HISTORY

Chapter 0. Release Notes

	Table of Contents
	Release 6.5.3
	Release 6.5.2
	Release 6.5.1
	Release 6.5
	Release 6.4.2
	Release 6.4.1
	Release 6.4
	Release 6.3.2
	Release 6.3.1
	Release 6.3
	Release 6.2.1
	Release 6.2
	Release 6.1.1
	Release 6.1
	Release v6.0
	Release v1.09
	Release v1.02
	Release v1.01
	Release v1.0
	Postgres95 Beta 0.03
	Postgres95 Beta 0.02
	Postgres95 Beta 0.01
	Timing Results

Release 6.5.3

This is basically a cleanup release for 6.5.2. We have added a new pgaccess
that was missing in 6.5.2, and installed an NT-specific fix.

Migration to v6.5.3

A dump/restore is not required for those running 6.5.*.

Detailed Change List

Updated version of pgaccess 0.98
NT-specific patch

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Release 6.5.2
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.5.2

This is basically a cleanup release for 6.5.1. We have fixed a variety of
problems reported by 6.5.1 users.

Migration to v6.5.2

A dump/restore is not required for those running 6.5.*.

Detailed Change List

subselect+CASE fixes(Tom)
Add SHLIB_LINK setting for solaris_i386 and solaris_sparc ports(Daren Sefcik)
Fixes for CASE in WHERE join clauses(Tom)
Fix BTScan abort(Tom)
Repair the check for redundant UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY indices(Thomas)
Improve it so that it checks for multi-column constraints(Thomas)
Fix for Win32 making problem with MB enabled(Hiroki Kataoka)
Allow BSD yacc and bison to compile pl code(Bruce)
Fix SET NAMES working
int8 fixes(Thomas)
Fix vacuum's memory consumption(Hiroshi,Tatsuo)
Reduce the total memory consumption of vacuum(Tom)
Fix for timestamp(datetime)
Rule deparsing bugfixes(Tom)
Fix quoting problems in mkMakefile.tcldefs.sh.in and mkMakefile.tkdefs.sh.in(Tom)
This is to re-use space on index pages freed by vacuum(Vadim)
document -x for pg_dump(Bruce)
Fix for unary operators in rule deparser(Tom)
Comment out FileUnlink of excess segments during mdtruncate()(Tom)
Irix linking fix from Yu Cao yucao@falcon.kla-tencor.com
Repair logic error in LIKE: should not return LIKE_ABORT
   when reach end of pattern before end of text(Tom)
Repair incorrect cleanup of heap memory allocation during transaction abort(Tom)
Updated version of pgaccess 0.98

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release Notes                                                  Release 6.5.1
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.5.1

This is basically a cleanup release for 6.5. We have fixed a variety of
problems reported by 6.5 users.

Migration to v6.5.1

A dump/restore is not required for those running 6.5.

Detailed Change List

Add NT README file
Portability fixes for linux_ppc, Irix, linux_alpha, OpenBSD, alpha
Remove QUERY_LIMIT, use SELECT...LIMIT
Fix for EXPLAIN on inheritance(Tom)
Patch to allow vacuum on multi-segment tables(Hiroshi)
R-Tree optimizer selectivity fix(Tom)
ACL file descriptor leak fix(Atsushi Ogawa)
New expresssion subtree code(Tom)
Avoid disk writes for read-only transactions(Vadim)
Fix for removal of temp tables if last transaction was aborted(Bruce)
Fix to prevent too large tuple from being created(Bruce)
plpgsql fixes
Allow port numbers 32k - 64k(Bruce)
Add ^ precidence(Bruce)
Rename sort files called pg_temp to pg_sorttemp(Bruce)
Fix for microseconds in time values(Tom)
Tutorial source cleanup
New linux_m68k port
Fix for sorting of NULL's in some cases(Tom)
Shared library dependencies fixed (Tom)
Fixed glitches affecting GROUP BY in subselects(Tom)
Fix some compiler warnings (Tomoaki Nishiyama)
Add Win1250 (Czech) support (Pavel Behal)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 6.5.2                                                    Release 6.5
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.5

This release marks a major step in the development team's mastery of the
source code we inherited from Berkeley. You will see we are now easily
adding major features, thanks to the increasing size and experience of our
world-wide development team.

Here is a brief summary of the more notable changes:

Multi-version concurrency control(MVCC)

     This removes our old table-level locking, and replaces it with a
     locking system that is superior to most commercial database systems. In
     a traditional system, each row that is modified is locked until
     committed, preventing reads by other users. MVCC uses the natural
     multi-version nature of PostgreSQL to allow readers to continue reading
     consistent data during writer activity. Writers continue to use the
     compact pg_log transaction system. This is all performed without having
     to allocate a lock for every row like traditional database systems. So,
     basically, we no longer are restricted by simple table-level locking;
     we have something better than row-level locking.

Hot backups from pg_dump

     pg_dump takes advantage of the new MVCC features to give a consistant
     database dump/backup while the database stays online and available for
     queries.

Numeric data type

     We now have a true numeric data type, with user-specified precision.

Temporary tables

     Temporary tables are guaranteed to have unique names within a database
     session, and are destroyed on session exit.

New SQL features

     We now have CASE, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT statement support. We have new
     LIMIT/OFFSET, SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL, SELECT ... FOR UPDATE,
     and an improved LOCK TABLE command.

