TODO list for PostgreSQL
========================
-Last updated: Thu May 10 13:29:36 EDT 2001
+Last updated: Thu May 10 16:26:24 EDT 2001
Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (pgman@candle.pha.pa.us)
* Remove unused files during database vacuum or postmaster startup
* Add table name mapping for numeric file names
* Overhaul pg_hba.conf host-based authentication
+* Incremental backups
TYPES
* Add domain capability
* Add IPv6 capability to INET/CIDR types
* Add conversion function from text to inet
-* Make a separate SERIAL type?
* Store binary-compatible type information in the system
* Allow nulls in arrays
* Allow arrays to be ORDER'ed
[inheritance]
* Prevent pg_attribute from having duplicate oids for indexes (Tom)
* Add UNIQUE capability to non-btree indexes
-* Certain indexes will not shrink, i.e. oid indexes with many inserts (Vadim)
+* Certain indexes will not shrink, e.g. oid indexes with many inserts (Vadim)
* Have UPDATE/DELETE clean out indexes
* Add btree index support for reltime, tinterval, regproc
* Add rtree index support for line, lseg, path, point
+* Use indexes for min() and max()
+* Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with
+ non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses
+* Allow SELECT * FROM tab WHERE int2col = 4 use int2col index, int8,
+ float4, numeric/decimal too [optimizer]
+* Use indexes with CIDR '<<' (contains) operator
+* Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales
+* Be smarter about insertion of already-ordered data into btree index
+* Gather more accurate dispersion statistics using indexes
+* Add deleted bit to index tuples to reduce heap access
+* Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modifying column
+* System Tables
+ * Add unique indexes to pg_shadow.usename and pg_shadow.usesysid or
+ switch to pg_shadow.oid as user id
+ * Add unique indexes on pg_database
+ * Check all system tables and add unique indexes as needed
+ * Remove pg_listener index
+ * Remove unused pg_variable, pg_inheritproc, pg_ipl tables
COMMANDS
-* ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN to inherited table put column in wrong place
- [inheritance]
-* Add ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN feature [drop]
-* Add ALTER FUNCTION
-* Add ALTER TABLE ... DROP CONSTRAINT
-* Automatically drop constraints/functions when object is dropped
+* ALTER
+ * ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN to inherited table put column in wrong place
+ [inheritance]
+ * Add ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN feature [drop]
+ * Add ALTER FUNCTION
+ * Add ALTER TABLE DROP CONSTRAINT
* CLUSTER
* cluster all tables at once
* prevent lose of indexes, permissions, inheritance
* Automatically keep clustering on a table
* Keep statistics about clustering, perhaps during VACUUM ANALYZE
[optimizer]
+* COPY
+ * Update reltuples in COPY
+ * Allow specification of column names
+ * Allow dump/load of CSV format
+* CURSOR
+ * Allow BINARY option to SELECT, like we do with DECLARE
+ * MOVE 0 should not move to end of cursor
+ * Allow cursors to be DECLAREd/OPENed/CLOSEed outside transactions
+ * Allow DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF cursor
+* INSERT
+ * Allow INSERT/UPDATE of system-generated oid value for a row
+ * Allow INSERT INTO tab (col1, ..) VALUES (val1, ..), (val2, ..)
+ * Allow INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (a, b, c, DEFAULT, x, y, z, ...)
+ * Disallow missing columns in INSERT ... VALUES, per ANSI
+ * Allow INSERT/UPDATE ... RETURNING new.col or old.col (Philip)
* Add SIMILAR TO to allow character classes, 'pg_[a-c]%'
-* Auto-destroy sequence on DROP of table with SERIAL (Ryan)
+* Auto-destroy sequence on DROP of table with SERIAL, perhaps with a separate
+ SERIAL type
* Allow LOCK TABLE tab1, tab2, tab3 so all tables locked in unison [lock]
-* Allow INSERT/UPDATE of system-generated oid value for a row
-* Allow INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (a, b, c, DEFAULT, x, y, z, ...)
