From 7bd93589c8f05de9414f3fe97457b8e8ebaec7ff Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:52:58 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Preliminary release notes for 8.5alpha2
---
doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml | 333 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
1 file changed, 308 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml
index 3c93e4f8203..77e3cd69d8b 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
-<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml,v 1.4 2009/08/19 08:18:48 petere Exp $ -->
+<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-8.5.sgml,v 1.5 2009/10/20 19:52:58 petere Exp $ -->
-<sect1 id="release-8.5">
- <title>Release 8.5alpha1</title>
+<sect1 id="release-8-5">
+ <title>Release 8.5alpha2</title>
<sect2>
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@
using those if you are looking for bug-fix-only upgrades for your
current installations.
</para>
+ <para>
+ The release notes are cumulative over all alpha releases. Items
+ that are new in the latest alpha release
+ are <emphasis>emphasized</emphasis>.
+ </para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Migration</title>
@@ -52,6 +57,68 @@
<sect3>
<title>SQL Features</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem override="box">
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Modify the definition of window-function PARTITION
+ BY and ORDER BY clauses so that their elements are always
+ taken as simple expressions over the query's input
+ columns.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Fix bug with WITH RECURSIVE immediately inside WITH
+ RECURSIVE.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Define a new, more extensible syntax for COPY options.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command, which allows
+ users to adjust the privileges that will be applied to
+ subsequently-created objects.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Support use of function argument names to identify which
+ actual arguments match which function parameters. The syntax
+ uses AS, for example funcname(value AS arg1, anothervalue AS
+ arg2).</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add CREATE LIKE INCLUDING COMMENTS and STORAGE, and INCLUDING
+ ALL shortcut.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add GRANT/REVOKE ON ALL TABLES/SEQUENCES/FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add SQL-compliant triggers on columns, ie fire only if
+ certain columns are named in the UPDATE's SET list.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add surrogate pair support for U& string and identifier
+ syntax.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add Unicode escapes in E'...' strings.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
DROP COLUMN and DROP CONSTRAINT now support an IF EXISTS clause so
@@ -67,19 +134,19 @@
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Allows parentheses around the query expression that follows a WITH
+ Allow parentheses around the query expression that follows a WITH
clause.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
INFORMATION_SCHEMA, a catalog of standard views of database
- objects, has been updated to the SQL:2008 ANSI/ISO standard.
+ objects, has been updated to the SQL:2008 standard.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Changes character_octet_length to more sensible values in
+ Change character_octet_length to more sensible values in
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -94,6 +161,19 @@
<sect3>
<title>Performance</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Make TRUNCATE do truncate-in-place when processing
+ a relation that was created or previously truncated in the
+ current (sub)transaction.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Implement "join removal" for cases where the inner side
+ of a left join is unique and is not referenced above the join.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
EXPLAIN allows output of plans in XML or JSON format for automated
@@ -116,7 +196,7 @@
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Makes GEQO's planning deterministic by having it start from a
+ Make GEQO's planning deterministic by having it start from a
predictable random number seed each time.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -153,6 +233,31 @@
<sect3>
<title>Administration and Monitoring</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add a Boolean server configuration parameter
+ "bonjour" to control whether a Bonjour-enabled
+ build actually attempts to advertise itself via Bonjour.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>When reloading postgresql.conf, log what parameters actually
+ changed.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Make it possibly to specify server configuration parameters
+ per user and per database. psql has gained a drds command to
+ display the settings.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Allow the collection of statistics on sequences.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add the ability to include the SQLSTATE error code of any error
@@ -169,9 +274,28 @@
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Server Configuration</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Increase the maximum value of extra_float_digits to
+ 3, and have pg_dump use that value when the backend is new
+ enough to allow it, because it is possible to need 3 extra
+ digits for float4 values (but not for float8 values).</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Security</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Support "samehost" and "samenet" specifications
+ in pg_hba.conf.</emphasis>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
New has_sequence_privilege() functions allow you to check sequence
@@ -183,6 +307,12 @@
<sect3>
<title>Built-In Functions</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Support POSIX-compatible interpretation of ? as well as {m,n}
+ and related constructs in SIMILAR TO, per SQL:2008.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The to_char() formatting functions now supports EEEE (scientific
@@ -206,13 +336,24 @@
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
- <title>Datatypes</title>
+ <title>Data Types</title>
<itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- New hex-string input and output format options for type BYTEA. Hex
- output format is enabled by default, which is an INCOMPATIBLE
- CHANGE. See the new bytea_output parameter if you need to restore
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Fix encoding handling in binary input function of xml type.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Tighten binary receive functions so that they reject values