Speedups

     We continue to speed up PostgreSQL, thanks to the variety of talents
     within our team. We have sped up memory allocation, optimization, table
     joins, and row transfer routines.

Ports

     We continue to expand our port list, this time including WinNT/ix86 and
     NetBSD/arm32.

Interfaces

     Most interfaces have new versions, and existing functionality has been
     improved.

Documentation

     New and updated material is present throughout the documentation. New
     FAQs have been contributed for SGI and AIX platforms. The Tutorial has
     introductory information on SQL from Stefan Simkovics. For the User's
     Guide, there are reference pages covering the postmaster and more
     utility programs, and a new appendix contains details on date/time
     behavior. The Administrator's Guide has a new chapter on
     troubleshooting from Tom Lane. And the Programmer's Guide has a
     description of query processing, also from Stefan, and details on
     obtaining the Postgres source tree via anonymous CVS and CVSup.

Migration to v6.5

A dump/restore using pg_dump is required for those wishing to migrate data
from any previous release of Postgres. pg_upgrade can not be used to upgrade
to this release because the on-disk structure of the tables has changed
compared to previous releases.

The new Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) features can give somewhat
different behaviors in multi-user environments. Read and understand the
following section to ensure that your existing applications will give you
the behavior you need.

Multi-Version Concurrency Control

Because readers in 6.5 don't lock data, regardless of transaction isolation
level, data read by one transaction can be overwritten by another. In other
words, if a row is returned by SELECT it doesn't mean that this row really
exists at the time it is returned (i.e. sometime after the statement or
transaction began) nor that the row is protected from being deleted or
updated by concurrent transactions before the current transaction does a
commit or rollback.

To ensure the actual existence of a row and protect it against concurrent
updates one must use SELECT FOR UPDATE or an appropriate LOCK TABLE
statement. This should be taken into account when porting applications from
previous releases of Postgres and other environments.

Keep the above in mind if you are using contrib/refint.* triggers for
referential integrity. Additional technics are required now. One way is to
use LOCK parent_table IN SHARE ROW EXCLUSIVE MODE command if a transaction
is going to update/delete a primary key and use LOCK parent_table IN SHARE
MODE command if a transaction is going to update/insert a foreign key.

     Note: Note that if you run a transaction in SERIALIZABLE mode then
     you must execute the LOCK commands above before execution of any
     DML statement (SELECT/INSERT/DELETE/UPDATE/FETCH/COPY_TO) in the
     transaction.

These inconveniences will disappear in the future when the ability to read
dirty (uncommitted) data (regardless of isolation level) and true
referential integrity will be implemented.

Detailed Change List

Bug Fixes
---------
Fix text<->float8 and text<->float4 conversion functions(Thomas)
Fix for creating tables with mixed-case constraints(Billy)
Change exp()/pow() behavior to generate error on underflow/overflow(Jan)
Fix bug in pg_dump -z
Memory overrun cleanups(Tatsuo)
Fix for lo_import crash(Tatsuo)
Adjust handling of data type names to suppress double quotes(Thomas)
Use type coersion for matching columns and DEFAULT(Thomas)
Fix deadlock so it only checks once after one second of sleep(Bruce)
Fixes for aggregates and PL/pgsql(Hiroshi)
Fix for subquery crash(Vadim)
Fix for libpq function PQfnumber and case-insensitive names(Bahman Rafatjoo)
Fix for large object write-in-middle, no extra block, memory consumption(Tatsuo)
Fix for pg_dump -d or -D and  quote special characters in INSERT
Repair serious problems with dynahash(Tom)
Fix INET/CIDR portability problems
Fix problem with selectivity error in ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN(Bruce)
Fix executor so mergejoin of different column types works(Tom)
Fix for Alpha OR selectivity bug
Fix OR index selectivity problem(Bruce)
Fix so \d shows proper length for char()/varchar()(Ryan)
Fix tutorial code(Clark)
Improve destroyuser checking(Oliver)
Fix for Kerberos(Rodney McDuff)
Fix for dropping database while dirty buffers(Bruce)
Fix so sequence nextval() can be case-sensitive(Bruce)
Fix !!= operator
Drop buffers before destroying database files(Bruce)
Fix case where executor evaluates functions twice(Tatsuo)
Allow sequence nextval actions to be case-sensitive(Bruce)
Fix optimizer indexing not working for negative numbers(Bruce)
Fix for memory leak in executor with fjIsNull
Fix for aggregate memory leaks(Erik Riedel)
Allow username containing a dash GRANT permissions
Cleanup of NULL in inet types
Clean up system table bugs(Tom)
Fix problems of PAGER and \? command(Masaaki Sakaida)
Reduce default multi-segment file size limit to 1GB(Peter)
Fix for dumping of CREATE OPERATOR(Tom)
Fix for backward scanning of cursors(Hiroshi Inoue)
Fix for COPY FROM STDIN when using \i(Tom)
Fix for subselect is compared inside an expression(Jan)
Fix handling of error reporting while returning rows(Tom)
Fix problems with reference to array types(Tom,Jan)
Prevent UPDATE SET oid(Jan)
Fix pg_dump so -t option can handle case-sensitive tablenames
Fixes for GROUP BY in special cases(Tom, Jan)
Fix for memory leak in failed queries(Tom)
DEFAULT now supports mixed-case identifiers(Tom)
Fix for multi-segment uses of DROP/RENAME table, indexes(Ole Gjerde)
Disable use of pg_dump with both -o and -d options(Bruce)
Allow pg_dump to properly dump GROUP permissions(Bruce)
Fix GROUP BY in INSERT INTO table SELECT * FROM table2(Jan)
Fix for computations in views(Jan)
Fix for aggregates on array indexes(Tom)
Fix for DEFAULT handles single quotes in value requiring too many quotes
Fix security problem with non-super users importing/exporting large objects(Tom)
Rollback of transaction that creates table cleaned up properly(Tom)
Fix to allow long table and column names to generate proper serial names(Tom)

