Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
release-9.2.sgml 75 KiB
Newer Older
<!-- doc/src/sgml/release-9.2.sgml -->
<!-- See header comment in release.sgml about typical markup -->

 <sect1 id="release-9-2">
  <title>Release 9.2</title>

  <note>
   <title>Release Date</title>
   <simpara>2012-??-??</simpara>
   <simpara>CURRENT AS OF 2012-05-09</simpara>

  </note>

  <sect2>
   <title>Overview</title>

   <para>
    NARRATIVE HERE. Major enhancements include:
   </para>

   <itemizedlist>
    <listitem><para>MAJOR LIST HERE</para></listitem>
    <!-- This list duplicates items below, but without authors or details-->

   </itemizedlist>

   <para>
    The above items are explained in more detail in the sections below.
   </para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2>

  <title>Migration to Version 9.2</title>

   <para>
    A dump/restore using <application>pg_dump</application>, or use of
    <application>pg_upgrade</application>, is required for those wishing
    to migrate data from any previous release.
   </para>

   <para>
    Version 9.2 contains a number of changes that may affect compatibility
    with previous releases.  Observe the following incompatibilities:
   </para>

   <sect3>
    <title>Functions</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Ensure that <link
        linkend="functions-xml-processing"><function>xpath()</></link>
        escapes special characters in string values (Florian Pflug,
        Radoslaw Smogura)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Without this it is possible to output illegal
        <acronym>XML</acronym>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Remove <link linkend="hstore">hstore</link>'s <literal>=&gt;</>
        operator (Robert Haas, David Wheeler)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Users should now use hstore(text, text).  Since
        <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 9.0, we have emitted a
        warning message when an operator named =&gt; is created because
        the <acronym>SQL</acronym> standard reserves that token for
        another use.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have <link
        linkend="functions-admin-dbobject"><function>pg_relation_size()</></link>
        and friends return NULL if the object does not exist (Phil Sorber)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This prevents queries that call these functions from returning
        errors during concurrent drop operations.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Remove the <link
        linkend="catalog-pg-tablespace"><structname>spclocation</></link>
        field from <structname>pg_tablespace</> (Magnus Hagander,
        Tom Lane))
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This field was duplicative of the symbolic links already
        present in the data directory.  This allows tablespace
        directories to be moved while the server is down.  Also add
        <function>pg_tablespace_location()</> to allow querying of the
        symbolic links.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>

    <sect4>
     <title>Temporal Functions</title> 

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have <link
        linkend="functions-datetime-extract"><function>EXTRACT</></link> of
        a non-timezone-aware value measure the epoch from local midnight,
        not <acronym>UTC</acronym> midnight (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Having these computations depend on <acronym>UTC</acronym>
        was inconsistent.  The old behavior is available by casting the
        value to timestamp with time zone.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Properly parse time strings with trailing <literal>yesterday</>,
        <literal>today</>, and <literal>tomorrow</> (Dean Rasheed)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously, <command>SELECT '04:00:00
        yesterday'::timestamp</command> returned yesterday's date at
        midnight.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Fix <link
        linkend="functions-formatting"><function>to_date()</></link> and
        <function>to_timestamp()</> to wrap incomplete dates toward 2020
        (Bruce Momjian)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously supplied years and year masks of less than four digits
        wrapped inconsistently.
       </para>
      </listitem>

     </itemizedlist>
    </sect4>

    </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Object Modification</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Prevent  <link linkend="SQL-ALTERDOMAIN"><command>ALTER
        DOMAIN</command></link> from working on non-domain types (Peter
        Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Owner and schema changes were previously possible on non-domain
        types.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        No longer auto-lowercase procedural language names (Robert Haas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        While unquoted language identifiers are still lowercased, double
        and single-quoted identifiers are no longer down-cased.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Command-Line Tools</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Provide consistent backquote, variable
        expansion, and quoted substring behavior in <link
        linkend="APP-PSQL"><application>psql</></link> meta-command
        arguments (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously, such usage was only properly expanded when isolated by
        whitespace, e.g.  <literal>'FOO'BAR</> was output as <literal>FOO
        BAR</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        No longer treat <link
        linkend="APP-CLUSTERDB"><application>clusterdb</></link>
        table names as double-quoted; no longer treat <link
        linkend="APP-REINDEXDB"><application>reindexdb</></link> table
        and index names as double-quoted (Bruce Momjian)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Users must supply double-quotes in the command arguments to
        accomplish double-quoting behavior.
       </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Disable prompting for the user name in <link
        linkend="APP-DROPDB"><application>dropdb</></link> unless
        <option>--interactive</> is specified (Peter Eisentraut, Josh
        Kupershmidt)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        No longer have <link
        linkend="APP-CREATEUSER"><application>createuser</></link> prompt
        for settings (Peter Eisentraut, Josh Kupershmidt)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously <application>createuser</> prompted regarding various
        user settings.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Remove <link linkend="APP-INITDB"><application>initdb</></link>
        support for the crypt authentication method (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This was removed from the backend years ago.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>      

