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Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (bruce@momjian.us)
The most recent version of this document can be viewed at
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.TODO.html.
#A hyphen, "-", marks changes that will appear in the upcoming 8.4 release.#
#A percent sign, "%", marks items that are easier to implement.#
This list contains all known PostgreSQL bugs and feature requests. If
you would like to work on an item, please read the Developer's FAQ
first. There is also a developer's wiki at
http://developer.postgresql.org.
* -Allow administrators to safely terminate individual sessions either
via an SQL function or SIGTERM
* Check for unreferenced table files created by transactions that were
in-progress when the server terminated abruptly
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00096.php
* Set proper permissions on non-system schemas during db creation
Currently all schemas are owned by the super-user because they are copied
from the template1 database. However, since all objects are inherited
from the template database, it is not clear that setting schemas to the db
owner is correct.
* -Add function to report the time of the most recent server reload
* Allow log_min_messages to be specified on a per-module basis
This would allow administrators to see more detailed information from
specific sections of the backend, e.g. checkpoints, autovacuum, etc.
Another idea is to allow separate configuration files for each module,
or allow arbitrary SET commands to be passed to them.
* Simplify ability to create partitioned tables
This would allow creation of partitioned tables without requiring
creation of triggers or rules for INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, and constraints
for rapid partition selection. Options could include range and hash
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00375.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00151.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00028.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00248.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00387.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00413.php
* Allow auto-selection of partitioned tables for min/max() operations
Currently ALTER USER and ALTER DATABASE support per-user and
defaults so things like search_path can be defaulted for a
* Allow custom variable classes that can restrict who can set the values
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00911.php
* Implement the SQL standard mechanism whereby REVOKE ROLE revokes only
the privilege granted by the invoking role, and not those granted
by other roles
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-05/msg00010.php
* Allow SSL authentication/encryption over unix domain sockets
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00924.php
* Allow SSL key file permission checks to be optionally disabled when
sharing SSL keys with other applications
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-12/msg00069.php
* Allow client certificate names to be checked against the client
hostname
This is already implemented in
libpq/fe-secure.c::verify_peer_name_matches_certificate() but the code
is commented out.
o Allow pg_hba.conf to specify host names along with IP addresses
Host name lookup could occur when the postmaster reads the
pg_hba.conf file, or when the backend starts. Another
solution would be to reverse lookup the connection IP and
check that hostname against the host names in pg_hba.conf.
We could also then check that the host name maps to the IP
address.
o %Allow postgresql.conf file values to be changed via an SQL
o Issue a warning if a change-on-restart-only postgresql.conf value
o Consider normalizing fractions in postgresql.conf, perhaps
using '%'
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00550.php
o Allow Kerberos to disable stripping of realms so we can
check the username@realm against multiple realms
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg00009.php
tablespace t2 to be used as a template for a new database created
with default tablespace t2
Currently all objects in the default database tablespace must
have default tablespace specifications. This is because new
databases are created by copying directories. If you mix default
tablespace tables and tablespace-specified tables in the same
directory, creating a new database from such a mixed directory
would create a new database with tables that had incorrect
explicit tablespaces. To fix this would require modifying
pg_class in the newly copied database, which we don't currently
do.
This item is difficult because a tablespace can contain objects
from multiple databases. There is a server-side function that
returns the databases which use a specific tablespace, so this
requires a tool that will call that function and connect to each
database to find the objects in each database for that tablespace.
o Allow WAL replay of CREATE TABLESPACE to work when the directory
structure on the recovery computer is different from the original
* Statistics Collector
o Allow statistics collector information to be pulled from the collector
process directly, rather than requiring the collector to write a
filesystem file twice a second?