Enhancements
------------
Add "vacuumdb" utility
Speed up libpq by allocating memory better(Tom)
EXPLAIN all indices used(Tom)
Implement CASE, COALESCE, NULLIF  expression(Thomas)
New pg_dump table output format(Constantin)
Add string min()/max() functions(Thomas)
Extend new type coersion techniques to aggregates(Thomas)
New moddatetime contrib(Terry)
Update to pgaccess 0.96(Constantin)
Add routines for single-byte "char" type(Thomas)
Improved substr() function(Thomas)
Improved multi-byte handling(Tatsuo)
Multi-version concurrency control/MVCC(Vadim)
New Serialized mode(Vadim)
Fix for tables over 2gigs(Peter)
New SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL(Vadim)
New LOCK TABLE IN ... MODE(Vadim)
Update ODBC driver(Byron)
New NUMERIC data type(Jan)
New SELECT FOR UPDATE(Vadim)
Handle "NaN" and "Infinity" for input values(Jan)
Improved date/year handling(Thomas)
Improved handling of backend connections(Magnus)
New options ELOG_TIMESTAMPS and USE_SYSLOG options for log files(Massimo)
New TCL_ARRAYS option(Massimo)
New INTERSECT and EXCEPT(Stefan)
New pg_index.indisprimary for primary key tracking(D'Arcy)
New pg_dump option to allow dropping of tables before creation(Brook)
Speedup of row output routines(Tom)
New READ COMMITTED isolation level(Vadim)
New TEMP tables/indexes(Bruce)
Prevent sorting if result is already sorted(Jan)
New memory allocation optimization(Jan)
Allow psql to do \p\g(Bruce)
Allow multiple rule actions(Jan)
Added LIMIT/OFFSET functionality(Jan)
Improve optimizer when joining a large number of tables(Bruce)
New intro to SQL from S. Simkovics' Master's Thesis (Stefan, Thomas)
New intro to backend processing from S. Simkovics' Master's Thesis (Stefan)
Improved int8 support(Ryan Bradetich, Thomas, Tom)
New routines to convert between int8 and text/varchar types(Thomas)
New bushy plans, where meta-tables are joined(Bruce)
Enable right-hand queries by default(Bruce)
Allow reliable maximum number of backends to be set at configure time
      (--with-maxbackends and postmaster switch (-N backends))(Tom)
GEQO default now 10 tables because of optimizer speedups(Tom)
Allow NULL=Var for MS-SQL portability(Michael, Bruce)
Modify contrib check_primary_key() so either "automatic" or "dependent"(Anand)
Allow psql \d on a view show query(Ryan)
Speedup for LIKE(Bruce)
Ecpg fixes/features, see src/interfaces/ecpg/ChangeLog file(Michael)
JDBC fixes/features, see src/interfaces/jdbc/CHANGELOG(Peter)
Make % operator have precedence like /(Bruce)
Add new postgres -O option to allow system table structure changes(Bruce)
Update contrib/pginterface/findoidjoins script(Tom)
Major speedup in vacuum of deleted rows with indexes(Vadim)
Allow non-SQL functions to run different versions based on arguments(Tom)
Add -E option that shows actual queries sent by \dt and friends(Masaaki Sakaida)
Add version number in startup banners for psql(Masaaki Sakaida)
New contrib/vacuumlo removes large objects not referenced(Peter)
New initialization for table sizes so non-vacuumed tables perform better(Tom)
Improve error messages when a connection is rejected(Tom)
Support for arrays of char() and varchar() fields(Massimo)
Overhaul of hash code to increase reliability and performance(Tom)
Update to PyGreSQL 2.4(D'Arcy)
Changed debug options so -d4 and -d5 produce different node displays(Jan)
New pg_options: pretty_plan, pretty_parse, pretty_rewritten(Jan)
Better optimization statistics for system table access(Tom)
Better handling of non-default block sizes(Massimo)
Improve GEQO optimizer memory consumption(Tom)
UNION now suppports ORDER BY of columns not in target list(Jan)
Major libpq++ improvements(Vince Vielhaber)
pg_dump now uses -z(ACL's) as default(Bruce)
backend cache, memory speedups(Tom)
have pg_dump do everything in one snapshot transaction(Vadim)
fix for large object memory leakage, fix for pg_dumping(Tom)
INET type now respects netmask for comparisons
Make VACUUM ANALYZE only use a readlock(Vadim)
Allow VIEWs on UNIONS(Jan)
pg_dump now can generate consistent snapshots on active databases(Vadim)

