diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/src/sgml/release-8.1.sgml')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/src/sgml/release-8.1.sgml | 4318 |
1 files changed, 4318 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/release-8.1.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/release-8.1.sgml new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..5785b1dd8ee --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/src/sgml/release-8.1.sgml @@ -0,0 +1,4318 @@ +<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-8.1.sgml,v 1.1 2009/05/02 20:17:19 tgl Exp $ --> +<!-- See header comment in release.sgml about typical markup --> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-17"> + <title>Release 8.1.17</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2009-03-16</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.16. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.17</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.15, + see the release notes for 8.1.15. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent error recursion crashes when encoding conversion fails (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This change extends fixes made in the last two minor releases for + related failure scenarios. The previous fixes were narrowly tailored + for the original problem reports, but we have now recognized that + <emphasis>any</> error thrown by an encoding conversion function could + potentially lead to infinite recursion while trying to report the + error. The solution therefore is to disable translation and encoding + conversion and report the plain-ASCII form of any error message, + if we find we have gotten into a recursive error reporting situation. + (CVE-2009-0922) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Disallow <command>CREATE CONVERSION</> with the wrong encodings + for the specified conversion function (Heikki) + </para> + + <para> + This prevents one possible scenario for encoding conversion failure. + The previous change is a backstop to guard against other kinds of + failures in the same area. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix core dump when <function>to_char()</> is given format codes that + are inappropriate for the type of the data argument (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix decompilation of <literal>CASE WHEN</> with an implicit coercion + (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This mistake could lead to Assert failures in an Assert-enabled build, + or an <quote>unexpected CASE WHEN clause</> error message in other + cases, when trying to examine or dump a view. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix possible misassignment of the owner of a TOAST table's rowtype (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + If <command>CLUSTER</> or a rewriting variant of <command>ALTER TABLE</> + were executed by someone other than the table owner, the + <structname>pg_type</> entry for the table's TOAST table would end up + marked as owned by that someone. This caused no immediate problems, + since the permissions on the TOAST rowtype aren't examined by any + ordinary database operation. However, it could lead to unexpected + failures if one later tried to drop the role that issued the command + (in 8.1 or 8.2), or <quote>owner of data type appears to be invalid</> + warnings from <application>pg_dump</> after having done so (in 8.3). + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Clean up PL/pgSQL error status variables fully at block exit + (Ashesh Vashi and Dave Page) + </para> + + <para> + This is not a problem for PL/pgSQL itself, but the omission could cause + the PL/pgSQL Debugger to crash while examining the state of a function. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <literal>MUST</> (Mauritius Island Summer Time) to the default list + of known timezone abbreviations (Xavier Bugaud) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-16"> + <title>Release 8.1.16</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2009-02-02</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.15. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.16</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.15, + see the release notes for 8.1.15. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix crash in autovacuum (Alvaro) + </para> + + <para> + The crash occurs only after vacuuming a whole database for + anti-transaction-wraparound purposes, which means that it occurs + infrequently and is hard to track down. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve handling of URLs in <function>headline()</> function (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve handling of overlength headlines in <function>headline()</> + function (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent possible Assert failure or misconversion if an encoding + conversion is created with the wrong conversion function for the + specified pair of encodings (Tom, Heikki) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Avoid unnecessary locking of small tables in <command>VACUUM</> + (Heikki) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Ensure that the contents of a holdable cursor don't depend on the + contents of TOAST tables (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + Previously, large field values in a cursor result might be represented + as TOAST pointers, which would fail if the referenced table got dropped + before the cursor is read, or if the large value is deleted and then + vacuumed away. This cannot happen with an ordinary cursor, + but it could with a cursor that is held past its creating transaction. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix uninitialized variables in <filename>contrib/tsearch2</>'s + <function>get_covers()</> function (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>configure</> script to properly report failure when + unable to obtain linkage information for PL/Perl (Andrew) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make all documentation reference <literal>pgsql-bugs</> and/or + <literal>pgsql-hackers</> as appropriate, instead of the + now-decommissioned <literal>pgsql-ports</> and <literal>pgsql-patches</> + mailing lists (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2009a (for + Kathmandu and historical DST corrections in Switzerland, Cuba) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-15"> + <title>Release 8.1.15</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2008-11-03</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.14. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.15</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. Also, if you were running a previous + 8.1.X release, it is recommended to <command>REINDEX</> all GiST + indexes after the upgrade. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix GiST index corruption due to marking the wrong index entry + <quote>dead</> after a deletion (Teodor) + </para> + + <para> + This would result in index searches failing to find rows they + should have found. Corrupted indexes can be fixed with + <command>REINDEX</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix backend crash when the client encoding cannot represent a localized + error message (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + We have addressed similar issues before, but it would still fail if + the <quote>character has no equivalent</> message itself couldn't + be converted. The fix is to disable localization and send the plain + ASCII error message when we detect such a situation. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix possible crash when deeply nested functions are invoked from + a trigger (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix mis-expansion of rule queries when a sub-<literal>SELECT</> appears + in a function call in <literal>FROM</>, a multi-row <literal>VALUES</> + list, or a <literal>RETURNING</> list (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + The usual symptom of this problem is an <quote>unrecognized node type</> + error. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Ensure an error is reported when a newly-defined PL/pgSQL trigger + function is invoked as a normal function (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent possible collision of <structfield>relfilenode</> numbers + when moving a table to another tablespace with <command>ALTER SET + TABLESPACE</> (Heikki) + </para> + + <para> + The command tried to re-use the existing filename, instead of + picking one that is known unused in the destination directory. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix incorrect tsearch2 headline generation when single query + item matches first word of text (Sushant Sinha) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix improper display of fractional seconds in interval values when + using a non-ISO datestyle in an <option>--enable-integer-datetimes</> + build (Ron Mayer) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Ensure <function>SPI_getvalue</> and <function>SPI_getbinval</> + behave correctly when the passed tuple and tuple descriptor have + different numbers of columns (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This situation is normal when a table has had columns added or removed, + but these two functions didn't handle it properly. + The only likely consequence is an incorrect error indication. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>ecpg</>'s parsing of <command>CREATE ROLE</> (Michael) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix recent breakage of <literal>pg_ctl restart</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008i (for + DST law changes in Argentina, Brazil, Mauritius, Syria) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-14"> + <title>Release 8.1.14</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2008-09-22</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.13. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.14</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Widen local lock counters from 32 to 64 bits (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This responds to reports that the counters could overflow in + sufficiently long transactions, leading to unexpected <quote>lock is + already held</> errors. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix possible duplicate output of tuples during a GiST index scan (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add checks in executor startup to ensure that the tuples produced by an + <command>INSERT</> or <command>UPDATE</> will match the target table's + current rowtype (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</>, followed by re-use of a previously + cached plan, could produce this type of situation. The check protects + against data corruption and/or crashes that could ensue. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> to first try to interpret its timezone + argument as a timezone abbreviation, and only try it as a full timezone + name if that fails, rather than the other way around as formerly (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + The timestamp input functions have always resolved ambiguous zone names + in this order. Making <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> do so as well improves + consistency, and fixes a compatibility bug introduced in 8.1: + in ambiguous cases we now behave the same as 8.0 and before did, + since in the older versions <literal>AT TIME ZONE</> accepted + <emphasis>only</> abbreviations. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix datetime input functions to correctly detect integer overflow when + running on a 64-bit platform (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve performance of writing very long log messages to syslog (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix bug in backwards scanning of a cursor on a <literal>SELECT DISTINCT + ON</> query (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix planner bug with nested sub-select expressions (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + If the outer sub-select has no direct dependency on the parent query, + but the inner one does, the outer value might not get recalculated + for new parent query rows. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix planner to estimate that <literal>GROUP BY</> expressions yielding + boolean results always result in two groups, regardless of the + expressions' contents (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This is very substantially more accurate than the regular <literal>GROUP + BY</> estimate for certain boolean tests like <replaceable>col</> + <literal>IS NULL</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix PL/PgSQL to not fail when a <literal>FOR</> loop's target variable + is a record containing composite-type fields (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix PL/Tcl to behave correctly with Tcl 8.5, and to be more careful + about the encoding of data sent to or from Tcl (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix PL/Python to work with Python 2.5 + </para> + + <para> + This is a back-port of fixes made during the 8.2 development cycle. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve <application>pg_dump</> and <application>pg_restore</>'s + error reporting after failure to send a SQL command (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to properly preserve postmaster + command-line arguments across a <literal>restart</> (Bruce) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008f (for + DST law changes in Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Mauritius, Morocco, + Pakistan, Palestine, and Paraguay) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-13"> + <title>Release 8.1.13</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2008-06-12</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains one serious and one minor bug fix over 8.1.12. