag to suppress quotes around indentifiers
29622 disable system columns for views(Jan)
29623 new INET and CIDR types for network addresses(TomH, Paul)
29624 no more double quotes in psql output
29625 pg_dump now dumps views(Terry)
29626 new SET QUERY_LIMIT(Tatsuo,Jan)
29628 Source Tree Changes
29629 -------------------
29630 /contrib cleanup(Jun)
29631 Inline some small functions called for every row(Bruce)
29633 HP-UX cleanups(Tom)
29634 Multibyte regression tests(Soonmyung.)
29635 Remove --disabled options from configure
29636 Define PGDOC to use POSTGRESDIR by default
29637 Make regression optional
29638 Remove extra braces code to pgindent(Bruce)
29639 Add bsdi shared library support(Bruce)
29640 New --without-CXX support configure option(Brook)
29642 Update backend flowchart in tools/backend(Bruce)
29643 Change atttypmod from int16 to int32(Bruce, Tom)
29644 Getrusage() fix for platforms that do not have it(Tom)
29645 Add PQconnectdb, PGUSER, PGPASSWORD to libpq man page
29646 NS32K platform fixes(Phil Nelson, John Buller)
29647 SCO 7/UnixWare 2.x fixes(Billy,others)
29648 Sparc/Solaris 2.5 fixes(Ryan)
29649 Pgbuiltin.3 is obsolete, move to doc files(Thomas)
29650 Even more documentation(Thomas)
29651 Nextstep support(Jacek)
29653 pginterface manual page(Bruce)
29654 shared libraries all have version numbers
29655 merged all OS-specific shared library defines into one file
29656 smarter TCL/TK configuration checking(Billy)
29657 smarter perl configuration(Brook)
29658 configure uses supplied install-sh if no install script found(Tom)
29659 new Makefile.shlib for shared library configuration(Tom)
29665 <sect1 id="release-6-3-2">
29666 <title>Release 6.3.2</title>
29669 <title>Release date</title>
29670 <simpara>1998-04-07</simpara>
29674 This is a bug-fix release for 6.3.x.
29675 Refer to the release notes for version 6.3 for a more complete summary of new features.
29683 Repairs automatic configuration support for some platforms, including Linux,
29684 from breakage inadvertently introduced in version 6.3.1.
29690 Correctly handles function calls on the left side of BETWEEN and LIKE clauses.
29697 A dump/restore is NOT required for those running 6.3 or 6.3.1. A
29698 <literal>make distclean</>, <literal>make</>, and <literal>make install</> is all that is required.
29699 This last step should be performed while the postmaster is not running.
29700 You should re-link any custom applications that use <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> libraries.
29703 For upgrades from pre-6.3 installations,
29704 refer to the installation and migration instructions for version 6.3.
29708 <title>Changes</title>
29712 Configure detection improvements for tcl/tk(Brook Milligan, Alvin)
29713 Manual page improvements(Bruce)
29714 BETWEEN and LIKE fix(Thomas)
29715 fix for psql \connect used by pg_dump(Oliver Elphick)
29717 pgaccess, version 0.86
29718 qsort removed, now uses libc version, cleanups(Jeroen)
29719 fix for buffer over-runs detected(Maurice Gittens)
29720 fix for buffer overrun in libpgtcl(Randy Kunkee)
29721 fix for UNION with DISTINCT or ORDER BY(Bruce)
29722 gettimeofday configure check(Doug Winterburn)
29723 Fix "indexes not used" bug(Vadim)
29724 docs additions(Thomas)
29725 Fix for backend memory leak(Bruce)
29726 libreadline cleanup(Erwan MAS)
29727 Remove DISTDIR(Bruce)
29728 Makefile dependency cleanup(Jeroen van Vianen)
29729 ASSERT fixes(Bruce)
29735 <sect1 id="release-6-3-1">
29736 <title>Release 6.3.1</title>
29739 <title>Release date</title>
29740 <simpara>1998-03-23</simpara>
29749 Additional support for multibyte character sets.
29755 Repair byte ordering for mixed-endian clients and servers.
29761 Minor updates to allowed SQL syntax.
29767 Improvements to the configuration autodetection for installation.
29774 A dump/restore is NOT required for those running 6.3. A
29775 <literal>make distclean</>, <literal>make</>, and <literal>make install</> is all that is required.
29776 This last step should be performed while the postmaster is not running.
29777 You should re-link any custom applications that use <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> libraries.
29780 For upgrades from pre-6.3 installations,
29781 refer to the installation and migration instructions for version 6.3.
29785 <title>Changes</title>
29789 ecpg cleanup/fixes, now version 1.1(Michael Meskes)
29790 pg_user cleanup(Bruce)
29791 large object fix for pg_dump and tclsh (alvin)
29792 LIKE fix for multiple adjacent underscores
29793 fix for redefining builtin functions(Thomas)
29795 upgrade to pg_access 0.83
29796 updated CLUSTER manual page
29797 multibyte character set support, see doc/README.mb(Tatsuo)
29798 configure --with-pgport fix
29800 big-endian fix for backend communications(Kataoka)
29801 SUBSTR() and substring() fix(Jan)
29802 several jdbc fixes(Peter)
29803 libpgtcl improvements, see libptcl/README(Randy Kunkee)
29804 Fix for "Datasize = 0" error(Vadim)
29805 Prevent \do from wrapping(Bruce)
29806 Remove duplicate Russian character set entries
29808 Allow optional TABLE key word in LOCK and SELECT INTO(Thomas)
29809 CREATE SEQUENCE options to allow a negative integer(Thomas)
29810 Add "PASSWORD" as an allowed column identifier(Thomas)
29811 Add checks for UNION target fields(Bruce)
29812 Fix Alpha port(Dwayne Bailey)
29813 Fix for text arrays containing quotes(Doug Gibson)
29814 Solaris compile fix(Albert Chin-A-Young)
29815 Better identify tcl and tk libs and includes(Bruce)
29821 <sect1 id="release-6-3">
29822 <title>Release 6.3</title>
29825 <title>Release date</title>
29826 <simpara>1998-03-01</simpara>
29830 There are <emphasis>many</emphasis> new features and improvements in this release.
29831 Here is a brief, incomplete summary:
29836 Many new SQL features, including
29837 full <acronym>SQL92</acronym> subselect capability
29838 (everything is here but target-list subselects).
29844 Support for client-side environment variables to specify time zone and date style.
29850 Socket interface for client/server connection. This is the default now
29851 so you might need to start <application>postmaster</application> with the
29852 <option>-i</option> flag.
29858 Better password authorization mechanisms. Default table privileges have changed.
29864 Old-style <firstterm>time travel</firstterm>
29865 has been removed. Performance has been improved.
29873 Bruce Momjian wrote the following notes to introduce the new release.
29878 There are some general 6.3 issues that I want to mention. These are
29879 only the big items that cannot be described in one sentence. A review
29880 of the detailed changes list is still needed.
29883 First, we now have subselects. Now that we have them, I would like to
29884 mention that without subselects, SQL is a very limited language.
29885 Subselects are a major feature, and you should review your code for
29886 places where subselects provide a better solution for your queries. I
29887 think you will find that there are more uses for subselects than you might
29888 think. Vadim has put us on the big SQL map with subselects, and fully
29889 functional ones too. The only thing you cannot do with subselects is to
29890 use them in the target list.
29893 Second, 6.3 uses Unix domain sockets rather than TCP/IP by default. To
29894 enable connections from other machines, you have to use the new
29895 postmaster -i option, and of course edit <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename>. Also, for this
29896 reason, the format of <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> has changed.
29899 Third, <type>char()</type> fields will now allow faster access than <type>varchar()</type> or
29900 <type>text</type>. Specifically, the <type>text</> and <type>varchar()</type> have a penalty for access to
29901 any columns after the first column of this type. <type>char()</type> used to also
29902 have this access penalty, but it no longer does. This might suggest that
29903 you redesign some of your tables, especially if you have short character
29904 columns that you have defined as <type>varchar()</type> or <type>text</type>. This and other
29905 changes make 6.3 even faster than earlier releases.
29908 We now have passwords definable independent of any Unix file. There are
29909 new SQL USER commands.
29910 See the <citetitle>Administrator's Guide</citetitle> for more
29911 information. There is a new table, pg_shadow, which is used to store
29912 user information and user passwords, and it by default only SELECT-able
29913 by the <systemitem>postgres</systemitem> super-user. pg_user is now a view of pg_shadow, and is
29914 SELECT-able by PUBLIC. You should keep using pg_user in your
29915 application without changes.
