From 63a8127cf43df6f0ccb968dfce68736161ddd772 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bruce Momjian Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 03:42:57 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Brand 7.0.3. --- HISTORY | 57 +- INSTALL | 12 +- README | 2 +- doc/FAQ | 465 +++++----- doc/TODO | 167 ++-- doc/bug.template | 2 +- doc/src/FAQ.html | 837 +++++++++--------- doc/src/sgml/install.sgml | 14 +- doc/src/sgml/release.sgml | 84 +- register.txt | 2 +- src/include/version.h.in | 4 +- .../postgresql/jdbc1/DatabaseMetaData.java | 2 +- .../postgresql/jdbc2/DatabaseMetaData.java | 2 +- src/interfaces/libpq/libpq.rc | 8 +- 14 files changed, 923 insertions(+), 735 deletions(-) diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY index 34fdd04f92f..e88afe23c40 100644 --- a/HISTORY +++ b/HISTORY @@ -2,13 +2,68 @@ Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Release 7.0.3 + +This has a variety of fixes from 7.0.2. + +Migration to v7.0.3 + +A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.0.*. + +Changes +------- +Jdbc fixes (Peter) +Large object fix (Tom) +Fix lean in COPY WITH OIDS leak (Tom) +Fix backwards-index-scan (Tom) +Fix SELECT ... FOR UPDATE so it checks for duplicate keys (Hiroshi) +Add --enable-syslog to configure (Marc) +Fix abort transaction at backend exit in rare cases (Tom) +Fix for psql \l+ when multi-byte enabled (Tatsuo) +Allow PL/pgSQL to accept non ascii identifiers (Tatsuo) +Make vacuum always flush buffers (Tom) +Fix to allow cancel while waiting for a lock (Hiroshi) +Fix for memory aloocation problem in user authentication code (Tom) +Remove bogus use of int4out() (Tom) +Fixes for multiple subqueries in COALESCE or BETWEEN (Tom) +Fix for failure of triggers on heap open in certain cases (Jeroen van + Vianen) +Fix for erroneous selectivity of not-equals (Tom) +Fix for erroneous use of strcmp() (Tom) +Fix for bug where storage manager accesses items beyond end of file + (Tom) +Fix to include kernel errno message in all smgr elog messages (Tom) +Fix for '.' not in PATH at build time (SL Baur) +Fix for out-of-file-descriptors error (Tom) +Fix to make pg_dump dump 'iscachable' flag for functions (Tom) +Fix for subselect in targetlist of Append node (Tom) +Fix for mergejoin plans (Tom) +Fix TRUNCATE failure on relations with indexes (Tom) +Avoid database-wide restart on write error (Hiroshi) +Fix nodeMaterial to honor chgParam by recomputing its output (Tom) +Fix VACUUM problem with moving chain of update tuples when source and + destination of a tuple lie on the same page (Tom) +Fix user.c CommandCounterIncrement (Tom) +Fix for AM/PM boundary problem in to_char() (Karel Zak) +Fix TIME aggregate handling (Tom) +Fix to_char() to avoid coredump on NULL input. (Tom) +Buffer fix (Tom) +Fix for inserting/copying longer multibyte strings into bpchar data + types (Tatsuo) + + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + Release 7.0.2 + Release Notes + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + Release 7.0.2 This is a repackaging of 7.0.1 with added documentation. Migration to v7.0.2 -A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.*. +A dump/restore is not required for those running 7.0.*. Changes ------- diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL index 75b9aa9a645..a658fbb9d8a 100644 --- a/INSTALL +++ b/INSTALL @@ -1,11 +1,11 @@ - Installation instructions for PostgreSQL 7.0.2. + Installation instructions for PostgreSQL 7.0.3. If you haven't gotten the PostgreSQL distribution, get it from ftp.postgresql.org, then unpack it: -> gunzip postgresql-7.0.2.tar.gz -> tar -xf postgresql-7.0.2.tar -> mv postgresql-7.0.2 /usr/src +> gunzip postgresql-7.0.3.tar.gz +> tar -xf postgresql-7.0.3.tar +> mv postgresql-7.0.3 /usr/src Before you start @@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ For a fresh install or upgrading from previous releases of PostgreSQL: this (such as using OIDs as keys in tables), don't do it. Make sure to use the pg_dumpall command from the version you are - currently running. 7.0.2's pg_dumpall should not be used on older + currently running. 7.0.3's pg_dumpall should not be used on older databases. Caution @@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ suggestions: * You probably want to install the man and HTML documentation. Type - > cd /usr/src/pgsql/postgresql-7.0.2/doc + > cd /usr/src/pgsql/postgresql-7.0.3/doc > gmake install diff --git a/README b/README index 5bc810e387b..60698598c49 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ PostgreSQL Data Base Management System (formerly known as Postgres, then as Postgres95). -This directory contains the development version of 7.0.2 of the PostgreSQL +This directory contains the development version of 7.0.3 of the PostgreSQL database server. The server is not ANSI SQL compliant, but it gets closer with every release. After you unzip and untar the distribution file, look at file INSTALL for the installation notes and file HISTORY diff --git a/doc/FAQ b/doc/FAQ index cb9bfbe2059..403808f7bff 100644 --- a/doc/FAQ +++ b/doc/FAQ @@ -1,24 +1,15 @@ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL - Last updated: Fri Jun 2 11:32:13 EDT 2000 + Last updated: Tue Oct 17 00:21:20 EDT 2000 Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (pgman@candle.pha.pa.us) - The most recent version of this document can be viewed at the - postgreSQL Web site, http://www.PostgreSQL.org. + The most recent version of this document can be viewed at + http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-english.html. - Linux-specific questions are answered in - http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-linux.html. - - HPUX-specific questions are answered in - http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-hpux.html. - - Solaris-specific questions are answered in - http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq-solaris.html. - - Irix-specific questions are answered in - http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-irix.html. + Platform-specific questions are answered at + http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/. _________________________________________________________________ General Questions @@ -28,9 +19,9 @@ 1.3) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run on? 1.4) What non-unix ports are available? 1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL? - 1.6) Where can I get support for PostgreSQL? - 1.7) What is the latest release of PostgreSQL? - 1.8) What documentation is available for PostgreSQL? + 1.6) Where can I get support? + 1.7) What is the latest release? + 1.8) What documentation is available? 1.9) How do I find out about known bugs or missing features? 1.10) How can I learn SQL? 1.11) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant? @@ -53,8 +44,8 @@ /usr/local/pgsql? 3.3) When I start the postmaster, I get a Bad System Call or core dumped message. Why? - 3.4) When I try to start the postmaster, I get IpcMemoryCreate - errors3. Why? + 3.4) When I try to start the postmaster, I get IpcMemoryCreate errors. + Why? 3.5) When I try to start the postmaster, I get IpcSemaphoreCreate errors. Why? 3.6) How do I prevent other hosts from accessing my PostgreSQL @@ -63,22 +54,22 @@ 3.8) Why can't I access the database as the root user? 3.9) All my servers crash under concurrent table access. Why? 3.10) How do I tune the database engine for better performance? - 3.11) What debugging features are available in PostgreSQL? - 3.12) I get 'Sorry, too many clients' when trying to connect. Why? - 3.13) What are the pg_psort.XXX files in my database directory? + 3.11) What debugging features are available? + 3.12) I get "Sorry, too many clients" when trying to connect. Why? + 3.13) What are the pg_sorttempNNN.NN files in my database directory? Operational Questions - 4.1) The system seems to be confused about commas, decimal points, and - date formats. + 4.1) Why is the system confused about commas, decimal points, and date + formats. 4.2) What is the exact difference between binary cursors and normal cursors? - 4.3) How do I select only the first few rows of a query? - 4.4) How do I get a list of tables, or other things I can see in psql? + 4.3) How do I SELECT only the first few rows of a query? + 4.4) How do I get a list of tables or other things I can see in psql? 4.5) How do you remove a column from a table? 4.6) What is the maximum size for a row, table, database? 4.7) How much database disk space is required to store data from a - typical flat file? + typical text file? 4.8) How do I find out what indices or operations are defined in the database? 4.9) My queries are slow or don't make use of the indexes. Why? @@ -86,14 +77,14 @@ 4.11) What is an R-tree index? 4.12) What is Genetic Query Optimization? 4.13) How do I do regular expression searches and case-insensitive - regexp searching? + regular expression searches? 4.14) In a query, how do I detect if a field is NULL? 4.15) What is the difference between the various character types? 4.16.1) How do I create a serial/auto-incrementing field? - 4.16.2) How do I get the value of a serial insert? + 4.16.2) How do I get the value of a SERIAL insert? 4.16.3) Don't currval() and nextval() lead to a race condition with - other concurrent backend processes? - 4.17) What is an oid? What is a tid? + other users? + 4.17) What is an OID? What is a TID? 4.18) What is the meaning of some of the terms used in PostgreSQL? 4.19) Why do I get the error "FATAL: palloc failure: memory exhausted?" @@ -108,13 +99,13 @@ 5.1) I wrote a user-defined function. When I run it in psql, why does it dump core? - 5.2) What does the message: NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 - not in alloc set! mean? - 5.3) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions for + 5.2) What does the message "NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 + not in alloc set!" mean? + 5.3) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions to PostgreSQL? 5.4) How do I write a C function to return a tuple? - 5.5) I have changed a source file. Why does the recompile does not see - the change? + 5.5) I have changed a source file. Why does the recompile not see the + change? _________________________________________________________________ General Questions @@ -127,14 +118,14 @@ replaces the PostQuel query language with an extended subset of SQL. PostgreSQL is free and the complete source is available. - PostgreSQL development is being performed by a team of Internet - developers who all subscribe to the PostgreSQL development mailing - list. The current coordinator is Marc G. Fournier - (scrappy@postgreSQL.org). (See below on how to join). This team is now - responsible for all current and future development of PostgreSQL. + PostgreSQL development is performed by a team of Internet developers + who all subscribe to the PostgreSQL development mailing list. The + current coordinator is Marc G. Fournier (scrappy@PostgreSQL.org). (See + below on how to join). This team is now responsible for all + development of PostgreSQL. The authors of PostgreSQL 1.01 were Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen. Many - others have contributed to the porting, testing, debugging and + others have contributed to the porting, testing, debugging, and enhancement of the code. The original Postgres code, from which PostgreSQL is derived, was the effort of many graduate students, undergraduate students, and staff programmers working under the @@ -149,7 +140,7 @@ 1.2) What's the copyright on PostgreSQL? - PostgreSQL is subject to the following COPYRIGHT. + PostgreSQL is subject to the following COPYRIGHT: PostgreSQL Data Base Management System @@ -204,36 +195,32 @@ A file win31.mak is included in the distribution for making a Win32 libpq library and psql. - The database server is now working on Windows NT using the Cygnus - Unix/NT porting library. See pgsql/doc/README.NT in the distribution. - - There is also a web page at - http://www.freebsd.org/~kevlo/postgres/portNT.html. There is another - port using U/Win at http://surya.wipro.com/uwin/ported.html. + The database server is now working on Windows NT using Cygwin, the + Cygnus Unix/NT porting library. See pgsql/doc/FAQ_NT in the + distribution. It does not work on MS Windows 9X because Cygwin does + not support the features we need on those platforms. 1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL? The primary anonymous ftp site for PostgreSQL is - ftp://ftp.postgreSQL.org/pub + ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub. For mirror sites, see our main Web site. - For mirror sites, see our main web site. - - 1.6) Where can I get support for PostgreSQL? + 1.6) Where can I get support? - There is no official support for PostgreSQL from the University of - California, Berkeley. It is maintained through volunteer effort. + There is no support for PostgreSQL from the University of California, + Berkeley. It is maintained through volunteer effort. - The main mailing list is: pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org. It is + The main mailing list is: pgsql-general@PostgreSQL.org. It is available for discussion of matters pertaining to PostgreSQL. To - subscribe, send a mail with the lines in the body (not the subject - line) + subscribe, send mail with the following lines in the body (not the + subject line) subscribe end - to pgsql-general-request@postgreSQL.org. + to pgsql-general-request@PostgreSQL.org. There is also a digest list available. To subscribe to this list, send - email to: pgsql-general-digest-request@postgreSQL.org with a BODY of: + email to: pgsql-general-digest-request@PostgreSQL.org with a body of: subscribe end @@ -241,14 +228,14 @@ has received around 30k of messages. The bugs mailing list is available. To subscribe to this list, send - email to bugs-request@postgreSQL.org with a BODY of: + email to pgsql-bugs-request@PostgreSQL.org with a body of: subscribe end There is also a developers discussion mailing list available. To - subscribe to this list, send email to hackers-request@postgreSQL.org - with a BODY of: + subscribe to this list, send email to + pgsql-hackers-request@PostgreSQL.org with a body of: subscribe end @@ -256,43 +243,42 @@ Additional mailing lists and information about PostgreSQL can be found via the PostgreSQL WWW home page at: - http://postgreSQL.org + http://www.PostgreSQL.org There is also an IRC channel on EFNet, channel #PostgreSQL. I use the - unix command irc -c '#PostgreSQL' "$USER" irc.phoenix.net + unix command irc -c '#PostgreSQL' "$USER" irc.phoenix.net. Commercial support for PostgreSQL is available at - http://www.pgsql.com/ + http://www.pgsql.com/. - 1.7) What is the latest release of PostgreSQL? + 1.7) What is the latest release? The latest release of PostgreSQL is version 7.0.2. We plan to have major releases every four months. - 1.8) What documentation is available for PostgreSQL? + 1.8) What documentation is available? Several manuals, manual pages, and some small test examples are included in the distribution. See the /doc directory. You can also - browse the manual on-line at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/postgres. - in the distribution. + browse the manual online at http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/postgres. - There is a PostgreSQL book availiable at - http://www.postgresql.org/docs/awbook.html + There is a PostgreSQL book available at + http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html. psql has some nice \d commands to show information about types, operators, functions, aggregates, etc. - The web site contains even more documentation. + Our Web site contains even more documentation. 1.9) How do I find out about known bugs or missing features? - PostgreSQL supports an extended subset of SQL-92. See our TODO for a - list of known bugs, missing features, and future plans. + PostgreSQL supports an extended subset of SQL-92. See our TODO list + for known bugs, missing features, and future plans. 1.10) How can I learn SQL? - The PostgreSQL book at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/awbook.html + The PostgreSQL book at http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html teaches SQL. There is a nice tutorial at http://w3.one.net/~jhoffman/sqltut.htm and at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/graeme_birchall/HTM_COOK.HTM. @@ -300,9 +286,9 @@ Another one is "Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Second Edition" at http://members.tripod.com/er4ebus/sql/index.htm - Many of our users like The Practical SQL Handbook, Bowman et al., - Addison Wesley. Others like The Complete Reference SQL, Groff et al., - McGraw-Hill. + Many of our users like The Practical SQL Handbook, Bowman, Judith S., + et al., Addison-Wesley. Others like The Complete Reference SQL, Groff + et al., McGraw-Hill. 1.11) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant? @@ -310,22 +296,23 @@ 1.12) How do I join the development team? - First, download the latest sources and read the PostgreSQL Developers - documentation on our web site, or in the distribution. Second, + First, download the latest source and read the PostgreSQL Developers + documentation on our Web site, or in the distribution. Second, subscribe to the pgsql-hackers and pgsql-patches mailing lists. Third, submit high-quality patches to pgsql-patches. - There are about a dozen people who have COMMIT privileges to the - PostgreSQL CVS archive. All of them have submitted so many - high-quality patches that it was a pain for the existing committers to - keep up, and we had confidence that patches they committed were likely - to be of high quality. + There are about a dozen people who have commit privileges to the + PostgreSQL CVS archive. They each have submitted so many high-quality + patches that it was impossible for the existing committers to keep up, + and we had confidence that patches they committed were of high + quality. 1.13) How do I submit a bug report? - Fill out the "bug-template" file and send it to: bugs@postgreSQL.org + Fill out the "bug-template" file and send it to: + pgsql-bugs@PostgreSQL.org - Also check out our ftp site ftp://ftp.postgreSQL.org/pub to see if + Also check out our ftp site ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub to see if there is a more recent PostgreSQL version or patches. 1.14) How does PostgreSQL compare to other DBMS's? @@ -340,7 +327,7 @@ some features they don't have, like user-defined types, inheritance, rules, and multi-version concurrency control to reduce lock contention. We don't have outer joins, but are - working on them for our next release. + working on them. Performance PostgreSQL runs in two modes. Normal fsync mode flushes every @@ -353,14 +340,13 @@ though in this mode, an OS crash could cause data corruption. We are working to provide an intermediate mode that suffers less performance overhead than full fsync mode, and will allow - data integrity within 30 seconds of an OS crash. The mode is - select-able by the database administrator. + data integrity within 30 seconds of an OS crash. In comparison to MySQL or leaner database systems, we are slower on inserts/updates because we have transaction overhead. Of course, MySQL doesn't have any of the features mentioned in the Features section above. We are built for flexibility and features, though we continue to improve performance through - profiling and source code analysis. There is an interesting web + profiling and source code analysis. There is an interesting Web page comparing PostgreSQL to MySQL at http://openacs.org/why-not-mysql.html We handle each user connection by creating a Unix process. @@ -399,7 +385,7 @@ There are two ODBC drivers available, PsqlODBC and OpenLink ODBC. PsqlODBC is included in the distribution. More information about it - can be gotten from: ftp://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/odbc/index.html + can be gotten from ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub/odbc/. OpenLink ODBC can be gotten from http://www.openlinksw.com. It works with their standard ODBC client software so you'll have PostgreSQL @@ -419,13 +405,12 @@ There is also one at http://www.phone.net/home/mwm/hotlist/. - For web integration, PHP is an excellent interface. It is at: + For Web integration, PHP is an excellent interface. It is at http://www.php.net - PHP is great for simple stuff, but for more complex cases, many use - the perl interface and CGI.pm. + For complex cases, many use the Perl interface and CGI.pm. - A WWW gateway based on WDB using perl can be downloaded from + A WWW gateway based on WDB using Perl can be downloaded from http://www.eol.ists.ca/~dunlop/wdb-p95 2.3) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user interface? A report generator? @@ -433,7 +418,7 @@ We have a nice graphical user interface called pgaccess, which is shipped as part of the distribution. Pgaccess also has a report - generator. The web page is http://www.flex.ro/pgaccess + generator. The Web page is http://www.flex.ro/pgaccess We also include ecpg, which is an embedded SQL query language interface for C. @@ -441,27 +426,31 @@ 2.4) What languages are available to communicate with PostgreSQL? We have: - * C(libpq) - * C++(libpq++) - * Embedded C(ecpg) - * Java(jdbc) - * Perl(perl5) - * ODBC(odbc) - * Python(PyGreSQL) - * TCL(libpgtcl) - * C Easy API(libpgeasy) - * Embedded HTML(PHP from http://www.php.net) + * C (libpq) + * C++ (libpq++) + * Embedded C (ecpg) + * Java (jdbc) + * Perl (perl5) + * ODBC (odbc) + * Python (PyGreSQL) + * TCL (libpgtcl) + * C Easy API (libpgeasy) + * Embedded HTML (PHP from http://www.php.net) _________________________________________________________________ Administrative Questions 3.1) Why does initdb fail? + Try these: * check that you don't have any of the previous version's binaries in your path * check to see that you have the proper paths set * check that the postgres user owns the proper files + If you see an error message about oidvector, you definately have a + version mismatch. + 3.2) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere other than /usr/local/pgsql? The simplest way is to specify the --prefix option when running @@ -473,15 +462,15 @@ message. Why? It could be a variety of problems, but first check to see that you - have system V extensions installed in your kernel. PostgreSQL requires + have System V extensions installed in your kernel. PostgreSQL requires kernel support for shared memory and semaphores. 