Further 9.6 release note improvements.

Call out the major enhancements in this release as identified by
pgsql-advocacy discussion, and rearrange some of the entries to
make those items more prominent.  Other minor improvements per
advice from Vitaly Burovoy, Masahiko Sawada, Peter Geoghegan,
and Andres Freund.

Author: tglsfdc

doc/src/sgml/release-9.6.sgml

@@ -17,13 +17,46 @@
     Major enhancements in <productname>PostgreSQL</> 9.6 include:
    </para>
 
-   <!-- This list duplicates items below, but without authors or details-->
+   <!-- Items in this list summarize one or more items below -->
 
    <itemizedlist>
 
     <listitem>
      <para>
-      To be filled in, but see below for the long version
+      Parallel sequential scans, joins and aggregates
+     </para>
+    </listitem>
+
+    <listitem>
+     <para>
+      Elimination of repetitive scanning of old data by autovacuum
+     </para>
+    </listitem>
+
+    <listitem>
+     <para>
+      Synchronous replication now allows multiple standby servers for
+      increased reliability
+     </para>
+    </listitem>
+
+    <listitem>
+     <para>
+      Full-text search for phrases
+     </para>
+    </listitem>
+
+    <listitem>
+     <para>
+      Support for remote joins, sorts, and updates
+      in <filename>postgres_fdw</>
+     </para>
+    </listitem>
+
+    <listitem>
+     <para>
+      Substantial performance improvements, especially in the area of
+      improving scalability on many-CPU servers
      </para>
     </listitem>
 
@@ -315,6 +348,7 @@
 2016-04-24 [8f91d87d4] Fix documentation & config inconsistencies around 428b1d
 2016-04-26 [72a98a639] Don't open formally non-existent segments in _mdfd_getse
 2016-05-04 [a71248708] Fix transient mdsync() errors of truncated relations due
+2016-02-16 [7975c5e0a] Allow the WAL writer to flush WAL at a reduced rate.
 -->
        <para>
         Where feasible, trigger kernel writeback after a configurable number
@@ -549,16 +583,6 @@
 
       <listitem>
 <!--
-2016-02-16 [7975c5e0a] Allow the WAL writer to flush WAL at a reduced rate.
--->
-       <para>
-        Reduce the WAL writer's flush rate to reduce storage bottlenecks
-        (Andres Freund)
-       </para>
-      </listitem>
-
-      <listitem>
-<!--
 2016-04-08 [719c84c1b] Extend relations multiple blocks at a time to improve sc
 -->
        <para>
@@ -567,32 +591,26 @@
        </para>
 
        <para>
-        This reduces kernel traffic and improves scalability when multiple
-        processes are inserting into the same relation.
+        This improves scalability by decreasing contention.
        </para>
       </listitem>
 
       <listitem>
 <!--
 2016-04-08 [071180377] Use quicksort, not replacement selection, for external s
+2016-03-17 [0011c0091] Improve memory management for external sorts.
 -->
        <para>
         Improve sorting performance by using quicksort, not replacement
         selection, within steps of an external sort (Peter Geoghegan)
        </para>
 
        <para>
-        This behavior can be adjusted via the new configuration
-        parameter <xref linkend="guc-replacement-sort-tuples">.
-       </para>
-      </listitem>
-
-      <listitem>
-<!--
-2016-03-17 [0011c0091] Improve memory management for external sorts.
--->
-       <para>
-        Improve memory management for external sorts (Peter Geoghegan)
+        The new approach makes better use of CPU cache for typical cache
+        sizes and data volumes.  Where necessary, the behavior can be
+        adjusted via the new configuration
+        parameter <xref linkend="guc-replacement-sort-tuples">,
+        which see for further details.
        </para>
       </listitem>
 
@@ -610,29 +628,31 @@
       <listitem>
 <!--
 2015-11-06 [a76ef15d9] Add sort support routine for the UUID data type.
+2016-02-03 [b47b4dbf6] Extend sortsupport for text to more opclasses.
+2016-02-17 [f1f5ec1ef] Reuse abbreviated keys in ordered [set] aggregates.
 -->
        <para>
-        Speed up sorting of <type>uuid</>-type columns (Peter Geoghegan)
+        Speed up sorting of <type>uuid</>, <type>bytea</>,
+        and <type>char(n)</> fields by using <quote>abbreviated</> keys
+        (Peter Geoghegan)
        </para>
-      </listitem>
 