29918 User-created tables now no longer have SELECT privilege to PUBLIC by
29919 default. This was done because the ANSI standard requires it. You can
29920 of course GRANT any privileges you want after the table is created.
29921 System tables continue to be SELECT-able by PUBLIC.
29924 We also have real deadlock detection code. No more sixty-second
29925 timeouts. And the new locking code implements a <acronym>FIFO</acronym> better, so there
29926 should be less resource starvation during heavy use.
29929 Many complaints have been made about inadequate documentation in previous
29930 releases. Thomas has put much effort into many new manuals for this
29931 release. Check out the doc/ directory.
29934 For performance reasons, time travel is gone, but can be implemented
29935 using triggers (see <filename>pgsql/contrib/spi/README</filename>). Please check out the new
29936 \d command for types, operators, etc. Also, views have their own
29937 privileges now, not based on the underlying tables, so privileges on
29938 them have to be set separately. Check <filename>/pgsql/interfaces</filename> for some new
29939 ways to talk to <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
29942 This is the first release that really required an explanation for
29943 existing users. In many ways, this was necessary because the new
29944 release removes many limitations, and the work-arounds people were using
29945 are no longer needed.
29949 <title>Migration to Version 6.3</title>
29952 A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application>
29953 or <application>pg_dumpall</application>
29954 is required for those wishing to migrate data from any
29955 previous release of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
29960 <title>Changes</title>
29966 Fix binary cursors broken by MOVE implementation(Vadim)
29967 Fix for tcl library crash(Jan)
29968 Fix for array handling, from Gerhard Hintermayer
29969 Fix acl error, and remove duplicate pqtrace(Bruce)
29970 Fix psql \e for empty file(Bruce)
29971 Fix for textcat on varchar() fields(Bruce)
29972 Fix for DBT Sendproc (Zeugswetter Andres)
29973 Fix vacuum analyze syntax problem(Bruce)
29974 Fix for international identifiers(Tatsuo)
29975 Fix aggregates on inherited tables(Bruce)
29976 Fix substr() for out-of-bounds data
29977 Fix for select 1=1 or 2=2, select 1=1 and 2=2, and select sum(2+2)(Bruce)
29978 Fix notty output to show status result. -q option still turns it off(Bruce)
29979 Fix for count(*), aggs with views and multiple tables and sum(3)(Bruce)
29981 Fix for PQtrace start/stop several times(Bruce)
29982 Fix a variety of locking problems like newer lock waiters getting
29983 lock before older waiters, and having readlock people not share
29984 locks if a writer is waiting for a lock, and waiting writers not
29985 getting priority over waiting readers(Bruce)
29986 Fix crashes in psql when executing queries from external files(James)
29987 Fix problem with multiple order by columns, with the first one having
29988 NULL values(Jeroen)
29989 Use correct hash table support functions for float8 and int4(Thomas)
29990 Re-enable JOIN= option in CREATE OPERATOR statement (Thomas)
29991 Change precedence for boolean operators to match expected behavior(Thomas)
29992 Generate elog(ERROR) on over-large integer(Bruce)
29993 Allow multiple-argument functions in constraint clauses(Thomas)
29994 Check boolean input literals for 'true','false','yes','no','1','0'
29995 and throw elog(ERROR) if unrecognized(Thomas)
29996 Major large objects fix
29997 Fix for GROUP BY showing duplicates(Vadim)
29998 Fix for index scans in MergeJoin(Vadim)
30002 Subselects with EXISTS, IN, ALL, ANY key words (Vadim, Bruce, Thomas)
30003 New User Manual(Thomas, others)
30004 Speedup by inlining some frequently-called functions
30005 Real deadlock detection, no more timeouts(Bruce)
30006 Add SQL92 "constants" CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
30007 CURRENT_USER(Thomas)
30008 Modify constraint syntax to be SQL92-compliant(Thomas)
30009 Implement SQL92 PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE clauses using indexes(Thomas)
30010 Recognize SQL92 syntax for FOREIGN KEY. Throw elog notice(Thomas)
30011 Allow NOT NULL UNIQUE constraint clause (each allowed separately before)(Thomas)
30012 Allow PostgreSQL-style casting ("::") of non-constants(Thomas)
30013 Add support for SQL3 TRUE and FALSE boolean constants(Thomas)
30014 Support SQL92 syntax for IS TRUE/IS FALSE/IS NOT TRUE/IS NOT FALSE(Thomas)
30015 Allow shorter strings for boolean literals (e.g. "t", "tr", "tru")(Thomas)
30016 Allow SQL92 delimited identifiers(Thomas)
30017 Implement SQL92 binary and hexadecimal string decoding (b'10' and x'1F')(Thomas)
30018 Support SQL92 syntax for type coercion of literal strings
30019 (e.g. "DATETIME 'now'")(Thomas)
30020 Add conversions for int2, int4, and OID types to and from text(Thomas)
30021 Use shared lock when building indexes(Vadim)
30022 Free memory allocated for an user query inside transaction block after
30023 this query is done, was turned off in <= 6.2.1(Vadim)
30024 New SQL statement CREATE PROCEDURAL LANGUAGE(Jan)
30025 New <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> Procedural Language (PL) backend interface(Jan)
30026 Rename pg_dump -H option to -h(Bruce)
30027 Add Java support for passwords, European dates(Peter)
30028 Use indexes for LIKE and ~, !~ operations(Bruce)
30029 Add hash functions for datetime and timespan(Thomas)
30030 Time Travel removed(Vadim, Bruce)
30031 Add paging for \d and \z, and fix \i(Bruce)
30032 Add Unix domain socket support to backend and to frontend library(Goran)
30033 Implement CREATE DATABASE/WITH LOCATION and initlocation utility(Thomas)
30034 Allow more SQL92 and/or <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> reserved words as column identifiers(Thomas)
30035 Augment support for SQL92 SET TIME ZONE...(Thomas)
30036 SET/SHOW/RESET TIME ZONE uses TZ backend environment variable(Thomas)
30037 Implement SET keyword = DEFAULT and SET TIME ZONE DEFAULT(Thomas)
30038 Enable SET TIME ZONE using TZ environment variable(Thomas)
30039 Add PGDATESTYLE environment variable to frontend and backend initialization(Thomas)
30040 Add PGTZ, PGCOSTHEAP, PGCOSTINDEX, PGRPLANS, PGGEQO
30041 frontend library initialization environment variables(Thomas)
30042 Regression tests time zone automatically set with "setenv PGTZ PST8PDT"(Thomas)
30043 Add pg_description table for info on tables, columns, operators, types, and
30045 Increase 16 char limit on system table/index names to 32 characters(Bruce)
30046 Rename system indexes(Bruce)
30047 Add 'GERMAN' option to SET DATESTYLE(Thomas)
30048 Define an "ISO-style" timespan output format with "hh:mm:ss" fields(Thomas)
30049 Allow fractional values for delta times (e.g. '2.5 days')(Thomas)
30050 Validate numeric input more carefully for delta times(Thomas)
30051 Implement day of year as possible input to date_part()(Thomas)
30052 Define timespan_finite() and text_timespan() functions(Thomas)
30053 Remove archive stuff(Bruce)
30054 Allow for a pg_password authentication database that is separate from
30055 the system password file(Todd)
30056 Dump ACLs, GRANT, REVOKE privileges(Matt)
30057 Define text, varchar, and bpchar string length functions(Thomas)
30058 Fix Query handling for inheritance, and cost computations(Bruce)
30059 Implement CREATE TABLE/AS SELECT (alternative to SELECT/INTO)(Thomas)
30060 Allow NOT, IS NULL, IS NOT NULL in constraints(Thomas)
30061 Implement UNIONs for SELECT(Bruce)
30062 Add UNION, GROUP, DISTINCT to INSERT(Bruce)
30063 varchar() stores only necessary bytes on disk(Bruce)