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Server Settings</title>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Remove the <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> setting
        <varname>silent_mode</> (Heikki Linnakangas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This behavior could already be accomplished with <command>pg_ctl
        -l postmaster.log</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Remove <acronym>GUC</acronym> <varname>wal_sender_delay</>,
        as it is no longer needed (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        The new "latch" capability made this setting unnecessary.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Remove the <varname>custom_variable_classes</>
        <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> parameter (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        The checking provided by this setting was dubious.  Now any
        setting can be prefixed by any class name.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add libpq <link linkend="guc-ssl-key-file">parameters</link> for
        specifying the locations of server-side <acronym>SSL</acronym>
        files (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows changing the location of the files that were previously
        hard-coded to <filename>server.crt</>, <filename>server.key</>,
        <filename>root.crt</>, <filename>root.crl</>.  <acronym>CA</>
        (crt) and <acronym>CRL</acronym> files no longer have default
        names, and if specified, these files must exist.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951
    </itemizedlist>
   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Monitoring</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Rename <link
        linkend="monitoring-stats-views-table"><structname>pg_stat_activity</></link><structname>.procpid</>
        to <literal>pid</>, to match other system tables (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Create a separate <structname>pg_stat_activity</> column to
        report state information, e.g. idle (Scott Mead, Magnus Hagander,
        Greg Smith)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        The previous query values are preserved, allowing for enhanced
        analysis.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Change all <acronym>SQL</acronym>-level statistics timing values
        to float8-stored milliseconds (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        The columns affected are:
        <structname>pg_stat_user_functions.total_time</>,
        <structname>pg_stat_user_functions.self_time</>,
        <structname>pg_stat_xact_user_functions.total_time</>,
        <structname>pg_stat_xact_user_functions.self_time</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Change <application>pg_stat_statements</>'
        <structname>total_time</> column to be measured in milliseconds
        (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>

   </sect3>

  </sect2>

  <sect2>
   <title>Changes</title>

   <para>
    Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
    <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 9.2 and the previous major
    release.
   </para>

   <sect3>
    <title>Server</title>

    <sect4>
     <title>Performance</title>

     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow queries to retrieve data only from indexes, avoiding heap
        access (Robert Haas, Ibrar Ahmed, Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This is possible for heap pages with exclusively all-visible
        tuples, as reported by the visibility map.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow frequently uncontended locks to be recorded using a new
        lightweight lock mechanism (Robert Haas, Jeff Davis)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Move the frequently accessed members of the <structname>PGPROC</>
        shared memory array to a separate section, for performance (Pavan
        Deolasee, Heikki Linnakangas, Robert Haas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Reduce overhead of creating virtual transaction id locks ((Robert
        Haas, Jeff Davis)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Reduce overhead for shared invalidation cache messages (Robert
        Haas, Noah Misch)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve performance of transactions using many savepoints (Simon
        Riggs, Robert Haas)  PARTIALLY REVERTED.  KEEP?
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve <command>COPY</command> performance by adding tuples to
        the heap in batches (Heikki Linnakangas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Make the visibility map crash-safe (Robert Haas, Noah Misch)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This helps vacuum be more efficient, and is necessary for
        index-only scans.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve GiST box and point index performance by producing better
        trees with less memory allocation overhead (Alexander Korotkov,
        Heikki Linnakangas, Kevin Grittner)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow hint bits to be set sooner for temporary and unlogged tables
        (Robert Haas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Reduce checkpoints and <acronym>WAL</acronym> traffic on low
        activity servers (Simon Riggs)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow sorting to be performed by inlined and faster,
        non-<acronym>SQL</acronym>-callable comparison functions (Peter
        Geoghegan, Robert Haas, Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add the <link linkend="SPGiST">SP-GiST</link> (Space-Partitioned
        GiST) index access method (Teodor Sigaev, Oleg Bartunov, Tom Lane,
        Robert Haas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        SP-GiST is comparable to GiST in flexibility, but supports
        non-balanced partitioned search structures rather than balanced
        trees.  CLARIFY?
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve GiST index build times (Alexander Korotkov)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Take fewer <acronym>MVCC</acronym> snapshots, for performance
        (Robert Haas, Dimitri Fontaine)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have the number of clog buffer count scale based on <link
        linkend="guc-shared-buffers"><varname>shared_buffers</></link>
        (Robert Haas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Reduce the overhead of serializable isolation level locks (Dan
        Ports, Heikki Linnakangas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve performance of <acronym>WAL</acronym> writes when multiple
        transactions commit at the same time (Peter Geoghegan, Simon Riggs,
        Heikki Linnakangas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve PowerPC and Itanium spinlock performance (Manabu Ori,
        Tom Lane, Robert Haas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Process Management</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Create a dedicated worker process to perform checkpoints (Simon
        Riggs, Dickson Guedes)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Formerly the background writer did dirty page writing and
        checkpointing.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve asynchronous commit behavior by waking up sooner (Simon
        Riggs)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously, only <link
        linkend="guc-wal-writer-delay"><varname>wal_writer_delay</></link>
        triggered <acronym>WAL</acronym> flushing to disk; now filling a
        <acronym>WAL</acronym> buffer also triggers <acronym>WAL</acronym>
        writes.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow backends to detect postmaster death via a pipe read failure,
        rather than polling (Peter Geoghegan, Heikki Linnakangas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        These are internally called "latches".
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow the <link linkend="pg-stat-bgwriter-view">bgwriter</link>,
        <link linkend="guc-wal-writer-delay">walwriter</link>, and <link
        linkend="monitoring-stats">statistics collector</link> to sleep
        more efficiently during periods of inactivity (Peter Geoghegan,
        Heikki Linnakangas, Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This reduces <acronym>CPU</acronym> wake-ups.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Pass the safe number of file descriptors to Windows processes
        (Heikki Linnakangas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows Windows sessions to cache more open file descriptors.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Optimizer</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve the ability of the planner to choose parameterized plans
        (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        A prepared statement is now parsed, analyzed, and rewritten,
        but not necessarily planned.  When the prepared plan is executed
        with parameters, the planner might replan it for every constant,
        or it might execute a generic plan if its cost is close to that
        of a constant-specific plan. CLARIFY
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow the optimizer to use <literal>CHECK</> constraints defined
        on tables referenced in subqueries in planning decisions (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This is only enabled when <link
        linkend="guc-constraint-exclusion"><literal>constraint_exclusion
        = on</></link>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <literal>indexedcol op ANY(ARRAY[...])</> conditions to be
        used in plain indexscans (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve heuristics for determining the type of unknown values by
        considering other data types involved in the operation (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow better matching of index columns with non-default operator
        qualifications (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve the planner's ability to use nested loops with inner
        index scans (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Support <function>MIN</>/<function>MAX</> index optimizations on
        boolean columns (Marti Raudsepp, Abhijit Menon-Sen)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    <sect5>
     <title>Optimizer Statistics</title>

