-<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.513 2007/10/04 07:53:07 neilc Exp $ -->
+<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.514 2007/10/04 22:55:49 tgl Exp $ -->
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Typical markup:
<listitem>
<para>
- ORDER BY ... NULLS FIRST/LAST
+ <literal>ORDER BY ... NULLS FIRST/LAST</>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Updatable cursors
+ (<literal>UPDATE/DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF</>
+ <replaceable>cursor_name</>)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- "Distributed" checkpoints to spread out the I/O load of a checkpoint
+ <quote>Distributed</> checkpoints to spread out the I/O load of a
+ checkpoint
</para>
</listitem>
<para>
<literal>ORDER BY ... USING</> <replaceable>operator</>
will now be rejected if the <replaceable>operator</> is not a
- less-than or greater-than member of some btree opclass
+ less-than or greater-than member of some btree operator class
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
- In 8.0 through 8.2, SET LOCAL's
+ In 8.0 through 8.2, <command>SET LOCAL</command>'s
effects disappeared at subtransaction commit, leading to behavior
that made little sense at the SQL level (one would not normally
expect <command>RELEASE</> to do such a thing).
</para>
<para>
- For example, "BEGIN; DROP DATABASE; COMMIT" will now be rejected
- even if submitted as a single Query message. This was always quite
- unsafe, but the <function>PreventTransactionChain</function>
+ For example, <literal>BEGIN; DROP DATABASE; COMMIT</> will now be
+ rejected even if submitted as a single Query message. This was always
+ quite unsafe, but the <function>PreventTransactionChain</function>
test failed to detect it.
</para>
</listitem>
<para>
Strings that are not in the database's native encoding are now
- represented as type bytea rather than type text.
+ represented as type <type>bytea</> rather than type <type>text</>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Implement "distributed" checkpoints (Itagaki Takahiro and Heikki
- Linnakangas)
+ Implement <quote>distributed</> checkpoints (Itagaki Takahiro and
+ Heikki Linnakangas)
</para>
<para>
<para>
When we update a tuple without changing any of its indexed columns,
- and the new version can be stored on the same heap page, we no
- longer generate extra index entries for the new version. Instead,
- index searches follow the HOT-chain links to ensure they find the
- correct tuple version. In addition, this patch introduces the
- ability to "prune" dead tuples on a per-page basis, without having
+ and the new version can be stored on the same heap page, we no longer
+ generate extra index entries for the new version. Instead, index
+ searches follow the HOT-chain links to ensure they find the correct
+ tuple version. In addition, this patch introduces the ability to
+ <quote>prune</quote> dead tuples on a per-page basis, without having
to do a complete <command>VACUUM</command> pass to recover space.
<command>VACUUM</command> is still needed to clean up dead index
entries, however.
read-only transactions, this should improve performance noticeably;
not so much from removal of the actual XID-assignments, as from
reduction of overhead that's driven by the rate of XID consumption.
- We add a concept of a "virtual transaction ID" so that active
+ We add a concept of a <quote>virtual transaction ID</> so that active
transactions can be uniquely identified even if they don't have a
regular XID. This is a much lighter-weight concept: uniqueness of
VXIDs is only guaranteed over the short term, and no on-disk record
<listitem>
<para>
- Create a dedicated "wal writer" process to offload WAL-writing work
- from backends (Simon)
+ Create a dedicated <quote>wal writer</quote> process to offload
+ WAL-writing work from backends (Simon)
</para>
<para>
Large sequential scans now synchronize with each other, so that when
multiple backends are scanning the same relation concurrently, each
page is (ideally) read only once. Note that a backend joining such
- a scan starts in the middle of the relation and "wraps around" to
- cover all blocks; this may affect the order in which rows are
- returned.
+ a scan starts in the middle of the relation and <quote>wraps
+ around</quote> to cover all blocks; this may affect the order in which
+ rows are returned.
</para>
</listitem>
<para>
This change uses a Materialize node between the mergejoin and the
- sort to prevent the sort from having to "back up", which allows a
- more efficient sort. The Materialize node keeps a circular
+ sort to prevent the sort from having to <quote>back up</>, which
+ allows a more efficient sort. The Materialize node keeps a circular
buffer of only the prior tuples that the mergejoin may actually
need again, so it usually won't need to spill to disk, resulting
in net I/O savings.
