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+<!-- BEGIN page_title_block -->
+Weekly News - May 02 2010
+<!-- END page_title_block -->
+
+<h1>PostgreSQL Weekly News - May 02 2010</h1>
+
+<p>
+PostgreSQL 9.0beta1 out soon. Get ready to test!
+<a href="http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/HowToBetaTest">http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/HowToBetaTest</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Product News</h2>
+<p>
+New PostgreSQL LiveCDs based on PostgreSQL 8.4 atop Fedora 12 and
+CentOS 5.4 are out.
+<a href="http://www.pglivecd.org/">http://www.pglivecd.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PL/Proxy 2.1.0, a write-scaling clustering system for PostgreSQL, released.
+<a href="http://pgfoundry.org/projects/plproxy/">http://pgfoundry.org/projects/plproxy/</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL 9.0 Feature of the Week</h2>
+<p>
+You can now call functions with named parameters, e.g.
+foo('value' AS parameter_foo, 'other value' AS parameter_bar)
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Local</h2>
+<p>
+Andreas (ads) Scherbaum will be teaching a "PostgreSQL for Corporate
+Use" course at the adult education center in Magdeburg, Germany May
+3-7, 2010. Details below:
+<a href="http://andreas.scherbaum.la/blog/archives/650-PostgreSQL-Schulung-als-Bildungsurlaub-03.-07.05.2010-in-Magdeburg.html">http://andreas.scherbaum.la/blog/archives/650-PostgreSQL-Schulung-als-Bildungsurlaub-03.-07.05.2010-in-Magdeburg.html</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PgCon 2010 will be held May 20-21 2010 in Ottawa with tutorials before
+on the 18th and 19th.
+<a href="http://www.pgcon.org/2010/registration.php">http://www.pgcon.org/2010/registration.php</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Registration for Open Source Bridge is open and talks are announced!
+June 1-4, 2010 in Portland, Oregon.
+<a href="http://opensourcebridge.org/events/2010/proposals/">http://opensourcebridge.org/events/2010/proposals/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Michael Renner will be speaking at AMOOCON, which goes from June 4-6, 2010.
+<a href="http://www.amoocon.de/speakers/214">http://www.amoocon.de/speakers/214</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Southeast Linuxfest 2010 will take place in Spartanburg, SC, USA on
+June 12-13. Booths and sponsorships are still available.
+<a href="http://southeastlinuxfest.org/">http://southeastlinuxfest.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+OSCON will take place in Portland, Oregon July 19-23, 2010.
+<a href="http://www.oscon.com/oscon2010">http://www.oscon.com/oscon2010</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+
+== PostgreSQL in the News ==
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Planet PostgreSQL: <a href="http://planet.postgresql.org/">http://planet.postgresql.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PostgreSQL Weekly News is brought to you this week by David Fetter
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Submit news and announcements by Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific time.
+Please send English language ones to david@fetter.org, German language
+to pwn@pgug.de, Italian language to pwn@itpug.org. Spanish language
+to pwn@arpug.com.ar.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Applied Patches</h2>
+<p>
+Robert Haas committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- When we're restricting who can connect, don't allow new walsenders.