Source Tree Changes
-------------------
Improve port matching(Tom)
Portability fixes for SunOS
Add NT/Win32 backend port and enable dynamic loading(Magnus and Daniel Horak)
New port to Cobalt Qube(Mips) running Linux(Tatsuo)
Port to NetBSD/m68k(Mr. Mutsuki Nakajima)
Port to NetBSD/sun3(Mr. Mutsuki Nakajima)
Port to NetBSD/macppc(Toshimi Aoki)
Fix for tcl/tk configuration(Vince)
Removed CURRENT keyword for rule queries(Jan)
NT dynamic loading now works(Daniel Horak)
Add ARM32 support(Andrew McMurry)
Better support for HPUX 11 and Unixware
Improve file handling to be more uniform, prevent file descriptor leak(Tom)
New install commands for plpgsql(Jan)


  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 6.5.1                                                  Release 6.4.2
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.4.2

The 6.4.1 release was improperly packaged. This also has one additional bug
fix.

Migration to v6.4.2

A dump/restore is not required for those running 6.4.*.

Detailed Change List

Fix for datetime constant problem on some platforms(Thomas)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 6.5                                                    Release 6.4.1
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.4.1

This is basically a cleanup release for 6.4. We have fixed a variety of
problems reported by 6.4 users.

Migration to v6.4.1

A dump/restore is not required for those running 6.4.

Detailed Change List

Add pg_dump -N flag to force double quotes around identifiers.  This is
        the default(Thomas)
Fix for NOT in where clause causing crash(Bruce)
EXPLAIN VERBOSE coredump fix(Vadim)
Fix shared-library problems on Linux
Fix test for table existance to allow mixed-case and whitespace in
        the table name(Thomas)
Fix a couple of pg_dump bugs
Configure matches template/.similar entries better(Tom)
Change builtin function names from SPI_* to spi_*
OR WHERE clause fix(Vadim)
Fixes for mixed-case table names(Billy)
contrib/linux/postgres.init.csh/sh fix(Thomas)
libpq memory overrun fix
SunOS fixes(Tom)
Change exp() behavior to generate error on underflow(Thomas)
pg_dump fixes for memory leak, inheritance constraints, layout change
update pgaccess to 0.93
Fix prototype for 64-bit platforms
Multi-byte fixes(Tatsuo)
New ecpg man page
Fix memory overruns(Tatsuo)
Fix for lo_import() crash(Bruce)
Better search for install program(Tom)
Timezone fixes(Tom)
HPUX fixes(Tom)
Use implicit type coersion for matching DEFAULT values(Thomas)
Add routines to help with single-byte (internal) character type(Thomas)
Compilation of libpq for Win32 fixes(Magnus)
Upgrade to PyGreSQL 2.2(D'Arcy)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 6.4.2                                                    Release 6.4
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.4

There are many new features and improvements in this release. Thanks to our
developers and maintainers, nearly every aspect of the system has received
some attention since the previous release. Here is a brief, incomplete
summary:

   * Views and rules are now functional thanks to extensive new code in the
     rewrite rules system from Jan Wieck. He also wrote a chapter on it for
     the Programmer's Guide.

   * Jan also contributed a second procedural language, PL/pgSQL, to go with
     the original PL/pgTCL procedural language he contributed last release.

   * We have optional multiple-byte character set support from Tatsuo Iishi
     to complement our existing locale support.

   * Client/server communications has been cleaned up, with better support
     for asynchronous messages and interrupts thanks to Tom Lane.

   * The parser will now perform automatic type coersion to match arguments
     to available operators and functions, and to match columns and
     expressions with target columns. This uses a generic mechanism which
     supports the type extensibility features of Postgres. There is a new
     chapter in the User's Guide which covers this topic.

   * Three new data types have been added. Two types, inet and cidr, support
     various forms of IP network, subnet, and machine addressing. There is
     now an 8-byte integer type available on some platforms. See the chapter
     on data types in the User's Guide for details. A fourth type, serial,
     is now supported by the parser as an amalgam of the int4 type, a
     sequence, and a unique index.

   * Several more SQL92-compatible syntax features have been added,
     including INSERT DEFAULT VALUES

   * The automatic configuration and installation system has received some
     attention, and should be more robust for more platforms than it has
     ever been.

Migration to v6.4

A dump/restore using pg_dump or pg_dumpall is required for those wishing to
migrate data from any previous release of Postgres.

Detailed Change List

Bug Fixes
---------
Fix for a tiny memory leak in PQsetdb/PQfinish(Bryan)
Remove char2-16 data types, use char/varchar(Darren)
Pqfn not handles a NOTICE message(Anders)
Reduced busywaiting overhead for spinlocks with many backends (dg)
Stuck spinlock detection (dg)
Fix up "ISO-style" timespan decoding and encoding(Thomas)
Fix problem with table drop after rollback of transaction(Vadim)
Change error message and remove non-functional update message(Vadim)
Fix for COPY array checking
Fix for SELECT 1 UNION SELECT NULL
Fix for buffer leaks in large object calls(Pascal)
Change owner from oid to int4 type(Bruce)
Fix a bug in the oracle compatibility functions btrim() ltrim() and rtrim()
Fix for shared invalidation cache overflow(Massimo)
Prevent file descriptor leaks in failed COPY's(Bruce)
Fix memory leak in libpgtcl's pg_select(Constantin)
Fix problems with username/passwords over 8 characters(Tom)
Fix problems with handling of asynchronous NOTIFY in backend(Tom)
Fix of many bad system table entries(Tom)