3.4) When I try to start the postmaster, I get IpcMemoryCreate errors. Why? - You either do not have shared memory configured properly in kernel or - you need to enlarge the shared memory available in the kernel. The - exact amount you need depends on your architecture and how many - buffers and backend processes you configure postmaster to run with. + You either do not have shared memory configured properly in your + kernel or you need to enlarge the shared memory available in the + kernel. The exact amount you need depends on your architecture and how + many buffers and backend processes you configure for the postmaster. For most systems, with default numbers of buffers and processes, you need a minimum of ~1MB. @@ -512,14 +501,13 @@ The default configuration allows only unix domain socket connections from the local machine. To enable TCP/IP connections, make sure the postmaster has been started with the -i option, and add an appropriate - host entry to the file pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf. See the pg_hba.conf - manual page. + host entry to the file pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf. 3.8) Why can't I access the database as the root user? You should not create database users with user id 0 (root). They will be unable to access the database. This is a security precaution - because of the ability of any user to dynamically link object modules + because of the ability of users to dynamically link object modules into the database engine. 3.9) All my servers crash under concurrent table access. Why? @@ -534,20 +522,20 @@ indices are being used. If you are doing a lot of INSERTs, consider doing them in a large - batch using the COPY command. This is much faster than single - individual INSERTS. Second, statements not in a BEGIN WORK/COMMIT - transaction block are considered to be in their own transaction. - Consider performing several statements in a single transaction block. - This reduces the transaction overhead. Also consider dropping and + batch using the COPY command. This is much faster than individual + INSERTS. Second, statements not in a BEGIN WORK/COMMIT transaction + block are considered to be in their own transaction. Consider + performing several statements in a single transaction block. This + reduces the transaction overhead. Also consider dropping and recreating indices when making large data changes. - There are several tuning things that can be done. You can disable - fsync() by starting the postmaster with a -o -F option. This will - prevent fsync()'s from flushing to disk after every transaction. + There are several tuning options. You can disable fsync() by starting + the postmaster with a -o -F option. This will prevent fsync()'s from + flushing to disk after every transaction. You can also use the postmaster -B option to increase the number of shared memory buffers used by the backend processes. If you make this - parameter too high, the postmaster may not start up because you've + parameter too high, the postmaster may not start because you've exceeded your kernel's limit on shared memory space. Each buffer is 8K and the default is 64 buffers. @@ -555,10 +543,10 @@ of memory used by the backend process for temporary sorts. The -S value is measured in kilobytes, and the default is 512 (ie, 512K). - You can also use the CLUSTER command to group data in base tables to - match an index. See the cluster(l) manual page for more details. + You can also use the CLUSTER command to group data in tables to match + an index. See the CLUSTER manual page for more details. - 3.11) What debugging features are available in PostgreSQL? + 3.11) What debugging features are available? PostgreSQL has several features that report status information that can be valuable for debugging purposes. @@ -610,9 +598,9 @@ You need to increase the postmaster's limit on how many concurrent backend processes it can start. - In Postgres 6.5 and up, the default limit is 32 processes. You can + In PostgreSQL 6.5 and up, the default limit is 32 processes. You can increase it by restarting the postmaster with a suitable -N value. - With the default configuration you can set -N as large as 1024; if you + With the default configuration you can set -N as large as 1024. If you need more, increase MAXBACKENDS in include/config.h and rebuild. You can set the default value of -N at configuration time, if you like, using configure's --with-maxbackends switch. @@ -622,38 +610,37 @@ should be more than that for best performance. For large numbers of backend processes, you are also likely to find that you need to increase various Unix kernel configuration parameters. Things to check - include the maximum size of shared memory blocks, SHMMAX, the maximum - number of semaphores, SEMMNS and SEMMNI, the maximum number of - processes, NPROC, the maximum number of processes per user, MAXUPRC, + include the maximum size of shared memory blocks, SHMMAX; the maximum + number of semaphores, SEMMNS and SEMMNI; the maximum number of + processes, NPROC; the maximum number of processes per user, MAXUPRC; and the maximum number of open files, NFILE and NINODE. The reason - that Postgres has a limit on the number of allowed backend processes - is so that you can ensure that your system won't run out of resources. + that PostgreSQL has a limit on the number of allowed backend processes + is so your system won't run out of resources. - In Postgres versions prior to 6.5, the maximum number of backends was - 64, and changing it required a rebuild after altering the MaxBackendId - constant in include/storage/sinvaladt.h. + In PostgreSQL versions prior to 6.5, the maximum number of backends + was 64, and changing it required a rebuild after altering the + MaxBackendId constant in include/storage/sinvaladt.h. - 3.13) What are the pg_tempNNN.NN files in my database directory? + 3.13) What are the pg_sorttempNNN.NN files in my database directory? They are temporary files generated by the query executor. For example, if a sort needs to be done to satisfy an ORDER BY, and the sort - requires more space than the backend's -S parameter allows, then temp - files are created to hold the extra data. + requires more space than the backend's -S parameter allows, then + temporary files are created to hold the extra data. - The temp files should go away automatically, but might not if a - backend crashes during a sort. If you have no transactions running at + The temporary files should be deleted automatically, but might not if + a backend crashes during a sort. If you have no backends running at the time, it is safe to delete the pg_tempNNN.NN files. _________________________________________________________________ Operational Questions - 4.1) The system seems to be confused about commas, decimal points, and date - formats. + 4.1) Why is system confused about commas, decimal points, and date formats. - Check your locale configuration. PostgreSQL uses the locale settings - of the user that ran the postmaster process. There are postgres and - psql SET commands to control the date format. Set those accordingly - for your operating environment. + Check your locale configuration. PostgreSQL uses the locale setting of + the user that ran the postmaster process. There are postgres and psql + SET commands to control the date format. Set those accordingly for + your operating environment. 4.2) What is the exact difference between binary cursors and normal cursors? @@ -670,12 +657,13 @@ only the first few records requested, or the entire query may have to be evaluated until the desired rows have been generated. - 4.4) How do I get a list of tables, or other information I see in psql? + 4.4) How do I get a list of tables or other things I can see in psql? - You can read the source code for psql, file pgsql/src/bin/psql/psql.c. - It contains SQL commands that generate the output for psql's backslash - commands. You can also start psql with the -E option so that it will - print out the queries it uses to execute the commands you give. + You can read the source code for psql in file + pgsql/src/bin/psql/psql.c. It contains SQL commands that generate the + output for psql's backslash commands. You can also start psql with the + -E option so it will print out the queries it uses to execute the + commands you give. 4.5) How do you remove a column from a table? @@ -693,7 +681,7 @@ Maximum size for a database? unlimited (60GB databases exist) Maximum size for a table? unlimited on all operating systems Maximum size for a row? 8k, configurable to 32k Maximum number of rows in a table? unlimited -Maximum number of columns table? unlimited +Maximum number of columns in a table? unlimited Maximum number of indexes on a table? unlimited Of course, these are not actually unlimited, but limited to available @@ -703,13 +691,13 @@ Maximum number of indexes on a table? unlimited BLCKSZ. To use attributes larger than 8K, you can also use the large object interface. - Row length limit will be removed in 7.1. + The row length limit will be removed in 7.1. - 4.7)How much database disk space is required to store data from a typical - flat file? + 4.7) How much database disk space is required to store data from a typical + text file? - A Postgres database can require about six and a half times the disk - space required to store the data in a flat file. + A PostgreSQL database may need six-and-a-half times the disk space + required to store the data in a flat file. Consider a file of 300,000 lines with two integers on each line. The flat file is 2.4MB. The size of the PostgreSQL database file @@ -732,7 +720,7 @@ Maximum number of indexes on a table? unlimited 1755 database pages * 8192 bytes per page = 14,376,960 bytes (14MB) - Indexes do not contain as much overhead, but do contain the data that + Indexes do not require as much overhead, but do contain the data that is being indexed, so they can be large also. 4.8) How do I find out what indices or operations are defined in the @@ -747,15 +735,15 @@ Maximum number of indexes on a table? unlimited 4.9) My queries are slow or don't make use of the indexes. Why? - PostgreSQL does not automatically maintain statistics. One has to make - an explicit VACUUM call to update the statistics. After statistics are - updated, the optimizer knows how many rows in the table, and can - better decide if it should use indices. Note that the optimizer does - not use indices in cases when the table is small because a sequential - scan would be faster. + PostgreSQL does not automatically maintain statistics. VACUUM must be + run to update the statistics. After statistics are updated, the + optimizer knows how many rows in the table, and can better decide if + it should use indices. Note that the optimizer does not use indices in + cases when the table is small because a sequential scan would be + faster. For column-specific optimization statistics, use VACUUM ANALYZE. - VACUUM ANALYZE is important for complex multi-join queries, so the + VACUUM ANALYZE is important for complex multijoin queries, so the optimizer can estimate the number of rows returned from each table, and choose the proper join order. The backend does not keep track of column statistics on its own, so VACUUM ANALYZE must be run to collect @@ -776,41 +764,38 @@ Maximum number of indexes on a table? unlimited 4.11) What is an R-tree index? - An r-tree index is used for indexing spatial data. A hash index can't + An R-tree index is used for indexing spatial data. A hash index can't handle range searches. A B-tree index only handles range searches in a single dimension. R-tree's can handle multi-dimensional data. For example, if an R-tree index can be built on an attribute of type - point, the system can more efficient answer queries like select all - points within a bounding rectangle. + point, the system can more efficiently answer queries such as "select + all points within a bounding rectangle." - The canonical paper that describes the original R-Tree design is: + The canonical paper that describes the original R-tree design is: - Guttman, A. "R-Trees: A Dynamic Index Structure for Spatial + Guttman, A. "R-trees: A Dynamic Index Structure for Spatial Searching." Proc of the 1984 ACM SIGMOD Int'l Conf on Mgmt of Data, 45-57. You can also find this paper in Stonebraker's "Readings in Database - Systems" + Systems". - Builtin R-Trees can handle polygons and boxes. In theory, R-trees can + Built-in R-trees can handle polygons and boxes. In theory, R-trees can be extended to handle higher number of dimensions. In practice, - extending R-trees require a bit of work and we don't currently have + extending R-trees requires a bit of work and we don't currently have any documentation on how to do it. 4.12) What is Genetic Query Optimization? - The GEQO module in PostgreSQL is intended to solve the query - optimization problem of joining many tables by means of a Genetic - Algorithm (GA). It allows the handling of large join queries through - non-exhaustive search. - - For further information see the documentation. + The GEQO module speeds query optimization when joining many tables by + means of a Genetic Algorithm (GA). It allows the handling of large + join queries through nonexhaustive search. - 4.13) How do I do regular expression searches and case-insensitive regexp - searching? + 4.13) How do I do regular expression searches and case-insensitive regular + expression searches? - The ~ operator does regular-expression matching, and ~* does - case-insensitive regular-expression matching. There is no + The ~ operator does regular expression matching, and ~* does + case-insensitive regular expression matching. There is no case-insensitive variant of the LIKE operator, but you can get the effect of case-insensitive LIKE with this: WHERE lower(textfield) LIKE lower(pattern) @@ -832,7 +817,7 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes You will see the internal name when examining system catalogs and in some error messages. - The last four types above are "varlena" types (i.e. the first four + The last four types above are "varlena" types (i.e., the first four bytes are the length, followed by the data). char(#) allocates the maximum number of bytes no matter how much data is stored in the field. text, varchar(#), and bytea all have variable length on the @@ -842,14 +827,14 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes 4.16.1) How do I create a serial/auto-incrementing field? - PostgreSQL supports SERIAL data type. It auto-creates a sequence and - index on the column. For example, this... + PostgreSQL supports a SERIAL data type. It auto-creates a sequence and + index on the column. For example, this: CREATE TABLE person ( id SERIAL, name TEXT ); - ...is automatically translated into this... + is automatically translated into this: CREATE SEQUENCE person_id_seq; CREATE TABLE person ( id INT4 NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('person_id_seq'), @@ -858,69 +843,73 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes CREATE UNIQUE INDEX person_id_key ON person ( id ); See the create_sequence manual page for more information about - sequences. You can also use each row's oid field as a unique value. + sequences. You can also use each row's OID field as a unique value. However, if you need to dump and reload the database, you need to use - pg_dump's -o option or COPY WITH OIDS option to preserve the oids. + pg_dump's -o option or COPY WITH OIDS option to preserve the OIDs. - For more details, see Bruce Momjian's chapter on Numbering Rows. + Numbering Rows. - 4.16.2) How do I get the back the generated SERIAL value after an insert? + 4.16.2) How do I get the value of a SERIAL insert? - Probably the simplest approach is to to retrieve the next SERIAL value - from the sequence object with the nextval() function before inserting - and then insert it explicitly. Using the example table in 4.16.1, that - might look like this: + One approach is to to retrieve the next SERIAL value from the sequence + object with the nextval() function before inserting and then insert it + explicitly. Using the example table in 4.16.1, that might look like + this: $newSerialID = nextval('person_id_seq'); INSERT INTO person (id, name) VALUES ($newSerialID, 'Blaise Pascal'); You would then also have the new value stored in $newSerialID for use in other queries (e.g., as a foreign key to the person table). Note - that the name of the automatically-created SEQUENCE object will be + that the name of the automatically created SEQUENCE object will be named __seq, where table and serialcolumn are the names of your table and your SERIAL column, respectively. - Similarly, you could retrieve the just-assigned SERIAL value with the + Alternatively, you could retrieve the assigned SERIAL value with the currval() function after it was inserted by default, e.g., INSERT INTO person (name) VALUES ('Blaise Pascal'); $newID = currval('person_id_seq'); - Finally, you could use the oid returned from the INSERT statement to - lookup the default value, though this is probably the least portable - approach. In perl, using DBI with Edmund Mergl's DBD::Pg module, the + Finally, you could use the OID returned from the INSERT statement to + look up the default value, though this is probably the least portable + approach. In Perl, using DBI with Edmund Mergl's DBD::Pg module, the oid value is made available via $sth->{pg_oid_status} after $sth->execute(). 