o Reduce file system activity overhead of statistics file pgstat.stat
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-12/msg00106.php
o Allow statistics last vacuum/analyze execution times to be displayed
without requiring stats_row_level to be enabled
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-docs/2007-04/msg00028.php
o Clear table counters on TRUNCATE
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-04/msg00169.php
* Point-In-Time Recovery (PITR)
o Allow a warm standby system to also allow read-only statements
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00050.php
o %Create dump tool for write-ahead logs for use in determining
transaction id for point-in-time recovery
o Allow recovery.conf to support the same syntax as
postgresql.conf, including quoting
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00497.php
o Fix server restart problem when the server was shutdown during
a PITR backup
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg00800.php
o Recreate pg_xlog/archive_status/ if it doesn't exist after
restoring from a PITR backup
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00487.php
* Change NUMERIC to enforce the maximum precision
* Reduce storage space for small NUMERICs
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg01331.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-02/msg00505.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00715.php
* Fix data types where equality comparison isn't intuitive, e.g. box
* Add support for public SYNONYMs
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00519.php
* Fix CREATE CAST on DOMAINs
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-05/msg00072.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01681.php
* Allow domains to be cast
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-06/msg01206.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00289.php
* Add support for SQL-standard GENERATED/IDENTITY columns
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg00543.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00038.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00344.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00076.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00604.php
* Improve XML support
http://developer.postgresql.org/index.php/XML_Support
* Consider placing all sequences in a single table, or create a system
view
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00008.php
* Allow the UUID type to accept non-standard formats
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg01214.php
* Consider a special data type for regular expressions
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg01067.php
* Reduce BIT data type overhead using short varlena headers
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-12/msg00273.php
* Allow xml arrays to be cast to other data types
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00981.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-10/msg00231.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg00471.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-01/msg00189.php
* Allow XML to accept more liberal DOCTYPE specifications
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2008-02/msg00347.php
* Allow adding/renaming/removing enumerated values to an existing
enumerated data type
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-04/msg01718.php
o Allow infinite dates and intervals just like infinite timestamps
o Merge hardwired timezone names with the TZ database; allow either
kind everywhere a TZ name is currently taken
o Allow TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE to store the original timezone
information, either zone name or offset from UTC
If the TIMESTAMP value is stored with a time zone name, interval
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-10/msg00705.php
o Add a GUC variable to allow output of interval values in ISO8601
o Have timestamp subtraction not call justify_hours()?
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2006-10/msg00059.php
o Improve timestamptz subtraction to be DST-aware
Currently subtracting one date from another that crosses a
daylight savings time adjustment can return '1 day 1 hour', but
adding that back to the first date returns a time one hour in
the future. This is caused by the adjustment of '25 hours' to
'1 day 1 hour', and '1 day' is the same time the next day, even
if daylight savings adjustments are involved.
o Fix interval display to support values exceeding 2^31 hours
o Extend timezone code to allow 64-bit values so we can
represent years beyond 2038
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01363.php
o Use LC_TIME for localized weekday/month names, rather than
LC_MESSAGES
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00390.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-01/msg00250.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2006-04/msg00248.php
o Support ISO INTERVAL syntax if units cannot be determined from
the string, and are supplied after the string
The SQL standard states that the units after the string
specify the units of the string, e.g. INTERVAL '2' MINUTE
should return '00:02:00'. The current behavior has the units
restrict the interval value to the specified unit or unit
range, INTERVAL '70' SECOND returns '00:00:10'.
For syntax that isn't uniquely ISO or PG syntax, like '1' or
'1:30', treat as ISO if there is a range specification clause,
and as PG if there no clause is present, e.g. interpret '1:30'
MINUTE TO SECOND as '1 minute 30 seconds', and interpret
'1:30' as '1 hour, 30 minutes'.
This makes common cases like SELECT INTERVAL '1' MONTH
SQL-standard results. The SQL standard supports a limited
number of unit combinations and doesn't support unit names in
the string. The PostgreSQL syntax is more flexible in the
range of units supported, e.g. PostgreSQL supports '1 year 1
hour', while the SQL standard does not.
o Add support for year-month syntax, INTERVAL '50-6' YEAR
TO MONTH
o Interpret INTERVAL '1 year' MONTH as CAST (INTERVAL '1
year' AS INTERVAL MONTH), and this should return '12 months'
o Round or truncate values to the requested precision, e.g.
INTERVAL '11 months' AS YEAR should return one or zero
o Support precision, CREATE TABLE foo (a INTERVAL MONTH(3))
* Arrays
o Delay resolution of array expression's data type so assignment
coercion can be performed on empty array expressions
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00114.php
o Allow single-byte header storage for array elements
o Improve vacuum of large objects, like contrib/vacuumlo?
o Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
contrib/lo offers this functionality.
o Allow read/write into TOAST values like large objects
o Add API for 64-bit large object access
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00781.php
* MONEY data type
* Add locale-aware MONEY type, and support multiple currencies
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2005-08/msg01432.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01181.php
* MONEY dumps in a locale-specific format making it difficult to
restore to a system with a different locale
* Allow MONEY to be easily cast to/from other numeric data types
o Allow dictionaries to change the token that is passed on to
later dictionaries
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-11/msg00081.php
o Consider a function-based API for '@@' searches
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg00511.php
o Improve text search error messages
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-10/msg00966.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg01146.php
o Consider changing error to warning for strings larger than one
megabyte
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-02/msg00190.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2008-03/msg00062.php
Functions
=========
* Allow INET subnet tests using non-constants to be indexed
* Fix to_date()-related functions to consistently issue errors
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00915.php
* Allow substring/replace() to get/set bit values
* Allow to_char() on interval values to accumulate the highest unit
requested
Some special format flag would be required to request such
accumulation. Such functionality could also be added to EXTRACT.
