From 9f604687973eafa1476b454d50bc1dceb5b47ccb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:52:44 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Great TODO updates from Tom:
< Currently SIGTERM of a backend can lead to lock table corruption.
> Lock table corruption following SIGTERM of an individual backend
> has been reported in 8.0. A possible cause was fixed in 8.1, but
> it is unknown whether other problems exist. This item mostly
> requires additional testing rather than of writing any new code.
< o Allow postgresql.conf values to be set so they can not be changed
< by the user
166c167,171
< * %Remove Money type, add money formatting for decimal type
> * Improve the MONEY data type
>
> Change the MONEY data type to use DECIMAL internally, with special
> locale-aware output formatting.
>
225c230
< o %Allow MIN()/MAX() on arrays
> o -Allow MIN()/MAX() on arrays
228c233
< o Modify array literal representation to handle array index lower bound
> o -Modify array literal representation to handle array index lower bound
235a241
> o Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
< Currently large objects entries do not have owners. Permissions can
< only be set at the pg_largeobject table level.
> /contrib/lo offers this functionality.
240d244
< o Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
< * %Have views on temporary tables exist in the temporary namespace
< * Allow temporary views on non-temporary tables
< * %Allow RULE recompilation
> * -Have views on temporary tables exist in the temporary namespace
> * -Allow temporary views on non-temporary tables
> * Allow VIEW/RULE recompilation when the underlying tables change
340a345,347
>
> This is like DELETE CASCADE, but truncates.
>
381c388
< * Make row-wise comparisons work per SQL spec
> * %Make row-wise comparisons work per SQL spec
< o Currently the system uses the operating system COPY command to
< create a new database. Add ON COMMIT capability to CREATE TABLE AS
< SELECT
> o Add ON COMMIT capability to CREATE TABLE AS ... SELECT
427c432
< o %Add ALTER DOMAIN TYPE
> o Add ALTER DOMAIN to modify the underlying data type
< o %Disallow dropping of an inherited constraint
< o -Allow objects to be moved to different schemas
> o Add missing object types for ALTER ... SET SCHEMA
< o %Prevent child tables from altering constraints like CHECK that were
< inherited from the parent table
> o %Disallow dropping of an inherited constraint
> o %Prevent child tables from altering or dropping constraints
> like CHECK that were inherited from the parent table
< o Handle references to temporary tables that are created, destroyed,
< then recreated during a session, and EXECUTE is not used
<
< This requires the cached PL/PgSQL byte code to be invalidated when
< an object referenced in the function is changed.
<
< o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython?
< o Allow PL/pgSQL to name columns by ordinal position, e.g. rec.(3)
> o Add table function support to pltcl, plpython
549a548
> o Allow function argument names to be queries from PL/PgSQL
< o Pass arrays natively instead of as text between plperl and postgres
< o Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to plperl
> o -Pass arrays natively instead of as text between plperl and postgres
> o Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to
> languages other than PL/PgSQL
> o Add support for OUT and INOUT parameters to languages other
> than PL/PgSQL
< * Allow libpq to access SQLSTATE so pg_ctl can test for connection failure
<
< This would be used for checking if the server is up.
<
565c563
< * Have initdb set DateStyle based on locale?
> * Have initdb set the input DateStyle (MDY or DMY) based on locale?
567d564
< * Add a schema option to createlang
< o Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps.
<
< This is probably best done by combining pg_dump and pg_dumpall
< into a single binary.
<
> o Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps?
612c605,606
< o Remove unnecessary abstractions in pg_dump source code
> o Remove unnecessary function pointer abstractions in pg_dump source
> code
< * %Remove CREATE CONSTRAINT TRIGGER
<
< This was used in older releases to dump referential integrity
< constraints.
<
682a672,675
> This is particularly important for references to temporary tables
> in PL/PgSQL because PL/PgSQL caches query plans. The only workaround
> in PL/PgSQL is to use EXECUTE.
>
748c741
< * Fetch heap pages matching index entries in sequential order
> * -Fetch heap pages matching index entries in sequential order
797c790
< Currently no only one hash bucket can be stored on a page. Ideally
> Currently only one hash bucket can be stored on a page. Ideally
806a800,802
> o Add WAL logging for crash recovery
> o Allow multi-column hash indexes
>
812a809,812
>
> Ideally this requires a separate test program that can be run
> at initdb time or optionally later.
>
867c867
< * Improve the background writer
> * -Improve the background writer
< For large table adjustements during vacuum, it is faster to reindex
< rather than update the index.