4.16.3) Don't currval() and nextval() lead to a race condition with other - concurrent backend processes? + users? - No. That has been handled by the backends. + No. This is handled by the backends. - 4.17) What is an oid? What is a tid? + 4.17) What is an OID? What is a TID? - Oids are PostgreSQL's answer to unique row ids. Every row that is - created in PostgreSQL gets a unique oid. All oids generated during + OIDs are PostgreSQL's answer to unique row ids. Every row that is + created in PostgreSQL gets a unique OID. All OIDs generated during initdb are less than 16384 (from backend/access/transam.h). All - user-created oids are equal or greater that this. By default, all - these oids are unique not only within a table, or database, but unique + user-created OIDs are equal to or greater than this. By default, all + these OIDs are unique not only within a table or database, but unique within the entire PostgreSQL installation. - PostgreSQL uses oids in its internal system tables to link rows - between tables. These oids can be used to identify specific user rows - and used in joins. It is recommended you use column type oid to store - oid values. See the sql(l) manual page to see the other internal - columns. You can create an index on the oid field for faster access. + PostgreSQL uses OIDs in its internal system tables to link rows + between tables. These OIDs can be used to identify specific user rows + and used in joins. It is recommended you use column type OID to store + OID values. You can create an index on the OID field for faster + access. Oids are assigned to all new rows from a central area that is used by - all databases. If you want to change the oid to something else, or if - you want to make a copy of the table, with the original oid's, there + all databases. If you want to change the OID to something else, or if + you want to make a copy of the table, with the original OID's, there is no reason you can't do it: CREATE TABLE new_table(old_oid oid, mycol int); - SELECT INTO new SELECT old_oid, mycol FROM old; + SELECT old_oid, mycol INTO new FROM old; COPY new TO '/tmp/pgtable'; DELETE FROM new; COPY new WITH OIDS FROM '/tmp/pgtable'; - Tids are used to identify specific physical rows with block and offset + OIDs are stored as 4-byte integers, and will overflow at 4 billion. No + one has reported this ever happening, and we plan to have the limit + removed before anyone does. + + TIDs are used to identify specific physical rows with block and offset values. Tids change after rows are modified or reloaded. They are used by index entries to point to physical rows. @@ -934,10 +923,13 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes * retrieve, select * replace, update * append, insert - * oid, serial value + * OID, serial value * portal, cursor * range variable, table name, table alias + A list of general database terms can be found at: + http://www.comptechnews.com/~reaster/dbdesign.html + 4.19) Why do I get the error "FATAL: palloc failure: memory exhausted?" It is possible you have run out of virtual memory on your system, or @@ -962,12 +954,11 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes You need to put BEGIN WORK and COMMIT around any use of a large object handle, that is, surrounding lo_open ... lo_close. - Current PostgreSQL enforces the rule by closing large object handles - at transaction commit, which will be instantly upon completion of the - lo_open command if you are not inside a transaction. So the first - attempt to do anything with the handle will draw invalid large obj - descriptor. So code that used to work (at least most of the time) will - now generate that error message if you fail to use a transaction. + Currently PostgreSQL enforces the rule by closing large object handles + at transaction commit. So the first attempt to do anything with the + handle will draw invalid large obj descriptor. So code that used to + work (at least most of the time) will now generate that error message + if you fail to use a transaction. If you are using a client interface like ODBC you may need to set auto-commit off. @@ -975,13 +966,13 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes 4.22) How do I create a column that will default to the current time? Use now(): - CREATE TABLE test (x int, modtime timestamp default now() ); + CREATE TABLE test (x int, modtime timestamp DEFAULT now() ); 4.23) Why are my subqueries using IN so slow? - Currently, we join subqueries to outer queries by sequential scanning - the result of the subquery for each row of the outer query. A - workaround is to replace IN with EXISTS. For example, change: + Currently, we join subqueries to outer queries by sequentially + scanning the result of the subquery for each row of the outer query. A + workaround is to replace IN with EXISTS: SELECT * FROM tab WHERE col1 IN (SELECT col2 FROM TAB2) @@ -1015,16 +1006,15 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes dump core? The problem could be a number of things. Try testing your user-defined - function in a stand alone test program first. + function in a stand-alone test program first. - 5.2) What does the message: NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 not in - alloc set! mean? + 5.2) What does the message "NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 not in + alloc set!" mean? You are pfree'ing something that was not palloc'ed. Beware of mixing malloc/free and palloc/pfree. - 5.3) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions for - PostgreSQL? + 5.3) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions to PostgreSQL? Send your extensions to the pgsql-hackers mailing list, and they will eventually end up in the contrib/ subdirectory. @@ -1034,9 +1024,8 @@ BYTEA bytea variable-length array of bytes This requires wizardry so extreme that the authors have never tried it, though in principle it can be done. - 5.5) I have changed a source file. Why does the recompile does not see the + 5.5) I have changed a source file. Why does the recompile not see the change? The Makefiles do not have the proper dependencies for include files. - You have to do a make clean and then another make. You have to do a - make clean and then another make. + You have to do a make clean and then another make. diff --git a/doc/TODO b/doc/TODO index 168adf66a67..a007b38870b 100644 --- a/doc/TODO +++ b/doc/TODO @@ -1,13 +1,13 @@ TODO list for PostgreSQL ======================== -Last updated: Thu May 25 12:08:57 EDT 2000 +Last updated: Thu Nov 2 16:16:45 EST 2000 Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (pgman@candle.pha.pa.us) The most recent version of this document can be viewed at the PostgreSQL web site, http://www.PostgreSQL.org. -A dash(-) marks changes that will appear in the upcoming 7.0 release. +A dash(-) marks changes that will appear in the upcoming 7.1 release. Names in brackets "[]" indicate more detailed information is available in the directory pgsql/doc/TODO.detail/ under that name. @@ -20,23 +20,22 @@ PARSER * SELECT pg_class FROM pg_class generates strange error * Alter TABLE ADD COLUMN does not honor DEFAULT, add CONSTRAINT -* Creating index of TIMESTAMP & RELTIME fails, or rename to DATETIME(Thomas) -* SELECT foo UNION SELECT foo is incorrectly simplified to SELECT foo +* -Creating index of TIMESTAMP & RELTIME fails, or rename to DATETIME(Thomas) +* -SELECT foo UNION SELECT foo is incorrectly simplified to SELECT foo * Unique index on base column not honored on inserts from inherited table INSERT INTO inherit_table (unique_index_col) VALUES (dup) should fail [inherit] -* Be smarter about promoting types when UNION merges different data types -* redesign INSERT ... SELECT to have two levels of target list +* -Be smarter about promoting types when UNION merges different data types +* -redesign INSERT ... SELECT to have two levels of target list * have INTERSECT/EXCEPT prevent duplicates unless ALL is specified -* SELECT DISTINCT ON col1 col1 col2 FROM tab1 is broken [distinct] * SELECT col::DECIMAL(12,10); fails VIEWS -* Views containing aggregates sometimes fail(Jan) +* -Views containing aggregates sometimes fail(Jan) * Creating view and inheriting the view causes view* to show duplicates(inherit) -* Disallow LOCK on view +* -Disallow LOCK on view(Mark Hollomon) MISC @@ -44,100 +43,132 @@ MISC * Buffer reference counting bugfixes * Fix libpq bug that causes it to drop backend error message sent just before connection closure (ie, any FATAL error message) -* SELECT ... UNION ... ORDER BY fails when sort expr not in result list -* SELECT ... UNION ... GROUP BY fails if column types disagree, no type +* -SELECT ... UNION ... ORDER BY fails when sort expr not in result list +* -SELECT ... UNION ... GROUP BY fails if column types disagree, no type promotion occurs * Modification of pg_class can happen while table in use by another backend. Might lead to MVCC inside of syscache -* Permission to UPDATE table allows DELETE also -* Some database schema's are not dumpable; do dumps in oid order +* Permission to DELETE table allows UPDATE also ENHANCEMENTS ------------ URGENT -* Add OUTER joins, left and right[outer](Thomas, Bruce) -* Allow long tuples by chaining or auto-storing outside db (TOAST)(Jan) +* -Add OUTER joins, left and right[outer](Tom, Thomas) +* -Allow long tuples by chaining or auto-storing outside db (TOAST)(Jan) * Fix memory leak for expressions[memory](Tom?) ADMIN -* More access control over who can create tables and access the database -* Test syslog functionality +* More access control over who can create tables and use locks(Karel) +* -Test syslog functionality +* Convert remaining fprintf(stderr,...) to elog() * Allow elog() to return error codes, not just messages * Allow international error message support and add error codes -* Add ability to specifiy location of lock/socket files [flock] -* Unify configuration into one configuration file (Peter E) -* use setproctitle() if it exists for 'ps' display of status +* -Unify configuration into one configuration file (Peter E) +* -use setproctitle() if it exists for 'ps' display of status +* Prevent initdb from running wrong version of postmaster/postgres TYPES * Nchar (as distinguished from ordinary varchar), * Domain capability -* Add STDDEV/VARIANCE() function for standard deviation computation/variance -* Allow compression of large fields or a compressed field type -* Large objects - o Fix large object mapping scheme, own typeid or reltype(Peter) - o Not to stuff everything as files in a single directory, hash dirs - o Allow large object vacuuming - o Tables that start with xinv confused to be large objects +* -Add STDDEV/VARIANCE() function for standard deviation computation/variance +* -Allow compression of large fields or a compressed field type +* -Large objects + o -Fix large object mapping scheme, own typeid or reltype(Peter) + o -Not to stuff everything as files in a single directory, hash dirs + o -Allow large object vacuuming + o -Tables that start with xinv confused to be large objects * Add IPv6 capability to INET/CIDR types +* Fix improper masking of some inet/cidr types [cidr] * Make a separate SERIAL type? * Store binary-compatible type information in the system * Add support for & operator * Allow LOCALE on a per-column basis, default to ASCII * Allow nulls in arrays * Allow arrays to be ORDER'ed +* Support construction of array result values in expressions +* Change foreign key constraint for array -> element to mean element + in array * Remove Money type, add money formatting for decimal type * Declare typein/out functions in pg_proc with a special "C string" data type * Add non-large-object binary field * Functions returning sets don't really work right[function] -* Add hash for int8 +* -Add hash for int8 (Tom) * SELECT col FROM tab WHERE numeric_col = 10.1 fails +* Get BIT type working +* Allow better handling of numeric constants, type conversion [typeconv] +* Support multiple simultaneous character sets, per SQL92 +* Reject character sequences those are not valid in their charset +* Make functions more multi-byte aware, i.e. trim() +* Make n of CHAR(n)/VARCHAR(n) the number of letters, not bytes +* Update macaddr manufacturer numbers, or remove the function macaddr_manuf() +* Add btree index support for reltime, tinterval, regproc, bit, varbit +* Add rtree index support for line, lseg, path, point VIEWS -* Allow DISTINCT on views -* Allow views of aggregate columns -* Allow views with subselects +* -Allow DISTINCT on views +* -Allow views of aggregate columns +* -Allow views with subselects +* Create insert, update and delete rules for simple one table views +* -Change elog for complex view ins|upd|del to "cannot {ins|upd|del} +* Add the functionality for "with check option" clause of create view INDEXES * Allow CREATE INDEX zman_index ON test (date_trunc( 'day', zman ) datetime_ops) fails index can't store constant parameters -* Allow SQL function indexes +* -Allow SQL function indexes * Add FILLFACTOR to index creation +* Re-enable partial indexes +* Allow inherited tables to inherit index COMMANDS * ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN to inherited table put column in wrong place [inherit] -* Add ALTER TABLE DROP/ALTER COLUMN feature(Peter E) -* Add ALTER TABLE command to change table ownership +* -Add ALTER TABLE ALTER COLUMN feature(Peter E) +* Add ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN feature [drop] +* Add ALTER TABLE command to change table ownership (Mark H) +* Add ALTER FUNCTION +* Add ALTER TABLE ... DROP CONSTRAINT +* Add ALTER USER command to change user db attributes +* Automatically drop constraints/functions when object is dropped * Allow CLUSTER on all tables at once, and improve CLUSTER, loses NOT NULL specification, indexes, permissions, etc on table * Add SIMILAR TO to allow character classes, 'pg_[a-c]%' * Auto-destroy sequence on DROP of table with SERIAL(Ryan) -* Allow LOCK TABLE tab1, tab2, tab3 so all tables locked in unison +* Allow LOCK TABLE tab1, tab2, tab3 so all tables locked in unison [lock] * Allow INSERT/UPDATE of system-generated oid value for a row -* Allow ESCAPE '\' at the end of LIKE for ANSI compliance [like] +* -Allow ESCAPE '\' at the end of LIKE for ANSI compliance (Thomas) * Rewrite the LIKE handling by rewriting the user string with the supplied ESCAPE [like] * Allow RULE recompilation -* Support UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT in sub-selects -* Allow DELETE and UPDATE to use inheritance using tablename* +* -Support UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT in sub-selects +* -Allow DELETE and UPDATE to use inheritance * Allow INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (a, b, c, DEFAULT, x, y, z, ...) * Allow BINARY option to SELECT, like we do with DECLARE - +* MOVE 0 should not move to end of cursor +* Overhaul ACL (access control) code +* Allow ORDER BY...LIMIT in INSERT INTO ... SELECT +* Add SHOW command to display locks +* Allow INSERT INTO tab (col1, ..) VALUES (val1, ..), (val2, ..) + CLIENTS * Make NULL's come out at the beginning or end depending on the ORDER BY direction * Update reltuples from COPY command +* Allow COPY to specify column names * fix array handling for ECPG * add pg_dump option to dump type names as standard ANSI types +* -make pg_dump dump in oid order, so dependencies are resolved (Philip) * allow psql \d to show primary and foreign keys * allow psql \d to show temporary table schema +* add XML interface capability +* -Allow dumping of users/groups separately REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY @@ -149,14 +180,19 @@ REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY * Propagate column or table renaming to foreign key constraints * Emit a warning at foreign key creation time if no UNIQUE index exists on referenced primary key attributes +* Add deferred trigger queue file (Jan) +* Allow oid to act as a foreign key EXOTIC FEATURES * Add sql3 recursive unions -* Add the concept of dataspaces -* Add replication of distributed databases +* Add the concept of dataspaces/tablespaces [tablespaces] +* Add replication of distributed databases [replication] * Allow queries across multiple databases * Allow nested transactions (Vadim) +* Allow INSERT/UPDATE to return new.col or old.col (Philip) +* SQL*Net listener that makes PostgreSQL appear as an Oracle database + to clients MISC @@ -174,38 +210,42 @@ MISC with after-row images(Vadim) [logging](Vadim)(in-progress) * Populate backend status area and write program to dump status data * Make oid use unsigned int more reliably, pg_atoi() -* Put sort files, large objects in their own directory +* Put sort files in their own directory * Do autocommit so always in a transaction block(?) * Show location of syntax error in query [yacc] -* Redesign the function call interface to handle NULLs better[function](Tom) +* -Redesign the function call interface to handle NULLs better[function](Tom) * Missing optimizer selectivities for date, r-tree, etc. [optimizer] * Overhaul bufmgr/lockmgr/transaction manager * Allow BLCKSZ <= 64k, not <= 32k -* redesign UNION structures to have separarate target lists -* Allow multi-level query trees for INSERT INTO ... SELECT +* -redesign UNION structures to have separarate target lists +* -Allow multi-level query trees for INSERT INTO ... SELECT * Use IPC_EXCL when creating shared memory and semaphores * have pg_upgrade use pg_ctl to stop/start postmaster * Encrpyt passwords in pg_shadow table using MD5 +* Use flock() to prevent multiple postmasters on the same port [flock] PERFORMANCE ----------- -FSYNC +-FSYNC -* Allow transaction commits with rollback with no-fsync performance [fsync](Vadim) +* -Allow transaction commits with rollback with no-fsync performance + (Vadim) INDEXES -* Use indexes in ORDER BY for min(), max() +* Use indexes to find min() and max() * Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses * Allow SELECT * FROM tab WHERE int2col = 4 use int2col index, int8, float4, numeric/decimal too [optimizer] * Include heap CTID in btree index keys, remove equal-key cruft from btree +* Use indexes with CIDR '<<' (contains) operator +* Fix LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales CACHE -* Cache most recent query plan(s) [prepare] +* Cache most recent query plan(s) (Karel) [prepare] * Shared catalog cache, reduce lseek()'s by caching table size in shared area MISC @@ -220,27 +260,35 @@ MISC * Improve Subplan list handling * Allow Subplans to use efficient joins(hash, merge) with upper variable [subquery] -* use fmgr_info()/fmgr_faddr() instead of fmgr() calls in high-traffic +* -use fmgr_info()/fmgr_faddr() instead of fmgr() calls in high-traffic places, like GROUP BY, UNIQUE, index processing, etc. * improve dynamic memory allocation by introducing tuple-context memory allocation [memory] -* In WHERE tab1.x=3 AND tab1.x=tab2.y, add tab2.y=3 +* -In WHERE tab1.x=3 AND tab1.x=tab2.y, add tab2.y=3 * Allow persistent backends [persistent] * prevent labels from being output for stored rules (Tom) * allow configuration of maximum number of open files * Remove pg_listener index -* Remove ANALYZE from VACUUM so it can be run separately without locks -* Gather more accurate statistics using indexes +* -Redesign ANALYZE in VACUUM so it can be run separately without locks +* Make ANALYZE a separate command +* Gather more accurate dispersion statistics using indexes +* Keep statistics about clustering of table rows [optimizer] +* Improve statistics storage in pg_class [performance] +* Improve VACUUM speed with indexes [vacuum] +* Reduce VACUUM lock time by moving tuples with read lock, then write + lock and truncate table [vacuum] +* -BSD/OS does not support locale because there is no LC_MESSAGES (Bruce) +* Add connection pooling [pool] SOURCE CODE ----------- * Add use of 'const' for variables in source tree -* Fix C optimizer problem where fmgr_ptr calls return different types [alpha] +* -Fix C optimizer problem where fmgr_ptr calls return different types (Tom) * Does Mariposa source contain any other bug fixes? * Remove SET KSQO option now that OR processing is improved(Tom) -* Use macros to define NT open() file parameters, remove NT-specific defines -* Change CURRENT to OLD internally for rules -* rename pl/tcl to pl/pltcl +* -Use macros to define NT open() file parameters, remove NT-specific defines +* -Change CURRENT to OLD internally for rules (Bruce) +* replace the use of fprint(stderr, ...) with elog() in backend code --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @@ -262,6 +310,7 @@ Developers who have claimed items are: * Michael is Michael Meskes * Oleg is Oleg Bartunov * Peter is Peter T Mount + * Philip Warner * Peter E is Peter Eisentraut * Ryan is Ryan Bradetich * Stefan Simkovics @@ -269,6 +318,4 @@ Developers who have claimed items are: * Tom is Tom Lane * Thomas is Thomas Lockhart * TomH is Tom I Helbekkmo - * Vadim is "Vadim B. Mikheev" - - + * Vadim is "Vadim B. Mikheev" diff --git a/doc/bug.template b/doc/bug.template index 211aafde949..a7f70473b7e 100644 --- a/doc/bug.template +++ b/doc/bug.template @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ System Configuration Operating System (example: Linux 2.0.26 ELF) : - PostgreSQL version (example: PostgreSQL-7.0): PostgreSQL-7.0.2 + PostgreSQL version (example: PostgreSQL-7.0): PostgreSQL-7.0.3 Compiler used (example: gcc 2.8.0) : diff --git a/doc/src/FAQ.html b/doc/src/FAQ.html index 4285490eeb3..585807e6ab9 100644 --- a/doc/src/FAQ.html +++ b/doc/src/FAQ.html @@ -7,154 +7,152 @@ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL

-Last updated: Tue Mar 21 16:09:11 EST 2000 +Last updated: Tue Oct 17 00:21:20 EDT 2000

Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (pgman@candle.pha.pa.us)

-The most recent version of this document can be viewed at the postgreSQL -Web site, http://www.PostgreSQL.org.

+The most recent version of this document can be viewed at + +http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-english.html.

-Linux-specific questions are answered in http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-linux.html.

- -Irix-specific questions are answered in http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-irix.html.

- -HPUX-specific questions are answered in http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-hpux.shtml.

+Platform-specific questions are answered at http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/.

General Questions

-1.1) What is PostgreSQL?
-1.2) What's the copyright on PostgreSQL?
-1.3) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run on?
+1.1) What is PostgreSQL?
+1.2) What's the copyright on PostgreSQL?
+1.3) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run on?
1.4) What non-unix ports are available?
-1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL?
-1.6) Where can I get support for PostgreSQL?
-1.7) What is the latest release of PostgreSQL?
-1.8) What documentation is available for PostgreSQL?
-1.9) How do I find out about known bugs or missing features?
-1.10) How can I learn SQL?
-1.11) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?
-1.12) How do I join the development team?
-1.13) How do I submit a bug report?
-1.14) How does PostgreSQL compare to other DBMS's?
+1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL?
+1.6) Where can I get support?
+1.7) What is the latest release?
+1.8) What documentation is available?
+1.9) How do I find out about known bugs or missing features?
+1.10) How can I learn SQL?
+1.11) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?
+1.12) How do I join the development team?
+1.13) How do I submit a bug report?
+1.14) How does PostgreSQL compare to other DBMS's?

User Client Questions

-2.1) Are there ODBC drivers for +2.1) Are there ODBC drivers for PostgreSQL?
-2.2) What tools are available for hooking +2.2) What tools are available for hooking PostgreSQL to Web pages?
-2.3) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user interface? +2.3) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user interface? A report generator? An embedded query language interface?
-2.4) What languages are available to communicate +2.4) What languages are available to communicate with PostgreSQL?

Administrative Questions

-3.1) Why does initdb fail?
-3.2) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere other than -/usr/local/pgsql?
-3.3) When I start the postmaster, I get a +3.1) Why does initdb fail?
+3.2) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere other than +/usr/local/pgsql?
+3.3) When I start the postmaster, I get a Bad System Call or core dumped message. Why?
-3.4) When I try to start the postmaster, I get -IpcMemoryCreate errors3. Why?
-3.5) When I try to start the postmaster, I get +3.4) When I try to start the postmaster, I get +IpcMemoryCreate errors. Why?
+3.5) When I try to start the postmaster, I get IpcSemaphoreCreate errors. Why?
-3.6) How do I prevent other hosts from accessing my +3.6) How do I prevent other hosts from accessing my PostgreSQL database?
-3.7) Why can't I connect to my database from +3.7) Why can't I connect to my database from another machine?
-3.8) Why can't I access the database as the +3.8) Why can't I access the database as the root user?
-3.9) All my servers crash under concurrent +3.9) All my servers crash under concurrent table access. Why?
-3.10) How do I tune the database engine for +3.10) How do I tune the database engine for better performance?
-3.11) What debugging features are available in -PostgreSQL?
-3.12) I get 'Sorry, too many clients' when trying to +3.11) What debugging features are available?
+3.12) I get "Sorry, too many clients" when trying to connect. Why?
-3.13) What are the pg_psort.XXX files in my +3.13) What are the pg_sorttempNNN.NN files in my database directory?
-3.14) How do I set up a pg_group?