+ that the text input functions don't accept either.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ New hex-string input and output format options for type bytea. Hex
+ output format is enabled by default, which is an incompatible
+ change. See the new bytea_output parameter if you need to restore
compatibility.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -227,14 +368,28 @@
<sect3>
<title>Server Tools</title>
<itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>It is now reasonably safe to use pg_ctl to start
+ the postmaster from a boot-time script.</emphasis>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Remove the use of the flat files pg_auth and
+ pg_database. (At least pgbouncer currently suggests referring
+ to the pg_auth file for its user database. Such schemes will
+ no longer work.)</emphasis>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
pg_dump/pg_restore --clean now drops large objects.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Modifies parallel pg_restore ordering logic to avoid a potential
+ Modify parallel pg_restore ordering logic to avoid a potential
O(N^2) slowdown for some complex databases.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -243,6 +398,21 @@
<sect3>
<title>psql</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Implement significantly saner behavior when two or
+ more psql sessions overlap in their use of the history file.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add "pset linestyle ascii/unicode" option to psql,
+ allowing our traditional ASCII-art style of table output to
+ be upgraded to use Unicode box drawing characters if
+ desired. By default, psql will use the Unicode characters
+ whenever client_encoding is UTF8.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Have \d show child tables that inherit from the specified parent
@@ -258,6 +428,52 @@
<sect3>
<title>Procedural Languages</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add DO statement to support execution of procedural language
+ code without having to create a function for it.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Fix/improve bytea and boolean support in PL/Python. Data type
+ conversion into and out of PL/Python previously went through
+ an intermediate string representation, which caused various
+ discrepancies especially with bytea and boolean data. This is
+ now fixed by converting the values directly.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>PL/Python now accepts Unicode objects where it previously
+ only accepted string objects (for example, as return
+ value). Unicode objects are converted to the PostgreSQL
+ server encoding as necessary.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Improve error context reporting in PL/Perl, for
+ easier debugging.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Allow plpgsql IN parameters to be assigned to.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Convert a Perl array to a PostgreSQL array when returned by
+ set-returning functions as well as non-SRFs.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Allow MOVE FORWARD n, MOVE BACKWARD n, MOVE FORWARD ALL, MOVE
+ BACKWARD ALL in PL/pgSQL.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
PL/pgSQL functions can now better cope with row types
@@ -266,13 +482,13 @@
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Improves error context reporting in PL/Python, for easier
+ Improve error context reporting in PL/Python, for easier
debugging.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Greatly expands the regression testing for PL/Python.
+ Greatly expand the regression testing for PL/Python.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
@@ -280,6 +496,11 @@
<sect3>
<title>Additional Supplied Modules</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Assorted improvements in contrib/hstore.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
pgbench is now multi-threaded, allowing it to use multiple CPU's
@@ -306,6 +527,27 @@
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Programming Tools</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Add ECPG function that returns the current transaction status.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Make ECPG more robust against applications freeing strings.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Make libpq reject non-numeric and out-of-range port numbers with a
+ suitable error message.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Development</title>
<itemizedlist>
@@ -331,7 +573,33 @@
<sect3>
<title>Ports</title>
<itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Change the WIN32 API version to be 5.01 (Windows XP), to
+ bring in the proper IPv6 headers in newer SDKs.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Write to the Windows eventlog in UTF-16, converting the
+ message encoding as necessary.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Replace use of the long-deprecated Bonjour API
+ DNSServiceRegistrationCreate with the not-so-deprecated
+ DNSServiceRegister. The new code will fail on Mac OS X
+ releases before 10.3.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Install a hopefully-temporary workaround for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
+ readdir() bug.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
Reserve the shared memory region during backend startup on Windows,
so that memory allocated by starting third party DLLs doesn't end
@@ -350,6 +618,28 @@
<sect3>
<title>Source code, build options</title>
<itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Fix inclusions of readline/editline header files so that we
+ only attempt to #include the version of history.h that is in
+ the same directory as the readline.h we are using. This
+ avoids problems in some scenarios where both readline and
+ editline are installed.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Derived files that are shipped in the distribution used to be
+ built in the source directory even for out-of-tree
+ builds. They are now also built in the build tree. This
+ should be more convenient for certain developers' workflows.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Translations were updated.</>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Upgrade to Autoconf 2.63 (not relevant to users of distribution
@@ -387,13 +677,6 @@
will let it be used directly by PL/pgSQL.
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Fix backend startup to not depend on the flat-file copy of
- pg_database. This is a first step towards eliminating the flat
- files altogether.
- </para>
- </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
</sect2>
--
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