A HUGE number of bug/performance fixes and minor enhancements.
Foreign Keys
Foreign keys are now implemented, with the exception of PARTIAL
MATCH foreign keys. Many users have been asking for this
feature, and we are pleased to offer it.
Optimizer Overhaul
Continuing on work started a year ago, the optimizer has been
overhauled, allowing improved query execution and better
performance with less memory usage.
Updated psql
psql, our interactive terminal monitor, has been updated with a
variety of new features. See the psql manual page for details.
Upcoming Features
In 7.1 or 7.2, we plan to have outer joins, storage for very
long rows, and a write-ahead logging system.
A dump/restore using pg_dump is required for those wishing to migrate
data from any previous release. For those upgrading from 6.5.*, you
can use pg_upgrade to upgrade to this release.
unlibtoolized. Things now install into ${PREFIX} instead of
${PREFIX}/${PGSQL_USER} to match hier(7) expectations. The Tcl and Tk
interfaces are now split out into separate packages.
This closes the following PRs: 7384, 8747, 8789, 9272, 9461.
doesn't use it. Later tonight or tomorrow morning, I will commit a jdbc-postgresql
package which will share DISTFILE and patch goo with this package.
All this may eventually be replaced if the client stuff is factored out of the
postgresql package, but that's not me.
from the main PostgreSQL distribution, and must be installed separately
(databases/pgaccess). Relevant changes from 6.5.1:
subselect+CASE fixes(Tom)
Add SHLIB_LINK setting for solaris_i386 and solaris_sparc ports(Daren
Sefcik)
Fixes for CASE in WHERE join clauses(Tom)
Fix BTScan abort(Tom)
Repair the check for redundant UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY indices(Thomas)
Improve it so that it checks for multi-column constraints(Tom)
Fix for Win32 making problem with MB enabled(Hiroki Kataoka)
Allow BSD yacc and bison to compile pl code(Bruce)
Fix SET NAMES
int8 fixes(Thomas)
Fix vacuum's memory consumption(Hiroshi,Tatsuo)
Reduce the total memory consumption of vacuum(Tom)
Fix for timestamp(datetime)
Rule deparsing bugfixes(Tom)
Fix quoting problems in mkMakefile.tcldefs.sh.in and
mkMakefile.tkdefs.sh.in(Tom)
This is to re-use space on index pages freed by vacuum(Vadim)
document -x for pg_dump(Bruce)
Fix for unary operators in rule deparser(Tom)
Comment out FileUnlink of excess segments during mdtruncate()(Tom)
Irix linking fix from Yu Cao <yucao@falcon.kla-tencor.com>
Repair logic error in LIKE: should not return LIKE_ABORT
when reach end of pattern before end of text(Tom)
Repair incorrect cleanup of heap memory allocation during transaction
abort(Tom)
removed, but this should still function correctly on a.out systems. This
package was originally submitted by D'Arcy J.M. Cain, but with major
overhauling by me.
Closes PR#7865 and relevant part of PR#8299.
Major changes from version 6.4.2:
Multi-version concurrency control(MVCC)
This removes our old table-level locking, and replaces it with a
locking system that is superior to most commercial database
systems. In a traditional system, each row that is modified is
locked until committed, preventing reads by other users. MVCC
uses the natural multi-version nature of PostgreSQL to allow
readers to continue reading consistent data during writer
activity. Writers continue to use the compact pg_log transaction
system. This is all performed without having to allocate a lock
for every row like traditional database systems. So, basically,
we no longer are restricted by simple table-level locking; we
have something better than row-level locking.
Hot backups from pg_dump
pg_dump takes advantage of the new MVCC features to give a
consistant database dump/backup while the database stays online
and available for queries.
Numeric data type
We now have a true numeric data type, with user-specified
precision.
Temporary tables
Temporary tables are guaranteed to have unique names within a
database session, and are destroyed on session exit.
New SQL features
We now have CASE, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT statement support. We
have new LIMIT/OFFSET, SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL, SELECT
... FOR UPDATE, and an improved LOCK TABLE command.
Speedups
We continue to speed up PostgreSQL, thanks to the variety of
talents within our team. We have sped up memory allocation,
optimization, table joins, and row transfer routines.
Ports
We continue to expand our port list, this time including
WinNT/ix86 and NetBSD/arm32.
Interfaces
Most interfaces have new versions, and existing functionality
has been improved.
Documentation
New and updated material is present throughout the
documentation. New FAQs have been contributed for SGI and AIX
platforms. The Tutorial has introductory information on SQL from
Stefan Simkovics. For the User's Guide, there are reference pages
covering the postmaster and more utility programs, and a new
appendix contains details on date/time behavior. The
Administrator's Guide has a new chapter on troubleshooting from
Tom Lane. And the Programmer's Guide has a description of query
processing, also from Stefan, and details on obtaining the
Postgres source tree via anonymous CVS and CVSup.