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.13</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <function>pg_get_ruledef()</> parenthesize negative constants (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + Before this fix, a negative constant in a view or rule might be dumped + as, say, <literal>-42::integer</>, which is subtly incorrect: it should + be <literal>(-42)::integer</> due to operator precedence rules. + Usually this would make little difference, but it could interact with + another recent patch to cause + <productname>PostgreSQL</> to reject what had been a valid + <command>SELECT DISTINCT</> view query. Since this could result in + <application>pg_dump</> output failing to reload, it is being treated + as a high-priority fix. The only released versions in which dump + output is actually incorrect are 8.3.1 and 8.2.7. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <command>ALTER AGGREGATE ... OWNER TO</> update + <structname>pg_shdepend</> (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This oversight could lead to problems if the aggregate was later + involved in a <command>DROP OWNED</> or <command>REASSIGN OWNED</> + operation. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-12"> + <title>Release 8.1.12</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>never released</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.11. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.12</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN ... PRIMARY KEY</> so that the new + column is correctly checked to see if it's been initialized to all + non-nulls (Brendan Jurd) + </para> + + <para> + Previous versions neglected to check this requirement at all. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix possible <command>CREATE TABLE</> failure when inheriting the + <quote>same</> constraint from multiple parent relations that + inherited that constraint from a common ancestor (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix conversions between ISO-8859-5 and other encodings to handle + Cyrillic <quote>Yo</> characters (<literal>e</> and <literal>E</> with + two dots) (Sergey Burladyan) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix a few datatype input functions + that were allowing unused bytes in their results to contain + uninitialized, unpredictable values (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This could lead to failures in which two apparently identical literal + values were not seen as equal, resulting in the parser complaining + about unmatched <literal>ORDER BY</> and <literal>DISTINCT</> + expressions. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix a corner case in regular-expression substring matching + (<literal>substring(<replaceable>string</> from + <replaceable>pattern</>)</literal>) (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + The problem occurs when there is a match to the pattern overall but + the user has specified a parenthesized subexpression and that + subexpression hasn't got a match. An example is + <literal>substring('foo' from 'foo(bar)?')</>. + This should return NULL, since <literal>(bar)</> isn't matched, but + it was mistakenly returning the whole-pattern match instead (ie, + <literal>foo</>). + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2008c (for + DST law changes in Morocco, Iraq, Choibalsan, Pakistan, Syria, Cuba, + Argentina/San_Luis, and Chile) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix incorrect result from <application>ecpg</>'s + <function>PGTYPEStimestamp_sub()</> function (Michael) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix core dump in <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s + <function>xpath_table()</> function when the input query returns a + NULL value (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <filename>contrib/xml2</>'s makefile to not override + <literal>CFLAGS</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <literal>DatumGetBool</> macro to not fail with <application>gcc</> + 4.3 (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This problem affects <quote>old style</> (V0) C functions that + return boolean. The fix is already in 8.3, but the need to + back-patch it was not realized at the time. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix longstanding <command>LISTEN</>/<command>NOTIFY</> + race condition (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + In rare cases a session that had just executed a + <command>LISTEN</> might not get a notification, even though + one would be expected because the concurrent transaction executing + <command>NOTIFY</> was observed to commit later. + </para> + + <para> + A side effect of the fix is that a transaction that has executed + a not-yet-committed <command>LISTEN</> command will not see any + row in <structname>pg_listener</> for the <command>LISTEN</>, + should it choose to look; formerly it would have. This behavior + was never documented one way or the other, but it is possible that + some applications depend on the old behavior. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Disallow <command>LISTEN</> and <command>UNLISTEN</> within a + prepared transaction (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This was formerly allowed but trying to do it had various unpleasant + consequences, notably that the originating backend could not exit + as long as an <command>UNLISTEN</> remained uncommitted. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix rare crash when an error occurs during a query using a hash index + (Heikki) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix input of datetime values for February 29 in years BC (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + The former coding was mistaken about which years were leap years. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <quote>unrecognized node type</> error in some variants of + <command>ALTER OWNER</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>pg_ctl</> to correctly extract the postmaster's port + number from command-line options (Itagaki Takahiro, Tom) + </para> + + <para> + Previously, <literal>pg_ctl start -w</> could try to contact the + postmaster on the wrong port, leading to bogus reports of startup + failure. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Use <option>-fwrapv</> to defend against possible misoptimization + in recent <application>gcc</> versions (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This is known to be necessary when building <productname>PostgreSQL</> + with <application>gcc</> 4.3 or later. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix display of constant expressions in <literal>ORDER BY</> + and <literal>GROUP BY</> (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + An explictly casted constant would be shown incorrectly. This could + for example lead to corruption of a view definition during + dump and reload. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>libpq</> to handle NOTICE messages correctly + during COPY OUT (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This failure has only been observed to occur when a user-defined + datatype's output routine issues a NOTICE, but there is no + guarantee it couldn't happen due to other causes. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-11"> + <title>Release 8.1.11</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2008-01-07</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.10, + including fixes for significant security issues. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <para> + This is the last 8.1.X release for which the <productname>PostgreSQL</> + community will produce binary packages for <productname>Windows</>. + Windows users are encouraged to move to 8.2.X or later, + since there are Windows-specific fixes in 8.2.X that + are impractical to back-port. 8.1.X will continue to + be supported on other platforms. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.11</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent functions in indexes from executing with the privileges of + the user running <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, etc (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + Functions used in index expressions and partial-index + predicates are evaluated whenever a new table entry is made. It has + long been understood that this poses a risk of trojan-horse code + execution if one modifies a table owned by an untrustworthy user. + (Note that triggers, defaults, check constraints, etc. pose the + same type of risk.) But functions in indexes pose extra danger + because they will be executed by routine maintenance operations + such as <command>VACUUM FULL</>, which are commonly performed + automatically under a superuser account. For example, a nefarious user + can execute code with superuser privileges by setting up a + trojan-horse index definition and waiting for the next routine vacuum. + The fix arranges for standard maintenance operations + (including <command>VACUUM</>, <command>ANALYZE</>, <command>REINDEX</>, + and <command>CLUSTER</>) to execute as the table owner rather than + the calling user, using the same privilege-switching mechanism already + used for <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> functions. To prevent bypassing + this security measure, execution of <command>SET SESSION + AUTHORIZATION</> and <command>SET ROLE</> is now forbidden within a + <literal>SECURITY DEFINER</> context. (CVE-2007-6600) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Repair assorted bugs in the regular-expression package (Tom, Will Drewry) + </para> + + <para> + Suitably crafted regular-expression patterns could cause crashes, + infinite or near-infinite looping, and/or massive memory consumption, + all of which pose denial-of-service hazards for applications that + accept regex search patterns from untrustworthy sources. + (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only + password authentication, as a security measure (Joe) + </para> + + <para> + The fix that appeared for this in 8.1.10 was incomplete, as it plugged + the hole for only some <filename>dblink</> functions. (CVE-2007-6601, + CVE-2007-3278) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Update time zone data files to <application>tzdata</> release 2007k + (in particular, recent Argentina changes) (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve planner's handling of LIKE/regex estimation in non-C locales + (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix planner failure in some cases of <literal>WHERE false AND var IN + (SELECT ...)</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Preserve the tablespace of indexes that are + rebuilt by <command>ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make archive recovery always start a new WAL timeline, rather than only + when a recovery stop time was used (Simon) + </para> + + <para> + This avoids a corner-case risk of trying to overwrite an existing + archived copy of the last WAL segment, and seems simpler and cleaner + than the original definition. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <command>VACUUM</> not use all of <varname>maintenance_work_mem</> + when the table is too small for it to be useful (Alvaro) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix potential crash in <function>translate()</> when using a multibyte + database encoding (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix overflow in <literal>extract(epoch from interval)</> for intervals + exceeding 68 years (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix PL/Perl to not fail when a UTF-8 regular expression is used + in a trusted function (Andrew) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix PL/Perl to cope when platform's Perl defines type <literal>bool</> + as <literal>int</> rather than <literal>char</> (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + While this could theoretically happen anywhere, no standard build of + Perl did things this way ... until <productname>Mac OS X</> 10.5. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix PL/Python to not crash on long exception messages (Alvaro) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>pg_dump</> to correctly handle inheritance child tables + that have default expressions different from their parent's (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>libpq</> crash when <varname>PGPASSFILE</> refers + to a file that is not a plain file (Martin Pitt) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <application>ecpg</> parser fixes (Michael) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <filename>contrib/pgcrypto</> defend against + <application>OpenSSL</> libraries that fail on keys longer than 128 + bits; which is the case at least on some Solaris versions (Marko Kreen) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <filename>contrib/tablefunc</>'s <function>crosstab()</> handle + NULL rowid as a category in its own right, rather than crashing (Joe) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <type>tsvector</> and <type>tsquery</> output routines to + escape backslashes correctly (Teodor, Bruce) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix crash of <function>to_tsvector()</> on huge input strings (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Require a specific version of <productname>Autoconf</> to be used + when re-generating the <command>configure</> script (Peter) + </para> + + <para> + This affects developers and packagers only. The change was made + to prevent accidental use of untested combinations of + <productname>Autoconf</> and <productname>PostgreSQL</> versions. + You can remove the version check if you really want to use a + different <productname>Autoconf</> version, but it's + your responsibility whether the result works or not. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-10"> + <title>Release 8.1.10</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2007-09-17</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.9. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.10</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent index corruption when a transaction inserts rows and + then aborts close to the end of a concurrent <command>VACUUM</> + on the same table (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <command>CREATE DOMAIN ... DEFAULT NULL</> work properly (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow the <type>interval</> data type to accept input consisting only of + milliseconds or microseconds (Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Speed up rtree index insertion (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix excessive logging of <acronym>SSL</> error messages (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix logging so that log messages are never interleaved when using + the syslogger process (Andrew) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix crash when <varname>log_min_error_statement</> logging runs out + of memory (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix incorrect handling of some foreign-key corner cases (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent <command>REINDEX</> and <command>CLUSTER</> from failing + due to attempting to process temporary tables of other sessions (Alvaro) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Update the time zone database rules, particularly New Zealand's upcoming changes (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Windows socket improvements (Magnus) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Suppress timezone name (<literal>%Z</>) in log timestamps on Windows + because of possible encoding mismatches (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Require non-superusers who use <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to use only + password authentication, as a security measure (Joe) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-9"> + <title>Release 8.1.9</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2007-04-23</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.8, + including a security fix. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.9</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Support explicit placement of the temporary-table schema within + <varname>search_path</>, and disable searching it for functions + and operators (Tom) + </para> + <para> + This is needed to allow a security-definer function to set a + truly secure value of <varname>search_path</>. Without it, + an unprivileged SQL user can use temporary objects to execute code + with the privileges of the security-definer function (CVE-2007-2138). + See <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> for more information. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> crash fixes (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Require <command>COMMIT PREPARED</> to be executed in the same + database as the transaction was prepared in (Heikki) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix potential-data-corruption bug in how <command>VACUUM FULL</> handles + <command>UPDATE</> chains (Tom, Pavan Deolasee) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Planner fixes, including improving outer join and bitmap scan + selection logic (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix PANIC during enlargement of a hash index (bug introduced in 8.1.6) + (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix POSIX-style timezone specs to follow new USA DST rules (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-8"> + <title>Release 8.1.8</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2007-02-07</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains one fix from 8.1.7. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.8</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove overly-restrictive check for type length in constraints and + functional indexes(Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-7"> + <title>Release 8.1.7</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2007-02-05</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.6, including + a security fix. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.7</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove security vulnerabilities that allowed connected users + to read backend memory (Tom) + </para> + <para> + The vulnerabilities involve suppressing the normal check that a SQL + function returns the data type it's declared to, and changing the + data type of a table column (CVE-2007-0555, CVE-2007-0556). These + errors can easily be exploited to cause a backend crash, and in + principle might be used to read database content that the user + should not be able to access. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix rare bug wherein btree index page splits could fail + due to choosing an infeasible split point (Heikki Linnakangas) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve <command>VACUUM</> performance for databases with many tables (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix autovacuum to avoid leaving non-permanent transaction IDs in + non-connectable databases (Alvaro) + </para> + + <para> + This bug affects the 8.1 branch only. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix for rare Assert() crash triggered by <literal>UNION</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Tighten security of multi-byte character processing for UTF8 sequences + over three bytes long (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix bogus <quote>permission denied</> failures occurring on Windows + due to attempts to fsync already-deleted files (Magnus, Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix possible crashes when an already-in-use PL/pgSQL function is + updated (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-6"> + <title>Release 8.1.6</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2007-01-08</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.5. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.6</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve handling of <function>getaddrinfo()</> on AIX (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This fixes a problem with starting the statistics collector, + among other things. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>pg_restore</> to handle a tar-format backup + that contains large objects (blobs) with comments (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <quote>failed to re-find parent key</> errors in + <command>VACUUM</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Clean out <filename>pg_internal.init</> cache files during server + restart (Simon) + </para> + + <para> + This avoids a hazard that the cache files might contain stale + data after PITR recovery. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix race condition for truncation of a large relation across a + gigabyte boundary by <command>VACUUM</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix bug causing needless deadlock errors on row-level locks (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix bugs affecting multi-gigabyte hash indexes (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix possible deadlock in Windows signal handling (Teodor) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix error when constructing an <literal>ARRAY[]</> made up of multiple + empty elements (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix ecpg memory leak during connection (Michael) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix for Darwin (OS X) compilation (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>to_number()</> and <function>to_char(numeric)</> + are now <literal>STABLE</>, not <literal>IMMUTABLE</>, for + new <application>initdb</> installs (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This is because <varname>lc_numeric</> can potentially + change the output of these functions. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve index usage of regular expressions that use parentheses (Tom) + </para> + + <para> + This improves <application>psql</> <literal>\d</> performance also. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Update timezone database + </para> + + <para> + This affects Australian and Canadian daylight-savings rules in + particular. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-5"> + <title>Release 8.1.5</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2006-10-16</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.4. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.5</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + +<itemizedlist> +<listitem><para>Disallow aggregate functions in <command>UPDATE</> +commands, except within sub-SELECTs (Tom)</para> +<para>The behavior of such an aggregate was unpredictable, and in 8.1.X +could cause a crash, so it has been disabled. The SQL standard does not allow +this either.</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix core dump when an untyped literal is taken as +ANYARRAY</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix core dump in duration logging for extended query protocol +when a <command>COMMIT</> or <command>ROLLBACK</> is +executed</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix mishandling of AFTER triggers when query contains a SQL +function returning multiple rows (Tom)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix <command>ALTER TABLE ... TYPE</> to recheck +<literal>NOT NULL</> for <literal>USING</> clause (Tom)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix <function>string_to_array()</> to handle overlapping + matches for the separator string</para> +<para>For example, <literal>string_to_array('123xx456xxx789', 'xx')</>. +</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix <function>to_timestamp()</> for +<literal>AM</>/<literal>PM</> formats (Bruce)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix autovacuum's calculation that decides whether + <command>ANALYZE</> is needed (Alvaro)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix corner cases in pattern matching for + <application>psql</>'s <literal>\d</> commands</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix index-corrupting bugs in /contrib/ltree + (Teodor)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Numerous robustness fixes in <application>ecpg</> (Joachim +Wieland)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix backslash escaping in /contrib/dbmirror</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Minor fixes in /contrib/dblink and /contrib/tsearch2</para> +</listitem> +<listitem><para>Efficiency improvements in hash tables and bitmap index scans +(Tom)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix instability of statistics collection on Windows (Tom, Andrew)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix <varname>statement_timeout</> to use the proper +units on Win32 (Bruce)</para> +<para>In previous Win32 8.1.X versions, the delay was off by a factor of +100.</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fixes for <acronym>MSVC</> and <productname>Borland C++</> +compilers (Hiroshi Saito)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fixes for <systemitem class="osname">AIX</> and +<productname>Intel</> compilers (Tom)</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>Fix rare bug in continuous archiving (Tom)</para></listitem> +</itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-4"> + <title>Release 8.1.4</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2006-05-23</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.3, + including patches for extremely serious security issues. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.4</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + + <para> + Full security against the SQL-injection attacks described in + CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314 might require changes in application + code. If you have applications that embed untrustworthy strings + into SQL commands, you should examine them as soon as possible to + ensure that they are using recommended escaping techniques. In + most cases, applications should be using subroutines provided by + libraries or drivers (such as <application>libpq</>'s + <function>PQescapeStringConn()</>) to perform string escaping, + rather than relying on <foreignphrase>ad hoc</> code to do it. + </para> + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + +<itemizedlist> +<listitem><para>Change the server to reject invalidly-encoded multibyte +characters in all cases (Tatsuo, Tom)</para> +<para>While <productname>PostgreSQL</> has been moving in this direction for +some time, the checks are now applied uniformly to all encodings and all +textual input, and are now always errors not merely warnings. This change +defends against SQL-injection attacks of the type described in CVE-2006-2313. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Reject unsafe uses of <literal>\'</> in string literals</para> +<para>As a server-side defense against SQL-injection attacks of the type +described in CVE-2006-2314, the server now only accepts <literal>''</> and not +<literal>\'</> as a representation of ASCII single quote in SQL string +literals. By default, <literal>\'</> is rejected only when +<varname>client_encoding</> is set to a client-only encoding (SJIS, BIG5, GBK, +GB18030, or UHC), which is the scenario in which SQL injection is possible. +A new configuration parameter <varname>backslash_quote</> is available to +adjust this behavior when needed. Note that full security against +CVE-2006-2314 might require client-side changes; the purpose of +<varname>backslash_quote</> is in part to make it obvious that insecure +clients are insecure. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Modify <application>libpq</>'s string-escaping routines to be +aware of encoding considerations and +<varname>standard_conforming_strings</></para> +<para>This fixes <application>libpq</>-using applications for the security +issues described in CVE-2006-2313 and CVE-2006-2314, and also future-proofs +them against the planned changeover to SQL-standard string literal syntax. +Applications that use multiple <productname>PostgreSQL</> connections +concurrently should migrate to <function>PQescapeStringConn()</> and +<function>PQescapeByteaConn()</> to ensure that escaping is done correctly +for the settings in use in each database connection. Applications that +do string escaping <quote>by hand</> should be modified to rely on library +routines instead. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix weak key selection in pgcrypto (Marko Kreen)</para> +<para>Errors in fortuna PRNG reseeding logic could cause a predictable +session key to be selected by <function>pgp_sym_encrypt()</> in some cases. +This only affects non-OpenSSL-using builds. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix some incorrect encoding conversion functions</para> +<para><function>win1251_to_iso</>, <function>win866_to_iso</>, +<function>euc_tw_to_big5</>, <function>euc_tw_to_mic</>, +<function>mic_to_euc_tw</> were all broken to varying +extents. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Clean up stray remaining uses of <literal>\'</> in strings +(Bruce, Jan)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Make autovacuum visible in <structname>pg_stat_activity</> +(Alvaro)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Disable <literal>full_page_writes</> (Tom)</para> +<para>In certain cases, having <literal>full_page_writes</> off would cause +crash recovery to fail. A proper fix will appear in 8.2; for now it's just +disabled. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Various planner fixes, particularly for bitmap index scans and +MIN/MAX optimization (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix incorrect optimization in merge join (Tom)</para> +<para>Outer joins could sometimes emit multiple copies of unmatched rows. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix crash from using and modifying a plpgsql function in the +same transaction</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix WAL replay for case where a B-Tree index has been +truncated</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <literal>SIMILAR TO</> for patterns involving +<literal>|</> (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <command>SELECT INTO</> and <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> to +create tables in the default tablespace, not the base directory (Kris +Jurka)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix server to use custom DH SSL parameters correctly (Michael +Fuhr)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Improve qsort performance (Dann Corbit)</para> +<para>Currently this code is only used on Solaris. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix for OS/X Bonjour on x86 systems (Ashley Clark)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix various minor memory leaks</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix problem with password prompting on some Win32 systems +(Robert Kinberg)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Improve <application>pg_dump</>'s handling of default values +for domains</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_dumpall</> to handle identically-named +users and groups reasonably (only possible when dumping from a pre-8.1 server) +(Tom)</para> +<para>The user and group will be merged into a single role with +<literal>LOGIN</> permission. Formerly the merged role wouldn't have +<literal>LOGIN</> permission, making it unusable as a user. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_restore</> <literal>-n</> to work as +documented (Tom)</para></listitem> +</itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-3"> + <title>Release 8.1.3</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2006-02-14</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.2, + including one very serious security issue. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.3</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 8.1.2, + see the release notes for 8.1.2. + </para> + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + +<itemizedlist> + +<listitem><para>Fix bug that allowed any logged-in user to <command>SET +ROLE</> to any other database user id (CVE-2006-0553)</para> +<para>Due to inadequate validity checking, a user could exploit the special +case that <command>SET ROLE</> normally uses to restore the previous role +setting after an error. This allowed ordinary users to acquire superuser +status, for example. +The escalation-of-privilege risk exists only in 8.1.0-8.1.2. +However, in all releases back to 7.3 there is a related bug in <command>SET +SESSION AUTHORIZATION</> that allows unprivileged users to crash the server, +if it has been compiled with Asserts enabled (which is not the default). +Thanks to Akio Ishida for reporting this problem. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix bug with row visibility logic in self-inserted +rows (Tom)</para> +<para>Under rare circumstances a row inserted by the current command +could be seen as already valid, when it should not be. Repairs bug +created in 8.0.4, 7.4.9, and 7.3.11 releases. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix race condition that could lead to <quote>file already +exists</> errors during pg_clog and pg_subtrans file creation +(Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix cases that could lead to crashes if a cache-invalidation +message arrives at just the wrong time (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Properly check <literal>DOMAIN</> constraints for +<literal>UNKNOWN</> parameters in prepared statements +(Neil)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Ensure <command>ALTER COLUMN TYPE</> will process +<literal>FOREIGN KEY</>, <literal>UNIQUE</>, and <literal>PRIMARY KEY</> +constraints in the proper order (Nakano Yoshihisa)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fixes to allow restoring dumps that have cross-schema +references to custom operators or operator classes (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Allow <application>pg_restore</> to continue properly after a +<command>COPY</> failure; formerly it tried to treat the remaining +<command>COPY</> data as SQL commands (Stephen Frost)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <application>pg_ctl</> <literal>unregister</> crash +when the data directory is not specified (Magnus)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <application>libpq</> <function>PQprint</> HTML tags +(Christoph Zwerschke)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <application>ecpg</> crash on AMD64 and PPC +(Neil)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Allow <literal>SETOF</> and <literal>%TYPE</> to be used +together in function result type declarations</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Recover properly if error occurs during argument passing +in <application>PL/python</> (Neil)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix memory leak in <function>plperl_return_next</> +(Neil)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <application>PL/perl</>'s handling of locales on +Win32 to match the backend (Andrew)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Various optimizer fixes (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix crash when <literal>log_min_messages</> is set to +<literal>DEBUG3</> or above in <filename>postgresql.conf</> on Win32 +(Bruce)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <application>pgxs</> <literal>-L</> library path +specification for Win32, Cygwin, OS X, AIX (Bruce)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Check that SID is enabled while checking for Win32 admin +privileges (Magnus)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Properly reject out-of-range date inputs (Kris +Jurka)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Portability fix for testing presence of <function>finite</> +and <function>isinf</> during configure (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Improve speed of <command>COPY IN</> via libpq, by +avoiding a kernel call per data line (Alon Goldshuv)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Improve speed of <filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> index +creation (Tom)</para></listitem> + +</itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-2"> + <title>Release 8.1.2</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2006-01-09</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.1. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.2</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + However, you might need to <command>REINDEX</> indexes on textual + columns after updating, if you are affected by the locale or + <application>plperl</> issues described below. + </para> + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + +<itemizedlist> + +<listitem><para>Fix Windows code so that postmaster will continue rather +than exit if there is no more room in ShmemBackendArray (Magnus)</para> +<para>The previous behavior could lead to a denial-of-service situation if too +many connection requests arrive close together. This applies +<emphasis>only</> to the Windows port.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix bug introduced in 8.0 that could allow ReadBuffer +to return an already-used page as new, potentially causing loss of +recently-committed data (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix for protocol-level Describe messages issued +outside a transaction or in a failed transaction (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix character string comparison for locales that consider +different character combinations as equal, such as Hungarian (Tom)</para> +<para>This might require <command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on +textual columns.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Set locale environment variables during postmaster startup +to ensure that <application>plperl</> won't change the locale later</para> +<para>This fixes a problem that occurred if the <application>postmaster</> was +started with environment variables specifying a different locale than what +<application>initdb</> had been told. Under these conditions, any use of +<application>plperl</> was likely to lead to corrupt indexes. You might need +<command>REINDEX</> to fix existing indexes on +textual columns if this has happened to you.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Allow more flexible relocation of installation +directories (Tom)</para> +<para>Previous releases supported relocation only if all installation +directory paths were the same except for the last component.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Prevent crashes caused by the use of +<literal>ISO-8859-5</> and <literal>ISO-8859-9</> encodings +(Tatsuo)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix longstanding bug in strpos() and regular expression +handling in certain rarely used Asian multi-byte character sets (Tatsuo) +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix bug where COPY CSV mode considered any +<literal>\.</> to terminate the copy data</para> <para>The new code +requires <literal>\.</> to appear alone on a line, as per +documentation.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Make COPY CSV mode quote a literal data value of +<literal>\.</> to ensure it cannot be interpreted as the +end-of-data marker (Bruce)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Various fixes for functions returning <literal>RECORD</>s +(Tom) </para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix processing of <filename>postgresql.conf</> so a +final line with no newline is processed properly (Tom) +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix bug in <filename>/contrib/pgcrypto</> gen_salt, +which caused it not to use all available salt space for MD5 and +XDES algorithms (Marko Kreen, Solar Designer)</para> +<para>Salts for Blowfish and standard DES are unaffected.