-      <listitem>
-<!--
-2015-12-16 [b648b7034] Speed up CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY's TID sort.
--->
        <para>
-        Speed up <command>CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY</> by treating TIDs
-        as 64-bit integers during the sort phase (Peter Geoghegan)
+        Support for abbreviated keys has also been added to the non-default
+        operator classes <literal>text_pattern_ops</>,
+        <literal>varchar_pattern_ops</>, and <literal>bpchar_pattern_ops</>.
+        Processing of ordered-set aggregates can also now exploit
+        abbreviated keys.
        </para>
       </listitem>
 
       <listitem>
 <!--
-2016-02-17 [f1f5ec1ef] Reuse abbreviated keys in ordered [set] aggregates.
+2015-12-16 [b648b7034] Speed up CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY's TID sort.
 -->
        <para>
-        Improve performance of ordered-set aggregates by reusing
-        abbreviated-key information (Peter Geoghegan)
+        Speed up <command>CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY</> by treating TIDs
+        as 64-bit integers during the sort phase (Peter Geoghegan)
        </para>
       </listitem>
 
@@ -1179,6 +1199,41 @@ XXX this is pending backpatch, may need to remove
 
       <listitem>
 <!--
+2016-04-06 [989be0810] Support multiple synchronous standby servers.
+2016-04-27 [4c804fbdf] Clean up parsing of synchronous_standby_names GUC variab
+2016-04-30 [17d5db352] Remove warning about num_sync being too large in synchro
+-->
+       <para>
+        Support synchronous replication with multiple synchronous standby
+        servers, not just one (Masahiko Sawada, Beena Emerson, Michael
+        Paquier, Fujii Masao, Kyotaro Horiguchi)
+       </para>
+
+       <para>
+        The number of standby servers that must acknowledge a commit before
+        it's considered done is now configurable.
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+<!--
+2016-03-29 [314cbfc5d] Add new replication mode synchronous_commit = 'remote_ap
+-->
+       <para>
+        Add new setting <literal>remote_apply</> for configuration parameter
+        <xref linkend="guc-synchronous-commit"> (Thomas Munro)
+       </para>
+
+       <para>
+        In this mode, the master waits for the transaction to be applied on
+        the standby server, not just written to disk.  That means that you
+        can count on a transaction started on the standby to see all commits
+        previously acknowledged by the master.
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+<!--
 2015-08-11 [6fcd88511] Allow pg_create_physical_replication_slot() to reserve W
 2015-09-06 [c314ead5b] Add ability to reserve WAL upon slot creation via replic
 -->
@@ -1222,36 +1277,6 @@ XXX this is pending backpatch, may need to remove
        </para>
       </listitem>
 
-      <listitem>
-<!--
-2016-04-06 [989be0810] Support multiple synchronous standby servers.
-2016-04-27 [4c804fbdf] Clean up parsing of synchronous_standby_names GUC variab
-2016-04-30 [17d5db352] Remove warning about num_sync being too large in synchro
--->
-       <para>
-        Support synchronous replication with multiple synchronous standby
-        servers, not just one (Sawada Masahiko, Beena Emerson, Michael
-        Paquier, Fujii Masao, Kyotaro Horiguchi)
-       </para>
-      </listitem>
-
-      <listitem>
-<!--
-2016-03-29 [314cbfc5d] Add new replication mode synchronous_commit = 'remote_ap
--->
-       <para>
-        Add new setting <literal>remote_apply</> for configuration parameter
-        <xref linkend="guc-synchronous-commit"> (Thomas Munro)
-       </para>
-
-       <para>
-        In this mode, the master waits for the transaction to be applied on
-        the standby server, not just written to disk.  That means that you
-        can count on a transaction started on the standby to see all commits
-        previously acknowledged by the master.
-       </para>
-      </listitem>
-
      </itemizedlist>
 
    </sect3>
@@ -1379,7 +1404,7 @@ XXX this is pending backpatch, may need to remove
        <para>
         Add options to <command>ALTER OPERATOR</command> to change the
         selectivity functions associated with an existing operator
-        (Uriy Zhuravlev)
+        (Yury Zhuravlev)
        </para>
       </listitem>
 
@@ -1578,7 +1603,7 @@ XXX this is pending backpatch, may need to remove
        <para>
         Allow omitting one or both boundaries in an array slice specifier,
         for example <literal>array_col[3:]</>
-        (YUriy Zhuravlev)
+        (Yury Zhuravlev)
        </para>
 