30064 Fix for BLOBs(Peter)
30065 Mega-Patch for JDBC...see README_6.3 for list of changes(Peter)
30066 Remove unused "option" from PQconnectdb()
30067 New LOCK command and lock manual page describing deadlocks(Bruce)
30068 Add new psql \da, \dd, \df, \do, \dS, and \dT commands(Bruce)
30069 Enhance psql \z to show sequences(Bruce)
30070 Show NOT NULL and DEFAULT in psql \d table(Bruce)
30071 New psql .psqlrc file start-up(Andrew)
30072 Modify sample start-up script in contrib/linux to show syslog(Thomas)
30073 New types for IP and MAC addresses in contrib/ip_and_mac(TomH)
30074 Unix system time conversions with date/time types in contrib/unixdate(Thomas)
30075 Update of contrib stuff(Massimo)
30076 Add Unix socket support to DBD::Pg(Goran)
30077 New python interface (PyGreSQL 2.0)(D'Arcy)
30078 New frontend/backend protocol has a version number, network byte order(Phil)
30079 Security features in pg_hba.conf enhanced and documented, many cleanups(Phil)
30080 CHAR() now faster access than VARCHAR() or TEXT
30081 ecpg embedded SQL preprocessor
30082 Reduce system column overhead(Vadmin)
30083 Remove pg_time table(Vadim)
30084 Add pg_type attribute to identify types that need length (bpchar, varchar)
30085 Add report of offending line when COPY command fails
30086 Allow VIEW privileges to be set separately from the underlying tables.
30087 For security, use GRANT/REVOKE on views as appropriate(Jan)
30088 Tables now have no default GRANT SELECT TO PUBLIC. You must
30089 explicitly grant such privileges.
30090 Clean up tutorial examples(Darren)
30092 Source Tree Changes
30093 -------------------
30094 Add new html development tools, and flow chart in /tools/backend
30095 Fix for SCO compiles
30096 Stratus computer port Robert Gillies
30097 Added support for shlib for BSD44_derived & i386_solaris
30098 Make configure more automated(Brook)
30099 Add script to check regression test results
30100 Break parser functions into smaller files, group together(Bruce)
30101 Rename heap_create to heap_create_and_catalog, rename heap_creatr
30102 to heap_create()(Bruce)
30103 Sparc/Linux patch for locking(TomS)
30104 Remove PORTNAME and reorganize port-specific stuff(Marc)
30105 Add optimizer README file(Bruce)
30106 Remove some recursion in optimizer and clean up some code there(Bruce)
30107 Fix for NetBSD locking(Henry)
30108 Fix for libptcl make(Tatsuo)
30110 Change IS TRUE, IS FALSE, ... to expressions using "=" rather than
30111 function calls to istrue() or isfalse() to allow optimization(Thomas)
30112 Various fixes NetBSD/Sparc related(TomH)
30113 Alpha linux locking(Travis,Ryan)
30114 Change elog(WARN) to elog(ERROR)(Bruce)
30115 FAQ for FreeBSD(Marc)
30116 Bring in the PostODBC source tree as part of our standard distribution(Marc)
30117 A minor patch for HP/UX 10 vs 9(Stan)
30118 New pg_attribute.atttypmod for type-specific info like varchar length(Bruce)
30119 UnixWare patches(Billy)
30120 New i386 'lock' for spinlock asm(Billy)
30121 Support for multiplexed backends is removed
30122 Start an OpenBSD port
30124 Start a Cygnus port
30125 Add string functions to regression suite(Thomas)
30126 Expand a few function names formerly truncated to 16 characters(Thomas)
30127 Remove un-needed malloc() calls and replace with palloc()(Bruce)
30133 <sect1 id="release-6-2-1">
30134 <title>Release 6.2.1</title>
30137 <title>Release date</title>
30138 <simpara>1997-10-17</simpara>
30142 6.2.1 is a bug-fix and usability release on 6.2.
30150 Allow strings to span lines, per <acronym>SQL92</acronym>.
30156 Include example trigger function for inserting user names on table updates.
30163 This is a minor bug-fix release on 6.2.
30164 For upgrades from pre-6.2 systems, a full dump/reload is required.
30165 Refer to the 6.2 release notes for instructions.
30169 <title>Migration from version 6.2 to version 6.2.1</title>
30172 This is a minor bug-fix release. A dump/reload is not required from version 6.2,
30173 but is required from any release prior to 6.2.
30176 In upgrading from version 6.2, if you choose to dump/reload you will find that
30177 avg(money) is now calculated correctly. All other bug fixes take effect
30178 upon updating the executables.
30181 Another way to avoid dump/reload is to use the following SQL command
30182 from <command>psql</command> to update the existing system table:
30185 update pg_aggregate set aggfinalfn = 'cash_div_flt8'
30186 where aggname = 'avg' and aggbasetype = 790;
30190 This will need to be done to every existing database, including template1.
30195 <title>Changes</title>
30199 Allow TIME and TYPE column names(Thomas)
30200 Allow larger range of true/false as boolean values(Thomas)
30201 Support output of "now" and "current"(Thomas)
30202 Handle DEFAULT with INSERT of NULL properly(Vadim)
30203 Fix for relation reference counts problem in buffer manager(Vadim)
30204 Allow strings to span lines, like ANSI(Thomas)
30205 Fix for backward cursor with ORDER BY(Vadim)
30206 Fix avg(cash) computation(Thomas)
30207 Fix for specifying a column twice in ORDER/GROUP BY(Vadim)
30208 Documented new libpq function to return affected rows, PQcmdTuples(Bruce)
30209 Trigger function for inserting user names for INSERT/UPDATE(Brook Milligan)
30215 <sect1 id="release-6-2">
30216 <title>Release 6.2</title>
30219 <title>Release date</title>
30220 <simpara>1997-10-02</simpara>
30224 A dump/restore is required for those wishing to migrate data from
30225 previous releases of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
30229 <title>Migration from version 6.1 to version 6.2</title>
30232 This migration requires a complete dump of the 6.1 database and a
30233 restore of the database in 6.2.
30236 Note that the <command>pg_dump</command> and <command>pg_dumpall</command> utility from 6.2 should be used
30237 to dump the 6.1 database.
30242 <title>Migration from version 1.<replaceable>x</> to version 6.2</title>
30245 Those migrating from earlier 1.* releases should first upgrade to 1.09
30246 because the COPY output format was improved from the 1.02 release.
