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	* Do async I/O for faster random read-ahead of data Async I/O allows multiple I/O requests to be sent to the disk with results coming back asynchronously. > http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2007-09/msg00255.php
		
			
				
	
	
		
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			1773 lines
		
	
	
		
			63 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Plaintext
		
	
	
	
	
	
| PostgreSQL TODO List
 | |
| ====================
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| Current maintainer:	Bruce Momjian (bruce@momjian.us)
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| Last updated:		Wed Mar 12 21:56:41 EDT 2008
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| 
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| The most recent version of this document can be viewed at
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| http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.TODO.html.
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| 
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| #A hyphen, "-", marks changes that will appear in the upcoming 8.3 release.#
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| #A percent sign, "%", marks items that are easier to implement.#
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| 
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| Bracketed items, "[]", have more detail.
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| 
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| This list contains all known PostgreSQL bugs and feature requests. If
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| you would like to work on an item, please read the Developer's FAQ
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| first.  There is also a developer's wiki at
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| http://developer.postgresql.org.
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| 
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| 
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| Administration
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| ==============
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| 
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| * Allow administrators to safely terminate individual sessions either
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|   via an SQL function or SIGTERM
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| 
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|   Lock table corruption following SIGTERM of an individual backend
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|   has been reported in 8.0.  A possible cause was fixed in 8.1, but
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|   it is unknown whether other problems exist.  This item mostly
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|   requires additional testing rather than of writing any new code.
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00174.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00218.php
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| 
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| * Check for unreferenced table files created by transactions that were
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|   in-progress when the server terminated abruptly
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00096.php
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| 
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| * Set proper permissions on non-system schemas during db creation
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| 
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|   Currently all schemas are owned by the super-user because they are copied
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|   from the template1 database.  However, since all objects are inherited
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|   from the template database, it is not clear that setting schemas to the db
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|   owner is correct.
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| 
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| * Add function to report the time of the most recent server reload
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| * Allow statistics collector information to be pulled from the collector
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|   process directly, rather than requiring the collector to write a
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|   filesystem file twice a second?
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| * Allow statistics last vacuum/analyze execution times to be displayed
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|   without requiring stats_row_level to be enabled
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| * Allow log_min_messages to be specified on a per-module basis
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| 
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|   This would allow administrators to see more detailed information from
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|   specific sections of the backend, e.g. checkpoints, autovacuum, etc.
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|   Another idea is to allow separate configuration files for each module,
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|   or allow arbitrary SET commands to be passed to them.
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| 
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| * Simplify ability to create partitioned tables
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| 
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|   This would allow creation of partitioned tables without requiring
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|   creation of triggers or rules for INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, and constraints
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|   for rapid partition selection.  Options could include range and hash
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|   partition selection.
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00375.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00151.php
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| 
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| * Allow auto-selection of partitioned tables for min/max() operations
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| * Allow more complex user/database default GUC settings
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| 
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|   Currently ALTER USER and ALTER DATABASE support per-user and
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|   per-database defaults.  Consider adding per-user-and-database
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|   defaults so things like search_path can be defaulted for a
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|   specific user connecting to a specific database.
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| 
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| * Allow custom variable classes that can restrict who can set the values
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00911.php
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| 
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| * Implement the SQL standard mechanism whereby REVOKE ROLE revokes only
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|   the privilege granted by the invoking role, and not those granted
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|   by other roles
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-05/msg00010.php
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| 
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| * Allow SSL authentication/encryption over unix domain sockets
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00924.php
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| 
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| * Allow client certificate names to be checked against the client
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|   hostname
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| 
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|   This is already implemented in
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|   libpq/fe-secure.c::verify_peer_name_matches_certificate() but the code
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|   is commented out.
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| 
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| * Configuration files
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| 
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| 	o Allow pg_hba.conf to specify host names along with IP addresses
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| 
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| 	  Host name lookup could occur when the postmaster reads the
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| 	  pg_hba.conf file, or when the backend starts.  Another
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| 	  solution would be to reverse lookup the connection IP and
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| 	  check that hostname against the host names in pg_hba.conf.
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| 	  We could also then check that the host name maps to the IP
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| 	  address.
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| 
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| 	o %Allow postgresql.conf file values to be changed via an SQL
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| 	  API, perhaps using SET GLOBAL
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| 	o Allow the server to be stopped/restarted via an SQL API
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| 	o Issue a warning if a change-on-restart-only postgresql.conf value
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| 	  is modified  and the server config files are reloaded
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| 	o Consider normalizing fractions in postgresql.conf, perhaps
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| 	  using '%'
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| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00550.php
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| 
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| 
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| * Tablespaces
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| 
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| 	o Allow a database in tablespace t1 with tables created in
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| 	  tablespace t2 to be used as a template for a new database created
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| 	  with default tablespace t2
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| 
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| 	  Currently all objects in the default database tablespace must
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| 	  have default tablespace specifications. This is because new
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| 	  databases are created by copying directories. If you mix default
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| 	  tablespace tables and tablespace-specified tables in the same
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| 	  directory, creating a new database from such a mixed directory
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| 	  would create a new database with tables that had incorrect
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| 	  explicit tablespaces.  To fix this would require modifying
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| 	  pg_class in the newly copied database, which we don't currently
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| 	  do.
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| 
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| 	o Allow reporting of which objects are in which tablespaces
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| 
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| 	  This item is difficult because a tablespace can contain objects
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| 	  from multiple databases. There is a server-side function that
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| 	  returns the databases which use a specific tablespace, so this
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| 	  requires a tool that will call that function and connect to each
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| 	  database to find the objects in each database for that tablespace.
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| 
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| 	o Allow WAL replay of CREATE TABLESPACE to work when the directory
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| 	  structure on the recovery computer is different from the original
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| 
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| 	o Allow per-tablespace quotas
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| 
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| 
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| * Point-In-Time Recovery (PITR)
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| 
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| 	  o Allow a warm standby system to also allow read-only statements
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| 	    [pitr]
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| 
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| 	    http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00050.php
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| 
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| 	  o %Create dump tool for write-ahead logs for use in determining
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| 	    transaction id for point-in-time recovery
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| 
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| 	    This is useful for checking PITR recovery.
