>
>
> Features We Do _Not_ Want
> =========================
>
> * All backends running as threads in a single process (not want)
>
> This eliminates the process protection we get from the current setup.
> Thread creation is usually the same overhead as process creation on
> modern systems, so it seems unwise to use a pure threaded model.
>
> * Optimizer hints (not want)
>
> Optimizer hints are used to work around problems in the optimizer. We
> would rather have the problems reported and fixed.
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00506.php
< A package would be a schema with its own variables,
< private functions, and initialization functions. It
> A package would be a schema with public/private variables,
> public/private functions, and initialization functions. It
< private functions, and initialization functions
> private functions, and initialization functions. It
> is also possible to implement these capabilities
> in all schemas and not use a separate "packages"
> syntax at all.
loaded libraries: call functions _PG_init() and _PG_fini() if the library
defines such symbols. Hence we no longer need to specify an initialization
function in preload_libraries: we can assume that the library used the
_PG_init() convention, instead. This removes one source of pilot error
in use of preloaded libraries. Original patch by Ralf Engelschall,
preload_libraries changes by me.
< o Automatically force archiving of partially-filled WAL files when
> o -Automatically force archiving of partially-filled WAL files when
<
< Doing this will allow administrators to know more easily when
< the archive contains all the files needed for point-in-time
< recovery.
< http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-04/msg00121.php
<
< o Add reporting of the current WAL file and offset, perhaps as
> o -Add reporting of the current WAL file and offset, perhaps as
<
< The offset allows parts of a WAL file to be archived using
< an external program.
<
o print user name for all
o print portal name if defined for all
o print query for all
o reduce log_statement header to single keyword
o print bind parameters as DETAIL if text mode
to happen automatically during pg_stop_backup(). Add some functions for
interrogating the current xlog insertion point and for easily extracting
WAL filenames from the hex WAL locations displayed by pg_stop_backup
and friends. Simon Riggs with some editorialization by Tom Lane.
the DROP pass rather than the ADD_CONSTR pass. On examining the code I
think this was just an oversight rather than intentional, and it seems
to satisfy the principle of least surprise better than the alternative
solution that was discussed. Add an example to the ref page showing how
to do ALTER TYPE and update the default in one command. Per gripe from
Markus Bertheau that that wasn't possible.
(table or index) before trying to open its relcache entry. This fixes
race conditions in which someone else commits a change to the relation's
catalog entries while we are in process of doing relcache load. Problems
of that ilk have been reported sporadically for years, but it was not
really practical to fix until recently --- for instance, the recent
addition of WAL-log support for in-place updates helped.
Along the way, remove pg_am.amconcurrent: all AMs are now expected to support
concurrent update.
created in the bootstrap phase proper, rather than added after-the-fact
by initdb. This is cleaner than before because it allows us to retire the
undocumented ALTER TABLE ... CREATE TOAST TABLE command, but the real reason
I'm doing it is so that toast tables of shared catalogs will now have
predetermined OIDs. This will allow a reasonably clean solution to the
problem of locking tables before we load their relcache entries, to appear
in a forthcoming patch.
the float8 versions of the aggregates, which is all that the standard requires.
Sergey's original patch also provided versions using numeric arithmetic,
but given the size and slowness of the code, I doubt we ought to include
those in core.
the opportunity to treat COUNT(*) as a zero-argument aggregate instead
of the old hack that equated it to COUNT(1); this is materially cleaner
(no more weird ANYOID cases) and ought to be at least a tiny bit faster.
Original patch by Sergey Koposov; review, documentation, simple regression
tests, pg_dump and psql support by moi.
< o Allow point-in-time recovery to archive partially filled
< write-ahead logs? [pitr]
> o Add command to archive partially filled write-ahead logs? [pitr]
< of a disk failure. This could be triggered by a user command or
< a timer.
> of a disk failure.
< recovery. A function call to do this would also be useful.