30251 <title>Changes</title>
30257 Fix problems with pg_dump for inheritance, sequences, archive tables(Bruce)
30258 Fix compile errors on overflow due to shifts, unsigned, and bad prototypes
30259 from Solaris(Diab Jerius)
30260 Fix bugs in geometric line arithmetic (bad intersection calculations)(Thomas)
30261 Check for geometric intersections at endpoints to avoid rounding ugliness(Thomas)
30262 Catch non-functional delete attempts(Vadim)
30263 Change time function names to be more consistent(Michael Reifenberg)
30264 Check for zero divides(Michael Reifenberg)
30265 Fix very old bug which made rows changed/inserted by a command
30266 visible to the command itself (so we had multiple update of
30267 updated rows, etc.)(Vadim)
30268 Fix for SELECT null, 'fail' FROM pg_am (Patrick)
30269 SELECT NULL as EMPTY_FIELD now allowed(Patrick)
30270 Remove un-needed signal stuff from contrib/pginterface
30271 Fix OR (where x != 1 or x isnull didn't return rows with x NULL) (Vadim)
30272 Fix time_cmp function (Vadim)
30273 Fix handling of functions with non-attribute first argument in
30274 WHERE clauses (Vadim)
30275 Fix GROUP BY when order of entries is different from order
30276 in target list (Vadim)
30277 Fix pg_dump for aggregates without sfunc1 (Vadim)
30281 Default genetic optimizer GEQO parameter is now 8(Bruce)
30282 Allow use parameters in target list having aggregates in functions(Vadim)
30283 Added JDBC driver as an interface(Adrian & Peter)
30284 pg_password utility
30285 Return number of rows inserted/affected by INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE etc.(Vadim)
30286 Triggers implemented with CREATE TRIGGER (SQL3)(Vadim)
30287 SPI (Server Programming Interface) allows execution of queries inside
30288 C-functions (Vadim)
30289 NOT NULL implemented (SQL92)(Robson Paniago de Miranda)
30290 Include reserved words for string handling, outer joins, and unions(Thomas)
30291 Implement extended comments ("/* ... */") using exclusive states(Thomas)
30292 Add "//" single-line comments(Bruce)
30293 Remove some restrictions on characters in operator names(Thomas)
30294 DEFAULT and CONSTRAINT for tables implemented (SQL92)(Vadim & Thomas)
30295 Add text concatenation operator and function (SQL92)(Thomas)
30296 Support WITH TIME ZONE syntax (SQL92)(Thomas)
30297 Support INTERVAL unit TO unit syntax (SQL92)(Thomas)
30298 Define types DOUBLE PRECISION, INTERVAL, CHARACTER,
30299 and CHARACTER VARYING (SQL92)(Thomas)
30300 Define type FLOAT(p) and rudimentary DECIMAL(p,s), NUMERIC(p,s) (SQL92)(Thomas)
30301 Define EXTRACT(), POSITION(), SUBSTRING(), and TRIM() (SQL92)(Thomas)
30302 Define CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP (SQL92)(Thomas)
30303 Add syntax and warnings for UNION, HAVING, INNER and OUTER JOIN (SQL92)(Thomas)
30304 Add more reserved words, mostly for SQL92 compliance(Thomas)
30305 Allow hh:mm:ss time entry for timespan/reltime types(Thomas)
30306 Add center() routines for lseg, path, polygon(Thomas)
30307 Add distance() routines for circle-polygon, polygon-polygon(Thomas)
30308 Check explicitly for points and polygons contained within polygons
30309 using an axis-crossing algorithm(Thomas)
30310 Add routine to convert circle-box(Thomas)
30311 Merge conflicting operators for different geometric data types(Thomas)
30312 Replace distance operator "<===>" with "<->"(Thomas)
30313 Replace "above" operator "!^" with ">^" and "below" operator "!|" with "<^"(Thomas)
30314 Add routines for text trimming on both ends, substring, and string position(Thomas)
30315 Added conversion routines circle(box) and poly(circle)(Thomas)
30316 Allow internal sorts to be stored in memory rather than in files(Bruce & Vadim)
30317 Allow functions and operators on internally-identical types to succeed(Bruce)
30318 Speed up backend start-up after profiling analysis(Bruce)
30319 Inline frequently called functions for performance(Bruce)
30320 Reduce open() calls(Bruce)
30321 psql: Add PAGER for \h and \?,\C fix
30322 Fix for psql pager when no tty(Bruce)
30323 New entab utility(Bruce)
30324 General trigger functions for referential integrity (Vadim)
30325 General trigger functions for time travel (Vadim)
30326 General trigger functions for AUTOINCREMENT/IDENTITY feature (Vadim)
30327 MOVE implementation (Vadim)
30329 Source Tree Changes
30330 -------------------
30331 HP-UX 10 patches (Vladimir Turin)
30332 Added SCO support, (Daniel Harris)
30333 MkLinux patches (Tatsuo Ishii)
30334 Change geometric box terminology from "length" to "width"(Thomas)
30335 Deprecate temporary unstored slope fields in geometric code(Thomas)
30336 Remove restart instructions from INSTALL(Bruce)
30337 Look in /usr/ucb first for install(Bruce)
30338 Fix c++ copy example code(Thomas)
30339 Add -o to psql manual page(Bruce)
30340 Prevent relname unallocated string length from being copied into database(Bruce)
30341 Cleanup for NAMEDATALEN use(Bruce)
30342 Fix pg_proc names over 15 chars in output(Bruce)
30343 Add strNcpy() function(Bruce)
30344 remove some (void) casts that are unnecessary(Bruce)
30345 new interfaces directory(Marc)
30346 Replace fopen() calls with calls to fd.c functions(Bruce)
30347 Make functions static where possible(Bruce)
30348 enclose unused functions in #ifdef NOT_USED(Bruce)
30349 Remove call to difftime() in timestamp support to fix SunOS(Bruce & Thomas)
30350 Changes for Digital Unix
30351 Portability fix for pg_dumpall(Bruce)
30352 Rename pg_attribute.attnvals to attdispersion(Bruce)
30353 "intro/unix" manual page now "pgintro"(Bruce)
30354 "built-in" manual page now "pgbuiltin"(Bruce)
30355 "drop" manual page now "drop_table"(Bruce)
30356 Add "create_trigger", "drop_trigger" manual pages(Thomas)
30357 Add constraints regression test(Vadim & Thomas)
30358 Add comments syntax regression test(Thomas)
30359 Add PGINDENT and support program(Bruce)
30360 Massive commit to run PGINDENT on all *.c and *.h files(Bruce)
30361 Files moved to /src/tools directory(Bruce)
30362 SPI and Trigger programming guides (Vadim & D'Arcy)
30368 <sect1 id="release-6-1-1">
30369 <title>Release 6.1.1</title>
30372 <title>Release date</title>
30373 <simpara>1997-07-22</simpara>
30377 <title>Migration from version 6.1 to version 6.1.1</title>
30380 This is a minor bug-fix release. A dump/reload is not required from version 6.1,
30381 but is required from any release prior to 6.1.
30382 Refer to the release notes for 6.1 for more details.
30387 <title>Changes</title>
30391 fix for SET with options (Thomas)
30392 allow pg_dump/pg_dumpall to preserve ownership of all tables/objects(Bruce)
30393 new psql \connect option allows changing usernames without changing databases
30394 fix for initdb --debug option(Yoshihiko Ichikawa))
30395 lextest cleanup(Bruce)
30397 fix date/time month boundary arithmetic(Thomas)
30398 fix timezone daylight handling for some ports(Thomas, Bruce, Tatsuo)
30399 timestamp overhauled to use standard functions(Thomas)
30400 other code cleanup in date/time routines(Thomas)
30401 psql's \d now case-insensitive(Bruce)
30402 psql's backslash commands can now have trailing semicolon(Bruce)
30403 fix memory leak in psql when using \g(Bruce)
30404 major fix for endian handling of communication to server(Thomas, Tatsuo)
30405 Fix for Solaris assembler and include files(Yoshihiko Ichikawa)
30406 allow underscores in usernames(Bruce)
30407 pg_dumpall now returns proper status, portability fix(Bruce)
30413 <sect1 id="release-6-1">
30414 <title>Release 6.1</title>
30417 <title>Release date</title>
30418 <simpara>1997-06-08</simpara>
30422 The regression tests have been adapted and extensively modified for the
30423 6.1 release of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
30427 Three new data types (<type>datetime</type>, <type>timespan</type>, and <type>circle</type>) have been added to
30428 the native set of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> types. Points, boxes, paths, and polygons
30429 have had their output formats made consistent across the data types.
30430 The polygon output in misc.out has only been spot-checked for correctness
30431 relative to the original regression output.
30435 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 6.1 introduces a new, alternate
30436 optimizer which uses <firstterm>genetic</firstterm>
30437 algorithms. These algorithms introduce a random behavior in the ordering
30438 of query results when the query contains multiple qualifiers or multiple
30439 tables (giving the optimizer a choice on order of evaluation). Several
30440 regression tests have been modified to explicitly order the results, and
30441 hence are insensitive to optimizer choices. A few regression tests are
30442 for data types which are inherently unordered (e.g. points and time
30443 intervals) and tests involving those types are explicitly bracketed with
30444 <command>set geqo to 'off'</command> and <command>reset geqo</command>.
30448 The interpretation of array specifiers (the curly braces around atomic
30449 values) appears to have changed sometime after the original regression
30450 tests were generated. The current <filename>./expected/*.out</filename> files reflect this
30451 new interpretation, which might not be correct!
30455 The float8 regression test fails on at least some platforms. This is due
30456 to differences in implementations of <function>pow()</function> and <function>exp()</function> and the signaling
30457 mechanisms used for overflow and underflow conditions.
30461 The <quote>random</> results in the random test should cause the
30462 <quote>random</quote> test to be <quote>failed</quote>, since the
30463 regression tests are evaluated using a simple diff. However,
30464 <quote>random</> does not seem to produce random results on my test
30465 machine (Linux/<application>gcc</>/i686).
30469 <title>Migration to Version 6.1</title>
30472 This migration requires a complete dump of the 6.0 database and a
30473 restore of the database in 6.1.
30476 Those migrating from earlier 1.* releases should first upgrade to 1.09
30477 because the COPY output format was improved from the 1.02 release.