Operational Questions

-4.1) The system seems to be confused about commas, +4.1) Why is the system confused about commas, decimal points, and date formats.
-4.2) What is the exact difference between +4.2) What is the exact difference between binary cursors and normal cursors?
-4.3) How do I select only the first few rows of +4.3) How do I SELECT only the first few rows of a query?
-4.4) How do I get a list of tables, or other +4.4) How do I get a list of tables or other things I can see in psql?
-4.5) How do you remove a column from a table?
+4.5) How do you remove a column from a table?
-4.6) What is the maximum size for a +4.6) What is the maximum size for a row, table, database?
-4.7) How much database disk space is required -to store data from a typical flat file?
+4.7) How much database disk space is required +to store data from a typical text file?
-4.8) How do I find out what indices or +4.8) How do I find out what indices or operations are defined in the database?
-4.9) My queries are slow or don't make use of the +4.9) My queries are slow or don't make use of the indexes. Why?
-4.10) How do I see how the query optimizer is +4.10) How do I see how the query optimizer is evaluating my query?
-4.11) What is an R-tree index?
-4.12) What is Genetic Query Optimization?
+4.11) What is an R-tree index?
+4.12) What is Genetic Query Optimization?
-4.13) How do I do regular expression searches -and case-insensitive regexp searching?
-4.14) In a query, how do I detect if a field +4.13) How do I do regular expression searches +and case-insensitive regular expression searches?
+4.14) In a query, how do I detect if a field is NULL?
-4.15) What is the difference between the +4.15) What is the difference between the various character types?
-4.16.1) How do I create a serial/auto-incrementing field?
-4.16.2) How do I get the value of a serial insert?
-4.16.3) Wouldn't use of currval() and nextval() lead to a race condition with other concurrent backend processes?
- -4.17) What is an oid? What is a tid?
-4.18) What is the meaning of some of the terms +4.16.1) How do I create a serial/auto-incrementing field?
+4.16.2) How do I get the value of a +SERIAL insert?
+4.16.3) Don't currval() and nextval() lead to a +race condition with other users?
+ +4.17) What is an OID? What is a +TID?
+4.18) What is the meaning of some of the terms used in PostgreSQL?
-4.19) Why do I get the error "FATAL: palloc -failure: memory exhausted?"
-4.20) How do I tell what PostgreSQL version I +4.19) Why do I get the error "FATAL: palloc +failure: memory exhausted?"
+4.20) How do I tell what PostgreSQL version I am running?
-4.21) My large-object operations get invalid +4.21) My large-object operations get invalid large obj descriptor. Why?
4.22) How do I create a column that will default to the current time?
-4.23) Why are my subqueries using IN so slow?
+4.23) Why are my subqueries using +IN so slow?
+4.24) How do I do an outer join?

Extending PostgreSQL

-5.1) I wrote a user-defined function. When I run -it in psql, why does it dumps core?
-5.2) What does the message: -NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 not in alloc set! mean?
-5.3) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions -for PostgreSQL?
-5.4) How do I write a C function to return a +5.1) I wrote a user-defined function. When I run +it in psql, why does it dump core?
+5.2) What does the message +"NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 not in alloc set!" mean?
+5.3) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions +to PostgreSQL?
+5.4) How do I write a C function to return a tuple?
-5.5) I have changed a source file. Why does the -recompile does not see the change?
+5.5) I have changed a source file. Why does the +recompile not see the change?

General Questions

1.1) What is PostgreSQL?

+NAME="1.1">1.1) What is PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL is an enhancement of the POSTGRES database management system, a next-generation DBMS research prototype. While PostgreSQL retains the @@ -162,15 +160,15 @@ powerful data model and rich data types of POSTGRES, it replaces the PostQuel query language with an extended subset of SQL. PostgreSQL is free and the complete source is available.

-PostgreSQL development is being performed by a team of Internet +PostgreSQL development is performed by a team of Internet developers who all subscribe to the PostgreSQL development mailing list. The current coordinator is Marc G. Fournier (scrappy@postgreSQL.org). (See -below on how to join). This team is now responsible for all current and -future development of PostgreSQL.

+HREF="mailto:scrappy@PostgreSQL.org">scrappy@PostgreSQL.org). (See +below on how to join). This team is now responsible for all development +of PostgreSQL.

The authors of PostgreSQL 1.01 were Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen. Many -others have contributed to the porting, testing, debugging and +others have contributed to the porting, testing, debugging, and enhancement of the code. The original Postgres code, from which PostgreSQL is derived, was the effort of many graduate students, undergraduate students, and staff programmers working under the @@ -183,10 +181,10 @@ name was changed at the end of 1996 to PostgreSQL.

It is pronounced Post-Gres-Q-L. -

1.2) What's the copyright on +

1.2) What's the copyright on PostgreSQL?

-PostgreSQL is subject to the following COPYRIGHT.

+PostgreSQL is subject to the following COPYRIGHT:

PostgreSQL Data Base Management System

@@ -215,7 +213,7 @@ MODIFICATIONS.

-

1.3) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run +

1.3) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run on?

The authors have compiled and tested PostgreSQL on the following @@ -243,42 +241,37 @@ platforms (some of these compiles require gcc):

-

1.4) What non-unix ports are available?

+

1.4) What non-unix ports are available?

-It is possible to compile the libpq C library, psql, and other +It is possible to compile the libpq C library, psql, and other interfaces and binaries to run on MS Windows platforms. In this case, the client is running on MS Windows, and communicates via TCP/IP to a server running on one of our supported Unix platforms.

A file win31.mak is included in the distribution for making a -Win32 libpq library and psql.

- -The database server is now working on Windows NT using the Cygnus -Unix/NT porting library. See pgsql/doc/README.NT in the distribution.

-There is also a web page at -http://www.freebsd.org/~kevlo/postgres/portNT.html. +Win32 libpq library and psql.

-There is another port using U/Win at http://surya.wipro.com/uwin/ported.html. +The database server is now working on Windows NT using Cygwin, the +Cygnus Unix/NT porting library. See pgsql/doc/FAQ_NT in the +distribution. It does not work on MS Windows 9X because Cygwin does not +support the features we need on those platforms.

-

1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL?

+

1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL?

The primary anonymous ftp site for PostgreSQL is ftp://ftp.postgreSQL.org/pub -

-For mirror sites, see our main web site. +HREF="ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub">ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub. +For mirror sites, see our main Web site. -

1.6) Where can I get support for PostgreSQL?

+

1.6) Where can I get support?

-There is no official support for PostgreSQL from the University of +There is no support for PostgreSQL from the University of California, Berkeley. It is maintained through volunteer effort.

The main mailing list is: pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org. +HREF="mailto:pgsql-general@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-general@PostgreSQL.org. It is available for discussion of matters pertaining to PostgreSQL. -To subscribe, send a mail with the lines in the body (not +To subscribe, send mail with the following lines in the body (not the subject line) 

@@ -287,11 +280,11 @@ the subject line)

to pgsql-general-request@postgreSQL.org.

+HREF="mailto:pgsql-general-request@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-general-request@PostgreSQL.org.

There is also a digest list available. To subscribe to this list, send -email to: -pgsql-general-digest-request@postgreSQL.org with a BODY of: +email to: +pgsql-general-digest-request@PostgreSQL.org with a body of: 

 	subscribe
@@ -303,8 +296,8 @@ received around 30k of messages.

 
 The bugs mailing list is available.  To subscribe to this list, send email
 to bugs-request@postgreSQL.org
-with a BODY of:

+HREF="mailto:pgsql-bugs-request@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-bugs-request@PostgreSQL.org
+with a body of:

 
 
 	subscribe
@@ -313,8 +306,8 @@ with a BODY of:

 
 There is also a developers discussion mailing list available.  To
 subscribe to this list, send email to hackers-request@postgreSQL.org
-with a BODY of:

+HREF="mailto:pgsql-hackers-request@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-hackers-request@PostgreSQL.org
+with a body of:

 
 
 	subscribe
@@ -325,47 +318,54 @@ Additional mailing lists and information about PostgreSQL can be found
 via the PostgreSQL WWW home page at:
 
 

-http://postgreSQL.org
+http://www.PostgreSQL.org
 

 
-There is also an IRC channel on EFNet, channel #PostgreSQL.
+There is also an IRC channel on EFNet, channel #PostgreSQL.
 I use the unix command irc -c '#PostgreSQL' "$USER"
-irc.phoenix.net

+irc.phoenix.net.

 
 Commercial support for PostgreSQL is available at http://www.pgsql.com/

+HREF="http://www.pgsql.com">http://www.pgsql.com/.

 
 
-
1.7)	What is the latest release of PostgreSQL?

+
1.7) What is the latest release?

 
-The latest release of PostgreSQL is version 7.0.

+The latest release of PostgreSQL is version 7.0.2.

 
 We plan to have major releases every four months.

 
 
-
1.8)	What documentation is available for PostgreSQL?

+
1.8) What documentation is available?

 
 Several manuals, manual pages, and some small test examples are 
-included in the distribution. See the /doc directory.  You can also
-browse the manual on-line at 
-http://www.postgresql.org/docs/postgres.
-in the distribution.
+included in the distribution. See the /doc directory.  You can also
+browse the manual online at 
+http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/postgres.
 

 
+There is a PostgreSQL book available at 
+http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html.

+
 psql has some nice \d commands to show information about types,
 operators, functions, aggregates, etc.

 
-The web site contains even more documentation.

+Our Web site contains even more documentation.

 
-
1.9)	How do I find out about known bugs or missing features?
+
1.9) How do I find out about known bugs or missing features?
 

 
 PostgreSQL supports an extended subset of SQL-92.  See our
-
-TODO for a list of known bugs, missing features, and future plans.

+
+TODO list for known bugs, missing features, and future plans.

+
+
1.10) How can I learn SQL?

 
-
1.10)	How can I learn SQL?

+The PostgreSQL book at 
+http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html teaches SQL.
 
 There is a nice tutorial at 
@@ -377,40 +377,40 @@ Another one is "Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Second Edition" at 
 http://members.tripod.com/er4ebus/sql/index.htm 

 
-Many of our users like The Practical SQL Handbook, Bowman et al.,
-Addison Wesley.  Others like Lan Times Guide to SQL, Groff et al.,
-Osborne McGraw-Hill.

+Many of our users like The Practical SQL Handbook, Bowman, Judith
+S., et al., Addison-Wesley.  Others like The Complete Reference
+SQL, Groff et al., McGraw-Hill.

 
 
-
1.11)	Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?

+
1.11) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?

 
 Yes, we easily handle dates past the year 2000AD, and before 2000BC.

 
 
-
1.12)	How do I join the development team?

+
1.12) How do I join the development team?

 
-First, download the latest sources and read the PostgreSQL Developers
-documentation on our web site, or in the distribution.
-Second, subscribe to the pgsql-hackers and pgsql-patches mailing lists.
+First, download the latest source and read the PostgreSQL Developers
+documentation on our Web site, or in the distribution.
+Second, subscribe to the pgsql-hackers and pgsql-patches mailing lists.
 Third, submit high-quality patches to pgsql-patches.

 
-There are about a dozen people who have COMMIT privileges to
-the PostgreSQL CVS archive. All of them have submitted so many
-high-quality patches that it was a pain for the existing
+There are about a dozen people who have commit privileges to
+the PostgreSQL CVS archive. They each have submitted so many
+high-quality patches that it was impossible for the existing
 committers to keep up, and we had confidence that patches they
-committed were likely to be of high quality.
+committed were of high quality.
 
-
1.13)	How do I submit a bug report?

+
1.13) How do I submit a bug report?

 
 Fill out the "bug-template" file and send it to:  bugs@postgreSQL.org

+HREF="mailto:pgsql-bugs@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-bugs@PostgreSQL.org

 
 Also check out our ftp site ftp://ftp.postgreSQL.org/pub to
+HREF="ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub">ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub to
 see if there is a more recent PostgreSQL version or patches.

 
 
-
1.14)	How does PostgreSQL compare to other
+
1.14) How does PostgreSQL compare to other
 DBMS's?

 
 There are several ways of measuring software:  features, performance,
@@ -421,11 +421,11 @@ reliability, support, and price.

 

 
 PostgreSQL has most features present in large commercial DBMS's, like
-transactions, subselects, triggers, views, and sophisticated locking. 
-We have some features they don't have, like user-defined types,
-inheritance, rules, and multi-version concurrency control to reduce lock
-contention.  We don't have foreign key referential integrity or outer
-joins, but are working on them for our next release.


+transactions, subselects, triggers, views, foreign key referential
+integrity, and sophisticated locking.  We have some features they don't
+have, like user-defined types, inheritance, rules, and multi-version
+concurrency control to reduce lock contention.  We don't have outer
+joins, but are working on them.


 
 
 Performance
 

@@ -439,15 +439,14 @@ default modes. In no-fsync mode, we are usually faster than
 commercial databases, though in this mode, an OS crash could cause data
 corruption. We are working to provide an intermediate mode that suffers
 less performance overhead than full fsync mode, and will allow data
-integrity within 30 seconds of an OS crash. The mode is select-able by
-the database administrator.


+integrity within 30 seconds of an OS crash.


 
 In comparison to MySQL or leaner database systems, we are slower on
 inserts/updates because we have transaction overhead. Of course, MySQL
 doesn't have any of the features mentioned in the Features
 section above. We are built for flexibility and features, though we
 continue to improve performance through profiling and source code
-analysis. There is an interesting web page comparing PostgreSQL to MySQL
+analysis. There is an interesting Web page comparing PostgreSQL to MySQL
 at 
 http://openacs.org/why-not-mysql.html


 
@@ -484,7 +483,6 @@ add our code to your product with no limitations, except those outlined
 in our BSD-style license stated above.