Prevent accumulation that crosses the month/day boundary because of
the uneven number of days in a month.
o to_char(INTERVAL '1 hour 5 minutes', 'MI') => 65
o to_char(INTERVAL '43 hours 20 minutes', 'MI' ) => 2600
o to_char(INTERVAL '43 hours 20 minutes', 'WK:DD:HR:MI') => 0:1:19:20
o to_char(INTERVAL '3 years 5 months','MM') => 41
* Implement inlining of set-returning functions defined in SQL
* Allow SQL-language functions to return results from RETURNING queries
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00665.php
* Allow SQL-language functions to reference parameters by parameter name
Currently SQL-language functions can only refer to dollar parameters,
e.g. $1
* Enforce typmod for function inputs, function results and parameters for
spi_prepare'd statements called from PLs
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01403.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00568.php
* Fix IS OF so it matches the ISO specification, and add documentation
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2003-08/msg00060.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00060.php
* Add missing operators for geometric data types
Some geometric types do not have the full suite of geometric operators,
e.g. box @> point
* Implement Boyer-Moore searching in strpos()
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-08/msg00012.php
* Prevent malicious functions from being executed with the permissions
of unsuspecting users
Index functions are safe, so VACUUM and ANALYZE are safe too.
Triggers, CHECK and DEFAULT expressions, and rules are still vulnerable.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00268.php
* Reduce memory usage of aggregates in set returning functions
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2008-01/msg00031.php
* Add temporal versions of generate_series()
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg01180.php
* Add array_accum() and array_to_set() functions for arrays
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00464.php
* Fix /contrib/ltree operator
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-11/msg00044.php
* Fix inconsistent precedence of =, >, and < compared to <>, >=, and <=
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-12/msg00145.php
* Fix regular expression bug when using complex back-references
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-10/msg00000.php
* Have /contrib/dblink reuse unnamed connections
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-10/msg00895.php
* Add SQL-standard array_agg() and unnest() array functions
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg01017.php
* Allow calling of a procedure outside a SELECT that can control the
transaction state
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-10/msg01375.php
Multi-Language Support
======================
* Add NCHAR (as distinguished from ordinary varchar),
Currently locale can only be set during initdb. No global tables have
locale-aware columns. However, the database template used during
database creation might have locale-aware indexes. The indexes would
need to be reindexed to match the new locale.
* Allow encoding on a per-column basis optionally using the ICU library;
Add CREATE COLLATE
Right now only one encoding is allowed per database.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-03/msg00932.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-08/msg00039.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-08/msg00309.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00110.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-09/msg00020.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-12/msg01121.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-01/msg00767.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-03/msg00233.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg00662.php
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Todo:Collate
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Todo:ICU
* Support multiple simultaneous character sets, per SQL92
* Add octet_length_server() and octet_length_client()
* Make octet_length_client() the same as octet_length()?
* Fix problems with wrong runtime encoding conversion for NLS message files
* Add URL to more complete multi-byte regression tests
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-07/msg00272.php
* Fix ILIKE and regular expressions to handle case insensitivity
properly in multibyte encodings
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2005-10/msg00001.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-11/msg00173.php
* Set client encoding based on the client operating system encoding
Currently client_encoding is set in postgresql.conf, which
defaults to the server encoding.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg01696.php
* Change memory allocation for multi-byte functions so memory is
allocated inside conversion functions
Currently we preallocate memory based on worst-case usage.
* Automatically create rules on views so they are updateable, per SQL99
We can only auto-create rules for simple views. For more complex
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00586.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-08/msg00255.php
* Add the functionality for WITH CHECK OPTION clause of CREATE VIEW
* Allow VIEW/RULE recompilation when the underlying tables change
Another issue is whether underlying table changes should be reflected
in the view, e.g. should SELECT * show additional columns if they
are added after the view is created.
* Make it possible to use RETURNING together with conditional DO INSTEAD
rules, such as for partitioning setups
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00577.php
* Add the ability to automatically create materialized views
Right now materialized views require the user to create triggers on the
main table to keep the summary table current. SQL syntax should be able
to manager the triggers and summary table automatically. A more
sophisticated implementation would automatically retrieve from the
summary table when the main table is referenced, if possible.