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| 
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| 	  o Allow recovery.conf to support the same syntax as
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| 	    postgresql.conf, including quoting
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| 
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| 	    http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00497.php
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| 
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| 
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| Data Types
 | |
| ==========
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| 
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| * Change NUMERIC to enforce the maximum precision
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| * Reduce storage space for small NUMERICs
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| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg01331.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-02/msg00505.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00715.php
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| 
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| * Fix data types where equality comparison isn't intuitive, e.g. box
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| * Add support for public SYNONYMs
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00519.php
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| 
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| * Fix CREATE CAST on DOMAINs
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-05/msg00072.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01681.php
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| 
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| * Allow domains to be cast
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-06/msg01206.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00289.php
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| 
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| * Add support for SQL-standard GENERATED/IDENTITY columns
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg00543.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00038.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00344.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00076.php
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00604.php
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| 
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| * Improve XML support
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| 
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|   http://developer.postgresql.org/index.php/XML_Support
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| 
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| * Consider placing all sequences in a single table, or create a system
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|   view
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00008.php
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| 
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| * Allow the UUID type to accept non-standard formats
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg01214.php
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| 
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| * Allow text search dictionary to filter out only stop words
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-11/msg00081.php
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| 
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| * Consider a function-based API for '@@' full text searches
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg00511.php
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| 
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| * Consider a special data type for regular expressions
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg01067.php
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| 
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| 
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| * Dates and Times
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| 
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| 	o Allow infinite dates and intervals just like infinite timestamps
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| 	o Merge hardwired timezone names with the TZ database; allow either
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| 	  kind everywhere a TZ name is currently taken
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| 	o Allow TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE to store the original timezone
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| 	  information, either zone name or offset from UTC [timezone]
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| 
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| 	  If the TIMESTAMP value is stored with a time zone name, interval
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| 	  computations should adjust based on the time zone rules.
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| 
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| 	o Fix SELECT '0.01 years'::interval, '0.01 months'::interval
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| 	o Add a GUC variable to allow output of interval values in ISO8601
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| 	  format
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| 	o Have timestamp subtraction not call justify_hours()?
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| 
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| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2006-10/msg00059.php
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| 
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| 	o Improve timestamptz subtraction to be DST-aware
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| 
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| 	  Currently subtracting one date from another that crosses a
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| 	  daylight savings time adjustment can return '1 day 1 hour', but
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| 	  adding that back to the first date returns a time one hour in
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| 	  the future.  This is caused by the adjustment of '25 hours' to
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| 	  '1 day 1 hour', and '1 day' is the same time the next day, even
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| 	  if daylight savings adjustments are involved.
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| 
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| 	o Fix interval display to support values exceeding 2^31 hours
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| 	o Add overflow checking to timestamp and interval arithmetic
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| 	o Extend timezone code to allow 64-bit values so we can
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| 	  represent years beyond 2038
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| 
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| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01363.php
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| 
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| 	o Use LC_TIME for localized weekday/month names, rather than
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| 	  LC_MESSAGES
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| 
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| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00390.php
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| 
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| 	o Add ISO INTERVAL handling
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| 
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| 		  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-01/msg00250.php
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| 		  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2006-04/msg00248.php
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| 
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| 		o Support ISO INTERVAL syntax if units cannot be determined from
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| 		  the string, and are supplied after the string
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| 
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| 		  The SQL standard states that the units after the string
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| 		  specify the units of the string, e.g. INTERVAL '2' MINUTE
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| 		  should return '00:02:00'. The current behavior has the units
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| 		  restrict the interval value to the specified unit or unit
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| 		  range, INTERVAL '70' SECOND returns '00:00:10'.
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| 
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| 		  For syntax that isn't uniquely ISO or PG syntax, like '1' or
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| 		  '1:30', treat as ISO if there is a range specification clause,
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| 		  and as PG if there no clause is present, e.g. interpret '1:30'
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| 		  MINUTE TO SECOND as '1 minute 30 seconds', and interpret
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| 		  '1:30' as '1 hour, 30 minutes'.
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| 
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| 		  This makes common cases like SELECT INTERVAL '1' MONTH
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| 		  SQL-standard results. The SQL standard supports a limited
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| 		  number of unit combinations and doesn't support unit names in
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| 		  the string. The PostgreSQL syntax is more flexible in the
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| 		  range of units supported, e.g. PostgreSQL supports '1 year 1
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| 		  hour', while the SQL standard does not.
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| 
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| 		o Add support for year-month syntax, INTERVAL '50-6' YEAR
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| 		  TO MONTH
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| 		o Interpret INTERVAL '1 year' MONTH as CAST (INTERVAL '1
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| 		  year' AS INTERVAL MONTH), and this should return '12 months'
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| 		o Round or truncate values to the requested precision, e.g.
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| 		  INTERVAL '11 months' AS YEAR should return one or zero
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| 		o Support precision, CREATE TABLE foo (a INTERVAL MONTH(3))
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| 
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| 
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| * Arrays
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| 
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| 	o Delay resolution of array expression's data type so assignment
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| 	  coercion can be performed on empty array expressions
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| 	o Add support for arrays of domains
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| 
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| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00114.php
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| 
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| 	o Allow single-byte header storage for array elements
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| 
 | |
| 
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| * Binary Data
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| 
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| 	o Improve vacuum of large objects, like contrib/vacuumlo?
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| 	o Add security checking for large objects
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| 	o Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
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| 
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|           contrib/lo offers this functionality.
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| 
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| 	o Allow read/write into TOAST values like large objects
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| 
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| 	  This requires the TOAST column to be stored EXTERNAL.
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| 
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| 	o Add API for 64-bit large object access
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| 
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| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00781.php
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| 
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| * MONEY data type
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| 
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| 	* Add locale-aware MONEY type, and support multiple currencies
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| 
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| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2005-08/msg01432.php
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| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01181.php
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| 
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| 	* MONEY dumps in a locale-specific format making it difficult to
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| 	  restore to a system with a different locale
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| 	* Allow MONEY to be easily cast to/from other numeric data types
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Functions
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| =========
 | |
| 
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| * Allow INET subnet tests using non-constants to be indexed
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| * Allow to_date() and to_timestamp() accept localized month names
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| * Fix to_date()-related functions to consistently issue errors
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00915.php
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| 
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| * Add missing parameter handling in to_char()
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| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-12/msg00948.php
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| 
 | |
| * Allow substring/replace() to get/set bit values
 | |
| * Allow to_char() on interval values to accumulate the highest unit
 | |
|   requested
 | |
| 
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|   Some special format flag would be required to request such
 | |
|   accumulation.  Such functionality could also be added to EXTRACT.
 | |
|   Prevent accumulation that crosses the month/day boundary because of
 | |
|   the uneven number of days in a month.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o to_char(INTERVAL '1 hour 5 minutes', 'MI') => 65
 | |
| 	o to_char(INTERVAL '43 hours 20 minutes', 'MI' ) => 2600
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| 	o to_char(INTERVAL '43 hours 20 minutes', 'WK:DD:HR:MI') => 0:1:19:20
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| 	o to_char(INTERVAL '3 years 5 months','MM') => 41
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Implement inlining of set-returning functions defined in SQL
 | |
| * Allow SQL-language functions to return results from RETURNING queries
 | |
| 
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|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00665.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow SQL-language functions to reference parameters by parameter name
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently SQL-language functions can only refer to dollar parameters,
 | |
|   e.g. $1
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add SPI_gettypmod() to return the typemod for a TupleDesc
 | |
| * Enforce typmod for function inputs, function results and parameters for
 | |
|   spi_prepare'd statements called from PLs
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01403.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow holdable cursors in SPI
 | |
| * Tighten function permission checks
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00568.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Fix IS OF so it matches the ISO specification, and add documentation
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2003-08/msg00060.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00060.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add missing operators for geometric data types
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Some geometric types do not have the full suite of geometric operators,
 | |
|   e.g. box @> point
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Implement Boyer-Moore searching in strpos()
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-08/msg00012.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Prevent malicious functions from being executed with the permissions
 | |
|   of unsuspecting users
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Index functions are safe, so VACUUM and ANALYZE are safe too. 
 | |
|   Triggers, CHECK and DEFAULT expressions, and rules are still vulnerable.
