(current as of a few hours ago.)

This patch:

1. Adds PG_GETARG_xxx_P_SLICE() macros and associated support routines.

2. Adds routines in src/backend/access/tuptoaster.c for fetching only
necessary chunks of a toasted value. (Modelled on latest changes to
assume chunks are returned in order).

3. Amends text_substr and bytea_substr to use new methods. It now
handles multibyte cases -and should still lead to a performance
improvement in the multibyte case where the substring is near the
beginning of the string.

4. Added new command: ALTER TABLE tabname ALTER COLUMN colname SET
STORAGE {PLAIN | EXTERNAL | EXTENDED | MAIN} to parser and documented in
alter-table.sgml. (NB I used ColId as the item type for the storage
mode string, rather than a new production - I hope this makes sense!).
All this does is sets attstorage for the specified column.

4. AlterTableAlterColumnStatistics is now AlterTableAlterColumnFlags and
handles both statistics and storage (it uses the subtype code to
distinguish). The previous version of my patch also re-arranged other
code in backend/commands/command.c but I have dropped that from this
patch.(I plan to return to it separately).

5. Documented new macros (and also the PG_GETARG_xxx_P_COPY macros) in
xfunc.sgml. ref/alter_table.sgml also contains documentation for ALTER
COLUMN SET STORAGE.

John Gray

Greg Sabino Mullane

Everyone using libpq and bytea is probably having to invent this wheel..

Patrick Welche

now just below FATAL in server_min_messages.  Added more text to
highlight ordering difference between it and client_min_messages.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

REALLYFATAL => PANIC
STOP => PANIC
New INFO level the prints to client by default
New LOG level the prints to server log by default
Cause VACUUM information to print only to the client
NOTICE => INFO where purely information messages are sent
DEBUG => LOG for purely server status messages
DEBUG removed, kept as backward compatible
DEBUG5, DEBUG4, DEBUG3, DEBUG2, DEBUG1 added
DebugLvl removed in favor of new DEBUG[1-5] symbols
New server_min_messages GUC parameter with values:
        DEBUG[5-1], INFO, NOTICE, ERROR, LOG, FATAL, PANIC
New client_min_messages GUC parameter with values:
        DEBUG[5-1], LOG, INFO, NOTICE, ERROR, FATAL, PANIC
Server startup now logged with LOG instead of DEBUG
Remove debug_level GUC parameter
elog() numbers now start at 10
Add test to print error message if older elog() values are passed to elog()
Bootstrap mode now has a -d that requires an argument, like postmaster

variables.  New commands ALTER DATABASE ... SET and ALTER USER ... SET.

manual page;  pointed out by IRC user.

equals hack for the future.

for CREATE DATABASE.

on behalf of unprivileged users.  Also, make '=' optional in CREATE
DATABASE syntax.  From Gavin Sherry, with kibitzing and docs by Tom Lane.

Properly handles default values.

primary keys after the fact!

Also, we need to add regression tests for alter table / add primary key
and alter table / drop constraint.  These shouldn't be added until 7.3
tho
methinks...

Chris

e.g. table contraint definition -> table_constraint_definition.

was mentioned on the man page for the underlying CREATE USER command,
but it should be explained here too.