From: David Fetter <david@fetter.org>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 05:02:29 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: PostgreSQL Weekly News April 04, 2010
X-Git-Url: http://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/static/gitweb.js?a=commitdiff_plain;h=3344cc490cf06e2a7ac20f4d98ad78c14e51ccef;p=pgweb-old.git

PostgreSQL Weekly News April 04, 2010

git-svn-id: file:///Users/dpage/pgweb/svn-repo/trunk@2655 8f5c7a92-453e-0410-a47f-ad33c8a6b003
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diff --git a/portal/files/weeklynews.xml b/portal/files/weeklynews.xml
index cac92889..aa6ffc28 100644
--- a/portal/files/weeklynews.xml
+++ b/portal/files/weeklynews.xml
@@ -10,6 +10,18 @@
 <description></description>
 <language>en</language>
 
+<item>
+<title>PostgreSQL Weekly News April 4th 2010</title>
+<description>
+The CfP is open for CHAR(10) in Oxford, England on July 1-3 2010.
+Proposals are due April 20.
+&#x3C;a href=&#x22;http://www.char10.org&#x22;&#x3E;http://www.char10.org&#x3C;/a&#x3E;
+
+
+</description>
+<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.postgresql.org/community/weeklynews/pwn20100404</guid>
+<pubDate>Sun, 04 Apr 2010 00:00:00 PST</pubDate>
+</item>
 <item>
 <title>PostgreSQL Weekly News April 1st 2010</title>
 <description>
@@ -114,16 +126,5 @@ postgresql DOT org.
 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.postgresql.org/community/weeklynews/pwn20100131</guid>
 <pubDate>Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST</pubDate>
 </item>
-<item>
-<title>PostgreSQL Weekly News January 24th 2010</title>
-<description>
-&#x22;PostgreSQL: Das Praxisbuch&#x22; by Thomas Pfeiffer and Andreas Wenk published.
-&#x3C;a href=&#x22;http://www.pg-praxisbuch.de&#x22;&#x3E;http://www.pg-praxisbuch.de&#x3C;/a&#x3E;
-
-
-</description>
-<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.postgresql.org/community/weeklynews/pwn20100124</guid>
-<pubDate>Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST</pubDate>
-</item>
 </channel>
 </rss>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/portal/template/en/community/weeklynews.html b/portal/template/en/community/weeklynews.html
index dbb04c48..78b38a69 100644
--- a/portal/template/en/community/weeklynews.html
+++ b/portal/template/en/community/weeklynews.html
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ Weekly News
 <p>To receive the Weekly News in your inbox, please subscribe to the <a href="/community/lists/subscribe">pgsql-announce@postgresql.org</a> mailing list.</p>
 