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00268.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Reduce memory usage of aggregates in set returning functions
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2008-01/msg00031.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add temporal versions of generate_series()
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg01180.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add array_accum() and array_to_set() functions for arrays
 | |
| 
 | |
|   The standards specify array_agg() and UNNEST.
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00464.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Multi-Language Support
 | |
| ======================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add NCHAR (as distinguished from ordinary varchar),
 | |
| * Allow locale to be set at database creation
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently locale can only be set during initdb.  No global tables have
 | |
|   locale-aware columns.  However, the database template used during
 | |
|   database creation might have locale-aware indexes.  The indexes would
 | |
|   need to be reindexed to match the new locale.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow encoding on a per-column basis optionally using the ICU library:
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Right now only one encoding is allowed per database.  [locale]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-03/msg00932.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-08/msg00309.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-03/msg00233.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg00662.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add CREATE COLLATE?  [locale]
 | |
| * Support multiple simultaneous character sets, per SQL92
 | |
| * Improve UTF8 combined character handling?
 | |
| * Add octet_length_server() and octet_length_client()
 | |
| * Make octet_length_client() the same as octet_length()?
 | |
| * Fix problems with wrong runtime encoding conversion for NLS message files
 | |
| * Add URL to more complete multi-byte regression tests
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-07/msg00272.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Fix ILIKE and regular expressions to handle case insensitivity
 | |
|   properly in multibyte encodings
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2005-10/msg00001.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-11/msg00173.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Set client encoding based on the client operating system encoding
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently client_encoding is set in postgresql.conf, which
 | |
|   defaults to the server encoding.
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg01696.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Change memory allocation for multi-byte functions so memory is
 | |
|   allocated inside conversion functions
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently we preallocate memory based on worst-case usage.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Views / Rules
 | |
| =============
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Automatically create rules on views so they are updateable, per SQL99
 | |
| 
 | |
|   We can only auto-create rules for simple views.  For more complex
 | |
|   cases users will still have to write rules manually.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00586.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-08/msg00255.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add the functionality for WITH CHECK OPTION clause of CREATE VIEW
 | |
| * Allow NOTIFY in rules involving conditionals
 | |
| * Allow VIEW/RULE recompilation when the underlying tables change
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Another issue is whether underlying table changes should be reflected
 | |
|   in the view, e.g. should SELECT * show additional columns if they
 | |
|   are added after the view is created.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Make it possible to use RETURNING together with conditional DO INSTEAD
 | |
|   rules, such as for partitioning setups
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00577.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add the ability to automatically create materialized views
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Right now materialized views require the user to create triggers on the
 | |
|   main table to keep the summary table current.  SQL syntax should be able
 | |
|   to manager the triggers and summary table automatically.  A more
 | |
|   sophisticated implementation would automatically retrieve from the
 | |
|   summary table when the main table is referenced, if possible.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| SQL Commands
 | |
| ============
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add CORRESPONDING BY to UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT
 | |
| * Add ROLLUP, CUBE, GROUPING SETS options to GROUP BY
 | |
| * %Allow SET CONSTRAINTS to be qualified by schema/table name
 | |
| * %Add a separate TRUNCATE permission
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently only the owner can TRUNCATE a table because triggers are not
 | |
|   called, and the table is locked in exclusive mode.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow PREPARE of cursors
 | |
| * Allow finer control over the caching of prepared query plans
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently queries prepared via the libpq API are planned on first
 | |
|   execute using the supplied parameters --- allow SQL PREPARE to do the
 | |
|   same.  Also, allow control over replanning prepared queries either
 | |
|   manually or automatically when statistics for execute parameters
 | |
|   differ dramatically from those used during planning.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Improve logging of prepared transactions recovered during startup
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00092.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow LISTEN/NOTIFY to store info in memory rather than tables?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently LISTEN/NOTIFY information is stored in pg_listener. Storing
 | |
|   such information in memory would improve performance.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add optional textual message to NOTIFY
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This would allow an informational message to be added to the notify
 | |
|   message, perhaps indicating the row modified or other custom
 | |
|   information.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow multiple identical NOTIFY events to always be communicated to the
 | |
|   client, rather than sent as a single notification to the listener
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2008-01/msg00057.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add a GUC variable to warn about non-standard SQL usage in queries
 | |
| * Add SQL-standard MERGE command, typically used to merge two tables
 | |
|   [merge]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This is similar to UPDATE, then for unmatched rows, INSERT.
 | |
|   Whether concurrent access allows modifications which could cause
 | |
|   row loss is implementation independent.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add REPLACE or UPSERT command that does UPDATE, or on failure, INSERT
 | |
|   [merge]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   To implement this cleanly requires that the table have a unique index
 | |
|   so duplicate checking can be easily performed.  It is possible to
 | |
|   do it without a unique index if we require the user to LOCK the table
 | |
|   before the MERGE.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00501.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00536.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add NOVICE output level for helpful messages like automatic sequence/index
 | |
|   creation
 | |
| * Add GUC to issue notice about statements that use unjoined tables
 | |
| * Allow EXPLAIN to identify tables that were skipped because of
 | |
|   constraint_exclusion
 | |
| * Allow EXPLAIN output to be more easily processed by scripts, perhaps XML
 | |
| * Enable standard_conforming_strings
 | |
| * Make standard_conforming_strings the default in 8.5?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   When this is done, backslash-quote should be prohibited in non-E''
 | |
|   strings because of possible confusion over how such strings treat
 | |
|   backslashes.  Basically, '' is always safe for a literal single
 | |
|   quote, while \' might or might not be based on the backslash
 | |
|   handling rules.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Simplify dropping roles that have objects in several databases
 | |
| * Allow COMMENT ON to accept an expression rather than just a string
 | |
| * Allow the count returned by SELECT, etc to be represented as an int64
 | |
|   to allow a higher range of values
 | |
| * Add SQL99 WITH clause to SELECT
 | |
| * Add SQL:2003 WITH RECURSIVE (hierarchical) queries to SELECT
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01375.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00642.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-03/msg00139.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add DEFAULT .. AS OWNER so permission checks are done as the table
 | |
|   owner
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This would be useful for SERIAL nextval() calls and CHECK constraints.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow DISTINCT to work in multiple-argument aggregate calls
 | |
| * Add column to pg_stat_activity that shows the progress of long-running
 | |
|   commands like CREATE INDEX and VACUUM
 | |
| * Implement SQL:2003 window functions
 | |
| * Improve failure message when DROP DATABASE is used on a database that
 | |
|   has prepared transactions
 | |
| * Allow INSERT/UPDATE ... RETURNING inside a SELECT 'FROM' clause
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2006-09/msg00803.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00693.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Increase locking when DROPing objects so dependent objects cannot
 | |
|   get dropped while the DROP operation is happening
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00937.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * -Allow AS in "SELECT col AS label" to be optional in certain cases
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow INSERT ... DELETE ... RETURNING, namely allow the DELETE ...