+ Normal superuser processes are allowed to connect even when the
+ database system is shutting down, or when fewer than
+ superuser_reserved_connection slots remain. This is intended to
+ make sure an administrator can log in and troubleshoot, so don't
+ extend these same courtesies to users connecting for replication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bruce Momjian committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/utils/adt/pg_locale.c, add comments about why
+ we set LC_CTYPE in WIN32 for time when we don't actually access it,
+ per information from Hiroshi Inoue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Reorder pg_stat_activity columns to be more consistent, using layout
+ suggested by Tom Lane. Catalog version bumped due to system view
+ change.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/high-availability.sgml, document that pgpool
+ can be used with master/slave servers to avoid problems with
+ non-deterministic functions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-9.0.sgml, update 9.0 release notes to
+ current; add major items and introductory text.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Move alpha release notes into a separate file; re-align sgml tags.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-9.0.sgml, doc fix -- last major item
+ should not be a bullet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-9.0.sgml, documentation fix: CREATE
+ TRIGGER 'WHERE' -> 'WHEN'. Selena Deckelmann.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tom Lane committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/tsearch/wparser_def.c, add missing newlines in
+ WPARSER_TRACE output.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/monitoring.sgml, update documentation to match
+ pg_stat_activity changes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Replace the KnownAssignedXids hash table with a sorted-array data
+ structure, and be more tense about the locking requirements for it,
+ to improve performance in Hot Standby mode. In passing fix a few
+ bugs and improve a number of comments in the existing Hot Standby
+ code. Simon Riggs, with some editorialization by Tom Lane.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/parser/parse_relation.c, fix stupid typo in
+ refnameRangeTblEntry() --- mea maxima culpa. Per report from Josh
+ Berkus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Modify the built-in text search parser to handle URLs more nearly
+ according to RFC 3986. In particular, these characters now
+ terminate the path part of a URL: '"', '<', '>', '\', '^', '`', '{',
+ '|', '}'. The previous behavior was inconsistent and depended on
+ whether a "?" was present in the path. Per gripe from Donald Fraser
+ and spec research by Kevin Grittner. This is a pre-existing bug,
+ but not back-patching since the risks of breaking existing
+ applications seem to outweigh the benefits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Fix contrib/tsearch2 expected results to match recent changes in URL
+ parsing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Modify ShmemInitStruct and ShmemInitHash to throw errors internally,
+ rather than returning NULL for some-but-not-all failures as they
+ used to. Remove now-redundant tests for NULL from call sites. We
+ had to do something about this because many call sites were failing
+ to check for NULL; and changing it like this seems a lot more useful
+ and mistake-proof than adding checks to the call sites without them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/bin/pg_controldata/pg_controldata.c, pg_controldata
+ needs #define FRONTEND, same as pg_resetxlog. Per buildfarm results
+ from dawn_bat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Minor editorializing on pg_controldata and pg_resetxlog: adjust some
+ message wording, deal explicitly with some fields that were being
+ silently left zero.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/catalog/information_schema.sql, modify
+ information_schema._pg_keysequal() to avoid search path risk when
+ contrib/intarray is loaded. Per bug #5417 from Kenaniah Cerny. Not
+ forcing initdb since backend doesn't directly depend on this, and
+ few people have run into it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/perform.sgml, fix typo, per Thom Brown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/jadetex.cfg, install a workaround for 'TeX
+ capacity exceeded' problem when building PDF output for recent
+ versions of the documentation. There is probably a better answer
+ out there somewhere, but we need something now so we can build beta
+ releases.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Rename the parameter recovery_connections to hot_standby, to reduce
+ possible confusion with streaming-replication settings. Also,
+ change its default value to "off", because of concern about
+ executing new and poorly-tested code during ordinary non-replicating
+ operation. Per discussion. In passing do some minor editing of
+ related documentation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Adjust error checks in pg_start_backup and pg_stop_backup to make it
+ possible to perform a backup without archive_mode being enabled.
+ This gives up some user-error protection in order to improve
+ usefulness for streaming-replication scenarios. Per discussion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Fix a couple of places where the result of fgets() wasn't checked.