> For large table adjustements during VACUUM FULL, it is faster to
> reindex rather than update the index.
< * Reduce lock time by moving tuples with read lock, then write
< lock and truncate table
> * Reduce lock time during VACUUM FULL by moving tuples with read lock,
> then write lock and truncate table
919c919,920
< o %Suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly empty
> o %Issue log message to suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly
> empty?
995d995
< * Add WAL index reliability improvement to non-btree indexes
1045c1045
< * ANALYZE should record a pg_statistic entry for an all-NULL column
> * -ANALYZE should record a pg_statistic entry for an all-NULL column
1047a1048,1051
> * Allow constraint_elimination to be automatically performed
>
> This requires additional code to reduce the performance loss caused by
> constraint elimination.
1090c1094
< * Remove memory/file descriptor freeing before ereport(ERROR)
> * %Remove memory/file descriptor freeing before ereport(ERROR)
< * Promote debug_query_string into a server-side function current_query()
< * Allow the identifier length to be increased via a configure option
> * %Promote debug_query_string into a server-side function current_query()
> * %Allow the identifier length to be increased via a configure option
1113d1116
< * Fix cross-compiling of time zone database via 'zic'
1130c1133
< o Improve dlerror() reporting string
> o -Improve dlerror() reporting string
1132c1135
< o Add support for Unicode
> o %Add support for Unicode
---
doc/TODO | 133 +++++++++++++++++++++---------------------
doc/src/FAQ/TODO.html | 125 ++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
2 files changed, 132 insertions(+), 126 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/TODO b/doc/TODO
index 01082bd20e5..4ca5718f7c2 100644
--- a/doc/TODO
+++ b/doc/TODO
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
PostgreSQL TODO List
====================
Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (pgman@candle.pha.pa.us)
-Last updated: Wed Aug 24 21:24:51 EDT 2005
+Last updated: Fri Aug 26 14:52:30 EDT 2005
The most recent version of this document can be viewed at
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.TODO.html.
@@ -35,7 +35,10 @@ Administration
* Allow administrators to safely terminate individual sessions either
via an SQL function or SIGTERM
- Currently SIGTERM of a backend can lead to lock table corruption.
+ Lock table corruption following SIGTERM of an individual backend
+ has been reported in 8.0. A possible cause was fixed in 8.1, but
+ it is unknown whether other problems exist. This item mostly
+ requires additional testing rather than of writing any new code.
* -Prevent dropping user that still owns objects, or auto-drop the objects
* %Set proper permissions on non-system schemas during db creation
@@ -63,8 +66,6 @@ Administration
* Configuration files
o %Add "include file" functionality in postgresql.conf
- o Allow postgresql.conf values to be set so they can not be changed
- by the user
o %Allow commenting of variables in postgresql.conf to restore them
to defaults
@@ -163,7 +164,11 @@ Monitoring
Data Types
==========
-* %Remove Money type, add money formatting for decimal type
+* Improve the MONEY data type
+
+ Change the MONEY data type to use DECIMAL internally, with special
+ locale-aware output formatting.
+
* Change NUMERIC to enforce the maximum precision, and increase it
* Add NUMERIC division operator that doesn't round?
@@ -222,10 +227,10 @@ Data Types
* Arrays
o Allow NULLs in arrays
- o %Allow MIN()/MAX() on arrays
+ o -Allow MIN()/MAX() on arrays
o Delay resolution of array expression's data type so assignment
coercion can be performed on empty array expressions
- o Modify array literal representation to handle array index lower bound
+ o -Modify array literal representation to handle array index lower bound
of other than one
@@ -233,11 +238,10 @@ Data Types
o Improve vacuum of large objects, like /contrib/vacuumlo?
o Add security checking for large objects
+ o Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
- Currently large objects entries do not have owners. Permissions can
- only be set at the pg_largeobject table level.
+ /contrib/lo offers this functionality.
- o Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
o Allow read/write into TOAST values like large objects
This requires the TOAST column to be stored EXTERNAL.
@@ -314,9 +318,9 @@ Views / Rules
* Add the functionality for WITH CHECK OPTION clause of CREATE VIEW
* Allow NOTIFY in rules involving conditionals
-* %Have views on temporary tables exist in the temporary namespace
-* Allow temporary views on non-temporary tables
-* %Allow RULE recompilation
+* -Have views on temporary tables exist in the temporary namespace
+* -Allow temporary views on non-temporary tables
+* Allow VIEW/RULE recompilation when the underlying tables change
SQL Commands
@@ -338,6 +342,9 @@ SQL Commands
* Add ROLLUP, CUBE, GROUPING SETS options to GROUP BY
* %Allow SET CONSTRAINTS to be qualified by schema/table name
* %Allow TRUNCATE ... CASCADE/RESTRICT
+
+ This is like DELETE CASCADE, but truncates.