 | |
|   RETURNING to supply values to the INSERT
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/thrd2.php#00979
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add comments on system tables/columns using the information in
 | |
|   catalogs.sgml
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Ideally the information would be pulled from the SGML file
 | |
|   automatically.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * CREATE
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow CREATE TABLE AS to determine column lengths for complex
 | |
| 	  expressions like SELECT col1 || col2
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Have WITH CONSTRAINTS also create constraint indexes
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-04/msg00149.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Have CONSTRAINT cname NOT NULL record the contraint name
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Right now pg_attribute.attnotnull records the NOT NULL status
 | |
| 	  of the column, but does not record the contraint name
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * UPDATE
 | |
| 	o Allow UPDATE tab SET ROW (col, ...) = (SELECT...)
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg01306.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00865.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Research self-referential UPDATEs that see inconsistent row versions
 | |
| 	  in read-committed mode
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00507.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00016.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow GLOBAL temporary tables to exist as empty by default in
 | |
| 	  all sessions
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00006.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * ALTER
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Have ALTER TABLE RENAME rename SERIAL sequence names
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00008.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Have ALTER SEQUENCE RENAME rename the sequence name stored
 | |
| 	  in the sequence table
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-09/msg00092.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-10/msg00007.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-03/msg00008.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Add ALTER DOMAIN to modify the underlying data type
 | |
| 	o %Allow ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... RENAME
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-02/msg00168.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o %Allow ALTER TABLE to change constraint deferrability and actions
 | |
| 	o Add missing object types for ALTER ... SET SCHEMA
 | |
| 	o Allow ALTER TABLESPACE to move to different directories
 | |
| 	o Allow databases to be moved to different tablespaces
 | |
| 	o Allow moving system tables to other tablespaces, where possible
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Currently non-global system tables must be in the default database
 | |
| 	  tablespace. Global system tables can never be moved.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Prevent parent tables from altering or dropping constraints
 | |
| 	  like CHECK that are inherited by child tables unless CASCADE
 | |
| 	  is used
 | |
| 	o %Prevent child tables from altering or dropping constraints
 | |
|           like CHECK that were inherited from the parent table
 | |
| 	o Have ALTER INDEX update the name of a constraint using that index
 | |
| 	o Add ALTER TABLE RENAME CONSTRAINT, update index name also
 | |
| 	o Allow column display reordering by recording a display,
 | |
| 	  storage, and permanent id for every column?
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00782.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * CLUSTER
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Automatically maintain clustering on a table
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  This might require some background daemon to maintain clustering
 | |
| 	  during periods of low usage. It might also require tables to be only
 | |
| 	  partially filled for easier reorganization.  Another idea would
 | |
|           be to create a merged heap/index data file so an index lookup would
 | |
| 	  automatically access the heap data too.  A third idea would be to
 | |
| 	  store heap rows in hashed groups, perhaps using a user-supplied
 | |
| 	  hash function.
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2004-08/msg00349.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o %Add default clustering to system tables
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  To do this, determine the ideal cluster index for each system
 | |
| 	  table and set the cluster setting during initdb.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o %Add VERBOSE option to report tables as they are processed,
 | |
| 	  like VACUUM VERBOSE
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * COPY
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow COPY to report error lines and continue
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  This requires the use of a savepoint before each COPY line is
 | |
| 	  processed, with ROLLBACK on COPY failure.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow COPY on a newly-created table to skip WAL logging
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  On crash recovery, the table involved in the COPY would
 | |
| 	  be removed or have its heap and index files truncated.  One
 | |
| 	  issue is that no other backend should be able to add to
 | |
| 	  the table at the same time, which is something that is
 | |
| 	  currently allowed.  This currently is done if the table is
 | |
| 	  created inside the same transaction block as the COPY because
 | |
| 	  no other backends can see the table.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Consider using a ring buffer for COPY FROM
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2008-02/msg00140.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg01080.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow COPY FROM to create index entries in bulk
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00811.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow COPY in CSV mode to control whether a quoted zero-length
 | |
| 	  string is treated as NULL
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Currently this is always treated as a zero-length string,
 | |
| 	  which generates an error when loading into an integer column
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00905.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * GRANT/REVOKE
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow column-level privileges
 | |
| 	o %Allow GRANT/REVOKE permissions to be applied to all schema objects
 | |
| 	  with one command
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  The proposed syntax is:
 | |
| 		GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN public TO phpuser;
 | |
| 		GRANT SELECT ON NEW TABLES IN public TO phpuser;
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow GRANT/REVOKE permissions to be inherited by objects based on
 | |
| 	  schema permissions
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow SERIAL sequences to inherit permissions from the base table?
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * CURSOR
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Prevent DROP TABLE from dropping a row referenced by its own open
 | |
| 	  cursor?
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * INSERT
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow INSERT/UPDATE of the system-generated oid value for a row
 | |
| 	o In rules, allow VALUES() to contain a mixture of 'old' and 'new'
 | |
| 	  references
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * SHOW/SET
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Add SET PERFORMANCE_TIPS option to suggest INDEX, VACUUM, VACUUM
 | |
| 	  ANALYZE, and CLUSTER
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Referential Integrity
 | |
| =====================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add MATCH PARTIAL referential integrity
 | |
| * Change foreign key constraint for array -> element to mean element
 | |
|   in array?
 | |
| * Fix problem when cascading referential triggers make changes on
 | |
|   cascaded tables, seeing the tables in an intermediate state
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow DEFERRABLE and end-of-statement UNIQUE constraints?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This would allow UPDATE tab SET col = col + 1 to work if col has
 | |
|   a unique index.  Currently, uniqueness checks are done while the
 | |
|   command is being executed, rather than at the end of the statement
 | |
|   or transaction.