Enhancements
------------
Upgrade ecpg and ecpglib,see src/interfaces/ecpc/ChangeLog(Michael)
Show the index used in an EXPLAIN(Zeugswetter)
EXPLAIN  invokes  rule system and shows plan(s) for rewritten queries(Jan)
Multi-byte awareness of many data types and functions, via configure(Tatsuo)
New configure --with-mb option(Tatsuo)
New initdb --pgencoding option(Tatsuo)
New createdb -E multibyte option(Tatsuo)
Select version(); now returns PostgreSQL version(Jeroen)
Libpq now allows asynchronous clients(Tom)
Allow cancel from client of backend query(Tom)
Psql now cancels query with Control-C(Tom)
Libpq users need not issue dummy queries to get NOTIFY messages(Tom)
NOTIFY now sends sender's PID, so you can tell whether it was your own(Tom)
PGresult struct now includes associated error message, if any(Tom)
Define "tz_hour" and "tz_minute" arguments to date_part()(Thomas)
Add routines to convert between varchar and bpchar(Thomas)
Add routines to allow sizing of varchar and bpchar into target columns(Thomas)
Add bit flags to support timezonehour and minute in data retrieval(Thomas)
Allow more variations on valid floating point numbers (e.g. ".1", "1e6")(Thomas)
Fixes for unary minus parsing with leading spaces(Thomas)
Implement TIMEZONE_HOUR, TIMEZONE_MINUTE per SQL92 specs(Thomas)
Check for and properly ignore FOREIGN KEY column constraints(Thomas)
Define USER as synonym for CURRENT_USER per SQL92 specs(Thomas)
Enable HAVING clause but no fixes elsewhere yet.
Make "char" type a synonym for "char(1)" (actually implemented as bpchar)(Thomas)
Save string type if specified for DEFAULT clause handling(Thomas)
Coerce operations involving different data types(Thomas)
Allow some index use for columns of different types(Thomas)
Add capabilities for automatic type conversion(Thomas)
Cleanups for large objects, so file is truncated on open(Peter)
Readline cleanups(Tom)
Allow psql  \f \ to make spaces as delimiter(Bruce)
Pass pg_attribute.atttypmod to the frontend for column field lengths(Tom,Bruce)
Msql compatibility library in /contrib(Aldrin)
Remove the requirement that ORDER/GROUP BY clause identifiers be
included in the target list(David)
Convert columns to match columns in UNION clauses(Thomas)
Remove fork()/exec() and only do fork()(Bruce)
Jdbc cleanups(Peter)
Show backend status on ps command line(only works on some platforms)(Bruce)
Pg_hba.conf now has a sameuser option in the database field
Make lo_unlink take oid param, not int4
New DISABLE_COMPLEX_MACRO for compilers that can't handle our macros(Bruce)
Libpgtcl now handles NOTIFY as a Tcl event, need not send dummy queries(Tom)
libpgtcl cleanups(Tom)
Add -error option to libpgtcl's pg_result command(Tom)
New locale patch, see docs/README/locale(Oleg)
Fix for pg_dump so CONSTRAINT and CHECK syntax is correct(ccb)
New contrib/lo code for large object orphan removal(Peter)
New psql command "SET CLIENT_ENCODING TO 'encoding'" for multi-bytes
feature, see /doc/README.mb(Tatsuo)
/contrib/noupdate code to revoke update permission on a column
Libpq can now be compiled on win32(Magnus)
Add PQsetdbLogin() in libpq
New 8-byte integer type, checked by configure for OS support(Thomas)
Better support for quoted table/column names(Thomas)
Surround table and column names with double-quotes in pg_dump(Thomas)
PQreset() now works with passwords(Tom)
Handle case of GROUP BY target list column number out of range(David)
Allow UNION in subselects
Add auto-size to screen to \d? commands(Bruce)
Use UNION to show all \d? results in one query(Bruce)
Add \d? field search feature(Bruce)
Pg_dump issues fewer \connect requests(Tom)
Make pg_dump -z flag work better, document it in manual page(Tom)
Add HAVING clause with full support for subselects and unions(Stephan)
Full text indexing routines in contrib/fulltextindex(Maarten)
Transaction ids now stored in shared memory(Vadim)
New PGCLIENTENCODING when issuing COPY command(Tatsuo)
Support for SQL92 syntax "SET NAMES"(Tatsuo)
Support for LATIN2-5(Tatsuo)
Add UNICODE regression test case(Tatsuo)
Lock manager cleanup, new locking modes for LLL(Vadim)
Allow index use with OR clauses(Bruce)
Allows "SELECT NULL ORDER BY 1;"
Explain VERBOSE prints the plan, and now pretty-prints the plan to
the postmaster log file(Bruce)
Add Indices display to \d command(Bruce)
Allow GROUP BY on functions(David)
New pg_class.relkind for large objects(Bruce)
New way to send libpq NOTICE messages to a different location(Tom)
New \w write command to psql(Bruce)
New /contrib/findoidjoins scans oid columns to find join relationships(Bruce)
Allow binary-compatible indices to be considered when checking for valid
indices for restriction clauses containing a constant(Thomas)
New ISBN/ISSN code in /contrib/isbn_issn
Allow NOT LIKE, IN, NOT IN, BETWEEN, and NOT BETWEEN constraint(Thomas)
New rewrite system fixes many problems with rules and views(Jan)
        * Rules on relations work
        * Event qualifications on insert/update/delete work
        * New OLD variable to reference CURRENT, CURRENT will be remove in future
        * Update rules can reference NEW and OLD in rule qualifications/actions
        * Insert/update/delete rules on views work
        * Multiple rule actions are now supported, surrounded by parentheses
        * Regular users can create views/rules on tables they have RULE permits
        * Rules and views inherit the permissions on the creator
        * No rules at the column level
        * No UPDATE NEW/OLD rules
        * New pg_tables, pg_indexes, pg_rules and pg_views system views
        * Only a single action on SELECT rules
        * Total rewrite overhaul, perhaps for 6.5
        * handle subselects
        * handle aggregates on views
        * handle insert into select from view works
System indexes are now multi-key(Bruce)
Oidint2, oidint4, and oidname types are removed(Bruce)
Use system cache for more system table lookups(Bruce)
New backend programming language PL/pgSQL in backend/pl(Jan)
New SERIAL data type, auto-creates sequence/index(Thomas)
Enable assert checking without a recompile(Massimo)
User lock enhancements(Massimo)
New setval() command to set sequence value(Massimo)
Auto-remove unix socket file on startup if no postmaster running(Massimo)
Conditional trace package(Massimo)
New UNLISTEN command(Massimo)
Psql and libpq now compile under win32 using win32.mak(Magnus)
Lo_read no longer stores trailing NULL(Bruce)
Identifiers are now truncated to 31 characters internally(Bruce)
Createuser options now availble on the command line
Code for 64-bit integer supported added, configure tested, int8 type(Thomas)
Prevent file descriptor leaf from failed COPY(Bruce)
New pg_upgrade command(Bruce)
Updated /contrib directories(Massimo)
New CREATE TABLE DEFAULT VALUES statement available(Thomas)
New INSERT INTO TABLE DEFAULT VALUES statement available(Thomas)
New DECLARE and FETCH feature(Thomas)
libpq's internal structures now not exported(Tom)
Allow up to 8 key indexes(Bruce)
Remove ARCHIVE keyword, that is no longer used(Thomas)
pg_dump -n flag to supress quotes around indentifiers
disable system columns for views(Jan)
new INET and CIDR types for network addresses(TomH, Paul)
no more double quotes in psql output
pg_dump now dumps views(Terry)
new SET QUERY_LIMIT(Tatsuo,Jan)