     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve the ability to use statistics on columns referenced in
        subqueries (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve optimizer estimation for subqueries using
        <literal>DISTINCT</> (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Collect and use element-frequency statistics for arrays (Alexander
        Korotkov, Noah Misch, Nathan Boley, Tom Lane, Daniele Varrazzo)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This patch improves selectivity estimation for the array &lt;@,
        &amp;&amp;, and @&gt; (containment and overlaps) array operators.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve costing of partial indexes (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow analyze statistics to be collected for foreign tables
        (Etsuro Fujita, Shigeru Hanada, Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect5>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Authentication</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Do not assume roles and <literal>samerole</> specified in <link
        linkend="auth-pg-hba-conf"><filename>pg_hba.conf</filename></link>
        include superusers (Andrew Dunstan, Robert Haas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This makes it easier to use reject lines with group roles.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Make superuser imply replication privilege (Noah Misch)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This avoids the need to explicitly assign such privileges.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Adjust <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> processing to more
        consistently handle token parsing (Brendan Jurd, &Aacute;lvaro
        Herrera, Pavel Stehule)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Disallow empty <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> files (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This was done to more quickly report misconfiguration.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Monitoring</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Attempt to log the current query string before a backend crash
        (Marti Raudsepp, <acronym>PDXPUG</>, Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Make logging of autovacuum I/O activity more verbose (Greg Smith,
        Noah Misch)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This logging is triggered by <link
        linkend="guc-log-autovacuum-min-duration"><varname>log_autovacuum_min_duration</></link>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have <acronym>WAL</acronym> replay report failures sooner
        (Fujii Masao)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        There were some cases where failures were only reported once the
        server went into master mode.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link
        linkend="functions-admin-backup"><function>pg_xlog_location_diff()</></link>
        to simplify xlog comparisons (Euler Taveira de Oliveira, Fujii
        Masao, Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This is useful for computing replication lag.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Support configurable eventlog application names on Windows (MauMau,
        Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows different instances to use the eventlog
        with different identifiers, by setting the <link
        linkend="guc-event-source"><varname>event_source</></link>
        <acronym>GUC</acronym>, which is similar to how <link
        linkend="guc-syslog-ident"><varname>syslog_ident</></link> works.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Change "unexpected EOF" message to <literal>DEBUG1</> level
        (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Statistical Views</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Track temporary file sizes and file counts in the <link
        linkend="monitoring-stats-views"><structname>pg_stat_database</></link>
        system view (Tomas Vondra)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a deadlock counter to the <structname>pg_stat_database</>
        system view (Magnus Hagander, Jaime Casanova)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <acronym>GUC</acronym> setting <link
        linkend="guc-track-io-timing"><varname>track_io_timing</></link>
        to track I/O timings (Ants Aasma, Greg Smith, Robert Haas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Report checkpoint timing information in <link
        linkend="pg-stat-bgwriter-view"><structname>pg_stat_bgwriter</></link>
        (Greg Smith, Peter Geoghegan, Robert Haas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Server Settings</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <link
        linkend="guc-deadlock-timeout"><varname>deadlock_timeout</></link>
        to be set per-session by superusers, not just per-cluster (Noah
        Misch, Shigeru Hanada)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows <varname>deadlock_timeout</> to be reduced for
        transactions that are likely to be involved in a deadlock,
        thus detecting it more quickly. It can also be used to reduce
        the chances of a session being chosen for cancellation due to
        a deadlock.
       </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <acronym>GUC</acronym> parameter <link
        linkend="guc-temp-file-limit"><varname>temp_file_limit</></link>
        to constrain temporary file space usage per session (Mark Kirkwood,
        C&eacute;dric Villemain, Tatsuo Ishii)
       </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> category "Replication /
        Sending Servers" (Fujii Masao)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow a superuser to <command>SET</command> an extension's
        superuser-only custom variable before loading the associated
        extension (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        The system now remembers whether a <command>SET</command> was
        performed by a superuser.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link linkend="app-postmaster">postmaster</link> <option>-C</>
        option to query configuration parameters (Bruce Momjian)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows <application>pg_ctl</> to better handle
        configuration-only directory installations.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Force the locale to be recorded more specifically, rather than
        using the empty string to mean the default (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