<listitem>
<para>
- Add ssl_ciphers parameter to control allowed ciphers (Victor Wagner)
+ Add <varname>ssl_ciphers</> parameter to control allowed ciphers
+ (Victor Wagner)
</para>
</listitem>
This avoids Windows-specific problems with localized time zone names
that are in the wrong encoding. There is a new
<varname>log_timezone</> parameter that controls the timezone used
- in log messages, separately from the client-visible timezone
- parameter.
+ in log messages, separately from the client-visible
+ <varname>timezone</> parameter.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Merge <varname>stats_block_level</> and <varname>stats_row_level</>
- parameters into a single parameter track_counts, which controls all
- reports sent to the collector process (Tom)
+ parameters into a single parameter <varname>track_counts</>,
+ which controls all reports sent to the collector process (Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Arrange to put TOAST tables belonging to temporary tables into
- special schemas named pg_toast_temp_nnn (Tom)
+ special schemas named
+ <literal>pg_toast_temp_<replaceable>nnn</></literal> (Tom)
</para>
<para>
<listitem>
<para>
- Support UPDATE/DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF cursor_name (Arul Shaji, Tom)
+ Support <literal>UPDATE/DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF</>
+ <replaceable>cursor_name</>
+ (Arul Shaji, Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
<para>
There is now a sound semantic basis for the equality checks applied
by foreign-key constraints; formerly the system tended to assume
- that any operator named "=" was the right thing. The equality
+ that any operator named <literal>=</> was the right thing. The equality
operators will now be selected from the opfamily of the unique index
that the FK constraint depends on to enforce uniqueness of the
referenced columns; therefore they are certain to be consistent with
the problem noted awhile back that pg_dump may fail for foreign-key
constraints on user-defined types when the required operators aren't
in the search path. This also means that the former warning
- condition about "foreign key constraint will require costly
- sequential scans" is gone: if the comparison condition isn't
+ condition about <quote>foreign key constraint will require costly
+ sequential scans</quote> is gone: if the comparison condition isn't
indexable then we'll reject the constraint entirely.
</para>
</listitem>
<para>
A database owner is now allowed to create a language in his database
- if it's marked "tmpldbacreate" in pg_pltemplate. The factory
- default is that this is set for all standard trusted languages, but
- of course a superuser may adjust the settings. In service of this,
- add the long-foreseen owner column to pg_language; renaming,
- dropping, and altering owner of a PL now follow normal ownership
- rules instead of being superuser-only.
+ if it's marked <structfield>tmpldbacreate</> in
+ <structname>pg_pltemplate</>. The factory default is that this is set
+ for all standard trusted languages, but of course a superuser may
+ adjust the settings. In service of this, add the long-foreseen owner
+ column to <structname>pg_language</>; renaming, dropping, and altering
+ owner of a PL now follow normal ownership rules instead of being
+ superuser-only.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Arrange for SET LOCAL's effects to persist until the end of the
- current top transaction, unless rolled back or overridden by a SET
- clause for the same variable attached to a surrounding function call
- (Tom)
+ Arrange for <command>SET LOCAL</command>'s effects to persist until
+ the end of the current top transaction, unless rolled back or
+ overridden by a SET clause for the same variable attached to a
+ surrounding function call (Tom)
</para>
<para>
- This is an incompatible change: in 8.0 through 8.2, SET LOCAL's
- effects disappeared at subtransaction commit (leading to behavior
- that made little sense at the SQL level).
+ This is an incompatible change: in 8.0 through 8.2, <command>SET
+ LOCAL</command>'s effects disappeared at subtransaction commit
+ (leading to behavior that made little sense at the SQL level).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Support <literal>SET FROM CURRENT</literal> in <command>CREATE/ALTER
- FUNCTION</command>, <command>ALTER DATABASE</command>,
+ Support <literal>SET ... FROM CURRENT</literal> in
+ <command>CREATE/ALTER FUNCTION</command>, <command>ALTER DATABASE</command>,
<command>ALTER ROLE</command> (Tom)
</para>
<listitem>
<para>
Support new syntax for <command>CLUSTER</command>: <literal>CLUSTER
- <replaceable>table</> USING <replaceable>index</></literal> (Holger Schurig)
+ <replaceable>table</> USING <replaceable>index</></literal>
+ (Holger Schurig)
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
- This fix banishes the old hack of showing <quote>?columnN?</quote>
+ This fix banishes the old hack of showing
+ <literal>?column<replaceable>N</>?</literal>
when things got too complicated.