 
 
-
 

 
 
User Client Questions

@@ -492,13 +490,13 @@ in our BSD-style license stated above.


 
 
 
-
2.1)	Are there ODBC drivers for PostgreSQL?

+
2.1) Are there ODBC drivers for PostgreSQL?

 
-There are two ODBC drivers available, PostODBC and OpenLink ODBC.

+There are two ODBC drivers available, PsqlODBC and OpenLink ODBC.

 
-PostODBC is included in the distribution. More information about it can
-be gotten from: 
-http://www.insightdist.com/psqlodbc

+PsqlODBC is included in the distribution. More information about it can
+be gotten from 
+ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub/odbc/.

 
 OpenLink ODBC can be gotten from 
 http://www.openlinksw.com. It works with their standard ODBC client
@@ -510,9 +508,11 @@ commercial-quality support, but a freeware version will always be
 available. Questions to  postgres95@openlink.co.uk.

 
+See also the 
+ODBC chapter of the Programmer's Guide.

 
 
-
2.2)	What tools are available for hooking
+
2.2) What tools are available for hooking
 PostgreSQL to Web pages?

 
 A nice introduction to Database-backed Web pages can be seen at: http://www.webtools.com

 There is also one at 
 http://www.phone.net/home/mwm/hotlist/.

 
-For web integration, PHP is an excellent interface.  It is at:
+For Web integration, PHP is an excellent interface.  It is at
 http://www.php.net

 
-PHP is great for simple stuff, but for more complex cases, many
-use the perl interface and CGI.pm.

+For complex cases, many use the Perl interface and CGI.pm.

 
-A WWW gateway based on WDB using perl can be downloaded from http://www.eol.ists.ca/~dunlop/wdb-p95
 
-
2.3)	Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user interface?
+
2.3) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user interface?
 A report generator? An embedded query language interface?

 
 We have a nice graphical user interface called pgaccess, which is
 shipped as part of the distribution.  Pgaccess also has a report
-generator.  The web page is http://www.flex.ro/pgaccess

 
 We also include ecpg, which is an embedded SQL query language interface for
 C.
 
-
2.4)	What languages are available to
+
2.4) What languages are available to
 communicate with PostgreSQL?

 
 We have:
 
    
-
  • C(libpq)
-
  • C++(libpq++)
-
  • Embedded C(ecpg)
-
  • Java(jdbc)
-
  • Perl(perl5)
-
  • ODBC(odbc)
-
  • Python(PyGreSQL)
-
  • TCL(libpgtcl)
-
  • C Easy API(libpgeasy)
-
  • Embedded HTML(PHP from http://www.php.net)
+
  • C (libpq)
+
  • C++ (libpq++)
+
  • Embedded C (ecpg)
+
  • Java (jdbc)
+
  • Perl (perl5)
+
  • ODBC (odbc)
+
  • Python (PyGreSQL)
+
  • TCL (libpgtcl)
+
  • C Easy API (libpgeasy)
+
  • Embedded HTML (PHP from http://www.php.net)
 

 
 

@@ -563,50 +562,52 @@ We have:
 
Administrative Questions

 
 
-
3.1)	Why does initdb fail?

+
3.1) Why does initdb fail?

 
+Try these:
 
    
 
  •  check that you don't have any of the previous version's binaries in
-your path   (If you see the message WARN:heap_modifytuple: repl is
-\  9, this is the problem.)
-
  •  check to see that you have the proper paths set
+your path   
+
  •  check to see that you have the proper paths set
 
  •  check that the postgres user owns the proper files
 

+If you see an error message about oidvector, you definately have
+a version mismatch.

 
 
-
3.2)	How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere
-other than /usr/local/pgsql?

+
3.2) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere
+other than /usr/local/pgsql?

 
-The simplest way is to specify the --prefix option when running configure.
-If you forgot to do that, you can edit Makefile.global and change POSTGRESDIR
-accordingly, or create a Makefile.custom and define POSTGRESDIR there.

+The simplest way is to specify the --prefix option when running configure.
+If you forgot to do that, you can edit Makefile.global and change POSTGRESDIR
+accordingly, or create a Makefile.custom and define POSTGRESDIR there.

 
 
-
3.3)	When I start the postmaster, I get a Bad
+
3.3) When I start the postmaster, I get a Bad
 System Call or core dumped message.  Why?

 
 It could be a variety of problems, but first check to see that you
-have system V extensions installed in your kernel. PostgreSQL requires
+have System V extensions installed in your kernel. PostgreSQL requires
 kernel support for shared memory and semaphores.

 
 
-
3.4)	When I try to start the postmaster, I
+
3.4) When I try to start the postmaster, I
 get IpcMemoryCreate errors.  Why?

 
-You either do not have shared memory configured properly in kernel or
+You either do not have shared memory configured properly in your kernel or
 you need to enlarge the shared memory available in the kernel.  The
 exact amount you need depends on your architecture  and how many buffers
-and backend processes you configure postmaster to run with.
+and backend processes you configure for the postmaster.
 For most systems, with default numbers of buffers and processes, you
 need a minimum of ~1MB.

 
-
3.5)	When I try to start the postmaster, I
+
3.5) When I try to start the postmaster, I
 get IpcSemaphoreCreate errors.  Why?

 
 If the error message is IpcSemaphoreCreate: semget failed (No space
 left on device) then your kernel is not configured with enough
 semaphores. Postgres needs one semaphore per potential backend process.
-A temporary solution is to start the postmaster with a smaller limit on
+A temporary solution is to start the postmaster with a smaller limit on
 the number of backend processes.  Use -N with a parameter less
 than the default of 32.  A more permanent solution is to increase your
 kernel's SEMMNS and SEMMNI parameters.

@@ -615,43 +616,42 @@ If the error message is something else, you might not have semaphore
 support configured in your kernel at all.

 
 
-
3.6)	How do I prevent other hosts from
+
3.6) How do I prevent other hosts from
 accessing my PostgreSQL database?

 
 By default, PostgreSQL only allows connections from the local machine
-using unix domain sockets.  Other machines will not be able to connect
+using Unix domain sockets.  Other machines will not be able to connect
 unless you add the -i flag to the postmaster,
 and enable host-based authentication by modifying the file
 $PGDATA/pg_hba.conf accordingly.  This will allow TCP/IP connections.
 

 
-
3.7)	Why can't I connect to my database from
+
3.7) Why can't I connect to my database from
 another machine?

 
 The default configuration allows only unix domain socket connections
 from the local machine.  To enable TCP/IP connections, make sure the
-postmaster has been started with the -i option, and add an
+postmaster has been started with the -i option, and add an
 appropriate host entry to the file
-pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf.  See the pg_hba.conf manual page.

+pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf.
 
-
-
3.8)	Why can't I access the database as the root
+
3.8) Why can't I access the database as the root
 user?

 
 You should not create database users with user id 0 (root). They will  be
-unable to access the database.  This is a security precaution  because
-of the ability of any user to dynamically link object modules  into the
+unable to access the database.  This is a security precaution because
+of the ability of users to dynamically link object modules  into the
 database engine.

 
 
-
3.9)	All my servers crash under concurrent
+
3.9) All my servers crash under concurrent
 table access.  Why?

 
 This problem can be caused by a kernel that is not configured to support
 semaphores.

 
 
-
3.10)	How do I tune the database engine for
+
3.10) How do I tune the database engine for
 better performance?

 
 Certainly, indices can speed up queries.  The EXPLAIN command
@@ -659,7 +659,7 @@ allows you to see how PostgreSQL is interpreting your query, and which
 indices are being used.

 
 If you are doing a lot of INSERTs, consider doing them in a large
-batch using the COPY command.  This is much faster than single
+batch using the COPY command.  This is much faster than
 individual INSERTS.  Second, statements not in a BEGIN
 WORK/COMMIT transaction block are considered to be in their
 own transaction.  Consider performing several statements in a single
@@ -667,36 +667,36 @@ transaction block.  This reduces the transaction overhead.  Also
 consider dropping and recreating indices when making large data
 changes.

 
-There are several tuning things that can be done.  You can disable
-fsync() by starting the postmaster with a  -o -F option.  This will
-prevent fsync()'s from flushing to disk after every transaction.

+There are several tuning options. You can disable
+fsync() by starting the postmaster with a -o -F
+option. This will prevent fsync()'s from flushing to disk after
+every transaction.

 
-You can also use the postmaster -B option to increase the number of
+You can also use the postmaster -B option to increase the number of
 shared memory buffers used by the backend processes.  If you make this
-parameter too high, the postmaster may not start up because you've exceeded
+parameter too high, the postmaster may not start because you've exceeded
 your kernel's limit on shared memory space.
 Each buffer is 8K and the default is 64 buffers.

 
-You can also use the backend -S option to increase the maximum amount
-of memory used by the backend process for temporary sorts.  The -S value
+You can also use the backend -S option to increase the maximum amount
+of memory used by the backend process for temporary sorts.  The -S value
 is measured in kilobytes, and the default is 512 (ie, 512K).

 
-You can also use the CLUSTER command to group data in base tables to
-match an index.  See the cluster(l) manual page for more details.

+You can also use the CLUSTER command to group data in tables to
+match an index.  See the CLUSTER manual page for more details.

 
 
-
3.11)	What debugging features are available in
-PostgreSQL?

+
3.11) What debugging features are available?

 
 PostgreSQL has several features that report status information that can
 be valuable for debugging purposes.

 
-First, by running configure with the --enable-cassert option, many
+First, by running configure with the --enable-cassert option, many
 assert()'s monitor the progress of the backend and halt the program when
 something unexpected occurs.

 
-Both postmaster and postgres have several debug options available.
-First, whenever you start the postmaster, make sure you send the
+Both postmaster and postgres have several debug options available.
+First, whenever you start the postmaster, make sure you send the
 standard output and error to a log file, like:
 
 	cd /usr/local/pgsql
@@ -705,122 +705,102 @@ standard output and error to a log file, like:
 
 This will put a server.log file in the top-level PostgreSQL directory.
 This file contains useful information about problems or errors
-encountered by the server.  Postmaster has a -d option that allows even
-more detailed information to be reported.  The -d option takes a number
+encountered by the server.  Postmaster has a -d option that allows even
+more detailed information to be reported.  The -d option takes a number
 that specifies the debug level.  Be warned that high debug level values
 generate large log files.

 
-You can actually run the postgres backend from the command line, and
-type your SQL statement directly.  This is recommended only for
-debugging purposes.  Note that a newline terminates the query, not a
-semicolon.  If you have compiled with debugging symbols, you can use a
-debugger to see what is happening.  Because the backend was not started
-from the postmaster, it is not running in an identical environment and
-locking/backend interaction problems may not be duplicated.  Some
-debuggers can attach to an already-running backend; that is the most
-convenient way to diagnose problems in the normal multi-backend
-environment.
-

-
-The postgres program has -s, -A, and -t options that can be very useful
+If the postmaster is not running, you can actually run the
+postgres backend from the command line, and type your SQL statement
+directly. This is recommended only for debugging purposes. Note
+that a newline terminates the query, not a semicolon. If you have
+compiled with debugging symbols, you can use a debugger to see what is
+happening. Because the backend was not started from the postmaster, it
+is not running in an identical environment and locking/backend
+interaction problems may not be duplicated.

+
+If the postmaster is running, start psql in one window,
+then find the PID of the postgres process used by
+psql. Use a debugger to attach to the postgres
+PID. You can set breakpoints in the debugger and issue
+queries from psql. If you are debugging postgres startup,
+you can set PGOPTIONS="-W n", then start psql. This will cause
+startup to delay for n seconds so you can attach with the
+debugger and trace through the startup sequence.

+
+The postgres program has -s, -A, and -t options that can be very useful
 for debugging and performance measurements.

 
 You can also compile with profiling to see what functions are taking
 execution time.  The backend profile files will be deposited in the
-pgsql/data/base/dbname directory.  The client profile file will be put
+pgsql/data/base/dbname directory.  The client profile file will be put
 in the client's current directory.

 
 
 
3.12) I get 'Sorry, too many clients' when trying
 to connect.  Why?

 
-You need to increase the postmaster's limit on how many concurrent backend
+You need to increase the postmaster's limit on how many concurrent backend
 processes it can start.

 
-In Postgres 6.5 and up, the default limit is 32 processes. You can
-increase it by restarting the postmaster with a suitable -N
+In PostgreSQL 6.5 and up, the default limit is 32 processes. You can
+increase it by restarting the postmaster with a suitable -N
 value. With the default configuration you can set -N as large as
-1024; if you need more, increase MAXBACKENDS in
+1024.  If you need more, increase MAXBACKENDS in
 include/config.h and rebuild. You can set the default value of
--N at configuration time, if you like, using configure's
+-N at configuration time, if you like, using configure's
 --with-maxbackends switch.

 
 Note that if you make -N larger than 32, you must also increase
--B beyond its default of 64; -B must be at least twice -N, and
+-B beyond its default of 64; -B must be at least twice -N, and
 probably should be more than that for best performance. For large
 numbers of backend processes, you are also likely to find that you need
 to increase various Unix kernel configuration parameters. Things to
 check include the maximum size of shared memory blocks,
-SHMMAX, the maximum number of semaphores,
-SEMMNS and SEMMNI, the maximum number of
-processes, NPROC, the maximum number of processes per
-user, MAXUPRC, and the maximum number of open files,
-NFILE and NINODE. The reason that Postgres
-has a limit on the number of allowed backend processes is so that you
-can ensure that your system won't run out of resources.

-
-In Postgres versions prior to 6.5, the maximum number of backends was
+SHMMAX; the maximum number of semaphores,
+SEMMNS and SEMMNI; the maximum number of
+processes, NPROC; the maximum number of processes per
+user, MAXUPRC; and the maximum number of open files,
+NFILE and NINODE. The reason that PostgreSQL
+has a limit on the number of allowed backend processes is so 
+your system won't run out of resources.

+
+In PostgreSQL versions prior to 6.5, the maximum number of backends was
 64, and changing it required a rebuild after altering the MaxBackendId
 constant in include/storage/sinvaladt.h.

 
-
3.13)	What are the pg_tempNNN.NN files in my
+
3.13) What are the pg_sorttempNNN.NN files in my
 database directory?