 | |
|   http://people.planetpostgresql.org/greg/index.php?/archives/2006/06/10.html
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01458.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Optimize referential integrity checks
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2005-10/msg00458.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00744.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Server-Side Languages
 | |
| =====================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * PL/pgSQL
 | |
| 	o Fix RENAME to work on variables other than OLD/NEW
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2002-03/msg00591.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01615.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01587.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow function parameters to be passed by name,
 | |
| 	  get_employee_salary(12345 AS emp_id, 2001 AS tax_year)
 | |
| 	o Allow handling of %TYPE arrays, e.g. tab.col%TYPE[]
 | |
| 	o Allow listing of record column names, and access to
 | |
| 	  record columns via variables, e.g. columns := r.(*),
 | |
| 	  tval2 := r.(colname)
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00458.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-05/msg00302.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00031.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Add support for SCROLL cursors
 | |
| 	o Add support for WITH HOLD cursors
 | |
| 	o Allow row and record variables to be set to NULL constants,
 | |
| 	  and allow NULL tests on such variables
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Because a row is not scalar, do not allow assignment
 | |
| 	  from NULL-valued scalars.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00070.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Review handling of MOVE and FETCH
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-04/msg00527.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Improve logic of determining if an identifier is a a
 | |
| 	  variable or column name
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00436.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Other
 | |
| 	o Add table function support to pltcl, plpythonu
 | |
| 	o Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to
 | |
| 	  languages other than PL/PgSQL
 | |
| 	o Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES
 | |
| 	o Add support for OUT and INOUT parameters to languages other
 | |
| 	  than PL/PgSQL
 | |
| 	o Add PL/PythonU tracebacks
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-02/msg00288.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow data to be passed in native language formats, rather
 | |
| 	  than only text
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00289.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Clients
 | |
| =======
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Have pg_ctl look at PGHOST in case it is a socket directory?
 | |
| * Allow pg_ctl to work properly with configuration files located outside
 | |
|   the PGDATA directory
 | |
| 
 | |
|   pg_ctl can not read the pid file because it isn't located in the
 | |
|   config directory but in the PGDATA directory.  The solution is to
 | |
|   allow pg_ctl to read and understand postgresql.conf to find the
 | |
|   data_directory value.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add a function like pg_get_indexdef() that report more detailed index
 | |
|   information
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-12/msg00166.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Prefix command-line utilities like createuser with 'pg_'
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00025.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * psql
 | |
| 	o Have psql show current values for a sequence
 | |
| 	o Move psql backslash database information into the backend, use
 | |
| 	  mnemonic commands? [psql]
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  This would allow non-psql clients to pull the same information out
 | |
| 	  of the database as psql.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Fix psql's \d commands more consistent
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00014.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00014.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Consistently display privilege information for all objects in psql
 | |
| 	o Add auto-expanded mode so expanded output is used if the row
 | |
| 	  length is wider than the screen width.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Consider using auto-expanded mode for backslash commands like \df+.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Prevent tab completion of SET TRANSACTION from querying the
 | |
| 	  database and therefore preventing the transaction isolation
 | |
| 	  level from being set.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Currently SET <tab> causes a database lookup to check all
 | |
| 	  supported session variables.  This query causes problems
 | |
| 	  because setting the transaction isolation level must be the
 | |
| 	  first statement of a transaction.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Add a \set variable to control whether \s displays line numbers
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Another option is to add \# which lists line numbers, and
 | |
| 	  allows command execution.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00255.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Prevent escape string warnings when object names have
 | |
| 	  backslashes
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00227.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Have \d show foreign keys that reference a table's primary key
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00424.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Have \d show child tables that inherit from the specified parent
 | |
| 	o Have \l+ show database size, if permissions allow
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Ideally it will not generate an error for invalid permissions
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Include the symbolic SQLSTATE name in verbose error reports
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-09/msg00438.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * pg_dump / pg_restore
 | |
| 	o %Add dumping of comments on index columns and composite type columns
 | |
| 	o %Add full object name to the tag field.  eg. for operators we need
 | |
| 	  '=(integer, integer)', instead of just '='.
 | |
| 	o Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps?
 | |
| 	o Allow selection of individual object(s) of all types, not just
 | |
| 	  tables
 | |
| 	o In a selective dump, allow dumping of an object and all its
 | |
| 	  dependencies
 | |
| 	o Add options like pg_restore -l and -L to pg_dump
 | |
| 	o Stop dumping CASCADE on DROP TYPE commands in clean mode
 | |
| 	o Allow pg_dump --clean to drop roles that own objects or have
 | |
| 	  privileges
 | |
| 	o Change pg_dump so that a comment on the dumped database is
 | |
| 	  applied to the loaded database, even if the database has a
 | |
| 	  different name.  This will require new backend syntax, perhaps
 | |
| 	  COMMENT ON CURRENT DATABASE.
 | |
| 	o Remove unnecessary function pointer abstractions in pg_dump source
 | |
| 	  code
 | |
| 	o Allow pg_dump to utilize multiple CPUs and I/O channels by dumping
 | |
| 	  multiple objects simultaneously
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  The difficulty with this is getting multiple dump processes to
 | |
| 	  produce a single dump output file.  It also would require
 | |
| 	  several sessions to share the same snapshot.
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00205.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow pg_restore to utilize multiple CPUs and I/O channels by
 | |
|           restoring multiple objects simultaneously
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  This might require a pg_restore flag to indicate how many
 | |
| 	  simultaneous operations should be performed.  Only pg_dump's
 | |
| 	  -Fc format has the necessary dependency information.
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00963.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o To better utilize resources, allow pg_restore to check foreign
 | |
| 	  keys simultaneously, where possible
 | |
| 	o Allow pg_restore to create all indexes of a table
 | |
| 	  concurrently, via a single heap scan
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  This requires a pg_dump -Fc file because that format contains
 | |
|           the required dependency information.
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-05/msg01274.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow pg_restore to load different parts of the COPY data
 | |
| 	  simultaneously
 | |
| 	o Prevent pg_dump/pg_restore from being affected by
 | |
| 	  statement_timeout
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Using psql to restore a pg_dump dump is also affected.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * ecpg
 | |
| 	o Docs
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Document differences between ecpg and the SQL standard and
 | |
| 	  information about the Informix-compatibility module.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Solve cardinality > 1 for input descriptors / variables?
 | |
| 	o Add a semantic check level, e.g. check if a table really exists
 | |
| 	o fix handling of DB attributes that are arrays
 | |
| 	o Use backend PREPARE/EXECUTE facility for ecpg where possible
 | |
| 	o Implement SQLDA
 | |
| 	o Fix nested C comments
 | |
| 	o %sqlwarn[6] should be 'W' if the PRECISION or SCALE value specified
 | |
| 	o Make SET CONNECTION thread-aware, non-standard?
 | |
| 	o Allow multidimensional arrays
 | |
| 	o Add internationalized message strings
 | |
| 	o Implement COPY FROM STDIN
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * libpq
 | |
| 	o Add PQescapeIdentifierConn()
 | |
| 	o Prevent PQfnumber() from lowercasing unquoted the column name
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  PQfnumber() should never have been doing lowercasing, but
 | |
| 	  historically it has so we need a way to prevent it
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow statement results to be automatically batched to the client
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Currently all statement results are transferred to the libpq
 | |
| 	  client before libpq makes the results available to the
 | |
| 	  application.  This feature would allow the application to make
 | |
| 	  use of the first result rows while the rest are transferred, or
 | |
| 	  held on the server waiting for them to be requested by libpq.