Source Tree Changes
-------------------
/contrib cleanup(Jun)
Inline some small functions called for every row(Bruce)
Alpha/linux fixes
Hp/UX cleanups(Tom)
Multi-byte regression tests(Soonmyung.)
Remove --disabled options from configure
Define PGDOC to use POSTGRESDIR by default
Make regression optional
Remove extra braces code to pgindent(Bruce)
Add bsdi shared library support(Bruce)
New --without-CXX support configure option(Brook)
New FAQ_CVS
Update backend flowchart in tools/backend(Bruce)
Change atttypmod from int16 to int32(Bruce, Tom)
Getrusage() fix for platforms that do not have it(Tom)
Add PQconnectdb, PGUSER, PGPASSWORD to libpq man page
NS32K platform fixes(Phil Nelson, John Buller)
Sco 7/UnixWare 2.x fixes(Billy,others)
Sparc/Solaris 2.5 fixes(Ryan)
Pgbuiltin.3 is obsolete, move to doc files(Thomas)
Even more documention(Thomas)
Nextstep support(Jacek)
Aix support(David)
pginterface manual page(Bruce)
shared libraries all have version numbers
merged all OS-specific shared library defines into one file
smarter TCL/TK configuration checking(Billy)
smarter perl configuration(Brook)
configure uses supplied install-sh if no install script found(Tom)
new Makefile.shlib for shared library configuration(Tom)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 6.4.1                                                  Release 6.3.2
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.3.2

This is a bugfix release for 6.3.x. Refer to the release notes for v6.3 for
a more complete summary of new features.

Summary:

   * Repairs automatic configuration support for some platforms, including
     Linux, from breakage inadvertently introduced in v6.3.1.

   * Correctly handles function calls on the left side of BETWEEN and LIKE
     clauses.

A dump/restore is NOT required for those running 6.3 or 6.3.1. A 'make
distclean', 'make', and 'make install' is all that is required. This last
step should be performed while the postmaster is not running. You should
re-link any custom applications that use Postgres libraries.

For upgrades from pre-v6.3 installations, refer to the installation and
migration instructions for v6.3.

Detailed Change List

Changes
-------
Configure detection improvements for tcl/tk(Brook Milligan, Alvin)
Manual page improvements(Bruce)
BETWEEN and LIKE fix(Thomas)
fix for psql \connect used by pg_dump(Oliver Elphick)
New odbc driver
pgaccess, version 0.86
qsort removed, now uses libc version, cleanups(Jeroen)
fix for buffer over-runs detected(Maurice Gittens)
fix for buffer overrun in libpgtcl(Randy Kunkee)
fix for UNION with DISTINCT or ORDER BY(Bruce)
gettimeofday configure check(Doug Winterburn)
Fix "indexes not used" bug(Vadim)
docs additions(Thomas)
Fix for backend memory leak(Bruce)
libreadline cleanup(Erwan MAS)
Remove DISTDIR(Bruce)
Makefile dependency cleanup(Jeroen van Vianen)
ASSERT fixes(Bruce)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 6.4                                                    Release 6.3.1
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.3.1

Summary:

   * Additional support for multi-byte character sets.