     <sect5>
      <title><filename>postgresql.conf</filename></title>

      <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow multiple errors in <filename>postgresql.conf</filename>
        to be reported, rather than just the first one (Alexey Klyukin,
        Andy Colson)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow a reload of <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> to be
        processed by all backends even if there are some settings that
        are invalid for that session (Alexey Klyukin, Andy Colson)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously such not-valid-for-session errors would cause all
        setting changes to be ignored by that backend.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add an <literal>include_if_exists</> facility for configuration
        files (Greg Smith, Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This works the same as <literal>include</>, except that an error
        is not thrown if the file is missing.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Check the server time zone during initdb, and set
        <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> values
        <link linkend="guc-timezone"><varname>timezone</></link> and
        <link linkend="guc-log-timezone"><varname>log_timezone</></link>
1028 1029 1030 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089 1090 1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123 1124 1125 1126 1127 1128 1129 1130 1131 1132 1133 1134 1135 1136 1137 1138 1139 1140 1141 1142 1143 1144 1145 1146 1147 1148 1149 1150 1151 1152 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 1158 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 1164 1165 1166 1167 1168 1169 1170 1171 1172 1173 1174 1175 1176 1177 1178 1179 1180 1181 1182 1183 1184 1185 1186 1187 1188 1189 1190 1191 1192 1193 1194 1195 1196 1197 1198 1199 1200 1201 1202 1203 1204 1205 1206 1207 1208 1209 1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 1227 1228 1229 1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239 1240 1241 1242 1243 1244 1245 1246 1247 1248 1249 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259 1260 1261 1262 1263 1264 1265 1266 1267 1268 1269 1270 1271 1272 1273 1274 1275 1276 1277 1278 1279 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299 1300 1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 1310 1311 1312 1313 1314 1315 1316 1317 1318 1319 1320 1321 1322 1323 1324 1325 1326 1327 1328 1329 1330 1331 1332 1333 1334 1335 1336 1337 1338 1339 1340 1341 1342 1343 1344 1345 1346 1347 1348 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 1356 1357 1358 1359 1360 1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370 1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380 1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390 1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400 1401 1402 1403 1404
        accordingly (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This avoids expensive time zone probes during server start.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow Windows to report
        <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> line numbers in <link
        linkend="view-pg-settings"><structname>pg_settings</></link>
        (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      </itemizedlist>

     </sect5>
 
    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Replication and Recovery</title>

   <sect4>
    <title>Streaming Replication</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow streaming replications slaves to serve other slaves (Fujii
        Masao, Simon Riggs)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously, only the master server could supply streaming
        replication log files to standby servers.  Slaves can also now
        do continuous archiving. (?)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add new <link
        linkend="guc-synchronous-commit"><varname>synchronous_commit</></link>
        replication mode <literal>remote_write</> (Fujii Masao and
        Simon Riggs)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This only writes data to the socket, but does not wait a write
        to the remote disk.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <link
        linkend="app-pgreceivexlog"><application>pg_receivexlog</></link>
        tool to archive xlog file changes as they are written, rather
        than waiting for completed xlog files (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Send keepalive messages to standby servers (Simon Riggs)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows administrators to accurately calculate streaming
        replication transfer and application latency.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

     <sect5>
      <title><link linkend="app-pgbasebackup"><application>pg_basebackup</></link></title>

      <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow streaming of xlog files while <application>pg_basebackup</>
        is performing a backup (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows passing of xlog files to the standby before they are
        discarded on the primary.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <application>pg_basebackup</> to pull from standby servers
        (Jun Ishizuka, Fujii Masao)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Exclude the postmaster.opts file from <application>pg_basebackup</>
        backups (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      </itemizedlist>