        <para>
@@ -1637,7 +1662,7 @@ XXX this is pending backpatch, may need to remove
 2016-04-07 [bb140506d] Phrase full text search.
 -->
        <para>
-        Improve full text search to support searching for phrases, that is,
+        Improve full-text search to support searching for phrases, that is,
         lexemes appearing adjacent to each other in a specific order, or with
         at most a specified distance between them
         (Teodor Sigaev, Oleg Bartunov, Dmitry Ivanov)
@@ -1844,7 +1869,7 @@ XXX this is pending backpatch, may need to remove
        </para>
 
        <para>
-        These are <function>delete()</>, <function>filter()</>,
+        These are <function>ts_delete()</>, <function>ts_filter()</>,
         <function>unnest()</>, <function>tsvector_to_array()</>,
         <function>array_to_tsvector()</>, and a variant
         of <function>setweight()</> that sets the weight only for specified
@@ -1944,7 +1969,7 @@ XXX this is pending backpatch, may need to remove
 -->
        <para>
         Add <function>pg_size_bytes()</> function to convert human-readable
-        size strings to numbers (Pavel Stehule, Vitaly Burovoy)
+        size strings to numbers (Pavel Stehule, Vitaly Burovoy, Dean Rasheed)
        </para>
 
        <para>
@@ -2459,8 +2484,9 @@ This commit is also listed under libpq and PL/pgSQL
 2016-05-05 [7a622b273] Rename pgbench min/max to least/greatest, and fix handli
 -->
        <para>
-        Support some <link linkend="pgbench-builtin-functions">built-in
-        functions</> in expressions in backslash commands (Fabien Coelho)
+        Support floating-point arithmetic, as well as
+        some <link linkend="pgbench-builtin-functions">built-in functions</>,
+        in expressions in backslash commands (Fabien Coelho)
        </para>
       </listitem>
 
@@ -2756,16 +2782,6 @@ This commit is also listed under libpq and PL/pgSQL
 
       <listitem>
 <!--
-2016-02-03 [b47b4dbf6] Extend sortsupport for text to more opclasses.
--->
-       <para>
-        Generalize the SortSupport for <type>text</> so that it can be
-        used by other types such as <type>bpchar</> (Peter Geoghegan)
-       </para>
-      </listitem>
-
-      <listitem>
-<!--
 2016-02-04 [c1772ad92] Change the way that LWLocks for extensions are allocated
 -->
        <para>
@@ -3038,7 +3054,7 @@ This commit is also listed under libpq and PL/pgSQL
 -->
        <para>
         Add selectivity estimation functions for <filename>contrib/intarray</>
-        operators, to improve plans for queries using those operators (Uriy
+        operators, to improve plans for queries using those operators (Yury
         Zhuravlev, Alexander Korotkov)
        </para>
       </listitem>
@@ -3189,31 +3205,6 @@ This commit is also listed under libpq and PL/pgSQL
 
       <listitem>
 <!--
-2016-01-28 [96198d94c] Avoid multiple foreign server connections when all use s
--->
-       <para>
-        Use a single foreign-server connection for local user IDs that all
-        map to the same remote user (Ashutosh Bapat)
-       </para>
-      </listitem>
-
-      <listitem>
-<!--
-2016-02-03 [dc203dc3a] postgres_fdw: Allow fetch_size to be set per-table or pe
--->
-       <para>
-        Allow the fetch size to be set as a server or table option
-        (Corey Huinker)
-       </para>
-
-       <para>
-        Formerly, <filename>postgres_fdw</> always fetched 100 rows at a time
-        from remote queries; now that behavior is adjustable.
-       </para>
-      </listitem>
-
-      <listitem>
-<!--
 2015-11-03 [f18c944b6] postgres_fdw: Add ORDER BY to some remote SQL queries.
 2015-12-22 [ccd8f9792] postgres_fdw: Consider requesting sorted data so we can
 -->
@@ -3253,6 +3244,31 @@ This commit is also listed under libpq and PL/pgSQL
 
       <listitem>
 <!--
+2016-02-03 [dc203dc3a] postgres_fdw: Allow fetch_size to be set per-table or pe
+-->
+       <para>
+        Allow the fetch size to be set as a server or table option
+        (Corey Huinker)
+       </para>
+
+       <para>
+        Formerly, <filename>postgres_fdw</> always fetched 100 rows at a time
+        from remote queries; now that behavior is adjustable.
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+<!--
+2016-01-28 [96198d94c] Avoid multiple foreign server connections when all use s
+-->
+       <para>
+        Use a single foreign-server connection for local user IDs that all
+        map to the same remote user (Ashutosh Bapat)
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+<!--
 2016-04-21 [f039eaac7] Allow queries submitted by postgres_fdw to be canceled.
 -->
        <para>