 | |
| 	  One complexity is that a statement like SELECT 1/col could error
 | |
| 	  out mid-way through the result set.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Consider disallowing multiple queries in PQexec() as an
 | |
| 	  additional barrier to SQL injection attacks
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00184.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Add PQexecf() that allows complex parameter substitution
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01803.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Add SQLSTATE severity to PGconn return status
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-interfaces/2007-11/msg00015.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Triggers
 | |
| ========
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add deferred trigger queue file
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Right now all deferred trigger information is stored in backend
 | |
|   memory.  This could exhaust memory for very large trigger queues.
 | |
|   This item involves dumping large queues into files.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow triggers to be disabled in only the current session.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This is currently possible by starting a multi-statement transaction,
 | |
|   modifying the system tables, performing the desired SQL, restoring the
 | |
|   system tables, and committing the transaction.  ALTER TABLE ...
 | |
|   TRIGGER requires a table lock so it is not ideal for this usage.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * With disabled triggers, allow pg_dump to use ALTER TABLE ADD FOREIGN KEY
 | |
| 
 | |
|   If the dump is known to be valid, allow foreign keys to be added
 | |
|   without revalidating the data.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow statement-level triggers to access modified rows
 | |
| * Support triggers on columns
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00107.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow AFTER triggers on system tables
 | |
| 
 | |
|   System tables are modified in many places in the backend without going
 | |
|   through the executor and therefore not causing triggers to fire. To
 | |
|   complete this item, the functions that modify system tables will have
 | |
|   to fire triggers.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Tighten trigger permission checks
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00564.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow BEFORE INSERT triggers on views
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-02/msg01466.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add ability to trigger on TRUNCATE
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2008-01/msg00050.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Indexes
 | |
| =======
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add UNIQUE capability to non-btree indexes
 | |
| * Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modify the column
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Uniqueness (index) checks are done when updating a column even if the
 | |
|   column is not modified by the UPDATE.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow the creation of on-disk bitmap indexes which can be quickly
 | |
|   combined with other bitmap indexes
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Such indexes could be more compact if there are only a few distinct values.
 | |
|   Such indexes can also be compressed.  Keeping such indexes updated can be
 | |
|   costly.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00512.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01107.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow accurate statistics to be collected on indexes with more than
 | |
|   one column or expression indexes, perhaps using per-index statistics
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2006-10/msg00222.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01131.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider increasing the number of default statistics target, and
 | |
|   reduce statistics target overhead
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Also consider having a larger statistics target for indexed columns
 | |
|   and expression indexes
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-05/msg01228.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-06/msg00542.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider compressing indexes by storing key values duplicated in
 | |
|   several rows as a single index entry
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00341.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg01264.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00465.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-03/msg00163.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add REINDEX CONCURRENTLY, like CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This is difficult because you must upgrade to an exclusive table lock
 | |
|   to replace the existing index file.  CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY does not
 | |
|   have this complication.  This would allow index compaction without
 | |
|   downtime.
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2007-08/msg00289.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow multiple indexes to be created concurrently, ideally via a
 | |
|   single heap scan, and have pg_restore use it
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Inheritance
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow inherited tables to inherit indexes, UNIQUE constraints,
 | |
| 	  and primary/foreign keys
 | |
| 	o Honor UNIQUE INDEX on base column in INSERTs/UPDATEs
 | |
| 	  on inherited table, e.g.  INSERT INTO inherit_table
 | |
| 	  (unique_index_col) VALUES (dup) should fail
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  The main difficulty with this item is the problem of
 | |
| 	  creating an index that can span multiple tables.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow SELECT ... FOR UPDATE on inherited tables
 | |
| 	o Require all CHECK constraints to be inherited
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-04/msg00026.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * GIST
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Add more GIST index support for geometric data types
 | |
| 	o Allow GIST indexes to create certain complex index types, like
 | |
| 	  digital trees (see Aoki)
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Hash
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00051.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Pack hash index buckets onto disk pages more efficiently
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  Currently only one hash bucket can be stored on a page. Ideally
 | |
| 	  several hash buckets could be stored on a single page and greater
 | |
| 	  granularity used for the hash algorithm.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-06/msg00168.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Consider sorting hash buckets so entries can be found using a
 | |
| 	  binary search, rather than a linear scan
 | |
| 	o In hash indexes, consider storing the hash value with or instead
 | |
| 	  of the key itself
 | |
| 	o Add WAL logging for crash recovery
 | |
| 	o Allow multi-column hash indexes
 | |
| 	o During index creation, pre-sort the tuples to improve build speed
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01199.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Fsync
 | |
| =====
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Determine optimal fdatasync/fsync, O_SYNC/O_DSYNC options
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Ideally this requires a separate test program that can be run
 | |
|   at initdb time or optionally later.  Consider O_SYNC when
 | |
|   O_DIRECT exists.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add program to test if fsync has a delay compared to non-fsync
 | |
| * Consider sorting writes during checkpoint
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00541.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Cache Usage
 | |
| ===========
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Speed up COUNT(*)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   We could use a fixed row count and a +/- count to follow MVCC
 | |
|   visibility rules, or a single cached value could be used and
 | |
|   invalidated if anyone modifies the table.  Another idea is to
 | |
|   get a count directly from a unique index, but for this to be
 | |
|   faster than a sequential scan it must avoid access to the heap
 | |
|   to obtain tuple visibility information.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Provide a way to calculate an "estimated COUNT(*)"
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Perhaps by using the optimizer's cardinality estimates or random
 | |
|   sampling.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00943.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow data to be pulled directly from indexes
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently indexes do not have enough tuple visibility information
 | |
|   to allow data to be pulled from the index without also accessing
 | |
|   the heap.  One way to allow this is to set a bit on index tuples
 | |
|   to indicate if a tuple is currently visible to all transactions
 | |
|   when the first valid heap lookup happens.  This bit would have to
 | |
|   be cleared when a heap tuple is expired.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Another idea is to maintain a bitmap of heap pages where all rows
 | |
|   are visible to all backends, and allow index lookups to reference
 | |
|   that bitmap to avoid heap lookups, perhaps the same bitmap we might
 | |
|   add someday to determine which heap pages need vacuuming.  Frequently
 | |
|   accessed bitmaps would have to be stored in shared memory.  One 8k
 | |
|   page of bitmaps could track 512MB of heap pages.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   A third idea would be for a heap scan to check if all rows are visible
 | |
|   and if so set a per-table flag which can be checked by index scans. 