-* Allow INSERT INTO tab (col1, ..) VALUES (val1, ..), (val2, ..)
* Allow RULE recompilation
-* Allow BINARY option to SELECT, like we do with DECLARE
-* MOVE 0 should not move to end of cursor
-* Add SHOW command to display locks
-* Bring INSERT ... VALUES up to full SQL92 spec, disallow missing
- columns, allow DEFAULT
-* Allow cursors to be DECLAREd/OPENed/CLOSEed outside transactions
-* Allow DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF cursor
* Add BETWEEN ASYMMETRIC/SYMMETRIC
-* Add SET or BEGIN timeout parameter to cancel query if waiting too long
+* SHOW/SET
+ * Add SHOW command to display locks
+ * Add a global RESET command for use with connection pooling
+ * Add SET or BEGIN timeout parameter to cancel query if waiting too long
+ * Add SET REAL_FORMAT and SET DOUBLE_PRECISION_FORMAT using printf args
+ * Remove SET KSQO option now that OR processing is improved (Tom)
+ * Add SET PERFORMANCE_TIPS option to suggest INDEX, VACUUM, VACUUM
+ ANALYZE, and CLUSTER
* Change LIMIT val,val to offset,limit to match MySQL
* Allow Pl/PgSQL's RAISE function to take expressions
* Make NULL's come out at the beginning or end depending on the
ORDER BY direction
-* COPY
- * Update reltuples in COPY
- * Allow specification of column names
- * Allow dump/load of CSV format
-* fix array handling for ECPG
+* fix array handling in ECPG
* have pg_dump use LEFT OUTER JOIN in multi-table SELECTs
or multiple SELECTS to avoid bad system catalog entries
* allow psql \d to show primary and foreign keys
* allow psql \d to show temporary table structure
* add XML interface capability
-* Add a global RESET command for use with connection pooling
* Remove <=6.3 version compatibility in ODBC?
-* Add SET REAL_FORMAT and SET DOUBLE_PRECISION_FORMAT using printf args
REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY
* Add MATCH PARTIAL referential integrity
-* Check that primary key exists at foreign key definition time
+* -Check that primary key exists at foreign key definition time
* Prevent column dropping if column is used by foreign key
* Propagate column or table renaming to foreign key constraints
* Add deferred trigger queue file (Jan)
* Enforce referential integrity for system tables
* INSERT & UPDATE/DELETE in transaction of primary key fails with
deferredTriggerGetPreviousEvent or "change violation" [foreign]
-* Add unique indexes to pg_shadow.usename and pg_shadow.usesysid or
- switch to pg_shadow.oid as user id
-* Add unique indexes on pg_database
-* Check all system tables and add unique indexes as needed
* Make constraints clearer in dump file
* Change foreign key constraint for array -> element to mean element
in array
+* Automatically drop constraints/functions when object is dropped
+
+TRANSACTIONS
+
+* Implement UNDO using transaction log
+* Allow autocommit so always in a transaction block
+* Overhaul bufmgr/lockmgr/transaction manager
+* Allow nested transactions (Vadim)
+* Handle transaction rollover [transactions]
EXOTIC FEATURES
* Add sql3 recursive unions
* Add the concept of dataspaces/tablespaces [tablespaces]
+* Allow SQL92 schemas
* Allow queries across multiple databases
-* Allow nested transactions (Vadim)
-* Allow INSERT/UPDATE ... RETURNING new.col or old.col (Philip)
-* Add pre-parsing phase that convets non-ANSI features to supported features
+* Add pre-parsing phase that converts non-ANSI features to supported features
* SQL*Net listener that makes PostgreSQL appear as an Oracle database
to clients
-* Incremental backups
-* Allow SQL92 schemas
-* Handle transaction rollover [transactions]
MISCELLANEOUS
* Increase identifier length(NAMEDATALEN) if small performance hit
* Create a background process for each database that runs while
database is idle, finding superceeded rows, gathering stats and vacuuming
-* Implement UNDO using transaction log
* Populate backend status area and write program to dump status data
* Put sort files in their own directory
-* Allow autocommit so always in a transaction block