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix autovacuum crash when processing expression indexes +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix <filename>/contrib/dblink</> to throw an error, +rather than crashing, when the number of columns specified is different from +what's actually returned by the query (Joe)</para></listitem> + +</itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1-1"> + <title>Release 8.1.1</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2005-12-12</simpara> + </note> + + <para> + This release contains a variety of fixes from 8.1.0. + For information about new features in the 8.1 major release, see + <xref linkend="release-8-1">. + </para> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1.1</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore is not required for those running 8.1.X. + </para> + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Changes</title> + +<itemizedlist> +<listitem><para>Fix incorrect optimizations of outer-join conditions +(Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix problems with wrong reported column names in cases +involving sub-selects flattened by the optimizer (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix update failures in scenarios involving CHECK constraints, +toasted columns, <emphasis>and</> indexes (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix bgwriter problems after recovering from errors +(Tom)</para> +<para> +The background writer was found to leak buffer pins after write errors. +While not fatal in itself, this might lead to mysterious blockages of +later VACUUM commands. +</para> +</listitem> + +<listitem><para>Prevent failure if client sends Bind protocol message +when current transaction is already aborted</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para><filename>/contrib/tsearch2</> and <filename>/contrib/ltree</> +fixes (Teodor)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix problems with translated error messages in +languages that require word reordering, such as Turkish; also problems with +unexpected truncation of output strings and wrong display of the smallest +possible bigint value (Andrew, Tom)</para> +<para> +These problems only appeared on platforms that were using our +<filename>port/snprintf.c</> code, which includes BSD variants if +<literal>--enable-nls</> was given, and perhaps others. In addition, +a different form of the translated-error-message problem could appear +on Windows depending on which version of <filename>libintl</> was used. +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Re-allow <literal>AM</>/<literal>PM</>, <literal>HH</>, +<literal>HH12</>, and <literal>D</> format specifiers for +<function>to_char(time)</> and <function>to_char(interval)</>. +(<function>to_char(interval)</> should probably use +<literal>HH24</>.) (Bruce)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>AIX, HPUX, and MSVC compile fixes (Tom, Hiroshi +Saito)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Optimizer improvements (Tom)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Retry file reads and writes after Windows +NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES error (Qingqing Zhou)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Prevent <application>autovacuum</> from crashing during +ANALYZE of expression index (Alvaro)</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix problems with ON COMMIT DELETE ROWS temp +tables</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Fix problems when a trigger alters the output of a SELECT +DISTINCT query</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Add 8.1.0 release note item on how to migrate invalid +<literal>UTF-8</> byte sequences (Paul Lindner)</para></listitem> +</itemizedlist> + + </sect2> + </sect1> + + <sect1 id="release-8-1"> + <title>Release 8.1</title> + + <note> + <title>Release date</title> + <simpara>2005-11-08</simpara> + </note> + + <sect2> + <title>Overview</title> + + <para> + Major changes in this release: + </para> + + <variablelist> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Improve concurrent access to the shared buffer cache (Tom) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + Access to the shared buffer cache was identified as a + significant scalability problem, particularly on multi-CPU + systems. In this release, the way that locking is done in the + buffer manager has been overhauled to reduce lock contention + and improve scalability. The buffer manager has also been + changed to use a <quote>clock sweep</quote> replacement + policy. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Allow index scans to use an intermediate in-memory bitmap (Tom) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + In previous releases, only a single index could be used to do + lookups on a table. With this feature, if a query has + <command>WHERE tab.col1 = 4 and tab.col2 = 9</>, and there is + no multicolumn index on <literal>col1</> and <literal>col2</>, + but there is an index on <literal>col1</> and another on + <literal>col2</>, it is possible to search both indexes and + combine the results in memory, then do heap fetches for only + the rows matching both the <literal>col1</> and + <literal>col2</> restrictions. This is very useful in + environments that have a lot of unstructured queries where it + is impossible to create indexes that match all possible access + conditions. Bitmap scans are useful even with a single index, + as they reduce the amount of random access needed; a bitmap + index scan is efficient for retrieving fairly large fractions + of the complete table, whereas plain index scans are not. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Add two-phase commit (Heikki Linnakangas, Alvaro, Tom) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + Two-phase commit allows transactions to be "prepared" on several + computers, and once all computers have successfully prepared + their transactions (none failed), all transactions can be + committed. Even if a machine crashes after a prepare, the + prepared transaction can be committed after the machine is + restarted. New syntax includes <command>PREPARE TRANSACTION</> and + <command>COMMIT/ROLLBACK PREPARED</>. A new system view + <literal>pg_prepared_xacts</> has also been added. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Create a new role system that replaces users and groups + (Stephen Frost) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + Roles are a combination of users and groups. Like users, they + can have login capability, and like groups, a role can have + other roles as members. Roles basically remove the distinction + between users and groups. For example, a role can: + </para> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Have login capability (optionally) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Own objects + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Hold access permissions for database objects + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Inherit permissions from other roles it is a member of + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + <para> + Once a user logs into a role, she obtains capabilities of + the login role plus any inherited roles, and can use + <command>SET ROLE</> to switch to other roles she is a member of. + This feature is a generalization of the SQL standard's concept of + roles. + This change also replaces <structname>pg_shadow</> and + <structname>pg_group</> by new role-capable catalogs + <structname>pg_authid</> and <structname>pg_auth_members</>. The old + tables are redefined as read-only views on the new role tables. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Automatically use indexes for <function>MIN()</> and + <function>MAX()</> (Tom) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + In previous releases, the only way to use an index for + <function>MIN()</> or <function>MAX()</> was to rewrite the + query as <command>SELECT col FROM tab ORDER BY col LIMIT 1</>. + Index usage now happens automatically. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Move <filename>/contrib/pg_autovacuum</> into the main server + (Alvaro) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + Integrating autovacuum into the server allows it to be + automatically started and stopped in sync with the database + server, and allows autovacuum to be configured from + <filename>postgresql.conf</>. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Add shared row level locks using <command>SELECT ... FOR SHARE</> + (Alvaro) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + While <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s MVCC locking + allows <command>SELECT</> to never be blocked by writers and + therefore does not need shared row locks for typical operations, + shared locks are useful for applications that require shared row + locking. In particular this reduces the locking requirements + imposed by referential integrity checks. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Add dependencies on shared objects, specifically roles + (Alvaro) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + This extension of the dependency mechanism prevents roles from + being dropped while there are still database objects they own. + Formerly it was possible to accidentally <quote>orphan</> objects by + deleting their owner. While this could be recovered from, it + was messy and unpleasant. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term> + Improve performance for partitioned tables (Simon) + </term> + + <listitem> + <para> + The new <varname>constraint_exclusion</varname> configuration + parameter avoids lookups on child tables where constraints indicate + that no matching rows exist in the child table. + </para> + <para> + This allows for a basic type of table partitioning. If child tables + store separate key ranges and this is enforced using appropriate + <command>CHECK</> constraints, the optimizer will skip child + table accesses when the constraint guarantees no matching rows + exist in the child table. + </para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + + </variablelist> + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Migration to Version 8.1</title> + + <para> + A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application> is required + for those wishing to migrate data from any previous release. + </para> + + <para> + The 8.0 release announced that the <function>to_char()</> function + for intervals would be removed in 8.1. However, since no better API + has been suggested, <function>to_char(interval)</> has been enhanced in + 8.1 and will remain in the server. + </para> + + <para> + Observe the following incompatibilities: + </para> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + <varname>add_missing_from</> is now false by default (Neil) + </para> + <para> + By default, we now generate an error if a table is used in a query + without a <literal>FROM</> reference. The old behavior is still + available, but the parameter must be set to 'true' to obtain it. + </para> + + <para> + It might be necessary to set <varname>add_missing_from</> to true + in order to load an existing dump file, if the dump contains any + views or rules created using the implicit-<literal>FROM</> syntax. + This should be a one-time annoyance, because + <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.1 will convert + such views and rules to standard explicit-<literal>FROM</> syntax. + Subsequent dumps will therefore not have the problem. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Cause input of a zero-length string (<literal>''</literal>) for + <type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type>/<type>oid</type> + to throw an error, rather than treating it as a zero (Neil) + </para> + <para> + This change is consistent with the current handling of + zero-length strings for integers. The schedule for this change + was announced in 8.0. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <varname>default_with_oids</> is now false by default (Neil) + </para> + <para> + With this option set to false, user-created tables no longer + have an OID column unless <command>WITH OIDS</> is specified in + <command>CREATE TABLE</>. Though OIDs have existed in all + releases of <productname>PostgreSQL</>, their use is limited + because they are only four bytes long and the counter is shared + across all installed databases. The preferred way of uniquely + identifying rows is via sequences and the <type>SERIAL</> type, + which have been supported since <productname>PostgreSQL</> 6.4. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <literal>E''</> syntax so eventually ordinary strings can + treat backslashes literally (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + Currently <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> processes a + backslash in a string literal as introducing a special escape sequence, + e.g. <literal>\n</> or <literal>\010</>. + While this allows easy entry of special values, it is + nonstandard and makes porting of applications from other + databases more difficult. For this reason, the + <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> project is planning to + remove the special meaning of backslashes in strings. For + backward compatibility and for users who want special backslash + processing, a new string syntax has been created. This new string + syntax is formed by writing an <literal>E</> immediately preceding the + single quote that starts the string, e.g. <literal>E'hi\n'</>. While + this release does not change the handling of backslashes in strings, it + does add new configuration parameters to help users migrate applications + for future releases: + </para> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + <varname>standard_conforming_strings</> — does this release + treat backslashes literally in ordinary strings? + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <varname>escape_string_warning</> — warn about backslashes in + ordinary (non-E) strings + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + <para> + The <varname>standard_conforming_strings</> value is read-only. + Applications can retrieve the value to know how backslashes are + processed. (Presence of the parameter can also be taken as an + indication that <literal>E''</> string syntax is supported.) + In a future release, <varname>standard_conforming_strings</> + will be true, meaning backslashes will be treated literally in + non-E strings. To prepare for this change, use <literal>E''</> + strings in places that need special backslash processing, and + turn on <varname>escape_string_warning</> to find additional + strings that need to be converted to use <literal>E''</>. + Also, use two single-quotes (<literal>''</>) to embed a literal + single-quote in a string, rather than the + <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>-supported syntax of + backslash single-quote (<literal>\'</>). The former is + standards-conforming and does not require the use of the + <literal>E''</> string syntax. You can also use the + <literal>$$</> string syntax, which does not treat backslashes + specially. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <command>REINDEX DATABASE</> reindex all indexes in the + database (Tom) + </para> + <para> + Formerly, <command>REINDEX DATABASE</> reindexed only + system tables. This new behavior seems more intuitive. A new + command <command>REINDEX SYSTEM</> provides the old functionality + of reindexing just the system tables. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Read-only large object descriptors now obey MVCC snapshot semantics + </para> + <para> + When a large object is opened with <literal>INV_READ</> (and not + <literal>INV_WRITE</>), the data read from the descriptor will now + reflect a <quote>snapshot</> of the large object's state at the + time of the transaction snapshot in use by the query that called + <function>lo_open()</>. To obtain the old behavior of always + returning the latest committed data, include <literal>INV_WRITE</> + in the mode flags for <function>lo_open()</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add proper dependencies for arguments of sequence functions (Tom) + </para> + <para> + In previous releases, sequence names passed to <function>nextval()</>, + <function>currval()</>, and <function>setval()</> were stored as + simple text strings, meaning that renaming or dropping a + sequence used in a <literal>DEFAULT</> clause made the clause + invalid. This release stores all newly-created sequence function + arguments as internal OIDs, allowing them to track sequence + renaming, and adding dependency information that prevents + improper sequence removal. It also makes such <literal>DEFAULT</> + clauses immune to schema renaming and search path changes. + </para> + <para> + Some applications might rely on the old behavior of + run-time lookup for sequence names. This can still be done by + explicitly casting the argument to <type>text</>, for example + <literal>nextval('myseq'::text)</>. + </para> + <para> + Pre-8.1 database dumps loaded into 8.1 will use the old text-based + representation and therefore will not have the features of + OID-stored arguments. However, it is possible to update a + database containing text-based <literal>DEFAULT</> clauses. + First, save this query into a file, such as <filename>fixseq.sql</>: +<programlisting> +SELECT 'ALTER TABLE ' || + pg_catalog.quote_ident(n.nspname) || '.' || + pg_catalog.quote_ident(c.relname) || + ' ALTER COLUMN ' || pg_catalog.quote_ident(a.attname) || + ' SET DEFAULT ' || + regexp_replace(d.adsrc, + $$val\(\(('[^']*')::text\)::regclass$$, + $$val(\1$$, + 'g') || + ';' +FROM pg_namespace n, pg_class c, pg_attribute a, pg_attrdef d +WHERE n.oid = c.relnamespace AND + c.oid = a.attrelid AND + a.attrelid = d.adrelid AND + a.attnum = d.adnum AND + d.adsrc ~ $$val\(\('[^']*'::text\)::regclass$$; +</programlisting> + Next, run the query against a database to find what + adjustments are required, like this for database <literal>db1</>: +<programlisting> +psql -t -f fixseq.sql db1 +</programlisting> + This will show the <command>ALTER TABLE</> commands needed to + convert the database to the newer OID-based representation. + If the commands look reasonable, run this to update the database: +<programlisting> +psql -t -f fixseq.sql db1 | psql -e db1 +</programlisting> + This process must be repeated in each database to be updated. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + In <application>psql</application>, treat unquoted + <literal>\{digit}+</> sequences as octal (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + In previous releases, <literal>\{digit}+</> sequences were + treated as decimal, and only <literal>\0{digit}+</> were treated + as octal. This change was made for consistency. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove grammar productions for prefix and postfix <literal>%</> + and <literal>^</> operators + (Tom) + </para> + <para> + These have never been documented and complicated the use of the + modulus operator (<literal>%</>) with negative numbers. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <literal>&<</> and <literal>&></> for polygons + consistent with the box "over" operators (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</> can ignore the provided arguments + in favor of information from <structname>pg_pltemplate</> + (Tom) + </para> + <para> + A new system catalog <structname>pg_pltemplate</> has been defined + to carry information about the preferred definitions of procedural + languages (such as whether they have validator functions). When + an entry exists in this catalog for the language being created, + <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</> will ignore all its parameters except the + language name and instead use the catalog information. This measure + was taken because of increasing problems with obsolete language + definitions being loaded by old dump files. As of 8.1, + <application>pg_dump</> will dump procedural language definitions as + just <command>CREATE LANGUAGE <replaceable>name</></command>, relying + on a template entry to exist at load time. We expect this will be a + more future-proof representation. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <function>pg_cancel_backend(int)</function> return a + <type>boolean</type> rather than an <type>integer</type> (Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Some users are having problems loading UTF-8 data into 8.1.X. + This is because previous versions allowed invalid UTF-8 byte + sequences to be entered into the database, and this release + properly accepts only valid UTF-8 sequences. One way to correct a + dumpfile is to run the command <command>iconv -c -f UTF-8 -t + UTF-8 -o cleanfile.sql dumpfile.sql</>. The <literal>-c</> option + removes invalid character sequences. A diff of the two files will + show the sequences that are invalid. <command>iconv</> reads the + entire input file into memory so it might be necessary to use + <application>split</> to break up the dump into multiple smaller + files for processing. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect2> + + <sect2> + <title>Additional Changes</title> + + <para> + Below you will find a detailed account of the additional changes + between <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.1 and the + previous major release. + </para> + + <sect3> + <title>Performance Improvements</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve GiST and R-tree index performance (Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve the optimizer, including auto-resizing of hash joins + (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Overhaul internal API in several areas + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Change WAL record CRCs from 64-bit to 32-bit (Tom) + </para> + <para> + We determined that the extra cost of computing 64-bit CRCs was + significant, and the gain in reliability too marginal to justify it. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent writing large empty gaps in WAL pages (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve spinlock behavior on SMP machines, particularly Opterons (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow nonconsecutive index columns to be used in a multicolumn + index (Tom) + </para> + <para> + For example, this allows an index on columns a,b,c to be used in + a query with <command>WHERE a = 4 and c = 10</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Skip WAL logging for <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> / + <command>SELECT INTO</> (Simon) + </para> + <para> + Since a crash during <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> would cause the + table to be dropped during recovery, there is no reason to WAL + log as the table is loaded. (Logging still happens if WAL + archiving is enabled, however.) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow concurrent GiST index access (Teodor, Oleg) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add configuration parameter <varname>full_page_writes</> to + control writing full pages to WAL (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + To prevent partial disk writes from corrupting the database, + <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> writes a complete copy of + each database disk page to WAL the first time it is modified + after a checkpoint. This option turns off that functionality for more + speed. This is safe to use with battery-backed disk caches where + partial page writes cannot happen. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Use <literal>O_DIRECT</> if available when using + <literal>O_SYNC</> for <varname>wal_sync_method</varname> + (Itagaki Takahiro) + </para> + <para> + <literal>O_DIRECT</> causes disk writes to bypass the kernel + cache, and for WAL writes, this improves performance. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve <command>COPY FROM</> performance (Alon Goldshuv) + </para> + <para> + This was accomplished by reading <command>COPY</> input in + larger chunks, rather than character by character. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve the performance of <function>COUNT()</function>, + <function>SUM</function>, <function>AVG()</function>, + <function>STDDEV()</function>, and + <function>VARIANCE()</function> (Neil, Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + <sect3> + <title>Server Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent problems due to transaction ID (XID) wraparound (Tom) + </para> + <para> + The server will now warn when the transaction counter approaches + the wraparound point. If the counter becomes too close to wraparound, + the server will stop accepting queries. This ensures that data is + not lost before needed vacuuming is performed. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix problems with object IDs (OIDs) conflicting with existing system + objects after the OID counter has wrapped around (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add warning about the need to increase + <varname>max_fsm_relations</> and <varname>max_fsm_pages</> + during <command>VACUUM</> (Ron Mayer) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <varname>temp_buffers</> configuration parameter to allow + users to determine the size of the local buffer area for + temporary table access (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add session start time and client IP address to + <literal>pg_stat_activity</> (Magnus) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Adjust <literal>pg_stat</> views for bitmap scans (Tom) + </para> + <para> + The meanings of some of the fields have changed slightly. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Enhance <literal>pg_locks</> view (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Log queries for client-side <command>PREPARE</> and + <command>EXECUTE</> (Simon) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow Kerberos name and user name case sensitivity to be + specified in <filename>postgresql.conf</> (Magnus) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add configuration parameter <varname>krb_server_hostname</> so + that the server host name can be specified as part of service + principal (Todd Kover) + </para> + <para> + If not set, any service principal matching an entry in the + keytab can be used. This is new Kerberos matching behavior in + this release. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <varname>log_line_prefix</> options for millisecond + timestamps (<literal>%m</>) and remote host (<literal>%h</>) (Ed + L.) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add WAL logging for GiST indexes (Teodor, Oleg) + </para> + <para> + GiST indexes are now safe for crash and point-in-time recovery. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove old <filename>*.backup</> files when we do + <function>pg_stop_backup()</> (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + This prevents a large number of <filename>*.backup</> files from + existing in <filename>pg_xlog/</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add configuration parameters to control TCP/IP keep-alive + times for idle, interval, and count (Oliver Jowett) + </para> + + <para> + These values can be changed to allow more rapid detection of + lost client connections. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add per-user and per-database connection limits (Petr Jelinek) + </para> + <para> + Using <command>ALTER USER</> and <command>ALTER DATABASE</>, + limits can now be enforced on the maximum number of sessions that + can concurrently connect as a specific user or to a specific database. + Setting the limit to zero disables user or database connections. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow more than two gigabytes of shared memory and per-backend + work memory on 64-bit machines (Koichi Suzuki) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + New system catalog <structname>pg_pltemplate</> allows overriding + obsolete procedural-language definitions in dump files (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>Query Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add temporary views (Koju Iijima, Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <command>HAVING</> without any aggregate functions or + <command>GROUP BY</> so that the query returns a single group (Tom) + </para> + <para> + Previously, such a case would treat the <command>HAVING</> + clause the same as a <command>WHERE</> clause. This was not per spec. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>USING</> clause to allow additional tables to be + specified to <command>DELETE</> (Euler Taveira de Oliveira, Neil) + </para> + <para> + In prior releases, there was no clear method for specifying + additional tables to be used for joins in a <command>DELETE</> + statement. <command>UPDATE</> already has a <literal>FROM</> + clause for this purpose. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for <literal>\x</> hex escapes in backend and ecpg + strings (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + This is just like the standard C <literal>\x</> escape syntax. + Octal escapes were already supported. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>BETWEEN SYMMETRIC</> query syntax (Pavel Stehule) + </para> + <para> + This feature allows <command>BETWEEN</> comparisons without + requiring the first value to be less than the second. For + example, <command>2 BETWEEN [ASYMMETRIC] 3 AND 1</> returns + false, while <command>2 BETWEEN SYMMETRIC 3 AND 1</> returns + true. <command>BETWEEN ASYMMETRIC</> was already supported. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>NOWAIT</> option to <command>SELECT ... FOR + UPDATE/SHARE</> (Hans-Juergen Schoenig) + </para> + <para> + While the <varname>statement_timeout</> configuration + parameter allows a query taking more than a certain amount of + time to be cancelled, the <command>NOWAIT</> option allows a + query to be canceled as soon as a <command>SELECT ... FOR + UPDATE/SHARE</> command cannot immediately acquire a row lock. + </para> + </listitem> + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>Object Manipulation Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Track dependencies of shared objects (Alvaro) + </para> + <para> + <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> allows global tables + (users, databases, tablespaces) to reference information in + multiple databases. This addition adds dependency information + for global tables, so, for example, user ownership can be + tracked across databases, so a user who owns something in any + database can no longer be removed. Dependency tracking already + existed for database-local objects. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow limited <command>ALTER OWNER</> commands to be performed + by the object owner (Stephen Frost) + </para> + <para> + Prior releases allowed only superusers to change object owners. + Now, ownership can be transferred if the user executing the command + owns the object and would be able to create it as the new owner + (that is, the user is a member of the new owning role and that role + has the CREATE permission that would be needed to create the object + afresh). + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>ALTER</> object <command>SET SCHEMA</> capability + for some object types (tables, functions, types) (Bernd Helmle) + </para> + <para> + This allows objects to be moved to different schemas. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>ALTER TABLE ENABLE/DISABLE TRIGGER</command> to + disable triggers (Satoshi Nagayasu) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>Utility Command Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow <command>TRUNCATE</> to truncate multiple tables in a + single command (Alvaro) + </para> + <para> + Because of referential integrity checks, it is not allowed to + truncate a table that is part of a referential integrity + constraint. Using this new functionality, <command>TRUNCATE</> + can be used to truncate such tables, if both tables involved in + a referential integrity constraint are truncated in a single + <command>TRUNCATE</> command. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Properly process carriage returns and line feeds in + <command>COPY CSV</> mode (Andrew) + </para> + <para> + In release 8.0, carriage returns and line feeds in <command>CSV + COPY TO</> were processed in an inconsistent manner. (This was + documented on the TODO list.) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>COPY WITH CSV HEADER</> to allow a header line as + the first line in <command>COPY</> (Andrew) + </para> + <para> + This allows handling of the common <command>CSV</> usage of + placing the column names on the first line of the data file. For + <command>COPY TO</>, the first line contains the column names, + and for <command>COPY FROM</>, the first line is ignored. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + On Windows, display better sub-second precision in + <command>EXPLAIN ANALYZE</> (Magnus) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add trigger duration display to <command>EXPLAIN ANALYZE</> + (Tom) + </para> + <para> + Prior releases included trigger execution time as part of the + total execution time, but did not show it separately. It is now + possible to see how much time is spent in each trigger. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for <literal>\x</> hex escapes in <command>COPY</> + (Sergey Ten) + </para> + <para> + Previous releases only supported octal escapes. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <command>SHOW ALL</> include variable descriptions + (Matthias Schmidt) + </para> + <para> + <command>SHOW</> varname still only displays the variable's + value and does not include the description. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <application>initdb</application> create a new standard + database called <literal>postgres</>, and convert utilities to + use <literal>postgres</> rather than <literal>template1</> for + standard lookups (Dave) + </para> + <para> + In prior releases, <literal>template1</> was used both as a + default connection for utilities like + <application>createuser</application>, and as a template for + new databases. This caused <command>CREATE DATABASE</> to + sometimes fail, because a new database cannot be created if + anyone else is in the template database. With this change, the + default connection database is now <literal>postgres</>, + meaning it is much less likely someone will be using + <literal>template1</> during <command>CREATE DATABASE</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Create new <application>reindexdb</application> command-line + utility by moving <filename>/contrib/reindexdb</> into the + server (Euler Taveira de Oliveira) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>Data Type and Function Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>MAX()</> and <function>MIN()</> aggregates for + array types (Koju Iijima) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <function>to_date()</> and <function>to_timestamp()</> to + behave reasonably when <literal>CC</> and <literal>YY</> fields + are both used (Karel Zak) + </para> + <para> + If the format specification contains <literal>CC</> and a year + specification is <literal>YYY</> or longer, ignore the + <literal>CC</>. If the year specification is <literal>YY</> or + shorter, interpret <literal>CC</> as the previous century. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>md5(bytea)</> (Abhijit Menon-Sen) + </para> + <para> + <function>md5(text)</> already existed. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for <command>numeric ^ numeric</> based on + <function>power(numeric, numeric)</> + </para> + <para> + The function already existed, but there was no operator assigned + to it. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <type>NUMERIC</> modulus by properly truncating the quotient + during computation (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + In previous releases, modulus for large values sometimes + returned negative results due to rounding of the quotient. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add a function <function>lastval()</> (Dennis Björklund) + </para> + <para> + <function>lastval()</> is a simplified version of + <function>currval()</>. It automatically determines the proper + sequence name based on the most recent <function>nextval()</> or + <function>setval()</> call performed by the current session. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>to_timestamp(DOUBLE PRECISION) (Michael Glaesemann)</> + </para> + <para> + Converts Unix seconds since 1970 to a <type>TIMESTAMP WITH + TIMEZONE</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>pg_postmaster_start_time()</> function (Euler + Taveira de Oliveira, Matthias Schmidt) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow the full use of time zone names in <command>AT TIME + ZONE</>, not just the short list previously available (Magnus) + </para> + <para> + Previously, only a predefined list of time zone names were + supported by <command>AT TIME ZONE</>. Now any supported time + zone name can be used, e.g.: + <programlisting> + SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP AT TIME ZONE 'Europe/London'; + </programlisting> + In the above query, the time zone used is adjusted based on the + daylight saving time rules that were in effect on the supplied + date. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>GREATEST()</> and <function>LEAST()</> variadic + functions (Pavel Stehule) + </para> + <para> + These functions take a variable number of arguments and return + the greatest or least value among the arguments. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>pg_column_size()</> (Mark Kirkwood) + </para> + <para> + This returns storage size of a column, which might be compressed. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>regexp_replace()</> (Atsushi Ogawa) + </para> + <para> + This allows regular expression replacement, like sed. An optional + flag argument allows selection of global (replace all) and + case-insensitive modes. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix interval division and multiplication (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + Previous versions sometimes returned unjustified results, like + <command>'4 months'::interval / 5</> returning <command>'1 mon + -6 days'</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix roundoff behavior in timestamp, time, and interval output (Tom) + </para> + <para> + This fixes some cases in which the seconds field would be shown as + <literal>60</> instead of incrementing the higher-order fields. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add a separate day field to type <type>interval</> so a one day + interval can be distinguished from a 24 hour interval (Michael + Glaesemann) + </para> + <para> + Days that contain a daylight saving time adjustment are not 24 + hours long, but typically 23 or 25 hours. This change creates a + conceptual distinction between intervals of <quote>so many days</> + and intervals of <quote>so many hours</>. Adding + <literal>1 day</> to a timestamp now gives the same local time on + the next day even if a daylight saving time adjustment occurs + between, whereas adding <literal>24 hours</> will give a different + local time when this happens. For example, under US DST rules: + <programlisting> + '2005-04-03 00:00:00-05' + '1 day' = '2005-04-04 00:00:00-04' + '2005-04-03 00:00:00-05' + '24 hours' = '2005-04-04 01:00:00-04' + </programlisting> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>justify_days()</> and <function>justify_hours()</> + (Michael Glaesemann) + </para> + <para> + These functions, respectively, adjust days to an appropriate + number of full months and days, and adjust hours to an + appropriate number of full days and hours. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Move <filename>/contrib/dbsize</> into the backend, and rename + some of the functions (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug) + </para> + <para> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_tablespace_size()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_database_size()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_relation_size()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_total_relation_size()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_size_pretty()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </para> + <para> + <function>pg_total_relation_size()</> includes indexes and TOAST + tables. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add functions for read-only file access to the cluster directory + (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug) + </para> + <para> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_stat_file()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_read_file()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <function>pg_ls_dir()</> + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>pg_reload_conf()</> to force reloading of the + configuration files (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>pg_rotate_logfile()</> to force rotation of the + server log file (Dave Page, Andreas Pflug) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Change <literal>pg_stat_*</> views to include TOAST tables (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>Encoding and Locale Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Rename some encodings to be more consistent and to follow + international standards (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + <literal>UNICODE</> is now <literal>UTF8</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <literal>ALT</> is now <literal>WIN866</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <literal>WIN</> is now <literal>WIN1251</> + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <literal>TCVN</> is now <literal>WIN1258</> + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </para> + + <para> + The original names still work. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for <literal>WIN1252</> encoding (Roland Volkmann) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for four-byte <literal>UTF8</> characters (John + Hansen) + </para> + <para> + Previously only one, two, and three-byte <literal>UTF8</> characters + were supported. This is particularly important for support for + some Chinese character sets. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow direct conversion between <literal>EUC_JP</> and + <literal>SJIS</> to improve performance (Atsushi Ogawa) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow the UTF8 encoding to work on Windows (Magnus) + </para> + <para> + This is done by mapping UTF8 to the Windows-native UTF16 + implementation. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>General Server-Side Language Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <command>ALTER LANGUAGE RENAME</> (Sergey Yatskevich) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow function characteristics, like strictness and volatility, + to be modified via <command>ALTER FUNCTION</> (Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Increase the maximum number of function arguments to 100 (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow SQL and PL/PgSQL functions to use <command>OUT</> and + <command>INOUT</> parameters (Tom) + </para> + <para> + <command>OUT</> is an alternate way for a function to return + values. Instead of using <command>RETURN</>, values can be + returned by assigning to parameters declared as <command>OUT</> or + <command>INOUT</>. This is notationally simpler in some cases, + particularly so when multiple values need to be returned. + While returning multiple values from a function + was possible in previous releases, this greatly simplifies the + process. (The feature will be extended to other server-side + languages in future releases.) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Move language handler functions into the <literal>pg_catalog</> schema + </para> + <para> + This makes it easier to drop the public schema if desired. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>SPI_getnspname()</function> to SPI (Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + <sect3> + <title>PL/PgSQL Server-Side Language Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Overhaul the memory management of PL/PgSQL functions (Neil) + </para> + <para> + The parsetree of each function is now stored in a separate + memory context. This allows this memory to be easily reclaimed + when it is no longer needed. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Check function syntax at <command>CREATE FUNCTION</> time, + rather than at runtime (Neil) + </para> + <para> + Previously, most syntax errors were reported only when the + function was executed. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow <command>OPEN</> to open non-<command>SELECT</> queries + like <command>EXPLAIN</> and <command>SHOW</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + No longer require functions to issue a <command>RETURN</> + statement (Tom) + </para> + <para> + This is a byproduct of the newly added <command>OUT</> and + <command>INOUT</> functionality. <command>RETURN</> can + be omitted when it is not needed to provide the function's + return value. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for an optional <command>INTO</> clause to + PL/PgSQL's <command>EXECUTE</> statement (Pavel Stehule, Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <command>CREATE TABLE AS</> set <command>ROW_COUNT</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Define <literal>SQLSTATE</> and <literal>SQLERRM</> to return + the <literal>SQLSTATE</> and error message of the current + exception (Pavel Stehule, Neil) + </para> + <para> + These variables are only defined inside exception blocks. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow the parameters to the <command>RAISE</> statement to be + expressions (Pavel Stehule, Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add a loop <command>CONTINUE</> statement (Pavel Stehule, Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow block and loop labels (Pavel Stehule) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>PL/Perl Server-Side Language Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow large result sets to be returned efficiently (Abhijit + Menon-Sen) + </para> + <para> + This allows functions to use <function>return_next()</> to avoid + building the entire result set in memory. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow one-row-at-a-time retrieval of query results (Abhijit Menon-Sen) + </para> + <para> + This allows functions to use <function>spi_query()</> and + <function>spi_fetchrow()</> to avoid accumulating the entire + result set in memory. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Force PL/Perl to handle strings as <literal>UTF8</> if the + server encoding is <literal>UTF8</> (David Kamholz) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add a validator function for PL/Perl (Andrew) + </para> + <para> + This allows syntax errors to be reported at definition time, + rather than execution time. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow PL/Perl to return a Perl array when the function returns + an array type (Andrew) + </para> + <para> + This basically maps <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> arrays + to Perl arrays. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow Perl nonfatal warnings to generate <command>NOTICE</> + messages (Andrew) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow Perl's <literal>strict</> mode to be enabled (Andrew) + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title><application>psql</> Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>\set ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK</> to allow statements in + a transaction to error without affecting the rest of the + transaction (Greg Sabino Mullane) + </para> + <para> + This is basically implemented by wrapping every statement in a + sub-transaction. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for <literal>\x</> hex strings in + <application>psql</> variables (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + Octal escapes were already supported. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for <command>troff -ms</> output format (Roger + Leigh) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow the history file location to be controlled by + <envar>HISTFILE</> (Andreas Seltenreich) + </para> + <para> + This allows configuration of per-database history storage. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Prevent <command>\x</> (expanded mode) from affecting + the output of <command>\d tablename</> (Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <option>-L</> option to <application>psql</application> to + log sessions (Lorne Sunley) + </para> + <para> + This option was added because some operating systems do not have + simple command-line activity logging functionality. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <command>\d</> show the tablespaces of indexes (Qingqing + Zhou) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow <application>psql</application> help (<command>\h</>) to + make a best guess on the proper help information (Greg Sabino + Mullane) + </para> + <para> + This allows the user to just add <command>\h</> to the front of + the syntax error query and get help on the supported syntax. + Previously any additional query text beyond the command name + had to be removed to use <command>\h</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <command>\pset numericlocale</> to allow numbers to be + output in a locale-aware format (Eugen Nedelcu) + </para> + <para> + For example, using <literal>C</> locale <literal>100000</> would + be output as <literal>100,000.0</> while a European locale might + output this value as <literal>100.000,0</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make startup banner show both server version number and + <application>psql</>'s version number, when they are different (Bruce) + </para> + <para> + Also, a warning will be shown if the server and <application>psql</> + are from different major releases. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title><application>pg_dump</> Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <option>-n</> / <option>--schema</> switch to + <application>pg_restore</> (Richard van den Berg) + </para> + <para> + This allows just the objects in a specified schema to be restored. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow <application>pg_dump</> to dump large objects even in + text mode (Tom) + </para> + <para> + With this change, large objects are now always dumped; the former + <option>-b</> switch is a no-op. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow <application>pg_dump</> to dump a consistent snapshot of + large objects (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Dump comments for large objects (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <option>--encoding</> to <application>pg_dump</> + (Magnus Hagander) + </para> + <para> + This allows a database to be dumped in an encoding that is + different from the server's encoding. This is valuable when + transferring the dump to a machine with a different encoding. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Rely on <structname>pg_pltemplate</> for procedural languages (Tom) + </para> + <para> + If the call handler for a procedural language is in the + <literal>pg_catalog</> schema, <application>pg_dump</> does not + dump the handler. Instead, it dumps the language using just + <command>CREATE LANGUAGE <replaceable>name</></command>, + relying on the <structname>pg_pltemplate</> catalog to provide + the language's creation parameters at load time. + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title><application>libpq</application> Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add a <envar>PGPASSFILE</> environment variable to specify the + password file's filename (Andrew) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <function>lo_create()</>, that is similar to + <function>lo_creat()</> but allows the OID of the large object + to be specified (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Make <application>libpq</application> consistently return an error + to the client application on <function>malloc()</function> + failure (Neil) + </para> + </listitem> + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>Source Code Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Fix <application>pgxs</> to support building against a relocated + installation + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add spinlock support for the Itanium processor using Intel + compiler (Vikram Kalsi) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add Kerberos 5 support for Windows (Magnus) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add Chinese FAQ ([email protected]) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Rename Rendezvous to Bonjour to match OS/X feature renaming + (Bruce) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add support for <literal>fsync_writethrough</literal> on + Darwin (Chris Campbell) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Streamline the passing of information within the server, the + optimizer, and the lock system (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow <application>pg_config</> to be compiled using MSVC (Andrew) + </para> + <para> + This is required to build DBD::Pg using <application>MSVC</>. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove support for Kerberos V4 (Magnus) + </para> + <para> + Kerberos 4 had security vulnerabilities and is no longer + maintained. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Code cleanups (Coverity static analysis performed by + EnterpriseDB) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Modify <filename>postgresql.conf</> to use documentation defaults + <literal>on</>/<literal>off</> rather than + <literal>true</>/<literal>false</> (Bruce) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Enhance <application>pg_config</> to be able to report more + build-time values (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow <application>libpq</application> to be built thread-safe + on Windows (Dave Page) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Allow IPv6 connections to be used on Windows (Andrew) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add Server Administration documentation about I/O subsystem + reliability (Bruce) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Move private declarations from <filename>gist.h</filename> to + <filename>gist_private.h</filename> (Neil) + </para> + + <para> + In previous releases, <filename>gist.h</> contained both the + public GiST API (intended for use by authors of GiST index + implementations) as well as some private declarations used by + the implementation of GiST itself. The latter have been moved + to a separate file, <filename>gist_private.h</>. Most GiST + index implementations should be unaffected. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Overhaul GiST memory management (Neil) + </para> + + <para> + GiST methods are now always invoked in a short-lived memory + context. Therefore, memory allocated via <function>palloc()</> + will be reclaimed automatically, so GiST index implementations + do not need to manually release allocated memory via + <function>pfree()</>. + </para> + </listitem> + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + + <sect3> + <title>Contrib Changes</title> + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Add <filename>/contrib/pg_buffercache</> contrib module (Mark + Kirkwood) + </para> + <para> + This displays the contents of the buffer cache, for debugging and + performance tuning purposes. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove <filename>/contrib/array</> because it is obsolete (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Clean up the <filename>/contrib/lo</> module (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Move <filename>/contrib/findoidjoins</> to + <filename>/src/tools</> (Tom) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove the <literal><<</>, <literal>>></>, + <literal>&<</>, and <literal>&></> operators from + <filename>/contrib/cube</> + </para> + <para> + These operators were not useful. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve <filename>/contrib/btree_gist</> (Janko Richter) + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve <filename>/contrib/pgbench</> (Tomoaki Sato, Tatsuo) + </para> + <para> + There is now a facility for testing with SQL command scripts given + by the user, instead of only a hard-wired command sequence. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Improve <filename>/contrib/pgcrypto</> (Marko Kreen) + </para> + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + Implementation of OpenPGP symmetric-key and public-key encryption + </para> + <para> + Both RSA and Elgamal public-key algorithms are supported. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Stand alone build: include SHA256/384/512 hashes, Fortuna PRNG + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + OpenSSL build: support 3DES, use internal AES with OpenSSL < 0.9.7 + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Take build parameters (OpenSSL, zlib) from <filename>configure</> result + </para> + <para> + There is no need to edit the <filename>Makefile</> anymore. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + Remove support for <filename>libmhash</> and <filename>libmcrypt</> + </para> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + </sect3> + + </sect2> + </sect1> |