+ This is mostly to suppress compiler warnings, although in principle
+ the cases could result in undesirable behavior. Martin Pitt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/pl/plpython/plpython.c, fix multiple memory leaks in
+ PLy_spi_execute_fetch_result: it would leak memory if the result had
+ zero rows, and also if there was any sort of error while converting
+ the result tuples into Python data. Reported and partially fixed by
+ Andres Freund. Back-patch to all supported versions. Note: I
+ haven't tested the 7.4 fix. 7.4's configure check for python is so
+ obsolete it doesn't work on my current machines :-(. The logic
+ change is pretty straightforward though.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml, improve COPY documentation to
+ clarify that it doesn't copy data to or from child tables. Per
+ gripe from Jaime Casanova.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/runtime.sgml, update our information about OS
+ X shared memory configuration: it's now possible to set most of the
+ SHM kernel parameters without a reboot. Also, reorder the paragraph
+ to explain the modern configuration method first. There are
+ probably not too many people who still care about how to do it on OS
+ X 10.3 or older.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/pl/plpython/plpython.c, fix leakage of proc-related
+ storage in plpython's inline handler. Per report from Andres
+ Freund.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/Makefile, adjust postgres.xml rule so that
+ make will notice a failure exit from osx. The previous coding had
+ it in a pipe, which on most shells won't report the error. Per
+ experimentation with a bug report from Vladimir Kokovic. This
+ doesn't actually fix his problem, but it does explain why make
+ didn't report that there was a problem.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/Makefile, install hack workaround for failure
+ of 'make all' in VPATH builds. It appears that gmake gets confused
+ if postgres.sgml is not present in the working directory, and
+ instantiates some default rule or other that would let postgres.sgml
+ be built from postgres.xml. I haven't been able to track down
+ exactly where that's coming from, but the problem can be dodged by
+ specifying srcdir explicitly in the rule for postgres.xml. Per
+ report from Vladimir Kokovic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/port/sysv_shmem.c, add code to
+ InternalIpcMemoryCreate() to handle the case where shmget() returns
+ EINVAL for an existing shared memory segment. Although it's not
+ terribly sensible, that behavior does meet the POSIX spec because
+ EINVAL is the appropriate error code when the existing segment is
+ smaller than the requested size, and the spec explicitly disclaims
+ any particular ordering of error checks. Moreover, it does in fact
+ happen on OS X and probably other BSD-derived kernels. (We were
+ able to talk NetBSD into changing their code, but purging that
+ behavior from the wild completely seems unlikely to happen.) We need
+ to distinguish collision with a pre-existing segment from invalid
+ size request in order to behave sensibly, so it's worth some extra
+ code here to get it right. Per report from Gavin Kistner and
+ subsequent investigation. Back-patch to all supported versions,
+ since any of them could get used with a kernel having the debatable
+ behavior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Clean up some awkward, inaccurate, and inefficient processing around
+ MaxStandbyDelay. Use the GUC units mechanism for the value, and
+ choose more appropriate timestamp functions for performing tests
+ with it. Make the ps_activity manipulation in
+ ResolveRecoveryConflictWithVirtualXIDs have behavior similar to
+ ps_activity code elsewhere, notably not updating the display when
+ update_process_title is off and not truncating the display contents
+ at an arbitrarily-chosen length. Improve the docs to be explicit
+ about what MaxStandbyDelay actually measures, viz the difference
+ between primary and standby servers' clocks, and the possible
+ hazards if their clocks aren't in sync.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/heap/heapam.c, fix replay of
+ XLOG_HEAP_NEWPAGE WAL records to pay attention to the forknum field
+ of the WAL record. The previous coding always wrote to the main
+ fork, resulting in data corruption if the page was meant to go into
+ a non-default fork. At present, the only operation that can produce
+ such WAL records is ALTER TABLE/INDEX SET TABLESPACE when executed
+ with archive_mode = on. Data corruption would be observed on
+ standby slaves, and could occur on the master as well if a database
+ crash and recovery occurred after committing the ALTER and before
+ the next checkpoint. Per report from Gordon Shannon. Back-patch to
+ 8.4; the problem doesn't exist in earlier branches because we didn't
+ have a concept of multiple relation forks then.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/heap/heapam.c, improve printing of
+ XLOG_HEAP_NEWPAGE records to include the forknum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Heikki Linnakangas committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c, if a base backup is
+ cancelled by server shutdown or crash, throw an error in WAL
+ recovery when it sees the shutdown checkpoint record. It's more
+ user-friendly to find out about it at that point than at the end of
+ recovery, and you're not left wondering why your hot standby server
+ never opens up for read-only connections.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/recovery-config.sgml, add recovery.conf
+ parameters to the documentation index, per suggestion by Fujii
+ Masao.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Introduce wal_level GUC to explicitly control if information needed
+ for archival or hot standby should be WAL-logged, instead of
+ deducing that from other options like archive_mode. This replaces
+ recovery_connections GUC in the primary, where it now has no effect,
+ but it's still used in the standby to enable/disable hot standby.