* Show location of syntax error in query [yacc]
-* Overhaul bufmgr/lockmgr/transaction manager
* Encrpyt passwords in pg_shadow table using MD5 (Vince)
* Allow Java server-side programming [java]
* Add sed-like regular expression search/replace capability
PERFORMANCE
-----------
--FSYNC
+FSYNC
* Delay fsync() when other backends are about to commit too [fsync]
* Determine optimal commit_delay value
* Determine optimal fdatasync/fsync, O_SYNC/O_DSYNC options
* Allow multiple blocks to be written to WAL with one write()
-INDEXES
-
-* Use indexes to find min() and max()
-* Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with
- non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses
-* Allow SELECT * FROM tab WHERE int2col = 4 use int2col index, int8,
- float4, numeric/decimal too [optimizer]
-* Use indexes with CIDR '<<' (contains) operator
-* Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales
-* Be smarter about insertion of already-ordered data into btree index
-* Gather more accurate dispersion statistics using indexes
-* Add deleted bit to index tuples to reduce heap access
-* Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modify column
-
CACHE
* Cache most recent query plan(s) (Karel) [prepare]
* Improve speed with indexes (perhaps recreate index instead) [vacuum]
* Reduce lock time by moving tuples with read lock, then write
lock and truncate table [vacuum]
-* Make ANALYZE a separate command
-* Allow ANALYZE to ESTIMATE based on certain random precentage of rows
+* -Make ANALYZE a separate command
+* -Allow ANALYZE to ESTIMATE based on certain random precentage of rows
* Add LAZY VACUUM (Vadim)
MISCELLANEOUS
* Allow compression of log and meta data
* Do async I/O to do better read-ahead of data
+* Experiment with multi-threaded backend [thread]
* Get faster regex() code from Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.utoronto.ca>
when it is available
* Use mmap() rather than SYSV shared memory(?) [mmap]
* improve dynamic memory allocation by introducing tuple-context memory
allocation (Tom)
* allow configuration of maximum number of open files
-* Remove pg_listener index
-* Improve statistics storage in pg_class [performance]
+* -Improve statistics storage in pg_class [performance]
* Add connection pooling [pool]
* Allow persistent backends [persistent]
* Create a transaction processor to aid in persistent connections and
connection pooling
-* Add SET PERFORMANCE_TIPS option to suggest INDEX, VACUUM, VACUUM
- ANALYZE, and CLUSTER
-* Force transactions that commit at near the same time use a single fsync()
* Make blind writes go through the file descriptor cache
* Allow logging of query durations
-----------
* Add use of 'const' for variables in source tree
* Does Mariposa source contain any other bug fixes?
-* Remove SET KSQO option now that OR processing is improved (Tom)
* Convert remaining fprintf(stderr,...)/perror() to elog()
-* Remove unused pg_variable, pg_inheritproc, pg_ipl tables
-* Experiment with multi-threaded backend [thread]
* Fix problems with libpq non-blocking/async code [async]
* Merge global and template BKI files (Peter E)
* Fix username/password length limits in all areas
* Add version file format stamp to heap and other table types
* Make elog(LOG) in WAL its own output type, distinct from DEBUG
* Rename some /contrib modules from pg* to pg_*
+* Move some things from /contrib into main tree, like soundex
+* Allow plug-in modules to emulate features from other databases
* Remove warnings created by -Wcast-align
* Move platform-specific ps status display info from ps_status.c to ports
-* Decide on spelling of indexes/indices
* Allow ps status display to work on Solaris/SVr4-based systems
-* Move some things from /contrib into main tree, like soundex
-* Allow plug-in modules to emulate features from other databases
+* Decide on spelling of indexes/indices
* Add mention of VACUUM, log rotation to Administrator's Guide
* Add PL/Python documentation