+
* %Add a separate TRUNCATE permission
Currently only the owner can TRUNCATE a table because triggers are not
@@ -378,7 +385,7 @@ SQL Commands
When enabled, this would allow errors in multi-statement transactions
to be automatically ignored.
-* Make row-wise comparisons work per SQL spec
+* %Make row-wise comparisons work per SQL spec
* Add RESET CONNECTION command to reset all session state
This would include resetting of all variables (RESET ALL), dropping of
@@ -404,9 +411,7 @@ SQL Commands
o Use more reliable method for CREATE DATABASE to get a consistent
copy of db?
- o Currently the system uses the operating system COPY command to
- create a new database. Add ON COMMIT capability to CREATE TABLE AS
- SELECT
+ o Add ON COMMIT capability to CREATE TABLE AS ... SELECT
* UPDATE
@@ -424,11 +429,10 @@ SQL Commands
* ALTER
o %Have ALTER TABLE RENAME rename SERIAL sequence names
- o %Add ALTER DOMAIN TYPE
+ o Add ALTER DOMAIN to modify the underlying data type
o %Allow ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... RENAME
o %Allow ALTER TABLE to change constraint deferrability and actions
- o %Disallow dropping of an inherited constraint
- o -Allow objects to be moved to different schemas
+ 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
@@ -436,8 +440,9 @@ SQL Commands
Currently non-global system tables must be in the default database
tablespace. Global system tables can never be moved.
- o %Prevent child tables from altering constraints like CHECK that were
- inherited from the parent table
+ o %Disallow dropping of an inherited constraint
+ o %Prevent child tables from altering or dropping constraints
+ like CHECK that were inherited from the parent table
* CLUSTER
@@ -532,24 +537,21 @@ SQL Commands
Currently only constants are supported.
o -Change PL/PgSQL to use palloc() instead of malloc()
- o Handle references to temporary tables that are created, destroyed,
- then recreated during a session, and EXECUTE is not used
-
- This requires the cached PL/PgSQL byte code to be invalidated when
- an object referenced in the function is changed.
-
o Fix PL/pgSQL RENAME to work on variables other than OLD/NEW
o Allow function parameters to be passed by name,
get_employee_salary(emp_id => 12345, tax_year => 2001)
o Add Oracle-style packages
- o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython?
- o Allow PL/pgSQL to name columns by ordinal position, e.g. rec.(3)
+ o Add table function support to pltcl, plpython
o -Allow PL/pgSQL EXECUTE query_var INTO record_var;
o Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES
o Allow PL/pgSQL to handle %TYPE arrays, e.g. tab.col%TYPE[]
+ o Allow function argument names to be queries from PL/PgSQL
o Add MOVE to PL/pgSQL
- o Pass arrays natively instead of as text between plperl and postgres
- o Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to plperl
+ o -Pass arrays natively instead of as text between plperl and postgres
+ o Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to
+ languages other than PL/PgSQL
+ o Add support for OUT and INOUT parameters to languages other
+ than PL/PgSQL
Clients
@@ -557,14 +559,9 @@ Clients
* Add a libpq function to support Parse/DescribeStatement capability
* Prevent libpq's PQfnumber() from lowercasing the column name?
-* Allow libpq to access SQLSTATE so pg_ctl can test for connection failure
-
- This would be used for checking if the server is up.
-
* Add PQescapeIdentifier() to libpq
-* Have initdb set DateStyle based on locale?
+* Have initdb set the input DateStyle (MDY or DMY) based on locale?
* Have pg_ctl look at PGHOST in case it is a socket directory?
-* Add a schema option to createlang
* Allow pg_ctl to work properly with configuration files located outside
the PGDATA directory
@@ -602,14 +599,11 @@ Clients
o Stop dumping CASCADE on DROP TYPE commands in clean mode
o %Add full object name to the tag field. eg. for operators we need
'=(integer, integer)', instead of just '='.
- o Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps.
-
- This is probably best done by combining pg_dump and pg_dumpall
- into a single binary.