+ Remove the WAL-logging of "unlogged operations", like creating an
+ index without WAL-logging and fsyncing it at the end. Instead, we
+ keep a copy of the wal_mode setting and the settings that affect how
+ much shared memory a hot standby server needs to track master
+ transactions (max_connections, max_prepared_xacts,
+ max_locks_per_xact) in pg_control. Whenever the settings change, at
+ server restart, write a WAL record noting the new settings and
+ update pg_control. This allows us to notice the change in those
+ settings in the standby at the right moment, they used to be
+ included in checkpoint records, but that meant that a changed value
+ was not reflected in the standby until the first checkpoint after
+ the change. Bump PG_CONTROL_VERSION and XLOG_PAGE_MAGIC. Whack
+ XLOG_PAGE_MAGIC back to the sequence it used to follow, before hot
+ standby and subsequent patches changed it to 0x9003.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtxlog.c, fix handling of b-tree
+ reuse WAL records when hot standby is disabled, and add missing code
+ in btree_desc for them. This fixes the bug with "tree_redo: unknown
+ op code 208" error reported by Jaime Casanova.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alvaro Herrera committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml, reformat code examples in
+ plpgsql docs for better readability in PDF output. Erik Rijkers
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/perform.sgml, make pg_stats example query
+ result a bit less wide, and add comment about pg_stats.inherited
+</p>
+
+<p>
+ITAGAKI Takahiro committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/port/chklocale.c, add CP949 as an alias for UHC
+ encoding. pg_get_encoding_from_locale() with kor locale on Windows
+ can use the path. Reported by Hiroshi Inoue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Magnus Hagander committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-protocol3.c, fix typo that had the
+ code check the same thing twice. Fujii Masao.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Marc Fournier committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Tag for 9.0beta1.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Simon Riggs committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml, mention that max_standby_delay
+ has units of milliseconds. Units are mentioned for all other
+ parameters where the default is expressed in a different unit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/regress.sgml, docs for standbycheck regression
+ tests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Update standbycheck test output with new ERROR message changes. No
+ changes to tests and no changes in accepted server behaviour.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Rejected Patches (for now)</h2>
+<p>
+No one was disappointed this week :-)
+</p>
+
+<h2>Pending Patches</h2>
+<p>
+Marko (johto) Tiikkaja sent in a patch to throw a more informative
+warning when people use extra parentheses in INSERT statements.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Simon Riggs sent in another revision of the patch to fix the issue
+where queries on the Hot Standby slave ran much slower than the same
+queries on the master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Heikki Linnakangas sent in a patch to relax the checks in
+pg_start/stop_backup() so they can be used as long as wal_level >=
+'archive', even when archiving is disabled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Simon Riggs sent in a patch intended to improve the performance of
+btree_xlog_vacuum().
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zoltan Boszormenyi sent in two revisions of a patch intended for 9.1
+which adds synchronous replication atop Hot Standby/Streaming
+Replication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aftab Hussain sent in a patch to add PKST (Pakstan Summer Time) to the
+time zone list.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robert Haas sent in a patch to implement CINE (Create If Not Exists)
+for tables.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Greg Sabino Mullane sent in a patch to show the schema along with the
+table involved in a COPY error.
+
+</p>
+
projects / pgweb-old.git / commitdiff