* %Allow SET CONSTRAINTS to be qualified by schema/table name
* %Add a separate TRUNCATE permission
Currently only the owner can TRUNCATE a table because triggers are not
called, and the table is locked in exclusive mode.
Currently queries prepared via the libpq API are planned on first
execute using the supplied parameters --- allow SQL PREPARE to do the
same. Also, allow control over replanning prepared queries either
manually or automatically when statistics for execute parameters
differ dramatically from those used during planning.
* Improve logging of prepared transactions recovered during startup
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00092.php
* Improve failure message when DROP DATABASE is used on a database that
has prepared transactions
* Allow prepared transactions with temporary tables created and dropped
in the same transaction, and when an ON COMMIT DELETE ROWS temporary
table is accessed
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00047.php
* Add a GUC variable to warn about non-standard SQL usage in queries
* Add SQL-standard MERGE/REPLACE/UPSERT command
MERGE is typically used to merge two tables. REPLACE or UPSERT
command does UPDATE, or on failure, INSERT. This is similar to UPDATE,
then for unmatched rows, INSERT. Whether concurrent access allows
modifications which could cause row loss is implementation independent.
To implement this cleanly requires that the table have a unique index
so duplicate checking can be easily performed. It is possible to do it
without a unique index if we require the user to LOCK the table before
the MERGE.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00501.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00536.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-04/msg01475.php
* Add NOVICE output level for helpful messages like automatic sequence/index
creation
* Add GUC to issue notice about statements that use unjoined tables
* Allow EXPLAIN to identify tables that were skipped because of
constraint_exclusion
* Allow EXPLAIN output to be more easily processed by scripts, perhaps XML
* Make standard_conforming_strings the default in 8.5?
When this is done, backslash-quote should be prohibited in non-E''
strings because of possible confusion over how such strings treat
backslashes. Basically, '' is always safe for a literal single
quote, while \' might or might not be based on the backslash
handling rules.
* Allow COMMENT ON to accept an expression rather than just a string
* Allow the count returned by SELECT, etc to be represented as an int64
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01375.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00642.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-03/msg00139.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg01334.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2008-01/msg00105.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2008-03/msg00327.php
* Add DEFAULT .. AS OWNER so permission checks are done as the table
owner
This would be useful for SERIAL nextval() calls and CHECK constraints.
* Allow DISTINCT to work in multiple-argument aggregate calls
* Add column to pg_stat_activity that shows the progress of long-running
commands like CREATE INDEX and VACUUM
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2008-04/msg00203.php
* Allow INSERT/UPDATE ... RETURNING inside a SELECT 'FROM' clause
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2006-09/msg00803.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00693.php
* Increase locking when DROPing objects so dependent objects cannot
get dropped while the DROP operation is happening
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00937.php
* -Allow AS in "SELECT col AS label" to be optional in certain cases
* Allow INSERT ... DELETE ... RETURNING, namely allow the DELETE ...
RETURNING to supply values to the INSERT
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/thrd2.php#00979
* Add comments on system tables/columns using the information in
catalogs.sgml
Ideally the information would be pulled from the SGML file
automatically.
* Improve reporting of UNION type mismatches
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00944.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00597.php
* CREATE
o Allow CREATE TABLE AS to determine column lengths for complex
expressions like SELECT col1 || col2
Right now pg_attribute.attnotnull records the NOT NULL status
of the column, but does not record the contraint name
o Prevent concurrent CREATE TABLE table1 from sometimes returning
a cryptic error message
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-10/msg00169.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg01306.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00865.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-04/msg00315.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2008-03/msg00237.php
o Research self-referential UPDATEs that see inconsistent row versions
in read-committed mode
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00507.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00016.php
o Allow GLOBAL temporary tables to exist as empty by default in
all sessions
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00006.php
o Have ALTER TABLE RENAME rename SERIAL sequence names
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00008.php
o Have ALTER SEQUENCE RENAME rename the sequence name stored
in the sequence table
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-09/msg00092.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-10/msg00007.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00008.php
o Add ALTER DOMAIN to modify the underlying data type
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-02/msg00168.php
o %Allow ALTER TABLE to change constraint deferrability and actions
o Add missing object types for ALTER ... SET SCHEMA
o Allow ALTER TABLESPACE to move to different directories
o Allow databases to be moved to different tablespaces
o Allow moving system tables to other tablespaces, where possible
tablespace. Global system tables can never be moved.
o -Prevent parent tables from altering or dropping constraints
like CHECK that are inherited by child tables unless CASCADE
is used
o -Prevent child tables from altering or dropping constraints
like CHECK that were inherited from the parent table
o Have ALTER INDEX update the name of a constraint using that index
o Allow column display reordering by recording a display,
storage, and permanent id for every column?