-
+ o Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps?
o %Add CSV output format
o Update pg_dump and psql to use the new COPY libpq API (Christopher)
- o Remove unnecessary abstractions in pg_dump source code
+ o Remove unnecessary function pointer abstractions in pg_dump source
+ code
* ecpg
@@ -660,11 +654,6 @@ Referential Integrity
* Allow statement-level triggers to access modified rows
* Support triggers on columns (Greg Sabino Mullane)
-* %Remove CREATE CONSTRAINT TRIGGER
-
- This was used in older releases to dump referential integrity
- constraints.
-
* Enforce referential integrity for system tables
* Allow AFTER triggers on system tables
@@ -680,6 +669,10 @@ Dependency Checking
* Flush cached query plans when the dependent objects change
* Track dependencies in function bodies and recompile/invalidate
+ This is particularly important for references to temporary tables
+ in PL/PgSQL because PL/PgSQL caches query plans. The only workaround
+ in PL/PgSQL is to use EXECUTE.
+
Exotic Features
===============
@@ -745,7 +738,7 @@ Indexes
Uniqueness (index) checks are done when updating a column even if the
column is not modified by the UPDATE.
-* Fetch heap pages matching index entries in sequential order
+* -Fetch heap pages matching index entries in sequential order
Rather than randomly accessing heap pages based on index entries, mark
heap pages needing access in a bitmap and do the lookups in sequential
@@ -794,7 +787,7 @@ Indexes
o Pack hash index buckets onto disk pages more efficiently
- Currently no only one hash bucket can be stored on a page. Ideally
+ Currently only one hash bucket can be stored on a page. Ideally
several hash buckets could be stored on a single page and greater
granularity used for the hash algorithm.
@@ -804,12 +797,19 @@ Indexes
o In hash indexes, consider storing the hash value with or instead
of the key itself
+ o Add WAL logging for crash recovery
+ o Allow multi-column hash indexes
+
Fsync
=====
* Improve commit_delay handling to reduce fsync()
* Determine optimal fdatasync/fsync, O_SYNC/O_DSYNC options
+
+ Ideally this requires a separate test program that can be run
+ at initdb time or optionally later.
+
* -Allow multiple blocks to be written to WAL with one write()
* %Add an option to sync() before fsync()'ing checkpoint files
* Add program to test if fsync has a delay compared to non-fsync
@@ -864,7 +864,7 @@ Cache Usage
Larger local buffer cache sizes requires more efficient handling of
local cache lookups.
-* Improve the background writer
+* -Improve the background writer
Allow the background writer to more efficiently write dirty buffers
from the end of the LRU cache and use a clock sweep algorithm to
@@ -884,11 +884,11 @@ Vacuum
* Improve speed with indexes
- For large table adjustements during vacuum, it is faster to reindex
- rather than update the index.
+ For large table adjustements during VACUUM FULL, it is faster to
+ reindex rather than update the index.
-* Reduce lock time by moving tuples with read lock, then write
- lock and truncate table
+* Reduce lock time during VACUUM FULL by moving tuples with read lock,
+ then write lock and truncate table
Moved tuples are invisible to other backends so they don't require a
write lock. However, the read lock promotion to write lock could lead
@@ -916,7 +916,8 @@ Vacuum
o -Move into the backend code
o Use free-space map information to guide refilling
- o %Suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly empty
+ o %Issue log message to suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly
+ empty?
o Improve xid wraparound detection by recording per-table rather
than per-database
@@ -992,7 +993,6 @@ Write-Ahead Log
* Reduce WAL traffic so only modified values are written rather than
entire rows?
-* Add WAL index reliability improvement to non-btree indexes
* Allow the pg_xlog directory location to be specified during initdb
with a symlink back to the /data location
* Allow WAL information to recover corrupted pg_controldata
@@ -1042,9 +1042,13 @@ Optimizer / Executor
This would be beneficial when there are few distinct values.
-* ANALYZE should record a pg_statistic entry for an all-NULL column
+* -ANALYZE should record a pg_statistic entry for an all-NULL column
* Log queries where the optimizer row estimates were dramatically
different from the number of rows actually found?
+* Allow constraint_elimination to be automatically performed
+
+ This requires additional code to reduce the performance loss caused by
+ constraint elimination.