     </sect5>
    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Queries</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve columns labels produced by subqueries (Marti Raudsepp,
        Kyotaro Horiugchi)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously the generic label <literal>?column?</> was used.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Preserve column names in row expressions (Andrew Dunstan, Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Cancel queries if clients get disconnected (Florian Pflug Greg
        Jaskiewicz)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Silently ignore nonexistent schemas specified in <link
        linkend="guc-search-path"><varname>search_path</></link> (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Warn about casts to and from domain types (Robert Haas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Such casts have no affect.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        When a row fails a <literal>CHECK</> or <literal>NOT NULL</>
        constraint, show the row's contents in errdetail (Jan
        Kundr&aacute;t, Royce Ausburn, Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This should make it easier to identify which row is problematic
        when an insert or update is processing many rows.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Object Manipulation</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Provide more reliable operation during concurrent
        <acronym>DDL</acronym> (Robert Haas, Noah Misch)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <literal>CONCURRENTLY</> option to <link
        linkend="SQL-DROPINDEX"><command>DROP INDEX
        CONCURRENTLY</command></link> (Simon Riggs)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows index removal without blocking other sessions.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    <sect4>
     <title>Constraints</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <link linkend="ddl-constraints"><literal>CHECK</></link>
        constraints to be declared <literal>NOT VALID</> (&Aacute;lvaro
        Herrera, Thom Brown, Dean Rasheed, Jaime Casanova)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        A <literal>NOT VALID</> <literal>CHECK</> constraint can be added
        to a table without the table's data being verified against the
        constraint.  New rows are verified.
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Such constraints are ignored by the planner when considering
        <varname>constraint_exclusion</>.  <command>ALTER TABLE</command> /
        <literal>VALIDATE</> allows <literal>NOT VALID</> <literal>CHECK</>
        check constraints to be fully validated and considered for
        <varname>constraint_exclusion</>, including re-planning of
        cached plans.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <literal>CHECK</> constraints to be declared <literal>NO
        INHERIT</> (Nikhil Sontakke, Alex Hunsaker)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This makes them enforceable only on the parent table, not on
        child tables.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add the ability to <link linkend="SQL-ALTERTABLE">rename</link>
        constraints (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Disallow merging of <literal>ONLY</> and non-<literal>ONLY</>
        constraints in child tables (Nikhil Sontakke)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Such merging would cause unpredictable behavior in grandchild
        tables.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title><command>ALTER</></title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Avoid table and index rebuilds when <type>NUMERIC</>,
        <type>VARBIT</>, and temporal columns are changed in compatible
        ways (Noah Misch)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Reduce need to rebuild indexes for various <link
        linkend="SQL-ALTERTABLE"><command>ALTER TABLE</command></link>
        operations (Noah Misch) DUPLICATE?
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Avoid index rebuilds for no-rewrite <command>ALTER TABLE</command>
        / <link linkend="SQL-ALTERTYPE"><literal>ALTER TYPE</></link>
        (Noah Misch)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <literal>IF EXIST</> clause to <command>ALTER</command>
        commands (Pavel Stehule)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        For example, <command>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE IF EXISTS foo RENAME
        TO bar</command>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link linkend="SQL-ALTERFOREIGNDATAWRAPPER"><command>ALTER
        FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER</command></link> / <literal>RENAME</>
        and <link linkend="SQL-ALTERSERVER"><command>ALTER
        SERVER</command></link> / <literal>RENAME</> (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link linkend="SQL-ALTERDOMAIN"><command>ALTER
        DOMAIN</command></link> / <literal>RENAME</> (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        You could already rename domains using <command>ALTER
        TYPE</command>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Throw an error for <command>ALTER DOMAIN</command> / <literal>DROP
        CONSTRAINT</> on a nonexistent constraint (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        An <literal>IF EXISTS</> option has been added to enable the