 
 They are temporary files generated by the query executor. For
 example, if a sort needs to be done to satisfy an ORDER BY, and
-the sort requires more space than the backend's -S parameter allows,
-then temp files are created to hold the extra data.

+the sort requires more space than the backend's -S parameter allows,
+then temporary files are created to hold the extra data.

 
-The temp files should go away automatically, but might not if a backend
-crashes during a sort.  If you have no transactions running at the time,
+The temporary files should be deleted automatically, but might not if a backend
+crashes during a sort.  If you have no backends running at the time,
 it is safe to delete the pg_tempNNN.NN files.

 
-
3.14)	How do I set up a pg_group?

-
-Currently, there is no easy interface to set up user groups. You have to
-explicitly insert/update the pg_group table. For example:
-
-
-	jolly=> insert into pg_group (groname, grosysid, grolist)
-	jolly=>     values ('posthackers', '1234', '{5443, 8261}');
-	INSERT 548224
-	jolly=> grant insert on foo to group posthackers;
-	CHANGE
-	jolly=>
-

-
-	The fields in pg_group are:
-
    
-
  • groname:  the group name.  This a name and should
-be purely alphanumeric.  Do not include underscores
-or other punctuation.
-
  • grosysid: the group id.  This is an int4.
-This should be unique for each group.
-
  • grolist:   the list of pg_user id's that belong in the group.
-This is an int4[].
-

-
-
 

 
 
Operational Questions

 
 
-
4.1)	The system seems to be confused about
+
4.1) Why is system confused about
 commas, decimal points, and date formats.

 
-Check your locale configuration. PostgreSQL uses the locale settings of
-the user that ran the postmaster process.  There are postgres and psql
+Check your locale configuration. PostgreSQL uses the locale setting of
+the user that ran the postmaster process.  There are postgres and psql
 SET commands to control the date format.  Set those accordingly for
 your operating environment.

 
 
-
4.2)	What is the exact difference between
+
4.2) What is the exact difference between
 binary cursors and normal cursors?

 
 See the DECLARE manual page for a description.

 
-
4.3)	How do I SELECT only the first few
+
4.3) How do I SELECT only the first few
 rows of a query?

 
 See the FETCH manual page, or use SELECT ... LIMIT....

@@ -832,17 +812,17 @@ PostgreSQL may be able to evaluate only the first few records requested,
 or the entire query may have to be evaluated until the desired rows have
 been generated.

 
-
4.4) How do I get a list of tables, or other
-information I see in psql?

+
4.4) How do I get a list of tables or other
+things I can see in psql?

 
-You can read the source code for psql, file
-pgsql/src/bin/psql/psql.c. It contains SQL commands that generate the
+You can read the source code for psql in file
+pgsql/src/bin/psql/psql.c. It contains SQL commands that generate the
 output for psql's backslash commands.  You can also start psql
-with the -E option so that it will print out the queries it uses
+with the -E option so it will print out the queries it uses
 to execute the commands you give.

 
 
-
4.5)	How do you remove a column from a
+
4.5) How do you remove a column from a
 table?

 
 We do not support ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN, but do
@@ -858,23 +838,34 @@ this:
 
 
 
-
4.6)	What is the maximum size for a
+
4.6) What is the maximum size for a
 row, table, database?

 
-Rows are limited to 8K bytes, but this can be changed by editing
-include/config.h and changing BLCKSZ. To use attributes
-larger than 8K, you can also use the large object interface.

+These are the limits:
+
+
+Maximum size for a database? 	         unlimited (60GB databases exist)
+Maximum size for a table?                unlimited on all operating systems
+Maximum size for a row?                  8k, configurable to 32k
+Maximum number of rows in a table?	 unlimited
+Maximum number of columns in a table?    unlimited
+Maximum number of indexes on a table?	 unlimited
+

+
+Of course, these are not actually unlimited, but limited to available
+disk space.

 
-Rows do not cross 8k boundaries so a 5k row will require 8k of
-storage.

+To change the maximum row size, edit include/config.h and change
+BLCKSZ. To use attributes larger than 8K, you can also
+use the large object interface.

 
-Table and database sizes are unlimited.  There are many databases that
-are tens of gigabytes, and probably some that are hundreds.
+The row length limit will be removed in 7.1.

 
-
4.7)How much database disk space is required to
-store data from a typical flat file?

 
-A Postgres database can require about six and a half times the disk space
+
4.7) How much database disk space is required to
+store data from a typical text file?

+
+A PostgreSQL database may need six-and-a-half times the disk space
 required to store the data in a flat file.

 
 Consider a file of 300,000 lines with two integers on each line. The
@@ -901,10 +892,10 @@ this data can be estimated at 14MB:
 1755 database pages * 8192 bytes per page  =  14,376,960 bytes (14MB)
 

 
-Indexes do not contain as much overhead, but do contain the data that is
+Indexes do not require as much overhead, but do contain the data that is
 being indexed, so they can be large also.

 
-
4.8)	How do I find out what indices or
+
4.8) How do I find out what indices or
 operations are defined in the database?

 
 psql has a variety of backslash commands to show such information.  Use
@@ -915,11 +906,11 @@ illustrates many of the SELECTs needed to get information from
 the database system tables.

 
 
-
4.9)	My queries are slow or don't make
+
4.9) My queries are slow or don't make
 use of the indexes.  Why?

 
-PostgreSQL does not automatically maintain statistics.  One has to make
-an explicit VACUUM call to update the statistics.   After
+PostgreSQL does not automatically maintain statistics.  VACUUM
+must be run to update the statistics.   After
 statistics are updated, the optimizer knows how many rows in the table,
 and can better decide if it should use indices.  Note that the optimizer
 does not use indices in cases when the table is small because a
@@ -927,7 +918,7 @@ sequential scan would be faster.

 
 For column-specific optimization statistics, use VACUUM
 ANALYZE.  VACUUM ANALYZE is important for complex
-multi-join queries, so the optimizer can estimate the number of rows
+multijoin queries, so the optimizer can estimate the number of rows
 returned from each table, and choose the proper join order.  The backend
 does not keep track of column statistics on its own, so VACUUM
 ANALYZE must be run to collect them periodically.

@@ -943,64 +934,60 @@ the string.  So, to use indices, LIKE searches should not
 begin with %, and ~(regular expression searches) should
 start with ^.
 
-
4.10)	How do I see how the query optimizer is
+
4.10) How do I see how the query optimizer is
 evaluating my query?

 
 See the EXPLAIN manual page.

 
-
4.11)	What is an R-tree index?

+
4.11) What is an R-tree index?

 
-An r-tree index is used for indexing spatial data. A hash index can't
+An R-tree index is used for indexing spatial data. A hash index can't
 handle range searches. A B-tree index only handles range searches in a
 single dimension. R-tree's can handle multi-dimensional data.  For
 example, if an R-tree index can be built on an attribute of type point,
-the system can more efficient answer queries like select all points
-within a bounding rectangle.

+the system can more efficiently answer queries such as "select all points
+within a bounding rectangle."

 
-The canonical paper that describes the original R-Tree design is:

+The canonical paper that describes the original R-tree design is:

 
-Guttman, A. "R-Trees: A Dynamic Index Structure for Spatial Searching."
+Guttman, A. "R-trees: A Dynamic Index Structure for Spatial Searching."
 Proc of the 1984 ACM SIGMOD Int'l Conf on Mgmt of Data, 45-57.

 
 You can also find this paper in Stonebraker's "Readings in Database
-Systems"

+Systems".

 
-Builtin R-Trees can handle polygons and boxes.  In theory, R-trees can
+Built-in R-trees can handle polygons and boxes.  In theory, R-trees can
 be extended to handle higher number of dimensions.  In practice,
-extending R-trees require a bit of work and we don't currently have any
+extending R-trees requires a bit of work and we don't currently have any
 documentation on how to do it.

 
 
-
4.12)	What is Genetic Query
+
4.12) What is Genetic Query
 Optimization?

 
-The GEQO module in PostgreSQL is intended to solve the query
-optimization problem of joining many tables by means of a Genetic
+The GEQO module speeds query
+optimization when joining many tables by means of a Genetic
 Algorithm (GA). It allows the handling of large join queries through
-non-exhaustive search.

-
-For further information see the documentation.
-
+nonexhaustive search.

 
+
4.13) How do I do regular expression searches and
+case-insensitive regular expression searches?

 
-
4.13)	How do I do regular expression searches and
-case-insensitive regexp searching?

-
-The ~ operator does regular-expression matching, and ~*
-does case-insensitive regular-expression matching. There is no
+The ~ operator does regular expression matching, and ~*
+does case-insensitive regular expression matching. There is no
 case-insensitive variant of the LIKE operator, but you can get the
 effect of case-insensitive LIKE with this:
 
 	WHERE lower(textfield) LIKE lower(pattern)
 

 
-
4.14)	In a query, how do I detect if a field
+
4.14) In a query, how do I detect if a field
 is NULL?

 
 You test the column with IS NULL and IS NOT NULL.

 
 
-
4.15)	What is the difference between the
+
4.15) What is the difference between the
 various character types?

 
 
@@ -1016,7 +1003,7 @@ BYTEA           bytea           variable-length array of bytes
 You will see the internal name when examining system catalogs
 and in some error messages.

 
-The last four types above are "varlena" types (i.e. the first four bytes
+The last four types above are "varlena" types (i.e., the first four bytes
 are the length, followed by the data). char(#) allocates the
 maximum number of bytes no matter how much data is stored in the field.
 text, varchar(#), and bytea all have variable length on the disk,
@@ -1025,18 +1012,18 @@ them. Specifically, the penalty is for access to all columns after the
 first column of this type.

 
 
-
4.16.1)	How do I create a
+
4.16.1) How do I create a
 serial/auto-incrementing field?

 
-PostgreSQL supports SERIAL data type.  It auto-creates a
-sequence and index on the column.  For example, this...
+PostgreSQL supports a SERIAL data type.  It auto-creates a
+sequence and index on the column.  For example, this:
 
 	CREATE TABLE person ( 
 		id   SERIAL, 
 		name TEXT 
 	);
 

-...is automatically translated into this...
+is automatically translated into this:
 
 	CREATE SEQUENCE person_id_seq;
 	CREATE TABLE person ( 
@@ -1047,56 +1034,72 @@ sequence and index on the column.  For example, this...
 

 See the create_sequence manual page for more information about sequences.
 
-You can also use each row's oid field as a unique value.  However, if
+You can also use each row's OID field as a unique value.  However, if
 you need to dump and reload the database, you need to use pg_dump's -o
-option or COPY WITH OIDS option to preserve the oids.

+option or COPY WITH OIDS option to preserve the OIDs.

 
-For more details, see Bruce Momjian's chapter on 
-Numbering Rows.
+Numbering Rows.
 
-
4.16.2)	How do I get the back the generated SERIAL value after an insert?

-Probably the simplest approach is to to retrieve the next SERIAL value from the sequence object with the nextval() function before inserting and then insert it explicitly.  Using the example table in 4.16.1, that might look like this:
+
4.16.2) How do I get the value of a
+SERIAL insert?

+One approach is to to retrieve the next SERIAL value from the sequence object with the nextval() function before inserting and then insert it explicitly.  Using the example table in 4.16.1, that might look like this:
 
 	$newSerialID = nextval('person_id_seq');
 	INSERT INTO person (id, name) VALUES ($newSerialID, 'Blaise Pascal');
 

-You would then also have the new value stored in $newSerialID for use in other queries (e.g., as a foreign key to the person table).  Note that the name of the automatically-created SEQUENCE object will be named <table>_<serialcolumn>_seq, where table and serialcolumn are the names of your table and your SERIAL column, respectively.  
+
+You would then also have the new value stored in
+$newSerialID for use in other queries (e.g., as a foreign
+key to the person table).  Note that the name of the
+automatically created SEQUENCE object will be named
+<table>_<serialcolumn>_seq, where
+table and serialcolumn are the names of your table and
+your SERIAL column, respectively.  
+
 

-Similarly, you could retrieve the just-assigned SERIAL value with the currval() function after it was inserted by default, e.g.,
+Alternatively, you could retrieve the assigned SERIAL value with the currval() function after it was inserted by default, e.g.,
 
 	INSERT INTO person (name) VALUES ('Blaise Pascal');
 	$newID = currval('person_id_seq');
 

-Finally, you could use the oid returned from the INSERT statement to lookup the default value, though this is probably the least portable approach.  In perl, using DBI with Edmund Mergl's DBD::Pg module, the oid value is made available via $sth->{pg_oid_status} after $sth->execute().
 
-
4.16.3)	Wouldn't use of currval() and nextval() lead to a race condition with other concurrent backend processes?

+Finally, you could use the OID
+returned from the INSERT statement to look up the default value, though
+this is probably the least portable approach. In Perl, using DBI with
+Edmund Mergl's DBD::Pg module, the oid value is made available via
+$sth->{pg_oid_status} after $sth->execute().
+
+
4.16.3) Don't currval() and nextval() lead to 
+a race condition with other users?

 
-No.  That has been handled by the backends.
+No.  This is handled by the backends.
 
 
-
4.17)	What is an oid?  What is a tid?

+
4.17) What is an OID? What is a
+TID?

 
-Oids are PostgreSQL's answer to unique row ids.  Every row that is
-created in PostgreSQL gets a unique oid.  All oids generated during
-initdb are less than 16384 (from backend/access/transam.h).  All
-user-created oids are equal or greater that this.  By default, all these
-oids are unique not only within a table, or database, but unique within
-the entire PostgreSQL installation.

+OIDs are PostgreSQL's answer to unique row ids.  Every
+row that is created in PostgreSQL gets a unique OID.  All
+OIDs generated during initdb are less than 16384
+(from backend/access/transam.h).  All user-created
+OIDs are equal to or greater than this.  By default, all
+these OIDs are unique not only within a table or
+database, but unique within the entire PostgreSQL installation.

 
-PostgreSQL uses oids in its internal system tables to link rows between
-tables.  These oids can be used to identify specific user rows and used
-in joins.  It is recommended you use column type oid to store oid
-values.  See the sql(l) manual page to see the other internal columns.
-You can create an index on the oid field for faster access.