Miscellaneous Performance
@@ -1087,10 +1091,10 @@ Source Code
* Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages
* Improve documentation to build only interfaces (Marc)
* Remove or relicense modules that are not under the BSD license, if possible
-* Remove memory/file descriptor freeing before ereport(ERROR)
+* %Remove memory/file descriptor freeing before ereport(ERROR)
* Acquire lock on a relation before building a relcache entry for it
-* Promote debug_query_string into a server-side function current_query()
-* Allow the identifier length to be increased via a configure option
+* %Promote debug_query_string into a server-side function current_query()
+* %Allow the identifier length to be increased via a configure option
* Remove Win32 rename/unlink looping if unnecessary
* -Remove kerberos4 from source tree
* Allow cross-compiling by generating the zic database on the target system
@@ -1110,7 +1114,6 @@ Source Code
is already possible to install into a directory that doesn't contain
spaces and then copy the install to a directory with spaces.
-* Fix cross-compiling of time zone database via 'zic'
* Fix sgmltools so PDFs can be generated with bookmarks
* -Add C code on Unix to copy directories for use in creating new databases
* %Clean up compiler warnings (especially with gcc version 4)
@@ -1127,9 +1130,9 @@ Source Code
backslashes
o Re-enable timezone output on log_line_prefix '%t' when a
shorter timezone string is available
- o Improve dlerror() reporting string
+ o -Improve dlerror() reporting string
o Fix problem with shared memory on the Win32 Terminal Server
- o Add support for Unicode
+ o %Add support for Unicode
To fix this, the data needs to be converted to/from UTF16/UTF8
so the Win32 wcscoll() can be used, and perhaps other functions
diff --git a/doc/src/FAQ/TODO.html b/doc/src/FAQ/TODO.html
index 589b1b27264..641c33962f0 100644
--- a/doc/src/FAQ/TODO.html
+++ b/doc/src/FAQ/TODO.html
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#FF0000" vlink="#A00000" alink="#0000FF">
<h1><a name="section_1">PostgreSQL TODO List</a></h1>
<p>Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<a href="mailto:pgman@candle.pha.pa.us">pgman@candle.pha.pa.us</a>)<br/>
-Last updated: Wed Aug 24 21:24:51 EDT 2005
+Last updated: Fri Aug 26 14:52:30 EDT 2005
</p>
<p>The most recent version of this document can be viewed at<br/>
<a href="http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.TODO.html">http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.TODO.html</a>.
@@ -38,7 +38,10 @@ first.
in-progress when the server terminated abruptly
</li><li>Allow administrators to safely terminate individual sessions either
via an SQL function or SIGTERM
-<p> Currently SIGTERM of a backend can lead to lock table corruption.
+<p> Lock table corruption following SIGTERM of an individual backend
+ has been reported in 8.0. A possible cause was fixed in 8.1, but
+ it is unknown whether other problems exist. This item mostly
+ requires additional testing rather than of writing any new code.
</p>
</li><li>-<em>Prevent dropping user that still owns objects, or auto-drop the objects</em>
</li><li>%Set proper permissions on non-system schemas during db creation
@@ -61,8 +64,6 @@ first.
</li><li>Configuration files
<ul>
<li>%Add "include file" functionality in postgresql.conf
- </li><li>Allow postgresql.conf values to be set so they can not be changed
- by the user
</li><li>%Allow commenting of variables in postgresql.conf to restore them
to defaults
<p> Currently, if a variable is commented out, it keeps the
@@ -150,7 +151,10 @@ first.
<h1><a name="section_4">Data Types</a></h1>
<ul>
- <li>%Remove Money type, add money formatting for decimal type
+ <li>Improve the MONEY data type
+<p> Change the MONEY data type to use DECIMAL internally, with special
+ locale-aware output formatting.
+</p>
</li><li>Change NUMERIC to enforce the maximum precision, and increase it
</li><li>Add NUMERIC division operator that doesn't round?
<p> Currently NUMERIC _rounds_ the result to the specified precision.
@@ -208,20 +212,19 @@ first.
</li><li>Arrays
<ul>
<li>Allow NULLs in arrays
- </li><li>%Allow MIN()/MAX() on arrays
+ </li><li>-<em>Allow MIN()/MAX() on arrays</em>
</li><li>Delay resolution of array expression's data type so assignment
coercion can be performed on empty array expressions
- </li><li>Modify array literal representation to handle array index lower bound
+ </li><li>-<em>Modify array literal representation to handle array index lower bound</em>
of other than one
</li></ul>
</li><li>Binary Data
<ul>
<li>Improve vacuum of large objects, like /contrib/vacuumlo?
</li><li>Add security checking for large objects
-<p> Currently large objects entries do not have owners. Permissions can
- only be set at the pg_largeobject table level.
-</p>
</li><li>Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
+<p> /contrib/lo offers this functionality.
+</p>
</li><li>Allow read/write into TOAST values like large objects
<p> This requires the TOAST column to be stored EXTERNAL.