        previous behavior.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="SQL-CREATETABLE"><command>CREATE/ALTER TABLE</></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Fix <command>CREATE TABLE</command> ... <literal>AS EXECUTE</>
        to handle <literal>WITH NO DATA</> and column name specification
        (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Support <command>CREATE TABLE (LIKE ...)</command> from foreign
        tables and views (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <command>CREATE TABLE (LIKE ...)</command> from composite
        type (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This also allows a table to be created whose schema matches a view.
1406 1407 1408 1409 1410 1411 1412 1413 1414 1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420 1421 1422 1423 1424 1425 1426 1427 1428 1429 1430 1431 1432 1433 1434 1435 1436 1437 1438 1439 1440 1441 1442 1443 1444 1445 1446 1447 1448 1449 1450 1451 1452 1453 1454 1455 1456 1457 1458 1459 1460 1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 1467 1468 1469 1470 1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 1480 1481 1482 1483 1484 1485 1486 1487 1488 1489 1490 1491 1492 1493 1494 1495 1496 1497 1498 1499 1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505 1506 1507 1508 1509 1510 1511 1512 1513 1514 1515 1516 1517 1518 1519 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 1525 1526 1527 1528 1529 1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535 1536 1537 1538 1539 1540 1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550 1551 1552 1553 1554 1555 1556 1557 1558 1559 1560 1561 1562 1563 1564 1565 1566 1567 1568 1569 1570 1571 1572 1573 1574 1575 1576 1577 1578 1579 1580 1581 1582 1583 1584 1585 1586 1587 1588 1589 1590 1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 1596 1597 1598 1599 1600 1601 1602 1603 1604 1605 1606 1607 1608 1609 1610 1611 1612 1613 1614 1615 1616 1617 1618 1619 1620 1621 1622 1623 1624 1625 1626 1627 1628 1629 1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1636 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649 1650 1651 1652 1653 1654 1655 1656 1657 1658 1659 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1668 1669 1670 1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 1697 1698 1699 1700 1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706 1707 1708 1709 1710 1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719 1720 1721 1722 1723 1724 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759 1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769 1770 1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 2036 2037 2038 2039 2040 2041 2042 2043 2044 2045 2046 2047 2048 2049 2050 2051 2052 2053 2054 2055 2056 2057 2058 2059 2060 2061 2062 2063 2064 2065 2066 2067 2068 2069 2070 2071 2072 2073 2074 2075 2076 2077 2078 2079 2080 2081 2082 2083 2084 2085 2086 2087 2088 2089 2090 2091 2092 2093 2094 2095 2096 2097 2098 2099 2100 2101 2102 2103 2104 2105 2106 2107 2108 2109 2110 2111 2112 2113 2114 2115 2116 2117 2118 2119 2120 2121 2122 2123 2124 2125 2126 2127 2128 2129 2130 2131 2132 2133 2134 2135 2136 2137 2138 2139 2140 2141 2142 2143 2144 2145 2146 2147 2148 2149 2150 2151 2152 2153 2154 2155 2156 2157 2158 2159 2160 2161 2162 2163 2164 2165 2166 2167 2168 2169 2170 2171 2172 2173 2174 2175 2176 2177 2178 2179 2180 2181 2182 2183 2184 2185 2186 2187 2188 2189 2190 2191 2192 2193 2194 2195 2196 2197 2198 2199 2200
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Tighten creation of tables in temporary schemas (Robert Haas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously, it was possible to create unlogged tables in temporary
        schemas, and temporary tables in the temporary schemas of other
        sessions.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Object Permissions</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <link
        linkend="SQL-CREATEVIEW"><literal>security_barrier</></link>
        option for views (KaiGai Kohei, Noah Misch)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This prevents <literal>security_barrier</> views from being moved
        into other scopes, preventing possible leakage of view-prohibited
        data.  Such views might perform more poorly.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a new <link
        linkend="SQL-CREATEFUNCTION"><literal>LEAKPROOF</></link> function
        specification to mark functions that can be safely pushed down
        into <literal>security_barrier</> views (KaiGai Kohei)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add support for privileges on date types (Peter Eisentraut,
        Yeb Havinga)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This adds support for the <acronym>SQL</>-conforming
        <literal>USAGE</> privilege on types and domains.  The intent is
        to be able restrict which users can create dependencies on types,
        which restricts the way in which owners can alter types.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Check for <command>INSERT</command> privileges in <command>SELECT
        INTO</command> / <command>CREATE TABLE AS</command> (KaiGai Kohei,
        Albe Laurenz)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Because the object is being created by <command>SELECT
        INTO</command> or <command>CREATE TABLE AS</command>, it will
        have default insert permissions, except if <literal>ALTER DEFAULT
        PRIVILEGES</> has removed such permissions, hence the need for
        a permission check.
       </para>
      </listitem>      