30482 <title>Changes</title>
30488 packet length checking in library routines
30489 lock manager priority patch
30490 check for under/over flow of float8(Bruce)
30491 multitable join fix(Vadim)
30492 SIGPIPE crash fix(Darren)
30493 large object fixes(Sven)
30494 allow btree indexes to handle NULLs(Vadim)
30495 timezone fixes(D'Arcy)
30496 select SUM(x) can return NULL on no rows(Thomas)
30497 internal optimizer, executor bug fixes(Vadim)
30498 fix problem where inner loop in < or <= has no rows(Vadim)
30499 prevent re-commuting join index clauses(Vadim)
30500 fix join clauses for multiple tables(Vadim)
30501 fix hash, hashjoin for arrays(Vadim)
30502 fix btree for abstime type(Vadim)
30503 large object fixes(Raymond)
30504 fix buffer leak in hash indexes (Vadim)
30505 fix rtree for use in inner scan (Vadim)
30506 fix gist for use in inner scan, cleanups (Vadim, Andrea)
30507 avoid unnecessary local buffers allocation (Vadim, Massimo)
30508 fix local buffers leak in transaction aborts (Vadim)
30509 fix file manager memmory leaks, cleanups (Vadim, Massimo)
30510 fix storage manager memmory leaks (Vadim)
30511 fix btree duplicates handling (Vadim)
30512 fix deleted rows reincarnation caused by vacuum (Vadim)
30513 fix SELECT varchar()/char() INTO TABLE made zero-length fields(Bruce)
30514 many psql, pg_dump, and libpq memory leaks fixed using Purify (Igor)
30518 attribute optimization statistics(Bruce)
30519 much faster new btree bulk load code(Paul)
30520 BTREE UNIQUE added to bulk load code(Vadim)
30521 new lock debug code(Massimo)
30522 massive changes to libpg++(Leo)
30523 new GEQO optimizer speeds table multitable optimization(Martin)
30524 new WARN message for non-unique insert into unique key(Marc)
30525 update x=-3, no spaces, now valid(Bruce)
30526 remove case-sensitive identifier handling(Bruce,Thomas,Dan)
30527 debug backend now pretty-prints tree(Darren)
30528 new Oracle character functions(Edmund)
30529 new plaintext password functions(Dan)
30530 no such class or insufficient privilege changed to distinct messages(Dan)
30531 new ANSI timestamp function(Dan)
30532 new ANSI Time and Date types (Thomas)
30533 move large chunks of data in backend(Martin)
30534 multicolumn btree indexes(Vadim)
30535 new SET var TO value command(Martin)
30536 update transaction status on reads(Dan)
30537 new locale settings for character types(Oleg)
30538 new SEQUENCE serial number generator(Vadim)
30539 GROUP BY function now possible(Vadim)
30540 re-organize regression test(Thomas,Marc)
30541 new optimizer operation weights(Vadim)
30542 new psql \z grant/permit option(Marc)
30543 new MONEY data type(D'Arcy,Thomas)
30544 tcp socket communication speed improved(Vadim)
30545 new VACUUM option for attribute statistics, and for certain columns (Vadim)
30546 many geometric type improvements(Thomas,Keith)
30547 additional regression tests(Thomas)
30548 new datestyle variable(Thomas,Vadim,Martin)
30549 more comparison operators for sorting types(Thomas)
30550 new conversion functions(Thomas)
30551 new more compact btree format(Vadim)
30552 allow pg_dumpall to preserve database ownership(Bruce)
30553 new SET GEQO=# and R_PLANS variable(Vadim)
30554 old (!GEQO) optimizer can use right-sided plans (Vadim)
30555 typechecking improvement in SQL parser(Bruce)
30556 new SET, SHOW, RESET commands(Thomas,Vadim)
30557 new \connect database USER option
30558 new destroydb -i option (Igor)
30559 new \dt and \di psql commands (Darren)
30560 SELECT "\n" now escapes newline (A. Duursma)
30561 new geometry conversion functions from old format (Thomas)
30563 Source tree changes
30564 -------------------
30565 new configuration script(Marc)
30566 readline configuration option added(Marc)
30567 OS-specific configuration options removed(Marc)
30568 new OS-specific template files(Marc)
30569 no more need to edit Makefile.global(Marc)
30570 re-arrange include files(Marc)
30571 nextstep patches (Gregor Hoffleit)
30572 removed Windows-specific code(Bruce)
30573 removed postmaster -e option, now only postgres -e option (Bruce)
30574 merge duplicate library code in front/backends(Martin)
30575 now works with eBones, international Kerberos(Jun)
30576 more shared library support
30577 c++ include file cleanup(Bruce)
30578 warn about buggy flex(Bruce)
30579 DG/UX, Ultrix, IRIX, AIX portability fixes
30585 <sect1 id="release-6-0">
30586 <title>Release 6.0</title>
30589 <title>Release date</title>
30590 <simpara>1997-01-29</simpara>
30594 A dump/restore is required for those wishing to migrate data from
30595 previous releases of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
30599 <title>Migration from version 1.09 to version 6.0</title>
30602 This migration requires a complete dump of the 1.09 database and a
30603 restore of the database in 6.0.
30608 <title>Migration from pre-1.09 to version 6.0</title>
30611 Those migrating from earlier 1.* releases should first upgrade to 1.09
30612 because the COPY output format was improved from the 1.02 release.
30617 <title>Changes</title>
30623 ALTER TABLE bug - running postgres process needs to re-read table definition
30624 Allow vacuum to be run on one table or entire database(Bruce)
30626 Fix array over-runs of memory writes(Kurt)
30627 Fix elusive btree range/non-range bug(Dan)
30628 Fix for hash indexes on some types like time and date
30629 Fix for pg_log size explosion
30630 Fix permissions on lo_export()(Bruce)
30631 Fix uninitialized reads of memory(Kurt)
30632 Fixed ALTER TABLE ... char(3) bug(Bruce)
30633 Fixed a few small memory leaks
30634 Fixed EXPLAIN handling of options and changed full_path option name
30635 Fixed output of group acl privileges
30636 Memory leaks (hunt and destroy with tools like Purify(Kurt)
30637 Minor improvements to rules system
30639 New asserts for run-checking
30640 Overhauled parser/analyze code to properly report errors and increase speed
30641 Pg_dump -d now handles NULL's properly(Bruce)
30642 Prevent SELECT NULL from crashing server (Bruce)
30643 Properly report errors when INSERT ... SELECT columns did not match
30644 Properly report errors when insert column names were not correct
30645 psql \g filename now works(Bruce)
30646 psql fixed problem with multiple statements on one line with multiple outputs
30647 Removed duplicate system OIDs
30648 SELECT * INTO TABLE . GROUP/ORDER BY gives unlink error if table exists(Bruce)
30649 Several fixes for queries that crashed the backend
30650 Starting quote in insert string errors(Bruce)
30651 Submitting an empty query now returns empty status, not just " " query(Bruce)
30655 Add EXPLAIN manual page(Bruce)
30656 Add UNIQUE index capability(Dan)
30657 Add hostname/user level access control rather than just hostname and user
30658 Add synonym of != for <>(Bruce)
30659 Allow "select oid,* from table"
30660 Allow BY,ORDER BY to specify columns by number, or by non-alias table.column(Bruce)
30661 Allow COPY from the frontend(Bryan)
30662 Allow GROUP BY to use alias column name(Bruce)
30663 Allow actual compression, not just reuse on the same page(Vadim)
30664 Allow installation-configuration option to auto-add all local users(Bryan)
30665 Allow libpq to distinguish between text value '' and null(Bruce)
30666 Allow non-postgres users with createdb privs to destroydb's
30667 Allow restriction on who can create C functions(Bryan)
30668 Allow restriction on who can do backend COPY(Bryan)
30669 Can shrink tables, pg_time and pg_log(Vadim & Erich)
30670 Change debug level 2 to print queries only, changed debug heading layout(Bruce)
30671 Change default decimal constant representation from float4 to float8(Bruce)
30672 European date format now set when postmaster is started
30673 Execute lowercase function names if not found with exact case
30674 Fixes for aggregate/GROUP processing, allow 'select sum(func(x),sum(x+y) from z'
30675 Gist now included in the distribution(Marc)
30676 Idend authentication of local users(Bryan)
30677 Implement BETWEEN qualifier(Bruce)
30678 Implement IN qualifier(Bruce)
30679 libpq has PQgetisnull()(Bruce)
30680 libpq++ improvements
30681 New options to initdb(Bryan)
30682 Pg_dump allow dump of OIDs(Bruce)
30683 Pg_dump create indexes after tables are loaded for speed(Bruce)
30684 Pg_dumpall dumps all databases, and the user table
30685 Pginterface additions for NULL values(Bruce)
30686 Prevent postmaster from being run as root
30687 psql \h and \? is now readable(Bruce)
30688 psql allow backslashed, semicolons anywhere on the line(Bruce)
30689 psql changed command prompt for lines in query or in quotes(Bruce)
30690 psql char(3) now displays as (bp)char in \d output(Bruce)
30691 psql return code now more accurate(Bryan?)