</p>
@@ -291,9 +294,9 @@ first.
</p>
</li><li>Add the functionality for WITH CHECK OPTION clause of CREATE VIEW
</li><li>Allow NOTIFY in rules involving conditionals
- </li><li>%Have views on temporary tables exist in the temporary namespace
- </li><li>Allow temporary views on non-temporary tables
- </li><li>%Allow RULE recompilation
+ </li><li>-<em>Have views on temporary tables exist in the temporary namespace</em>
+ </li><li>-<em>Allow temporary views on non-temporary tables</em>
+ </li><li>Allow VIEW/RULE recompilation when the underlying tables change
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_8">SQL Commands</a></h1>
@@ -312,6 +315,8 @@ first.
</li><li>Add ROLLUP, CUBE, GROUPING SETS options to GROUP BY
</li><li>%Allow SET CONSTRAINTS to be qualified by schema/table name
</li><li>%Allow TRUNCATE ... CASCADE/RESTRICT
+<p> This is like DELETE CASCADE, but truncates.
+</p>
</li><li>%Add a separate TRUNCATE permission
<p> Currently only the owner can TRUNCATE a table because triggers are not
called, and the table is locked in exclusive mode.
@@ -347,7 +352,7 @@ first.
<p> When enabled, this would allow errors in multi-statement transactions
to be automatically ignored.
</p>
- </li><li>Make row-wise comparisons work per SQL spec
+ </li><li>%Make row-wise comparisons work per SQL spec
</li><li>Add RESET CONNECTION command to reset all session state
<p> This would include resetting of all variables (RESET ALL), dropping of
temporary tables, removing any NOTIFYs, cursors, open transactions,
@@ -368,9 +373,7 @@ first.
expressions like SELECT col1 || col2
</li><li>Use more reliable method for CREATE DATABASE to get a consistent
copy of db?
- </li><li>Currently the system uses the operating system COPY command to
- create a new database. Add ON COMMIT capability to CREATE TABLE AS
- SELECT
+ </li><li>Add ON COMMIT capability to CREATE TABLE AS ... SELECT
</li></ul>
</li><li>UPDATE
<ul>
@@ -386,19 +389,19 @@ first.
</li><li>ALTER
<ul>
<li>%Have ALTER TABLE RENAME rename SERIAL sequence names
- </li><li>%Add ALTER DOMAIN TYPE
+ </li><li>Add ALTER DOMAIN to modify the underlying data type
</li><li>%Allow ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... RENAME
</li><li>%Allow ALTER TABLE to change constraint deferrability and actions
- </li><li>%Disallow dropping of an inherited constraint
- </li><li>-<em>Allow objects to be moved to different schemas</em>
+ </li><li>Add missing object types for ALTER ... SET SCHEMA
</li><li>Allow ALTER TABLESPACE to move to different directories
</li><li>Allow databases to be moved to different tablespaces
</li><li>Allow moving system tables to other tablespaces, where possible
<p> Currently non-global system tables must be in the default database
tablespace. Global system tables can never be moved.
</p>
- </li><li>%Prevent child tables from altering constraints like CHECK that were
- inherited from the parent table
+ </li><li>%Disallow dropping of an inherited constraint
+ </li><li>%Prevent child tables from altering or dropping constraints
+ like CHECK that were inherited from the parent table
</li></ul>
</li><li>CLUSTER
<ul>
@@ -482,23 +485,21 @@ first.
<p> Currently only constants are supported.
</p>
</li><li>-<em>Change PL/PgSQL to use palloc() instead of malloc()</em>
- </li><li>Handle references to temporary tables that are created, destroyed,
- then recreated during a session, and EXECUTE is not used
-<p> This requires the cached PL/PgSQL byte code to be invalidated when
- an object referenced in the function is changed.
-</p>
</li><li>Fix PL/pgSQL RENAME to work on variables other than OLD/NEW
</li><li>Allow function parameters to be passed by name,
get_employee_salary(emp_id => 12345, tax_year => 2001)
</li><li>Add Oracle-style packages
- </li><li>Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython?