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Utility Operations</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow vacuum to more easily skip pages that cannot be locked
        (Simon Riggs, Robert Haas)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This change should greatly reduce the incidence of vacuum getting
        "stuck".
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="SQL-EXPLAIN"><command>EXPLAIN</></link></title>

      <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Make <command>EXPLAIN (BUFFERS)</command> track blocks dirtied
        and written (Robert Haas, Fujii Masao, Greg Smith)
       </para>
      </listitem>
       
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have <command>EXPLAIN ANALYZE</command> report the number of rows
        rejected by filter steps (Marko Tiikkaja, Marc Cousin)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <command>EXPLAIN</command> to avoid timing overhead when
        time values are unwanted (Tomas Vondra, Eric Theise)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This is accomplished by setting <literal>TIMING</> to
        <literal>FALSE</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Data Types</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <link linkend="datatype-json"><type>JSON</type></link>
        data type (Robert Haas)  AUTHOR?
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This stores <acronym>JSON</acronym> data as text after proper
        validation.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link
        linkend="functions-json"><function>array_to_json()</></link>
        and <function>row_to_json()</> (Andrew Dunstan, Abhijit Menon-Sen)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add support for <link linkend="rangetypes">range data types</link>
        (Jeff Davis, Tom Lane, Alexander Korotkov)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        The range data type records a lower and upper bound, and supports
        comparisons like contains, overlaps, and intersection.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link linkend="datatype-serial"><type>SMALLSERIAL</></link>
        data type (Mike Pultz, Brar Piening, Josh Kupershmidt)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This is like <type>SERIAL</>, except it stores the sequence in
        a two-byte integer column (int2).
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <link linkend="SQL-CREATEDOMAIN">domains</link> to be
        declared <literal>NOT VALID</> (&Aacute;lvaro Herrera, Thom Brown,
        Dean Rasheed, Jaime Casanova, Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This can be set at domain creation time, or via
        <command>ALTER DOMAIN</command> / <literal>ADD CONSTRAINT / NOT
        VALID</>. <command>ALTER DOMAIN</command> / <literal>VALIDATE
        CONSTRAINT</> fully validates the domain.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Support more locale-specific formatting options for the <link
        linkend="datatype-money">MONEY</link> data type (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Specifically, display the plus/minus sign, currency symbol,
        and separators in a locale-specific order.  CORRECT?
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add bitwise "and", "or", and "not" <link
        linkend="macaddr-functions-table">operators</link> for the macaddr
        data type (Brendan Jurd, Fujii Masao)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="functions-xml"><acronym>XML</></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <function>xpath()</> to return a single-element
        <acronym>XML</acronym> array when supplied a scalar value (Florian
        Pflug, Radoslaw Smogura)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously, it returned an empty array.  This change will also
        cause <function>xpath_exists()</> to return true, not false,
        for such expressions.
       </para>
      </listitem>      

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve <acronym>XML</acronym> error handling to be more robust
        (Florian Pflug, Tom Lane, Noah Misch)
       </para>
      </listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Functions</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow a user to cancel queries in other owned sessions using <link
        linkend="functions-admin-signal"><function>pg_cancel_backend()</></link>
        (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously only the superuser could cancel queries.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <link
        linkend="functions-aggregate-table"><function>string_agg()</></link>
        to process bytea values (Pavel Stehule, Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow regular expressions to use back-references (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        For example, '^(\w+)( \1)+$'.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow importing and exporting of transaction snapshots (Joachim
        Wieland, Marko Tiikkaja, Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Snapshots are exported via <link
        linkend="functions-snapshot-synchronization"><function>pg_export_snapshot()</></link>,
        and imported via <command>SET TRANSACTION SNAPSHOT</command>.
        Only snapshots of currently-running transactions can be imported.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Support <link
        linkend="functions-info-catalog-table"><literal>COLLATION
        FOR</></link> on expressions (Peter Eisentraut, Jaime Casanova)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This returns a string representing the collation of the expression.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <type>NUMERIC</> variant of <link
        linkend="functions-admin-dbsize"><function>pg_size_pretty()</></link>
        for use with <function>pg_xlog_location_diff()</> (Fujii Masao)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    <sect4>
     <title>Function and Trigger Creation</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Change default names of triggers to fire action triggers before
        check triggers (Tom Lane)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows default-named check triggers to check post-action rows.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <link
        linkend="functions-info-session-table"><function>pg_trigger_depth()</></link>
        function (Kevin Grittner)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This reports the current trigger call depth.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Object Information Functions</title>

     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link
        linkend="functions-info-schema-table"><function>pg_opfamily_is_visible()</></link>
        (Josh Kupershmidt)
       </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow per-column foreign data wrapper options and
        <literal>force_not_null</> (Shigeru Hanada, KaiGai Kohei)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows <acronym>SQL</acronym> specification of per-column
        information useful to foreign data sources.  Includes
        <application>psql</> option display support.
       </para>
      </listitem>
            
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve pretty printing of view definitions (Andrew Dunstan,
        Hitoshi Harada)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="information-schema">Information Schema</link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <structname>information_schema</> views
        <structname>role_udt_grants</>, <structname>udt_privileges</>,
        and <structname>user_defined_types</> (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add composite-type attributes to the
        <varname>information_schema</>.<varname>element_types</> view
        (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Implement information schema <varname>interval_type</> columns
        (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add collation columns to various information schema views (Peter
        Eisentraut)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Specifically, provide collation columns for views referencing
        attributes, columns, domains, and <varname>element_types</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add display of sequence <literal>USAGE</> privileges to information
        schema (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <varname>with_hierarchy</> column to the information schema
        privileges display (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have the information schema show default privileges (Peter
        Eisentraut, Abhijit Menon-Sen)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously default permissions generated <literal>NULL</> fields.
        (WAS IT NULL?)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Server-Side Languages</title>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="plpgsql">PL/pgSQL</link> Server-Side Language</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow the PL/pgSQL <command>OPEN</> cursor command to supply
        parameters by name (Yeb Havinga, Kevin Grittner, Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <command>GET STACKED DIAGNOSTICS</command> PL/pgSQL command
        to retrieve exception info (Pavel Stehule, Shigeru Hanada,
        David Wheeler)
       </para>
      </listitem>
  