+PostgreSQL uses OIDs in its internal system tables to link rows between
+tables.  These OIDs can be used to identify specific user rows and used
+in joins. It is recommended you use column type OID to
+store OID
+values.  You can create an index on the OID field for faster access.

 
-Oids are assigned to all new rows from a central area that is used by
-all databases.  If you want to change the oid to something else, or if
-you want to make a copy of the table, with the original oid's, there is
+Oids are assigned to all new rows from a central area that is used by
+all databases.  If you want to change the OID to something else, or if
+you want to make a copy of the table, with the original OID's, there is
 no reason you can't do it:
 
 
         CREATE TABLE new_table(old_oid oid, mycol int);
-        SELECT INTO new SELECT old_oid, mycol FROM old;
+        SELECT old_oid, mycol INTO new FROM old;
         COPY new TO '/tmp/pgtable';
         DELETE FROM new;
         COPY new WITH OIDS FROM '/tmp/pgtable';
@@ -1106,12 +1109,16 @@ no reason you can't do it:
 -->
 

 
-Tids are used to identify specific physical rows with block and offset
+OIDs are stored as 4-byte integers, and will overflow
+at 4 billion. No one has reported this ever happening, and we plan to
+have the limit removed before anyone does.

+
+TIDs are used to identify specific physical rows with block and offset
 values.  Tids change after rows are modified or reloaded.  They are used
 by index entries to point to physical rows.

 
 
-
4.18)	What is the meaning of some of the terms
+
4.18) What is the meaning of some of the terms
 used in PostgreSQL?

 
 Some of the source code and older documentation use terms that have more
@@ -1124,17 +1131,21 @@ common usage.  Here are some:
 
  •  retrieve, select
 
  •  replace, update
 
  •  append, insert
-
  •  oid, serial value
+
  •  OID, serial value
 
  •  portal, cursor
 
  •  range variable, table name, table alias
 
    
 
-
    4.19) Why do I get the error "FATAL:  palloc
-failure: memory exhausted?"
    
+A list of general database terms can be found at: 
+http://www.comptechnews.com/~reaster/dbdesign.html
    
+
+
    4.19) Why do I get the error "FATAL:  palloc
+failure: memory exhausted?"
    
 
 It is possible you have run out of virtual memory on your system, or
 your kernel has a low limit for certain resources.  Try this before
-starting the postmaster:
+starting the postmaster:
 
 
     	ulimit -d 65536
@@ -1160,34 +1171,27 @@ You need to put BEGIN WORK and COMMIT
  around any use of a large object handle, that is,
 surrounding lo_open ... lo_close.
    
 
-Current PostgreSQL enforces the rule by closing large object handles at
-transaction commit, which will be instantly upon completion of the
-lo_open command if you are not inside a transaction.  So the
-first attempt to do anything with the handle will draw invalid large
-obj descriptor.  So code that used to work (at least most of the
-time) will now generate that error message if you fail to use a
-transaction.
    
+Currently PostgreSQL enforces the rule by closing large object handles
+at transaction commit. So the first attempt to do anything with the
+handle will draw invalid large obj descriptor. So code that used
+to work (at least most of the time) will now generate that error message
+if you fail to use a transaction.
    
 
 If you are using a client interface like ODBC you may need to set
 auto-commit off.
    
 
 
    4.22) How do I create a column that will default to the
 current time?
    
-This way always works:
-
    -	CREATE TABLE test (x int, modtime timestamp default now() );
-
    
-In releases 7.0 and later, you may use:
+Use now():
 
    -	create table test (x int, modtime timestamp default 'now');
+	CREATE TABLE test (x int, modtime timestamp DEFAULT now() );
 
    
 
    
-
    4.23) Why are my subqueries using IN so 
-slow?
    
-Currently, we join subqueries to outer queries by sequential scanning
+
    4.23) Why are my subqueries using
+IN so slow?
    
+Currently, we join subqueries to outer queries by sequentially scanning
 the result of the subquery for each row of the outer query. A workaround
-is to replace IN with EXISTS. For example,
-change:
+is to replace IN with EXISTS:
 
     	SELECT *
 	FROM tab
@@ -1201,48 +1205,61 @@ to:
 
    
 We hope to fix this limitation in a future release.
 
+
    4.24) How do I do an outer join?
    
+PostgreSQL does not support outer joins in the current release. They can
+be simulated using UNION and NOT IN. For
+example, when joining tab1 and tab2, the following query
+does an outer join of the two tables:
+
    +	SELECT tab1.col1, tab2.col2
+	FROM tab1, tab2
+	WHERE tab1.col1 = tab2.col1
+	UNION ALL
+	SELECT tab1.col1, NULL
+	FROM tab1
+	WHERE tab1.col1 NOT IN (SELECT tab2.col1 FROM tab2)
+	ORDER BY tab1.col1
+
    
+
 
    
 
 
    Extending PostgreSQL
    
 
 
-
    5.1)	I wrote a user-defined function.  When
+
    5.1) I wrote a user-defined function.  When
 I run it in psql, why does it dump core?
    
 
 The problem could be a number of things.  Try testing your user-defined
-function in a stand alone test program first.
+function in a stand-alone test program first.
 
-
    5.2)	What does the message:
-NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 not in alloc set! mean?
    
+
    5.2) What does the message
+"NOTICE:PortalHeapMemoryFree: 0x402251d0 not in alloc set!" mean?
    
 
-You are pfree'ing something that was not palloc'ed.
+You are pfree'ing something that was not palloc'ed.
 Beware of mixing malloc/free and palloc/pfree.
 
 
-
    5.3)	How can I contribute some nifty new types and
-functions for PostgreSQL?
    
+
    5.3) How can I contribute some nifty new types and
+functions to PostgreSQL?
    
 
 
-Send your extensions to the pgsql-hackers mailing list, and they will
+Send your extensions to the pgsql-hackers mailing list, and they will
 eventually end up in the contrib/ subdirectory.
    
 
 
-
    5.4)	How do I write a C function to return a
+
    5.4) How do I write a C function to return a
 tuple?
    
 
 This requires wizardry so extreme that the authors have never
 tried it, though in principle it can be done.
    
 
-
    5.5)	I have changed a source file.  Why does the
-recompile does not see the change?
    
+
    5.5) I have changed a source file.  Why does the
+recompile not see the change?
    
 
-The Makefiles do not have the proper dependencies for include files. You
-have to do a make clean and then another make.
- You
-have to do a make clean and then another make.
    
+The Makefiles do not have the proper dependencies for include files. You
+have to do a make clean and then another make.
    
 
 
 
 
 
-
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/install.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/install.sgml
index 70ad7721eb4..99555a409ba 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/install.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/install.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
 
  
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/Attic/install.sgml,v 1.41.2.4 2000/06/05 17
   
    
     Installation instructions for 
-    PostgreSQL 7.0.2.
+    PostgreSQL 7.0.3.
    
   
 
@@ -18,9 +18,9 @@ $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/Attic/install.sgml,v 1.41.2.4 2000/06/05 17
    then unpack it:
 
    
-> gunzip postgresql-7.0.2.tar.gz
-> tar -xf postgresql-7.0.2.tar
-> mv postgresql-7.0.2 /usr/src
+> gunzip postgresql-7.0.3.tar.gz
+> tar -xf postgresql-7.0.3.tar
+> mv postgresql-7.0.3 /usr/src
    
   
 
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ All of PostgreSQL is successfully made. Ready to install.
      
       Make sure to use the pg_dumpall
       command from the version you are currently running.
-      7.0.2's pg_dumpall should not
+      7.0.3's pg_dumpall should not
       be used on older databases.
      
 
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ libpq.so.2.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
       You probably want to install the man and
       HTML documentation. Type
       
-> cd /usr/src/pgsql/postgresql-7.0.2/doc
+> cd /usr/src/pgsql/postgresql-7.0.3/doc
 > gmake install
       
       This will install files under /usr/local/pgsql/doc
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
index 17019957662..989351479ae 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
@@ -1,7 +1,87 @@
 
 
+ 
+  Release Notes
+
+  
+   Release 7.0.3
+   
+
+   
+    Release date 2000-11-04. This has a variety of fixes from 7.0.2.
+   
+
+
+   
+    Migration to v7.0.3
+
+    
+     A dump/restore is not required for those running
+     v7.0.*.
+    
+   
+
+   
+    Changes
+
+    
+     
+Jdbc fixes (Peter)
+Large object fix (Tom)
+Fix lean in COPY WITH OIDS leak (Tom)
+Fix backwards-index-scan (Tom)
+Fix SELECT ... FOR UPDATE so it checks for duplicate keys (Hiroshi)
+Add --enable-syslog to configure (Marc)
+Fix abort transaction at backend exit in rare cases (Tom)
+Fix for psql \l+ when multi-byte enabled (Tatsuo)
+Allow PL/pgSQL to accept non ascii identifiers (Tatsuo)
+Make vacuum always flush buffers (Tom)
+Fix to allow cancel while waiting for a lock (Hiroshi)
+Fix for memory aloocation problem in user authentication code (Tom)
+Remove bogus use of int4out() (Tom)
+Fixes for multiple subqueries in COALESCE or BETWEEN (Tom)
+Fix for failure of triggers on heap open in certain cases (Jeroen van
+    Vianen)
+Fix for erroneous selectivity of not-equals (Tom)
+Fix for erroneous use of strcmp() (Tom)
+Fix for bug where storage manager accesses items beyond end of file
+    (Tom)
+Fix to include kernel errno message in all smgr elog messages (Tom)
+Fix for '.' not in PATH at build time (SL Baur)
+Fix for out-of-file-descriptors error (Tom)
+Fix to make pg_dump dump 'iscachable' flag for functions (Tom)
+Fix for subselect in targetlist of Append node (Tom)
+Fix for mergejoin plans (Tom)
+Fix TRUNCATE failure on relations with indexes (Tom)
+Avoid database-wide restart on write error (Hiroshi)
+Fix nodeMaterial to honor chgParam by recomputing its output (Tom)
+Fix VACUUM problem with moving chain of update tuples when source and
+    destination of a tuple lie on the same page (Tom)
+Fix user.c CommandCounterIncrement (Tom)
+Fix for AM/PM boundary problem in to_char() (Karel Zak)
+Fix TIME aggregate handling (Tom)
+Fix to_char() to avoid coredump on NULL input.  (Tom)
+Buffer fix (Tom)
+Fix for inserting/copying longer multibyte strings into bpchar data
+    types (Tatsuo)
+     
+    
+   
+  
+
+
  
   Release Notes
 
@@ -29,7 +109,7 @@ $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.49.2.6 2000/06/14 13:18:59
 
     
      A dump/restore is not required for those running
-     v7.*.
+     v7.0.*.
     
    
 
diff --git a/register.txt b/register.txt
index b830d3f8f30..dfa6c9c5d4a 100644
--- a/register.txt
+++ b/register.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-(2000-06-05)
+(2000-11-04)
 PostgreSQL has a Web site at http://www.postgresql.org/ which carries details
 on the latest release, upcoming features, and other information to make your
 work or play with PostgreSQL more productive.
diff --git a/src/include/version.h.in b/src/include/version.h.in
index 43fddab26b3..2b585ebebc9 100644
--- a/src/include/version.h.in
+++ b/src/include/version.h.in
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  *	  this file contains the interface to version.c.
  *	  Also some parameters.
  *
- * $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/include/Attic/version.h.in,v 1.8.2.2 2000/06/05 10:59:17 momjian Exp $
+ * $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/include/Attic/version.h.in,v 1.8.2.3 2000/11/03 03:42:56 momjian Exp $
  *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ void SetPgVersion(const char *path, char **reason_p);
 
 #define PG_RELEASE		"7"
 #define PG_VERSION		"0"
-#define PG_SUBVERSION		"2"
+#define PG_SUBVERSION		"3"
 
 #define PG_VERFILE		"PG_VERSION"
 
diff --git a/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc1/DatabaseMetaData.java b/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc1/DatabaseMetaData.java
index c916274ad95..aa95e1d4fa6 100644
--- a/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc1/DatabaseMetaData.java
+++ b/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc1/DatabaseMetaData.java
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ public class DatabaseMetaData implements java.sql.DatabaseMetaData
    */
   public String getDatabaseProductVersion() throws SQLException
   {
-    return ("7.0.2");
+    return ("7.0.3");
   }
   
   /**
diff --git a/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc2/DatabaseMetaData.java b/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc2/DatabaseMetaData.java
index fbbe93a9922..f0d7741cf5f 100644
--- a/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc2/DatabaseMetaData.java
+++ b/src/interfaces/jdbc/postgresql/jdbc2/DatabaseMetaData.java
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ public class DatabaseMetaData implements java.sql.DatabaseMetaData
    */
   public String getDatabaseProductVersion() throws SQLException
   {
-    return ("7.0.2");
+    return ("7.0.3");
   }
   
   /**
diff --git a/src/interfaces/libpq/libpq.rc b/src/interfaces/libpq/libpq.rc
index 4ce5b215eb2..7bc077be086 100644
--- a/src/interfaces/libpq/libpq.rc
+++ b/src/interfaces/libpq/libpq.rc
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 #include 
 
 VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO
- FILEVERSION 7,0,2,0
- PRODUCTVERSION 7,0,2,0
+ FILEVERSION 7,0,3,0
+ PRODUCTVERSION 7,0,3,0
  FILEFLAGSMASK 0x3fL
  FILEFLAGS 0
  FILEOS VOS__WINDOWS32
@@ -15,13 +15,13 @@ BEGIN
         BEGIN
             VALUE "CompanyName", "\0"
             VALUE "FileDescription", "PostgreSQL Access Library\0"
-            VALUE "FileVersion", "7, 0, 2, 0\0"
+            VALUE "FileVersion", "7, 0, 3 , 0\0"
             VALUE "InternalName", "libpq\0"
             VALUE "LegalCopyright", "Copyright (C) 2000\0"
             VALUE "LegalTrademarks", "\0"
             VALUE "OriginalFilename", "libpq.dll\0"
             VALUE "ProductName", "PostgreSQL\0"
-            VALUE "ProductVersion", "7, 0, 2, 0\0"
+            VALUE "ProductVersion", "7, 0, 3, 0\0"
         END
     END
     BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
-- 
2.39.5