- </li><li>Allow PL/pgSQL to name columns by ordinal position, e.g. rec.(3)
+ </li><li>Add table function support to pltcl, plpython
</li><li>-<em>Allow PL/pgSQL EXECUTE query_var INTO record_var;</em>
</li><li>Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES
</li><li>Allow PL/pgSQL to handle %TYPE arrays, e.g. tab.col%TYPE[<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?"></a>]
+ </li><li>Allow function argument names to be queries from PL/PgSQL
</li><li>Add MOVE to PL/pgSQL
- </li><li>Pass arrays natively instead of as text between plperl and postgres
- </li><li>Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to plperl
+ </li><li>-<em>Pass arrays natively instead of as text between plperl and postgres</em>
+ </li><li>Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to
+ languages other than PL/PgSQL
+ </li><li>Add support for OUT and INOUT parameters to languages other
+ than PL/PgSQL
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_9">Clients</a></h1>
@@ -506,13 +507,9 @@ first.
<ul>
<li>Add a libpq function to support Parse/DescribeStatement capability
</li><li>Prevent libpq's PQfnumber() from lowercasing the column name?
- </li><li>Allow libpq to access SQLSTATE so pg_ctl can test for connection failure
-<p> This would be used for checking if the server is up.
-</p>
</li><li>Add PQescapeIdentifier() to libpq
- </li><li>Have initdb set DateStyle based on locale?
+ </li><li>Have initdb set the input DateStyle (MDY or DMY) based on locale?
</li><li>Have pg_ctl look at PGHOST in case it is a socket directory?
- </li><li>Add a schema option to createlang
</li><li>Allow pg_ctl to work properly with configuration files located outside
the PGDATA directory
<p> pg_ctl can not read the pid file because it isn't located in the
@@ -546,13 +543,11 @@ first.
</li><li>Stop dumping CASCADE on DROP TYPE commands in clean mode
</li><li>%Add full object name to the tag field. eg. for operators we need
'=(integer, integer)', instead of just '='.
- </li><li>Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps.
-<p> This is probably best done by combining pg_dump and pg_dumpall
- into a single binary.
-</p>
+ </li><li>Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps?
</li><li>%Add CSV output format
</li><li>Update pg_dump and psql to use the new COPY libpq API (Christopher)
- </li><li>Remove unnecessary abstractions in pg_dump source code
+ </li><li>Remove unnecessary function pointer abstractions in pg_dump source
+ code
</li></ul>
</li><li>ecpg
<ul>
@@ -598,10 +593,6 @@ first.
</p>
</li><li>Allow statement-level triggers to access modified rows
</li><li>Support triggers on columns (Greg Sabino Mullane)
- </li><li>%Remove CREATE CONSTRAINT TRIGGER
-<p> This was used in older releases to dump referential integrity
- constraints.
-</p>
</li><li>Enforce referential integrity for system tables
</li><li>Allow AFTER triggers on system tables
<p> System tables are modified in many places in the backend without going
@@ -615,6 +606,10 @@ first.
<ul>
<li>Flush cached query plans when the dependent objects change
</li><li>Track dependencies in function bodies and recompile/invalidate
+<p> This is particularly important for references to temporary tables
+ in PL/PgSQL because PL/PgSQL caches query plans. The only workaround
+ in PL/PgSQL is to use EXECUTE.
+</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_12">Exotic Features</a></h1>
@@ -672,7 +667,7 @@ first.
<p> Uniqueness (index) checks are done when updating a column even if the
column is not modified by the UPDATE.
</p>
- </li><li>Fetch heap pages matching index entries in sequential order
+ </li><li>-<em>Fetch heap pages matching index entries in sequential order</em>
<p> Rather than randomly accessing heap pages based on index entries, mark
heap pages needing access in a bitmap and do the lookups in sequential
order. Another method would be to sort heap ctids matching the index
@@ -714,7 +709,7 @@ first.
</li><li>Hash
<ul>
<li>Pack hash index buckets onto disk pages more efficiently
-<p> Currently no only one hash bucket can be stored on a page. Ideally
+<p> Currently only one hash bucket can be stored on a page. Ideally
several hash buckets could be stored on a single page and greater
granularity used for the hash algorithm.
</p>
@@ -722,6 +717,8 @@ first.
binary search, rather than a linear scan
</li><li>In hash indexes, consider storing the hash value with or instead
of the key itself
+ </li><li>Add WAL logging for crash recovery
+ </li><li>Allow multi-column hash indexes
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_14">Fsync</a></h1>
@@ -729,6 +726,9 @@ first.
<ul>
<li>Improve commit_delay handling to reduce fsync()
</li><li>Determine optimal fdatasync/fsync, O_SYNC/O_DSYNC options
+<p> Ideally this requires a separate test program that can be run
+ at initdb time or optionally later.