> recovery.
> o Add reporting of the current WAL file and offset, perhaps as
> part of partial log file archiving
>
> The offset allows parts of a WAL file to be archived using
> an external program.
>
< o Add reporting of the current WAL file and offset, perhaps as
< part of partial log file archiving
<
< The offset allows parts of a WAL file to be archived using
< an external program.
< o Add reporting of the current WAL file, perhaps as part of
< partial log file archiving
> o Add reporting of the current WAL file and offset, perhaps as
> part of partial log file archiving
configuration files that can be altered by a DBA. The australian_timezones
GUC setting disappears, replaced by a timezone_abbreviations setting (set this
to 'Australia' to get the effect of australian_timezones). The list of zone
names defined by default has undergone a bit of cleanup, too. Documentation
still needs some work --- in particular, should we fix Table B-4, or just get
rid of it? Joachim Wieland, with some editorializing by moi.
just exec instead of creating a subprocess. This reduces process usage
from four processes per parallel test to two. I have no idea whether
a comparable optimization is possible or useful in the Windows port.
This allows it to be used on Windows without installing mingw
(though you do still need 'diff'), and opens the door to future
improvements such as message localization.
Magnus Hagander and Tom Lane.
it can handle small fillfactors for ordinary-sized index entries without
failing on large ones; fix nbtinsert.c to distinguish leaf and nonleaf
pages; change the minimum fillfactor to 10% for all index types.
To this end, add a couple of columns to pg_class, relminxid and relvacuumxid,
based on which we calculate the pg_database columns after each vacuum.
We now force all databases to be vacuumed, even template ones. A backend
noticing too old a database (meaning pg_database.datminxid is in danger of
falling behind Xid wraparound) will signal the postmaster, which in turn will
start an autovacuum iteration to process the offending database. In principle
this is only there to cope with frozen (non-connectable) databases without
forcing users to set them to connectable, but it could force regular user
database to go through a database-wide vacuum at any time. Maybe we should
warn users about this somehow. Of course the real solution will be to use
autovacuum all the time ;-)
There are some additional improvements we could have in this area: for example
the vacuum code could be smarter about not updating pg_database for each table
when called by autovacuum, and do it only once the whole autovacuum iteration
is done.
I updated the system catalogs documentation, but I didn't modify the
maintenance section. Also having some regression tests for this would be nice
but it's not really a very straightforward thing to do.
Catalog version bumped due to system catalog changes.
discussion (including making def_arg allow reserved words), add missed
opt_definition for UNIQUE case. Put the reloptions support code in a less
random place (I chose to make a new file access/common/reloptions.c).
Eliminate header inclusion creep. Make the index options functions safely
user-callable (seems like client apps might like to be able to test validity
of options before trying to make an index). Reduce overhead for normal case
with no options by allowing rd_options to be NULL. Fix some unmaintainably
klugy code, including getting rid of Natts_pg_class_fixed at long last.
Some stylistic cleanup too, and pay attention to keeping comments in sync
with code.
Documentation still needs work, though I did fix the omissions in
catalogs.sgml and indexam.sgml.
< o Add ALTER TABLE tab ADD/DROP INHERITS parent
<
< This allows tables to be added/removed from an inheritance
< hierarchy. This is particularly useful for table partitioning.
< http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-05/msg00988.php
<
> o -Add ALTER TABLE tab INHERIT / NO INHERIT parent
Open items:
There were a few tangentially related issues that have come up that I think
are TODOs. I'm likely to tackle one or two of these next so I'm interested in
hearing feedback on them as well.
. Constraints currently do not know anything about inheritance. Tom suggested
adding a coninhcount and conislocal like attributes have to track their
inheritance status.
. Foreign key constraints currently do not get copied to new children (and
therefore my code doesn't verify them). I don't think it would be hard to
add them and treat them like CHECK constraints.