 | |
|   Any change to the table would have to clear the flag.  To detect
 | |
|   changes during the heap scan a counter could be set at the start and
 | |
|   checked at the end --- if it is the same, the table has not been
 | |
|   modified --- any table change would increment the counter.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider automatic caching of statements at various levels:
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Parsed query tree
 | |
| 	o Query execute plan
 | |
| 	o Query results
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider increasing internal areas when shared buffers is increased
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-10/msg01419.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider decreasing the amount of memory used by PrivateRefCount
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00797.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00752.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider allowing higher priority queries to have referenced buffer
 | |
|   cache pages stay in memory longer
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg00562.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Vacuum
 | |
| ======
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Improve speed with indexes
 | |
| 
 | |
|   For large table adjustments during VACUUM FULL, it is faster to cluster
 | |
|   or reindex rather than update the index.  Also, index updates can bloat
 | |
|   the index.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00024.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2007-05/msg00296.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00307.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Auto-fill the free space map by scanning the buffer cache or by
 | |
|   checking pages written by the background writer
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-02/msg01125.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00011.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Create a bitmap of pages that need vacuuming
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Instead of sequentially scanning the entire table, have the background
 | |
|   writer or some other process record pages that have expired rows, then
 | |
|   VACUUM can look at just those pages rather than the entire table.  In
 | |
|   the event of a system crash, the bitmap would probably be invalidated.
 | |
|   One complexity is that index entries still have to be vacuumed, and
 | |
|   doing this without an index scan (by using the heap values to find the
 | |
|   index entry) might be slow and unreliable, especially for user-defined
 | |
|   index functions.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01188.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00121.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow FSM to return free space toward the beginning of the heap file,
 | |
|   in hopes that empty pages at the end can be truncated by VACUUM
 | |
| * Allow FSM page return free space based on table clustering, to assist
 | |
|   in maintaining clustering?
 | |
| * Improve dead row detection during multi-statement transactions usage
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-03/msg00358.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider a more compact data representation for dead tuples
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00143.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Auto-vacuum
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o %Issue log message to suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly
 | |
| 	  empty?
 | |
| 	o Improve control of auto-vacuum
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00876.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Prevent long-lived temporary tables from causing frozen-xid
 | |
| 	  advancement starvation
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  The problem is that autovacuum cannot vacuum them to set frozen xids;
 | |
| 	  only the session that created them can do that.
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-06/msg01645.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Store per-table autovacuum settings in pg_class.reloptions.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg01440.php
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00724.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Prevent autovacuum from running if an old transaction is still
 | |
| 	  running from the last vacuum
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-11/msg00899.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Locking
 | |
| =======
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Fix priority ordering of read and write light-weight locks (Neil)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00893.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00905.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Fix problem when multiple subtransactions of the same outer transaction
 | |
|   hold different types of locks, and one subtransaction aborts
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg01011.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00001.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00435.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00773.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow UPDATEs on only non-referential integrity columns not to conflict
 | |
|   with referential integrity locks
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00073.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add idle_in_transaction_timeout GUC so locks are not held for long
 | |
|   periods of time
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Improve deadlock detection when a page cleaning lock conflicts
 | |
|   with a shared buffer that is pinned
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-01/msg00138.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00873.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2008-01/msg00365.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Startup Time Improvements
 | |
| =========================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Experiment with multi-threaded backend for backend creation [thread]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This would prevent the overhead associated with process creation. Most
 | |
|   operating systems have trivial process creation time compared to
 | |
|   database startup overhead, but a few operating systems (Win32,
 | |
|   Solaris) might benefit from threading.  Also explore the idea of
 | |
|   a single session using multiple threads to execute a statement faster.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Write-Ahead Log
 | |
| ===============
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Eliminate need to write full pages to WAL before page modification [wal]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently, to protect against partial disk page writes, we write
 | |
|   full page images to WAL before they are modified so we can correct any
 | |
|   partial page writes during recovery.  These pages can also be
 | |
|   eliminated from point-in-time archive files.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o  When off, write CRC to WAL and check file system blocks
 | |
| 	   on recovery
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	   If CRC check fails during recovery, remember the page in case
 | |
| 	   a later CRC for that page properly matches.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o  Write full pages during file system write and not when
 | |
| 	   the page is modified in the buffer cache
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	   This allows most full page writes to happen in the background
 | |
| 	   writer.  It might cause problems for applying WAL on recovery
 | |
| 	   into a partially-written page, but later the full page will be
 | |
| 	   replaced from WAL.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow WAL traffic to be streamed to another server for stand-by
 | |
|   replication
 | |
| * Reduce WAL traffic so only modified values are written rather than
 | |
|   entire rows
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01589.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow WAL information to recover corrupted pg_controldata
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00025.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Find a way to reduce rotational delay when repeatedly writing
 | |
|   last WAL page
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Currently fsync of WAL requires the disk platter to perform a full
 | |
|   rotation to fsync again. One idea is to write the WAL to different
 | |
|   offsets that might reduce the rotational delay.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow WAL logging to be turned off for a table, but the table
 | |
|   might be dropped or truncated during crash recovery [walcontrol]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Allow tables to bypass WAL writes and just fsync() dirty pages on
 | |
|   commit.  This should be implemented using ALTER TABLE, e.g. ALTER
 | |
|   TABLE PERSISTENCE [ DROP | TRUNCATE | DEFAULT ].  Tables using
 | |
|   non-default logging should not use referential integrity with
 | |
|   default-logging tables.  A table without dirty buffers during a
 | |
|   crash could perhaps avoid the drop/truncate.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow WAL logging to be turned off for a table, but the table would
 | |
|   avoid being truncated/dropped [walcontrol]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   To do this, only a single writer can modify the table, and writes
 | |
|   must happen only on new pages so the new pages can be removed during
 | |
|   crash recovery.  Readers can continue accessing the table.  Such
 | |
|   tables probably cannot have indexes.  One complexity is the handling
 | |
|   of indexes on TOAST tables.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Speed WAL recovery by allowing more than one page to be prefetched
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This involves having a separate process that can be told which pages
 | |
|   the recovery process will need in the near future.
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg01279.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Optimizer / Executor
 | |
| ====================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Improve selectivity functions for geometric operators
 | |
| * Precompile SQL functions to avoid overhead
 | |
| * Create utility to compute accurate random_page_cost value
 | |
| * Improve ability to display optimizer analysis using OPTIMIZER_DEBUG
 | |
| * Have EXPLAIN ANALYZE issue NOTICE messages when the estimated and
 | |
|   actual row counts differ by a specified percentage
 | |
| * Consider using hash buckets to do DISTINCT, rather than sorting
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This would be beneficial when there are few distinct values.  This is
 | |
|   already used by GROUP BY.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Log statements where the optimizer row estimates were dramatically
 | |
|   different from the number of rows actually found?