30692 psql updated help syntax(Bruce)
30693 Re-visit and fix vacuum(Vadim)
30694 Reduce size of regression diffs, remove timezone name difference(Bruce)
30695 Remove compile-time parameters to enable binary distributions(Bryan)
30696 Reverse meaning of HBA masks(Bryan)
30697 Secure Authentication of local users(Bryan)
30698 Speed up vacuum(Vadim)
30699 Vacuum now had VERBOSE option(Bruce)
30701 Source tree changes
30702 -------------------
30703 All functions now have prototypes that are compared against the calls
30704 Allow asserts to be disabled easily from Makefile.global(Bruce)
30705 Change oid constants used in code to #define names
30706 Decoupled sparc and solaris defines(Kurt)
30707 Gcc -Wall compiles cleanly with warnings only from unfixable constructs
30708 Major include file reorganization/reduction(Marc)
30709 Make now stops on compile failure(Bryan)
30710 Makefile restructuring(Bryan, Marc)
30711 Merge bsdi_2_1 to bsdi(Bruce)
30712 Monitor program removed
30713 Name change from Postgres95 to PostgreSQL
30714 New config.h file(Marc, Bryan)
30715 PG_VERSION now set to 6.0 and used by postmaster
30716 Portability additions, including Ultrix, DG/UX, AIX, and Solaris
30717 Reduced the number of #define's, centralized #define's
30718 Remove duplicate OIDS in system tables(Dan)
30719 Remove duplicate system catalog info or report mismatches(Dan)
30720 Removed many os-specific #define's
30721 Restructured object file generation/location(Bryan, Marc)
30722 Restructured port-specific file locations(Bryan, Marc)
30723 Unused/uninitialized variables corrected
30729 <sect1 id="release-1-09">
30730 <title>Release 1.09</title>
30733 <title>Release date</title>
30734 <simpara>1996-11-04</simpara>
30738 Sorry, we didn't keep track of changes from 1.02 to 1.09. Some of
30739 the changes listed in 6.0 were actually included in the 1.02.1 to 1.09
30744 <sect1 id="release-1-02">
30745 <title>Release 1.02</title>
30748 <title>Release date</title>
30749 <simpara>1996-08-01</simpara>
30753 <title>Migration from version 1.02 to version 1.02.1</title>
30756 Here is a new migration file for 1.02.1. It includes the 'copy' change
30757 and a script to convert old <acronym>ASCII</acronym> files.
30761 The following notes are for the benefit of users who want to migrate
30762 databases from <productname>Postgres95</> 1.01 and 1.02 to <productname>Postgres95</> 1.02.1.
30765 If you are starting afresh with <productname>Postgres95</> 1.02.1 and do not need
30766 to migrate old databases, you do not need to read any further.
30771 In order to upgrade older <productname>Postgres95</> version 1.01 or 1.02 databases to
30772 version 1.02.1, the following steps are required:
30777 Start up a new 1.02.1 postmaster
30782 Add the new built-in functions and operators of 1.02.1 to 1.01 or 1.02
30783 databases. This is done by running the new 1.02.1 server against
30784 your own 1.01 or 1.02 database and applying the queries attached at
30785 the end of the file. This can be done easily through <command>psql</>. If your
30786 1.01 or 1.02 database is named <literal>testdb</literal> and you have cut the commands
30787 from the end of this file and saved them in <filename>addfunc.sql</filename>:
30789 % psql testdb -f addfunc.sql
30792 Those upgrading 1.02 databases will get a warning when executing the
30793 last two statements in the file because they are already present in 1.02. This is
30794 not a cause for concern.
30801 <title>Dump/Reload Procedure</title>
30804 If you are trying to reload a pg_dump or text-mode, <literal>copy tablename to
30805 stdout</literal> generated with a previous version, you will need to run the
30806 attached <command>sed</command> script on the ASCII file before loading it into the
30807 database. The old format used '.' as end-of-data, while '\.' is now the
30808 end-of-data marker. Also, empty strings are now loaded in as '' rather
30809 than NULL. See the copy manual page for full details.
30812 sed 's/^\.$/\\./g' <in_file >out_file
30816 If you are loading an older binary copy or non-<systemitem>stdout</> copy, there is no
30817 end-of-data character, and hence no conversion necessary.
30820 -- following lines added by agc to reflect the case-insensitive
30821 -- regexp searching for varchar (in 1.02), and bpchar (in 1.02.1)
30822 create operator ~* (leftarg = bpchar, rightarg = text, procedure = texticregexeq);
30823 create operator !~* (leftarg = bpchar, rightarg = text, procedure = texticregexne);
30824 create operator ~* (leftarg = varchar, rightarg = text, procedure = texticregexeq);
30825 create operator !~* (leftarg = varchar, rightarg = text, procedure = texticregexne);
30831 <title>Changes</title>
30835 Source code maintenance and development
30836 * worldwide team of volunteers
30837 * the source tree now in CVS at ftp.ki.net
30840 * psql (and underlying libpq library) now has many more options for
30841 formatting output, including HTML
30842 * pg_dump now output the schema and/or the data, with many fixes to
30843 enhance completeness.
30844 * psql used in place of monitor in administration shell scripts.
30845 monitor to be deprecated in next release.
30846 * date/time functions enhanced
30847 * NULL insert/update/comparison fixed/enhanced
30848 * TCL/TK lib and shell fixed to work with both tck7.4/tk4.0 and tcl7.5/tk4.1
30850 Bug Fixes (almost too numerous to mention)
30852 * storage management
30853 * check for NULL pointer before dereferencing
30857 * added SolarisX86 port
30858 * added BSD/OS 2.1 port
30863 Contributors (apologies to any missed)
30864 * Kurt J. Lidl <lidl@va.pubnix.com>
30865 (missed in first run, but no less important)
30866 * Erich Stamberger <eberger@gewi.kfunigraz.ac.at>
30867 * Jason Wright <jason@shiloh.vnet.net>
30868 * Cees de Groot <C.deGroot@inter.NL.net>
30869 * ernst.molitor@uni-bonn.de
30870 * michael.siebenborn@ae3.Hypo.DE (Michael Siebenborn (6929))
30871 * Brian E. Gallew <geek+@cmu.edu>
30872 * Vadim B. Mikheev <vadim@sable.krasnoyarsk.su>
30873 * Adam Sussman <myddryn@vidya.com>
30874 * Chris Dunlop <chris@onthe.net.au>
30875 * Marc G. Fournier <scrappy@ki.net>
30876 * Dan McGuirk <mcguirk@indirect.com>
30877 * Dr_George_D_Detlefsen <drgeorge@ilt.com>
30878 * Erich Stamberger <eberger@gewi.kfunigraz.ac.at>
30879 * Massimo Dal Zotto <dz@cs.unitn.it>
30880 * Randy Kunkee <kunkee@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM>
30881 * Rick Weldon <rick@wisetech.com>
30882 * Thomas van Reimersdahl <reimersd@dali.techinfo.rwth-aachen.de>
30883 * david bennett <dave@bensoft.com>
30884 * ernst.molitor@uni-bonn.de
30885 * Julian Assange <proff@suburbia.net>
30886 * Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
30887 * Paul "Shag" Walmsley <ccshag@cclabs.missouri.edu>
30888 * "Alistair G. Crooks" <azcb0@sde.uts.amdahl.com>
30893 <sect1 id="release-1-01">
30894 <title>Release 1.01</title>
30897 <title>Release date</title>
30898 <simpara>1996-02-23</simpara>
30903 <title>Migration from version 1.0 to version 1.01</title>
30906 The following notes are for the benefit of users who want to migrate
30907 databases from <productname>Postgres95</> 1.0 to <productname>Postgres95</> 1.01.
30910 If you are starting afresh with <productname>Postgres95</> 1.01 and do not need
30911 to migrate old databases, you do not need to read any further.
30914 In order to <productname>Postgres95</> version 1.01 with databases created with
30915 <productname>Postgres95</> version 1.0, the following steps are required:
30920 Set the definition of <symbol>NAMEDATALEN</symbol> in <filename>src/Makefile.global</filename> to 16
30921 and <symbol>OIDNAMELEN</symbol> to 20.