. No constraints at all are copied to tables defined with LIKE. That makes it
hard to use LIKE to define new partitions. The standard defines LIKE and
specifically says it does not copy constraints. But the standard already has
an option called INCLUDING DEFAULTS; we could always define a non-standard
extension LIKE table INCLUDING CONSTRAINTS that gives the user the option to
request a copy including constraints.
. Personally, I think the whole attislocal thing is bunk. The decision about
whether to drop a column from children tables or not is something that
should be up to the user and trying to DWIM based on whether there was ever
a local definition or the column was acquired purely through inheritance is
hardly ever going to match up with user expectations.
. And of course there's the whole unique and primary key constraint issue. I
think to get any traction at all on this you have a prerequisite of a real
partitioned table implementation where the system knows what the partition
key is so it can recognize when it's a leading part of an index key.
Greg Stark
be delivered directly to the collector process. The extra process context
swaps required to transfer data through the buffer process seem to outweigh
any value the buffering might have. Per recent discussion and tests.
I modified Bruce's draft patch to use poll() rather than select() where
available (this makes a noticeable difference on my system), and fixed
up the EXEC_BACKEND case.
< o Add support for WITH HOLD cursors
> o Add support for WITH HOLD and SCROLL cursors
>
> PL/pgSQL cursors should support the same syntax as
> backend cursors.
>
< * %Disallow changing DEFAULT expression of a SERIAL column?
<
< This should be done only if the existing SERIAL problems cannot be
< fixed.
<
> * -Disallow changing DEFAULT expression of a SERIAL column
will be expanded to a list of their member fields, rather than creating
a nested rowtype field as formerly. (The old behavior is still available
by omitting '.*'.) This syntax is not allowed by the SQL spec AFAICS,
so changing its behavior doesn't violate the spec. The new behavior is
substantially more useful since it allows, for example, triggers to check
for data changes with 'if row(new.*) is distinct from row(old.*)'. Per
my recent proposal.
< * Reuse index tuples that point to rows that are not visible to anyone?
> * Reuse index tuples that point to heap tuples that are not visible to
> anyone?
< * Allow heap reuse of UPDATEd rows if old and new versions are on the
< same heap page?
> * Allow heap reuse of UPDATEd rows if no indexed columns are changed,
> and old and new versions are on the same heap page?
< This is possible for same-page updates because a single index row
< can point to both old and new values.
> While vacuum handles DELETEs fine, updating of non-indexed columns, like
> counters, are difficult for VACUUM to handle efficiently. This method
> is possible for same-page updates because a single index row can be
> used to point to both old and new values.
>
> * Allow heap reuse of UPDATEd rows if old and new versions are on the
> same heap page?
>
> This is possible for same-page updates because a single index row
> can point to both old and new values.
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-06/msg01305.php
current commands; instead, store current-status information in shared
memory. This substantially reduces the overhead of stats_command_string
and also ensures that pg_stat_activity is fully up to date at all times.
Per my recent proposal.
section into PL/pgSQL and non-PL/pgSQL sections:
< 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, plpython
< 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 statements from PL/PgSQL
< o Add MOVE to PL/pgSQL
< 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
< o Add single-step debugging of PL/PgSQL functions
< o Allow PL/PgSQL to support WITH HOLD cursors
< o Allow PL/PgSQL RETURN to return row or record functions
<
< http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-11/msg00045.php
> o PL/pgSQL
> o Fix 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 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 MOVE
> o Add single-step debugging of functions
> o Add support for WITH HOLD cursors
> o Allow PL/RETURN to return row or record functions
>
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-11/msg00045.php
>
>
> o Other
> o Add table function support to pltcl, plpython
> o Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to
> languages other than PL/PgSQL
> o Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES
> o Add support for OUT and INOUT parameters to languages other
> than PL/PgSQL
Bruce Momjian
Tom Lane
Michael Meskes
Alvaro Herrera
Peter Eisentraut
Neil Conway
Andrew Dunstan