   * Repair byte ordering for mixed-endian clients and servers.

   * Minor updates to allowed SQL syntax.

   * Improvements to the configuration autodetection for installation.

A dump/restore is NOT required for those running 6.3. A 'make distclean',
'make', and 'make install' is all that is required. This last step should be
performed while the postmaster is not running. You should re-link any custom
applications that use Postgres libraries.

For upgrades from pre-v6.3 installations, refer to the installation and
migration instructions for v6.3.

Detailed Change List

Changes
-------
ecpg cleanup/fixes, now version 1.1(Michael Meskes)
pg_user cleanup(Bruce)
large object fix for pg_dump and tclsh (alvin)
LIKE fix for multiple adjacent underscores
fix for redefining builtin functions(Thomas)
ultrix4 cleanup
upgrade to pg_access 0.83
updated CLUSTER manual page
multi-byte character set support, see doc/README.mb(Tatsuo)
configure --with-pgport fix
pg_ident fix
big-endian fix for backend communications(Kataoka)
SUBSTR() and substring() fix(Jan)
several jdbc fixes(Peter)
libpgtcl improvements, see libptcl/README(Randy Kunkee)
Fix for "Datasize = 0" error(Vadim)
Prevent \do from wrapping(Bruce)
Remove duplicate Russian character set entries
Sunos4 cleanup
Allow optional TABLE keyword in LOCK and SELECT INTO(Thomas)
CREATE SEQUENCE options to allow a negative integer(Thomas)
Add "PASSWORD" as an allowed column identifier(Thomas)
Add checks for UNION target fields(Bruce)
Fix Alpha port(Dwayne Bailey)
Fix for text arrays containing quotes(Doug Gibson)
Solaris compile fix(Albert Chin-A-Young)
Better identify tcl and tk libs and includes(Bruce)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 6.3.2                                                    Release 6.3
                                Release Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release 6.3

There are many new features and improvements in this release. Here is a
brief, incomplete summary:

   * Many new SQL features, including full SQL92 subselect capability
     (everything is here but target-list subselects).

   * Support for client-side environment variables to specify time zone and
     date style.

   * Socket interface for client/server connection. This is the default now
     so you may need to start postmaster with the "-i" flag.

   * Better password authorization mechanisms. Default table permissions
     have changed.

   * Old-style "time travel" has been removed. Performance has been
     improved.

     Note: Bruce Momjian wrote the following notes to introduce the new
     release.

There are some general 6.3 issues that I want to mention. These are only the
big items that can not be described in one sentence. A review of the
detailed changes list is still needed.

First, we now have subselects. Now that we have them, I would like to
mention that without subselects, SQL is a very limited language. Subselects
are a major feature, and you should review your code for places where
subselects provide a better solution for your queries. I think you will find
that there are more uses for subselects than you may think. Vadim has put us
on the big SQL map with subselects, and fully functional ones too. The only
thing you can't do with subselects is to use them in the target list.

Second, 6.3 uses unix domain sockets rather than TCP/IP by default. To
enable connections from other machines, you have to use the new postmaster
-i option, and of course edit pg_hba.conf. Also, for this reason, the format
of pg_hba.conf has changed.

Third, char() fields will now allow faster access than varchar() or text.
Specifically, the text and varchar() have a penalty for access to any
columns after the first column of this type. char() used to also have this
access penalty, but it no longer does. This may suggest that you redesign
some of your tables, especially if you have short character columns that you
have defined as varchar() or text. This and other changes make 6.3 even
faster than earlier releases.

We now have passwords definable independent of any Unix file. There are new
SQL USER commands. See the pg_hba.conf manual page for more information.
There is a new table, pg_shadow, which is used to store user information and
user passwords, and it by default only SELECT-able by the postgres
super-user. pg_user is now a view of pg_shadow, and is SELECT-able by
PUBLIC. You should keep using pg_user in your application without changes.

User-created tables now no longer have SELECT permission to PUBLIC by
default. This was done because the ANSI standard requires it. You can of
course GRANT any permissions you want after the table is created. System
tables continue to be SELECT-able by PUBLIC.

We also have real deadlock detection code. No more sixty-second timeouts.
And the new locking code implements a FIFO better, so there should be less
resource starvation during heavy use.

Many complaints have been made about inadequate documenation in previous
releases. Thomas has put much effort into many new manuals for this release.
Check out the doc/ directory.

For performance reasons, time travel is gone, but can be implemented using
triggers (see pgsql/contrib/spi/README). Please check out the new \d command
for types, operators, etc. Also, views have their own permissions now, not
based on the underlying tables, so permissions on them have to be set
separately. Check /pgsql/interfaces for some new ways to talk to Postgres.

This is the first release that really required an explanation for existing
users. In many ways, this was necessary because the new release removes many
limitations, and the work-arounds people were using are no longer needed.

Migration to v6.3

A dump/restore using pg_dump or pg_dumpall is required for those wishing to
migrate data from any previous release of Postgres.