 | |
| * Consider compressed annealing to search for query plans
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This might replace GEQO, http://sixdemonbag.org/Djinni.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Improve merge join performance by allowing mark/restore of
 | |
|   tuple sources
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00096.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider using a hash for joining to a large IN (VALUES ...) list
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00450.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Background Writer
 | |
| =================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider having the background writer update the transaction status
 | |
|   hint bits before writing out the page
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Implementing this requires the background writer to have access to system
 | |
|   catalogs and the transaction status log.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider adding buffers the background writer finds reusable to the
 | |
|   free list 
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00781.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Automatically tune bgwriter_delay based on activity rather then using a
 | |
|   fixed interval
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00781.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider wither increasing BM_MAX_USAGE_COUNT improves performance
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg01007.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Test to see if calling PreallocXlogFiles() from the background writer
 | |
|   will help with WAL segment creation latency
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-06/msg00340.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Miscellaneous Performance
 | |
| =========================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Do async I/O for faster random read-ahead of data
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Async I/O allows multiple I/O requests to be sent to the disk with
 | |
|   results coming back asynchronously.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00820.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2007-09/msg00255.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00027.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Use mmap() rather than SYSV shared memory or to write WAL files?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This would remove the requirement for SYSV SHM but would introduce
 | |
|   portability issues. Anonymous mmap (or mmap to /dev/zero) is required
 | |
|   to prevent I/O overhead.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider mmap()'ing files into a backend?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Doing I/O to large tables would consume a lot of address space or
 | |
|   require frequent mapping/unmapping.  Extending the file also causes
 | |
|   mapping problems that might require mapping only individual pages,
 | |
|   leading to thousands of mappings.  Another problem is that there is no
 | |
|   way to _prevent_ I/O to disk from the dirty shared buffers so changes
 | |
|   could hit disk before WAL is written.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add a script to ask system configuration questions and tune postgresql.conf
 | |
| * Consider ways of storing rows more compactly on disk
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Reduce the row header size?
 | |
| 	o Consider reducing on-disk varlena length from four bytes to
 | |
| 	  two because a heap row cannot be more than 64k in length
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider increasing NUM_CLOG_BUFFERS
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00030.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2007-08/msg00024.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow user configuration of TOAST thresholds
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00213.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00082.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow configuration of backend priorities via the operating system
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Though backend priorities make priority inversion during lock
 | |
|   waits possible, research shows that this is not a huge problem.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-02/msg00493.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Experiment with multi-threaded backend better resource utilization
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This would allow a single query to make use of multiple CPU's or
 | |
|   multiple I/O channels simultaneously.  One idea is to create a
 | |
|   background reader that can pre-fetch sequential and index scan
 | |
|   pages needed by other backends.  This could be expanded to allow
 | |
|   concurrent reads from multiple devices in a partitioned table.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider increasing the minimum allowed number of shared buffers
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-02/msg00157.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Expire published xmin for read-only and idle transactions
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00343.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Source Code
 | |
| ===========
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add use of 'const' for variables in source tree
 | |
| * Move some things from contrib into main tree
 | |
| * %Remove warnings created by -Wcast-align
 | |
| * Move platform-specific ps status display info from ps_status.c to ports
 | |
| * Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages
 | |
| * Improve documentation to build only interfaces (Marc)
 | |
| * Remove or relicense modules that are not under the BSD license, if possible
 | |
| * Acquire lock on a relation before building a relcache entry for it
 | |
| * Allow cross-compiling by generating the zic database on the target system
 | |
| * Improve NLS maintenance of libpgport messages linked onto applications
 | |
| * Clean up casting in contrib/isn
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00245.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Use UTF8 encoding for NLS messages so all server encodings can
 | |
|   read them properly
 | |
| * Update Bonjour to work with newer cross-platform SDK
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg02238.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-10/msg00048.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider detoasting keys before sorting
 | |
| * Consider GnuTLS if OpenSSL license becomes a problem
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-05/msg00040.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01213.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider changing documentation format from SGML to XML
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-docs/2006-12/msg00152.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider making NAMEDATALEN more configurable in future releases
 | |
| * Update our code to handle 64-bit timezone files to match the zic
 | |
|   source code, which now uses them
 | |
| * Have configure choose integer datetimes by default
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00046.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Support scoped IPv6 addresses
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-05/msg00111.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider allowing 64-bit integers and floats to be passed by value on
 | |
|   64-bit platforms
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Also change 32-bit floats (float4) to be passed by value at the same
 | |
|   time.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Research use of signals and sleep wake ups
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00003.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add automated check for invalid C++ source code constructs
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-07/msg00056.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider simplifying how memory context resets handle child contexts
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-08/msg00067.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Remove use of MAKE_PTR and MAKE_OFFSET macros
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-08/msg01510.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Win32
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Remove configure.in check for link failure when cause is found
 | |
| 	o Remove readdir() errno patch when runtime/mingwex/dirent.c rev
 | |
| 	  1.4 is released
 | |
| 	o Remove psql newline patch when we find out why mingw outputs an
 | |
| 	  extra newline
 | |
| 	o Allow psql to use readline once non-US code pages work with
 | |
| 	  backslashes
 | |
| 	o Fix problem with shared memory on the Win32 Terminal Server
 | |
| 	o Diagnose problem where shared memory can sometimes not be
 | |
| 	  attached by postmaster children
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-08/msg01377.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Improve signal handling
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-06/msg00027.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Convert MSVC build system to remove most batch files
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-08/msg00961.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Wire Protocol Changes
 | |
| 
 | |
| 	o Allow dynamic character set handling
 | |
| 	o Add decoded type, length, precision
 | |
| 	o Use compression?
 | |
| 	o Update clients to use data types, typmod, schema.table.column names
 | |
| 	  of result sets using new statement protocol
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Exotic Features
 | |
| ===============
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add pre-parsing phase that converts non-ISO syntax to supported
 | |
|   syntax
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This could allow SQL written for other databases to run without
 | |
|   modification.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Allow plug-in modules to emulate features from other databases
 | |
| * Add features of Oracle-style packages  (Pavel)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   A package would be a schema with session-local variables,
 | |
|   public/private functions, and initialization functions.  It
 | |
|   is also possible to implement these capabilities
 | |
|   in any schema and not use a separate "packages"
 | |
|   syntax at all.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00384.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Consider allowing control of upper/lower case folding of unquoted
 | |
|   identifiers
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-04/msg00818.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg01527.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Add autonomous transactions
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00893.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| Features We Do _Not_ Want
 | |
| =========================
 | |
| 
 | |
| * All backends running as threads in a single process (not wanted)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This eliminates the process protection we get from the current setup.
 | |
|   Thread creation is usually the same overhead as process creation on
 | |
|   modern systems, so it seems unwise to use a pure threaded model.
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Optimizer hints (not wanted)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Optimizer hints are used to work around problems in the optimizer.  We
 | |
|   would rather have the problems reported and fixed.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00506.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00517.php
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00663.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Because we support postfix operators, it isn't possible to make AS
 | |
|   optional and continue to use bison.
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-04/msg00436.php
 | |
| 
 | |
|   http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2006-08/msg00164.php
 | |
| 
 | |
| * Embedded server (not wanted)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   While PostgreSQL clients runs fine in limited-resource environments, the
 | |
|   server requires multiple processes and a stable pool of resources to
 | |
|   run reliabily and efficiently.  Stripping down the PostgreSQL server
 | |
|   to run in the same process address space as the client application
 | |
|   would add too much complexity and failure cases.
 |