+</p>
</li><li>-<em>Allow multiple blocks to be written to WAL with one write()</em>
</li><li>%Add an option to sync() before fsync()'ing checkpoint files
</li><li>Add program to test if fsync has a delay compared to non-fsync
@@ -776,7 +776,7 @@ first.
<p> Larger local buffer cache sizes requires more efficient handling of
local cache lookups.
</p>
- </li><li>Improve the background writer
+ </li><li>-<em>Improve the background writer</em>
<p> Allow the background writer to more efficiently write dirty buffers
from the end of the LRU cache and use a clock sweep algorithm to
write other dirty buffers to reduced checkpoint I/O
@@ -793,11 +793,11 @@ first.
<ul>
<li>Improve speed with indexes
-<p> For large table adjustements during vacuum, it is faster to reindex
- rather than update the index.
+<p> For large table adjustements during VACUUM FULL, it is faster to
+ reindex rather than update the index.
</p>
- </li><li>Reduce lock time by moving tuples with read lock, then write
- lock and truncate table
+ </li><li>Reduce lock time during VACUUM FULL by moving tuples with read lock,
+ then write lock and truncate table
<p> Moved tuples are invisible to other backends so they don't require a
write lock. However, the read lock promotion to write lock could lead
to deadlock situations.
@@ -820,7 +820,8 @@ first.
<ul>
<li>-<em>Move into the backend code</em>
</li><li>Use free-space map information to guide refilling
- </li><li>%Suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly empty
+ </li><li>%Issue log message to suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly
+ empty?
</li><li>Improve xid wraparound detection by recording per-table rather
than per-database
</li></ul>
@@ -889,7 +890,6 @@ first.
</li></ul>
</li><li>Reduce WAL traffic so only modified values are written rather than
entire rows?
- </li><li>Add WAL index reliability improvement to non-btree indexes
</li><li>Allow the pg_xlog directory location to be specified during initdb
with a symlink back to the /data location
</li><li>Allow WAL information to recover corrupted pg_controldata
@@ -933,9 +933,13 @@ first.
</li><li>Consider using hash buckets to do DISTINCT, rather than sorting
<p> This would be beneficial when there are few distinct values.
</p>
- </li><li>ANALYZE should record a pg_statistic entry for an all-NULL column
+ </li><li>-<em>ANALYZE should record a pg_statistic entry for an all-NULL column</em>
</li><li>Log queries where the optimizer row estimates were dramatically
different from the number of rows actually found?
+ </li><li>Allow constraint_elimination to be automatically performed
+<p> This requires additional code to reduce the performance loss caused by
+ constraint elimination.
+</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_21">Miscellaneous Performance</a></h1>
@@ -974,10 +978,10 @@ first.
</li><li>Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages
</li><li>Improve documentation to build only interfaces (Marc)
</li><li>Remove or relicense modules that are not under the BSD license, if possible
- </li><li>Remove memory/file descriptor freeing before ereport(ERROR)
+ </li><li>%Remove memory/file descriptor freeing before ereport(ERROR)
</li><li>Acquire lock on a relation before building a relcache entry for it
- </li><li>Promote debug_query_string into a server-side function current_query()
- </li><li>Allow the identifier length to be increased via a configure option
+ </li><li>%Promote debug_query_string into a server-side function current_query()
+ </li><li>%Allow the identifier length to be increased via a configure option
</li><li>Remove Win32 rename/unlink looping if unnecessary
</li><li>-<em>Remove kerberos4 from source tree</em>
</li><li>Allow cross-compiling by generating the zic database on the target system
@@ -995,7 +999,6 @@ first.
is already possible to install into a directory that doesn't contain
spaces and then copy the install to a directory with spaces.
</p>
- </li><li>Fix cross-compiling of time zone database via 'zic'
</li><li>Fix sgmltools so PDFs can be generated with bookmarks
</li><li>-<em>Add C code on Unix to copy directories for use in creating new databases</em>
</li><li>%Clean up compiler warnings (especially with gcc version 4)
@@ -1010,9 +1013,9 @@ first.
backslashes
</li><li>Re-enable timezone output on log_line_prefix '%t' when a
shorter timezone string is available
- </li><li>Improve dlerror() reporting string
+ </li><li>-<em>Improve dlerror() reporting string</em>
</li><li>Fix problem with shared memory on the Win32 Terminal Server
- </li><li>Add support for Unicode
+ </li><li>%Add support for Unicode
<p> To fix this, the data needs to be converted to/from UTF16/UTF8
so the Win32 wcscoll() can be used, and perhaps other functions
like towupper(). However, UTF8 already works with normal
--
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