Detailed Change List

Bug Fixes
---------
Fix binary cursors broken by MOVE implementation(Vadim)
Fix for tcl library crash(Jan)
Fix for array handling, from Gerhard Hintermayer
Fix acl error, and remove duplicate pqtrace(Bruce)
Fix psql \e for empty file(Bruce)
Fix for textcat on varchar() fields(Bruce)
Fix for DBT Sendproc (Zeugswetter Andres)
Fix vacuum analyze syntax problem(Bruce)
Fix for international identifiers(Tatsuo)
Fix aggregates on inherited tables(Bruce)
Fix substr() for out-of-bounds data
Fix for select 1=1 or 2=2, select 1=1 and 2=2, and select sum(2+2)(Bruce)
Fix notty output to show status result.  -q option still turns it off(Bruce)
Fix for count(*), aggs with views and multiple tables and sum(3)(Bruce)
Fix cluster(Bruce)
Fix for PQtrace start/stop several times(Bruce)
Fix a variety of locking problems like newer lock waiters getting
        lock before older waiters, and having readlock people not share
        locks if a writer is waiting for a lock, and waiting writers not
        getting priority over waiting readers(Bruce)
Fix crashes in psql when executing queries from external files(James)
Fix problem with multiple order by columns, with the first one having
        NULL values(Jeroen)
Use correct hash table support functions for float8 and int4(Thomas)
Re-enable JOIN= option in CREATE OPERATOR statement (Thomas)
Change precedence for boolean operators to match expected behavior(Thomas)
Generate elog(ERROR) on over-large integer(Bruce)
Allow multiple-argument functions in constraint clauses(Thomas)
Check boolean input literals for 'true','false','yes','no','1','0'
        and throw elog(ERROR) if unrecognized(Thomas)
Major large objects fix
Fix for GROUP BY showing duplicates(Vadim)
Fix for index scans in MergeJion(Vadim)

Enhancements
------------
Subselects with EXISTS, IN, ALL, ANY keywords (Vadim, Bruce, Thomas)
New User Manual(Thomas, others)
Speedup by inlining some frequently-called functions
Real deadlock detection, no more timeouts(Bruce)
Add SQL92 "constants" CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
        CURRENT_USER(Thomas)
Modify constraint syntax to be SQL92-compliant(Thomas)
Implement SQL92 PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE clauses using indices(Thomas)
Recognize SQL92 syntax for FOREIGN KEY. Throw elog notice(Thomas)
Allow NOT NULL UNIQUE constraint clause (each allowed separately before)(Thomas)
Allow Postgres-style casting ("::") of non-constants(Thomas)
Add support for SQL3 TRUE and FALSE boolean constants(Thomas)
Support SQL92 syntax for IS TRUE/IS FALSE/IS NOT TRUE/IS NOT FALSE(Thomas)
Allow shorter strings for boolean literals (e.g. "t", "tr", "tru")(Thomas)
Allow SQL92 delimited identifiers(Thomas)
Implement SQL92 binary and hexadecimal string decoding (b'10' and x'1F')(Thomas)
Support SQL92 syntax for type coercion of literal strings
        (e.g. "DATETIME 'now'")(Thomas)
Add conversions for int2, int4, and OID types to and from text(Thomas)
Use shared lock when building indices(Vadim)
Free memory allocated for an user query inside transaction block after
        this query is done, was turned off in <= 6.2.1(Vadim)
New SQL statement CREATE PROCEDURAL LANGUAGE(Jan)
New Postgres Procedural Language (PL) backend interface(Jan)
Rename pg_dump -H option to -h(Bruce)
Add Java support for passwords, European dates(Peter)
Use indices for LIKE and ~, !~ operations(Bruce)
Add hash functions for datetime and timespan(Thomas)
Time Travel removed(Vadim, Bruce)
Add paging for \d and \z, and fix \i(Bruce)
Add Unix domain socket support to backend and to frontend library(Goran)
Implement CREATE DATABASE/WITH LOCATION and initlocation utility(Thomas)
Allow more SQL92 and/or Postgres reserved words as column identifiers(Thomas)
Augment support for SQL92 SET TIME ZONE...(Thomas)
SET/SHOW/RESET TIME ZONE uses TZ backend environment variable(Thomas)
Implement SET keyword = DEFAULT and SET TIME ZONE DEFAULT(Thomas)
Enable SET TIME ZONE using TZ environment variable(Thomas)
Add PGDATESTYLE environment variable to frontend and backend initialization(Thomas)
Add PGTZ, PGCOSTHEAP, PGCOSTINDEX, PGRPLANS, PGGEQO
        frontend library initialization environment variables(Thomas)
Regression tests time zone automatically set with "setenv PGTZ PST8PDT"(Thomas)
Add pg_description table for info on tables, columns, operators, types, and
        aggregates(Bruce)
Increase 16 char limit on system table/index names to 32 characters(Bruce)
Rename system indices(Bruce)
Add 'GERMAN' option to SET DATESTYLE(Thomas)
Define an "ISO-style" timespan output format with "hh:mm:ss" fields(Thomas)
Allow fractional values for delta times (e.g. '2.5 days')(Thomas)
Validate numeric input more carefully for delta times(Thomas)
Implement day of year as possible input to date_part()(Thomas)