30926 Decide whether you want to use Host based authentication.
30931 If you do, you must create a file name <literal>pg_hba</literal> in your top-level data
30932 directory (typically the value of your <envar>$PGDATA</envar>). <filename>src/libpq/pg_hba</filename>
30933 shows an example syntax.
30938 If you do not want host-based authentication, you can comment out
30943 in <filename>src/Makefile.global</filename>
30946 Note that host-based authentication is turned on by default, and if
30947 you do not take steps A or B above, the out-of-the-box 1.01 will
30948 not allow you to connect to 1.0 databases.
30956 Compile and install 1.01, but DO NOT do the <command>initdb</command> step.
30961 Before doing anything else, terminate your 1.0 postmaster, and
30962 backup your existing <envar>$PGDATA</envar> directory.
30967 Set your <envar>PGDATA</envar> environment variable to your 1.0 databases, but set up
30968 path up so that 1.01 binaries are being used.
30973 Modify the file <filename><envar>$PGDATA</envar>/PG_VERSION</filename> from 5.0 to 5.1
30978 Start up a new 1.01 postmaster
30983 Add the new built-in functions and operators of 1.01 to 1.0
30984 databases. This is done by running the new 1.01 server against
30985 your own 1.0 database and applying the queries attached and saving
30986 in the file 1.0_to_1.01.sql. This can be done easily through <command>psql</command>.
30987 If your 1.0 database is name <literal>testdb</literal>:
30990 % psql testdb -f 1.0_to_1.01.sql
30993 and then execute the following commands (cut and paste from here):
30996 -- add builtin functions that are new to 1.01
30998 create function int4eqoid (int4, oid) returns bool as 'foo'
30999 language 'internal';
31000 create function oideqint4 (oid, int4) returns bool as 'foo'
31001 language 'internal';
31002 create function char2icregexeq (char2, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31003 language 'internal';
31004 create function char2icregexne (char2, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31005 language 'internal';
31006 create function char4icregexeq (char4, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31007 language 'internal';
31008 create function char4icregexne (char4, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31009 language 'internal';
31010 create function char8icregexeq (char8, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31011 language 'internal';
31012 create function char8icregexne (char8, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31013 language 'internal';
31014 create function char16icregexeq (char16, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31015 language 'internal';
31016 create function char16icregexne (char16, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31017 language 'internal';
31018 create function texticregexeq (text, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31019 language 'internal';
31020 create function texticregexne (text, text) returns bool as 'foo'
31021 language 'internal';
31023 -- add builtin functions that are new to 1.01
31025 create operator = (leftarg = int4, rightarg = oid, procedure = int4eqoid);
31026 create operator = (leftarg = oid, rightarg = int4, procedure = oideqint4);
31027 create operator ~* (leftarg = char2, rightarg = text, procedure = char2icregexeq);
31028 create operator !~* (leftarg = char2, rightarg = text, procedure = char2icregexne);
31029 create operator ~* (leftarg = char4, rightarg = text, procedure = char4icregexeq);
31030 create operator !~* (leftarg = char4, rightarg = text, procedure = char4icregexne);
31031 create operator ~* (leftarg = char8, rightarg = text, procedure = char8icregexeq);
31032 create operator !~* (leftarg = char8, rightarg = text, procedure = char8icregexne);
31033 create operator ~* (leftarg = char16, rightarg = text, procedure = char16icregexeq);
31034 create operator !~* (leftarg = char16, rightarg = text, procedure = char16icregexne);
31035 create operator ~* (leftarg = text, rightarg = text, procedure = texticregexeq);
31036 create operator !~* (leftarg = text, rightarg = text, procedure = texticregexne);
31044 <title>Changes</title>
31049 * 1.01 is backwards compatible with 1.0 database provided the user
31050 follow the steps outlined in the MIGRATION_from_1.0_to_1.01 file.
31051 If those steps are not taken, 1.01 is not compatible with 1.0 database.
31054 * added PQdisplayTuples() to libpq and changed monitor and psql to use it
31055 * added NeXT port (requires SysVIPC implementation)
31056 * added CAST .. AS ... syntax
31057 * added ASC and DESC key words
31058 * added 'internal' as a possible language for CREATE FUNCTION
31059 internal functions are C functions which have been statically linked
31060 into the postgres backend.
31061 * a new type "name" has been added for system identifiers (table names,
31062 attribute names, etc.) This replaces the old char16 type. The
31063 of name is set by the NAMEDATALEN #define in src/Makefile.global
31064 * a readable reference manual that describes the query language.
31065 * added host-based access control. A configuration file ($PGDATA/pg_hba)
31066 is used to hold the configuration data. If host-based access control
31067 is not desired, comment out HBA=1 in src/Makefile.global.
31068 * changed regex handling to be uniform use of Henry Spencer's regex code
31069 regardless of platform. The regex code is included in the distribution
31070 * added functions and operators for case-insensitive regular expressions.
31071 The operators are ~* and !~*.
31072 * pg_dump uses COPY instead of SELECT loop for better performance
31075 * fixed an optimizer bug that was causing core dumps when
31076 functions calls were used in comparisons in the WHERE clause
31077 * changed all uses of getuid to geteuid so that effective uids are used
31078 * psql now returns non-zero status on errors when using -c
31079 * applied public patches 1-14
31085 <sect1 id="release-1-0">
31086 <title>Release 1.0</title>
31089 <title>Release date</title>
31090 <simpara>1995-09-05</simpara>
31094 <title>Changes</title>
31099 * The copyright of <productname>Postgres</productname> 1.0 has been loosened to be freely modifiable
31100 and modifiable for any purpose. Please read the COPYRIGHT file.
31101 Thanks to Professor Michael Stonebraker for making this possible.
31104 * date formats have to be MM-DD-YYYY (or DD-MM-YYYY if you're using
31105 EUROPEAN STYLE). This follows SQL-92 specs.
31106 * "delimiters" is now a key word
31109 * sql LIKE syntax has been added
31110 * copy command now takes an optional USING DELIMITER specification.
31111 delimiters can be any single-character string.
31112 * IRIX 5.3 port has been added.
31113 Thanks to Paul Walmsley and others.
31114 * updated pg_dump to work with new libpq
31115 * \d has been added psql
31116 Thanks to Keith Parks
31117 * regexp performance for architectures that use POSIX regex has been
31118 improved due to caching of precompiled patterns.
31119 Thanks to Alistair Crooks
31120 * a new version of libpq++
31121 Thanks to William Wanders
31124 * arbitrary userids can be specified in the createuser script
31125 * \c to connect to other databases in psql now works.
31126 * bad pg_proc entry for float4inc() is fixed
31127 * users with usecreatedb field set can now create databases without
31128 having to be usesuper
31129 * remove access control entries when the entry no longer has any
31131 * fixed non-portable datetimes implementation
31132 * added kerberos flags to the src/backend/Makefile
31133 * libpq now works with kerberos
31134 * typographic errors in the user manual have been corrected.
31135 * btrees with multiple index never worked, now we tell you they don't
31136 work when you try to use them
31142 <sect1 id="release-0-03">
31143 <title><productname>Postgres95</productname> Release 0.03</title>
31146 <title>Release date</title>
31147 <simpara>1995-07-21</simpara>
31151 <title>Changes</title>
31154 Incompatible changes:
31155 * BETA-0.3 IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH DATABASES CREATED WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS
31156 (due to system catalog changes and indexing structure changes).
31157 * double-quote (") is deprecated as a quoting character for string literals;
31158 you need to convert them to single quotes ('). <!-- " -->
31159 * name of aggregates (eg. int4sum) are renamed in accordance with the
31160 SQL standard (eg. sum).
31161 * CHANGE ACL syntax is replaced by GRANT/REVOKE syntax.
31162 * float literals (eg. 3.14) are now of type float4 (instead of float8 in
31163 previous releases); you might have to do typecasting if you depend on it
31164 being of type float8. If you neglect to do the typecasting and you assign
31165 a float literal to a field of type float8, you might get incorrect values
31167 * LIBPQ has been totally revamped so that frontend applications
31168 can connect to multiple backends
31169 * the usesysid field in pg_user has been changed from int2 to int4 to
31170 allow wider range of Unix user ids.
31171 * the netbsd/freebsd/bsd o/s ports have been consolidated into a
31172 single BSD44_derived port. (thanks to Alistair Crooks)
31174 SQL standard-compliance (the following details changes that makes postgres95
31175 more compliant to the SQL-92 standard):
31176 * the following SQL types are now built-in: smallint, int(eger), float, real,
31177 char(N), varchar(N), date and time.