</para>
</listitem>
</para>
<para>
- For example, "BEGIN; DROP DATABASE; COMMIT" will now be rejected
- even if submitted as a single Query message. This is a potential
- incompatibility since some clients expected such strings to work;
- but it was always unsafe.
+ For example, <literal>BEGIN; DROP DATABASE; COMMIT</> will now be
+ rejected even if submitted as a single Query message. This is a
+ potential incompatibility since some clients expected such strings to
+ work; but it was always unsafe.
</para>
</listitem>
</para>
<para>
- Formerly, these commands accepted "schema.relation" but then ignored
- the schema part, leading to confusion.
+ Formerly, these commands accepted <quote>schema.relation</> but then
+ ignored the schema part, leading to confusion.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Add "isodow" option to EXTRACT() and date_part() (Bruce)
+ Add <literal>isodow</> option to <function>EXTRACT()</> and
+ <function>date_part()</> (Bruce)
</para>
<para>
<listitem>
<para>
Make <function>to_timestamp()</> and <function>to_date()</> assume
- "TM" for potentially variable-width fields (Bruce)
+ <quote>TM</quote> for potentially variable-width fields (Bruce)
</para>
<para>
The two argument form of <function>convert()</function> is gone, and
the three argument form now takes a <type>bytea</type> first
argument and returns a <type>bytea</type>. To cover this loss three
- new functions are introduced: . convert_from(bytea, name) returns
- text - converts the first argument from the named encoding to the
- database encoding . convert_to(text, name) returns bytea - converts
- the first argument from the database encoding to the named encoding
- . length(bytea, name) returns int - gives the length of the first
- argument in characters in the named encoding.
+ new functions are introduced:
</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <function>convert_from(bytea, name)</function> returning
+ <type>text</> — converts the first argument from the named
+ encoding to the database encoding.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <function>convert_to(text, name)</function> returning <type>bytea</>
+ — converts the first argument from the database encoding to
+ the named encoding.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <function>length(bytea, name)</function> returning <type>int</>
+ — gives the length of the first argument in characters in the
+ named encoding.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Support scrollable cursors (ie, add a "direction" clause in
+ Support scrollable cursors (ie, add a direction clause in
<command>FETCH</command>) in PL/PgSQL (Pavel Stehule)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- List disabled triggers separately in "\d" output
+ List disabled triggers separately in <literal>\d</literal> output
(Brendan Jurd)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Identify schema of inherited table in "\d" output (Bernd Helmle)
+ Identify schema of inherited table in <literal>\d</literal> output
+ (Bernd Helmle)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Show aggregate return types in "\da" output (Greg Sabino Mullane)
+ Show aggregate return types in <literal>\da</literal> output
+ (Greg Sabino Mullane)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Flush the \o file, if any, after each backslash command (Tom)
+ Flush the <literal>\o</> file, if any, after each backslash command
+ (Tom)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Allow pg_dumpall to accept an initial-connection database name
- rather than the default "template1" (Dave Page)
+ rather than the default <literal>template1</literal> (Dave Page)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Clean up SPI's API a little bit by declaring SPI plan pointers as
- "SPIPlanPtr" instead of "void *" (Tom)
+ <literal>SPIPlanPtr</> instead of <literal>void *</> (Tom)
</para>
<para>
<listitem>
<para>
- Support "gmake draft" in doc/src/sgml/Makefile (Bruce)
+ Support <literal>gmake draft</literal> in doc/src/sgml/Makefile (Bruce)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Create a function variable "join_search_hook" to let plugins
+ Create a function variable <literal>join_search_hook</> to let plugins
override the join search order portion of the planner (Julius
Stroffek)
</para>
projects / postgresql / blobdiff