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Speed up PL/pgSQL array assignment by caching type information
        (Pavel Stehule)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Improve performance and memory consumption of the PL/pgSQL
        <literal>ELSIF</> clauses (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Output the function signature, not just the name, in PL/pgSQL
        error messages (Pavel Stehule, Abhijit Menon-Sen, Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="plperl">PL/Perl</link> Server-Side Language</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Properly handle empty arrays returned by PL/Perl functions
        (Andrew Dunstan) DETAILS?
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="plpython">PL/Python</link> Server-Side Language</title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add PL/Python <acronym>SPI</acronym> cursor support (Jan
        Urba&#324;nski, Steve Singer)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows PL/Python to read partial result sets.
       </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add result metadata functions to PL/Python (Peter Eisentraut,
        Abhijit Menon-Sen)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Specifically, this adds result object functions .colnames,
        .coltypes, and .coltypmods.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="xfunc-sql">SQL</link> Server-Side Language</title>

     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <acronym>SQL</acronym>-language functions to reference
        parameters by name (Matthew Draper, Hitoshi Harada)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        To use this, simply name the function arguments and reference
        the argument names in the <acronym>SQL</acronym> function body.
       </para>
      </listitem>

     </itemizedlist>      
    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3>
    <title>Client Applications</title>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <link linkend="APP-INITDB"><application>initdb</></link>
        options <option>--auth-local</> and <option>--auth-host</>
        (Peter Eisentraut, Pavel Stehule)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This allows individual control of <literal>local</> and
        <literal>host</> <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename> authentication
        settings.  <option>--auth</> still controls both.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <option>--replication</>/<option>--no-replication</> flags to
        <link linkend="APP-CREATEUSER"><application>createuser</></link>
        to control replication permission (Fujii Masao, C&eacute;dric
        Villemain)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add the <option>--if-exists</> option to <link
        linkend="APP-DROPDB"><application>dropdb</></link> and <link
        linkend="APP-DROPUSER"><application>dropuser</></link> (Josh
        Kupershmidt)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Give command-line tools the ability to specify the name of the
        database to connect to, and fall back to <varname>template1</>
        if a <literal>postgres</> database connection fails (Robert Haas)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
    </itemizedlist>

    <sect4>
     <title><link linkend="APP-PSQL"><application>psql</></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add <application>psql</> mode to auto-expand output based on the
        display width (Peter Eisentraut, Noah Misch)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This adds the <literal>auto</> option to the <command>\x</>
        command, which switches to the expanded mode when the normal
        output would be wider than the screen.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow inclusion of <application>psql</> files relative to the
        directory of the input file from which it was invoked (Gurjeet
        Singh, Josh Kupershmidt)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        The <application>psql</> command is <command>\ir</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add support for non-<acronym>ASCII</acronym> characters in
        <application>psql</> variable names (Tom Lane)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add support for major-version-specific <filename>.psqlrc</> files
        (Bruce Momjian)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        We already supported minor-version-specific <filename>.psqlrc</>
        files.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Provide environment variable overrides for <application>psql</>
        history and startup file locations (Andrew Dunstan)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Specifically, <envar>PSQL_HISTORY</envar> and
        <envar>PSQLRC</envar>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Add a <application>psql</> <command>\setenv</> command to modify
        the environment variables used by child processes (Andrew Dunstan,
        Josh Kupershmidt)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This is useful in <filename>.psqlrc</> files.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have <application>psql</> temporary editor files use a
        <filename>.sql</> extension (Peter Eisentraut)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allows <application>psql</> to use zero-byte field and record
        separators (Peter Eisentraut, Abhijit Menon-Sen)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Various shell tools use zero/null-byte separators, e.g. find.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have <application>psql</> <command>\timing</> report times for
        failed queries (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        Previously only successful query times were reported.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Have <application>psql</> <command>\copy</> use libpq's
        <function>SendQuery()</> (Noah Misch)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        This makes <command>\copy</> failure behavior more predictable,
        and honors <envar>ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4>
     <title>Informational Commands</title>

     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Make <application>psql</> <command>\d</> on a sequence show the
        table/column name owning it (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Show statistics target for columns in <application>psql</>
        <command>\d+</> (Magnus Hagander)
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Show role password expiration dates in <application>psql</>
        <command>\du</> (Fabr&iacute;zio de Royes Mello)
       </para>
      </listitem>

     </itemizedlist>


    <sect5>
     <title>Comments</title>

     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allow <application>psql</> to display comments for languages and
        casts (Josh Kupershmidt)
       </para>
       
       <para>
        These are output via <command>\dL</> and <command>\dC</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      
      <listitem>
       <para>
Loading
Loading full blame...