31179 The following are aliases to existing postgres types:
31180 smallint -> int2
31181 integer, int -> int4
31182 float, real -> float4
31183 char(N) and varchar(N) are implemented as truncated text types. In
31184 addition, char(N) does blank-padding.
31185 * single-quote (') is used for quoting string literals; '' (in addition to
31186 \') is supported as means of inserting a single quote in a string
31187 * SQL standard aggregate names (MAX, MIN, AVG, SUM, COUNT) are used
31188 (Also, aggregates can now be overloaded, i.e. you can define your
31189 own MAX aggregate to take in a user-defined type.)
31190 * CHANGE ACL removed. GRANT/REVOKE syntax added.
31191 - Privileges can be given to a group using the "GROUP" key word.
31193 GRANT SELECT ON foobar TO GROUP my_group;
31194 The key word 'PUBLIC' is also supported to mean all users.
31196 Privileges can only be granted or revoked to one user or group
31199 "WITH GRANT OPTION" is not supported. Only class owners can change
31201 - The default access control is to grant users readonly access.
31202 You must explicitly grant insert/update access to users. To change
31203 this, modify the line in
31204 src/backend/utils/acl.h
31205 that defines ACL_WORLD_DEFAULT
31208 * the bug where aggregates of empty tables were not run has been fixed. Now,
31209 aggregates run on empty tables will return the initial conditions of the
31210 aggregates. Thus, COUNT of an empty table will now properly return 0.
31211 MAX/MIN of an empty table will return a row of value NULL.
31212 * allow the use of \; inside the monitor
31213 * the LISTEN/NOTIFY asynchronous notification mechanism now work
31214 * NOTIFY in rule action bodies now work
31215 * hash indexes work, and access methods in general should perform better.
31216 creation of large btree indexes should be much faster. (thanks to Paul
31219 Other changes and enhancements:
31220 * addition of an EXPLAIN statement used for explaining the query execution
31221 plan (eg. "EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM EMP" prints out the execution plan for
31223 * WARN and NOTICE messages no longer have timestamps on them. To turn on
31224 timestamps of error messages, uncomment the line in
31225 src/backend/utils/elog.h:
31226 /* define ELOG_TIMESTAMPS */
31227 * On an access control violation, the message
31228 "Either no such class or insufficient privilege"
31229 will be given. This is the same message that is returned when
31230 a class is not found. This dissuades non-privileged users from
31231 guessing the existence of privileged classes.
31232 * some additional system catalog changes have been made that are not
31233 visible to the user.
31236 * The -oid option has been added to the "pg_result" tcl command.
31237 pg_result -oid returns oid of the last row inserted. If the
31238 last command was not an INSERT, then pg_result -oid returns "".
31239 * the large object interface is available as pg_lo* tcl commands:
31240 pg_lo_open, pg_lo_close, pg_lo_creat, etc.
31242 Portability enhancements and New Ports:
31243 * flex/lex problems have been cleared up. Now, you should be able to use
31244 flex instead of lex on any platforms. We no longer make assumptions of
31245 what lexer you use based on the platform you use.
31246 * The Linux-ELF port is now supported. Various configuration have been
31247 tested: The following configuration is known to work:
31248 kernel 1.2.10, gcc 2.6.3, libc 4.7.2, flex 2.5.2, bison 1.24
31249 with everything in ELF format,
31252 * ipcclean added to the distribution
31253 ipcclean usually does not need to be run, but if your backend crashes
31254 and leaves shared memory segments hanging around, ipcclean will
31255 clean them up for you.
31258 * the user manual has been revised and libpq documentation added.
31264 <sect1 id="release-0-02">
31265 <title><productname>Postgres95</productname> Release 0.02</title>
31268 <title>Release date</title>
31269 <simpara>1995-05-25</simpara>
31273 <title>Changes</title>
31277 Incompatible changes:
31278 * The SQL statement for creating a database is 'CREATE DATABASE' instead
31279 of 'CREATEDB'. Similarly, dropping a database is 'DROP DATABASE' instead
31280 of 'DESTROYDB'. However, the names of the executables 'createdb' and
31281 'destroydb' remain the same.
31284 * pgperl - a Perl (4.036) interface to Postgres95
31285 * pg_dump - a utility for dumping out a postgres database into a
31286 script file containing query commands. The script files are in a ASCII
31287 format and can be used to reconstruct the database, even on other
31288 machines and other architectures. (Also good for converting
31289 a Postgres 4.2 database to Postgres95 database.)
31291 The following ports have been incorporated into postgres95-beta-0.02:
31292 * the NetBSD port by Alistair Crooks
31293 * the AIX port by Mike Tung
31294 * the Windows NT port by Jon Forrest (more stuff but not done yet)
31295 * the Linux ELF port by Brian Gallew
31297 The following bugs have been fixed in postgres95-beta-0.02:
31298 * new lines not escaped in COPY OUT and problem with COPY OUT when first
31300 * cannot type return to use the default user id in createuser
31301 * SELECT DISTINCT on big tables crashes
31302 * Linux installation problems
31303 * monitor doesn't allow use of 'localhost' as PGHOST
31304 * psql core dumps when doing \c or \l
31305 * the "pgtclsh" target missing from src/bin/pgtclsh/Makefile
31306 * libpgtcl has a hard-wired default port number
31307 * SELECT DISTINCT INTO TABLE hangs
31308 * CREATE TYPE doesn't accept 'variable' as the internallength
31309 * wrong result using more than 1 aggregate in a SELECT
31315 <sect1 id="release-0-01">
31316 <title><productname>Postgres95</productname> Release 0.01</title>
31319 <title>Release date</title>
31320 <simpara>1995-05-01</simpara>
31329 <sect1 id="timing-results">
31330 <title>Timing Results</title>
31333 These timing results are from running the regression test with the commands
31336 % cd src/test/regress
31338 % time make runtest
31342 Timing under Linux 2.0.27 seems to have a roughly 5% variation from run
31343 to run, presumably due to the scheduling vagaries of multitasking systems.
31347 <title>Version 6.5</title>
31350 As has been the case for previous releases, timing between
31351 releases is not directly comparable since new regression tests
31352 have been added. In general, 6.5 is faster than previous
31357 Timing with <function>fsync()</function> disabled:
31361 02:00 Dual Pentium Pro 180, 224MB, UW-SCSI, Linux 2.0.36, gcc 2.7.2.3 -O2 -m486
31362 04:38 Sparc Ultra 1 143MHz, 64MB, Solaris 2.6
31367 Timing with <function>fsync()</function> enabled:
31371 04:21 Dual Pentium Pro 180, 224MB, UW-SCSI, Linux 2.0.36, gcc 2.7.2.3 -O2 -m486
31374 For the <systemitem class="osname">Linux</systemitem> system above, using <acronym>UW-SCSI</acronym> disks rather than (older) <acronym>IDE</acronym>
31375 disks leads to a 50% improvement in speed on the regression test.
31380 <title>Version 6.4beta</title>
31383 The times for this release are not directly comparable to those for previous releases
31384 since some additional regression tests have been included.
31385 In general, however, 6.4 should be slightly faster than the previous release (thanks, Bruce!).
31390 02:26 Dual Pentium Pro 180, 96MB, UW-SCSI, Linux 2.0.30, gcc 2.7.2.1 -O2 -m486
31396 <title>Version 6.3</title>
31399 The times for this release are not directly comparable to those for previous releases
31400 since some additional regression tests have been included and some obsolete tests involving
31401 time travel have been removed.
31402 In general, however, 6.3 is substantially faster than previous releases (thanks, Bruce!).
31407 02:30 Dual Pentium Pro 180, 96MB, UW-SCSI, Linux 2.0.30, gcc 2.7.2.1 -O2 -m486
31408 04:12 Dual Pentium Pro 180, 96MB, EIDE, Linux 2.0.30, gcc 2.7.2.1 -O2 -m486
31414 <title>Version 6.1</title>
31419 06:12 Pentium Pro 180, 32MB, EIDE, Linux 2.0.30, gcc 2.7.2 -O2 -m486
31420 12:06 P-100, 48MB, Linux 2.0.29, gcc
31421 39:58 Sparc IPC 32MB, Solaris 2.5, gcc 2.7.2.1 -O -g
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