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00782.php
o Allow an existing index to be marked as a table's primary key
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-04/msg00500.php
This might require some background daemon to maintain clustering
during periods of low usage. It might also require tables to be only
partially filled for easier reorganization. Another idea would
automatically access the heap data too. A third idea would be to
store heap rows in hashed groups, perhaps using a user-supplied
hash function.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2004-08/msg00349.php
To do this, determine the ideal cluster index for each system
table and set the cluster setting during initdb.
o %Add VERBOSE option to report tables as they are processed,
like VACUUM VERBOSE
o Allow COPY to report error lines and continue
This requires the use of a savepoint before each COPY line is
processed, with ROLLBACK on COPY failure.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00572.php
be removed or have its heap and index files truncated. One
issue is that no other backend should be able to add to
the table at the same time, which is something that is
currently allowed. This currently is done if the table is
created inside the same transaction block as the COPY because
no other backends can see the table.
o Consider using a ring buffer for COPY FROM
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2008-02/msg00140.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg01080.php
o Allow COPY FROM to create index entries in bulk
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00811.php
o Allow COPY in CSV mode to control whether a quoted zero-length
string is treated as NULL
Currently this is always treated as a zero-length string,
which generates an error when loading into an integer column
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00905.php
o Impove COPY performance
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00954.php
o %Allow GRANT/REVOKE permissions to be applied to all schema objects
The proposed syntax is:
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN public TO phpuser;
GRANT SELECT ON NEW TABLES IN public TO phpuser;
o Allow GRANT/REVOKE permissions to be inherited by objects based on
o Allow SERIAL sequences to inherit permissions from the base table?
o Prevent DROP TABLE from dropping a row referenced by its own open
o Allow INSERT/UPDATE of the system-generated oid value for a row
o In rules, allow VALUES() to contain a mixture of 'old' and 'new'
references
o Add SET PERFORMANCE_TIPS option to suggest INDEX, VACUUM, VACUUM
* LISTEN/NOTIFY
o Allow LISTEN/NOTIFY to store info in memory rather than tables?
Currently LISTEN/NOTIFY information is stored in pg_listener.
Storing such information in memory would improve performance.
o Add optional textual message to NOTIFY
This would allow an informational message to be added to the notify
message, perhaps indicating the row modified or other custom
information.
o Allow multiple identical NOTIFY events to always be communicated
to the client, rather than sent as a single notification to the
listener
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2008-01/msg00057.php
o Allow NOTIFY in rules involving conditionals
o Improve LISTEN concurrency
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg01106.php
Referential Integrity
=====================
* Add MATCH PARTIAL referential integrity
* Change foreign key constraint for array -> element to mean element
in array?
* Fix problem when cascading referential triggers make changes on
cascaded tables, seeing the tables in an intermediate state
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php
* Allow DEFERRABLE and end-of-statement UNIQUE constraints?
This would allow UPDATE tab SET col = col + 1 to work if col has
a unique index. Currently, uniqueness checks are done while the
command is being executed, rather than at the end of the statement
or transaction.
http://people.planetpostgresql.org/greg/index.php?/archives/2006/06/10.html
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01458.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2005-10/msg00458.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00744.php
Server-Side Languages
=====================
* PL/pgSQL
o Fix RENAME to work on variables other than OLD/NEW
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2002-03/msg00591.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01615.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01587.php
o Allow function parameters to be passed by name,
get_employee_salary(12345 AS emp_id, 2001 AS tax_year)
o Allow handling of %TYPE arrays, e.g. tab.col%TYPE[]
o Allow listing of record column names, and access to
record columns via variables, e.g. columns := r.(*),
tval2 := r.(colname)
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00458.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-05/msg00302.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00031.php
o Add support for SCROLL cursors
o Add support for WITH HOLD cursors
o Allow row and record variables to be set to NULL constants,
and allow NULL tests on such variables
Because a row is not scalar, do not allow assignment
from NULL-valued scalars.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00070.php
o Review handling of MOVE and FETCH
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-04/msg00527.php
o Improve logic of determining if an identifier is a a
variable or column name
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00436.php
o Consider keeping seperate cached copies when search_path changes
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg01009.php