 <ul>
+    <li><a href="/community/weeklynews/pwn20100404">April 4th 2010</a></li>
     <li><a href="/community/weeklynews/pwn20100401">April 1st 2010</a></li>
     <li><a href="/community/weeklynews/pwn20100328">March 28th 2010</a></li>
     <li><a href="/community/weeklynews/pwn20100321">March 21st 2010</a></li>
diff --git a/portal/template/en/community/weeklynews/pwn20100404.html b/portal/template/en/community/weeklynews/pwn20100404.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fe858571
--- /dev/null
+++ b/portal/template/en/community/weeklynews/pwn20100404.html
@@ -0,0 +1,572 @@
+<!-- BEGIN page_title_block -->
+Weekly News - April 04 2010
+<!-- END page_title_block -->
+
+<h1>PostgreSQL Weekly News - April 04 2010</h1>
+
+<p>
+The CfP is open for CHAR(10) in Oxford, England on July 1-3 2010.
+Proposals are due April 20.
+<a href="http://www.char10.org">http://www.char10.org</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bruce Momjian will be speaking about PostgreSQL Replication Solutions
+at the NYPUG meeting on April 20th at 6:30-8:30pm at Penn Plaza.
+Details and RSVP below.
+<a href="http://postgresql.meetup.com/3/calendar/12788352/">http://postgresql.meetup.com/3/calendar/12788352/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Southeast Linuxfest 2010 will take place in Spartanburg, SC, USA on
+June 12-13.  Booths and sponsorships are still available.
+<a href="http://southeastlinuxfest.org/">http://southeastlinuxfest.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL 9.0 Feature of the Week</h2>
+<p>
+There is now an ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command which allows you to
+adjust the privileges that will be applied to future objects.
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Jobs for April</h2>
+<p>
+<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-jobs/2010-04/threads.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-jobs/2010-04/threads.php</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL Local</h2>
+<p>
+Linuxfest Northwest 2010 will take place in Bellingham, Washington,
+USA on April 24 and 25.  Session, Booth and Sponsorship are available.
+<a href="http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/">http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Andreas (ads) Scherbaum will be teaching a "PostgreSQL for Corporate
+Use" course at the adult education center in Magdeburg, Germany May
+3-7, 2010.  Details below:
+<a href="http://andreas.scherbaum.la/blog/archives/650-PostgreSQL-Schulung-als-Bildungsurlaub-03.-07.05.2010-in-Magdeburg.html">http://andreas.scherbaum.la/blog/archives/650-PostgreSQL-Schulung-als-Bildungsurlaub-03.-07.05.2010-in-Magdeburg.html</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PgCon 2010 will be held May 20-21 2010 in Ottawa with tutorials before
+on the 18th and 19th.
+<a href="http://www.pgcon.org/2010/registration.php">http://www.pgcon.org/2010/registration.php</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The CfP for OSBridge is open!  OSBridge will be June 1-4, 2010 in
+Portland, Oregon.
+<a href="http://opensourcebridge.org/events/2010/proposals/">http://opensourcebridge.org/events/2010/proposals/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+OSCON will take place in Portland, Oregon July 19-23, 2010.
+<a href="http://www.oscon.com/oscon2010">http://www.oscon.com/oscon2010</a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>PostgreSQL in the News</h2>
+<p>
+Planet PostgreSQL: <a href="http://planet.postgresql.org/">http://planet.postgresql.org/</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PostgreSQL Weekly News is brought to you this week by David Fetter
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Submit news and announcements by Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific time.
+Please send English language ones to david@fetter.org, German language
+to pwn@pgug.de, Italian language to pwn@itpug.org.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Applied Patches</h2>
+<p>
+Tom Lane committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Rework join-removal logic as per recent discussion.  In particular
+  this fixes things so that it works for cases where nested removals
+  are possible.  The overhead of the optimization should be
+  significantly less, as well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Fix "constraint_exclusion = partition" logic so that it will also
+  attempt constraint exclusion on an inheritance set that is the
+  target of an UPDATE or DELETE query.  Per gripe from Marc Cousin.
+  Back-patch to 8.4 where the feature was introduced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple.c, ensure that
+  contrib/pgstattuple functions respond to cancel interrupts
+  reasonably promptly, by adding CHECK_FOR_INTERRUPTS in the per-page
+  loops.  Tatsuhito Kasahara.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/bin/psql/command.c, \ddp should be recognized as such
+  even if user appends S or + to it.  Those options do nothing right
+  now, but might be wanted later, and in any case it's confusing for
+  the command to be interpreted as \dd if anything is appended.  Per
+  Jaime Casanova.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_default_privileges.sgml, minor
+  wording improvement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/commands/async.c, improve phrasing of warning
+  message for NOTIFY queue getting too full.  Per gripe from Peter
+  Eisentraut.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Fix updateAclDependencies() to not assume that ACL role dependencies
+  can only be added during GRANT and can only be removed during
+  REVOKE; and fix its callers to not lie to it about the existing set
+  of dependencies when instantiating a formerly-default ACL.  The
+  previous coding accidentally failed to malfunction so long as
+  default ACLs contain only references to the object's owning role,
+  because that role is ignored by updateAclDependencies.  However this
+  is obviously pretty fragile, as well as being an undocumented
+  assumption.  The new coding is a few lines longer but IMO much
+  clearer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Arrange to remove pg_default_acl entries completely if their ACL
+  setting is changed to match the hard-wired default.  This avoids
+  accumulating useless catalog entries, and also provides a path for
+  dropping the owning role without using DROP OWNED BY.  Per
+  yesterday's complaint from Jaime Casanova, the need to use DROP
+  OWNED BY for that is less than obvious, so providing this
+  alternative method might save some user frustration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-9.0.sgml, clean up description of
+  9.0's incompatible changes in SIMILAR TO and SQL-style substring().
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Simon Riggs committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/transam/recovery.conf.sample, edit
+  recovery.conf.sample so it matches docs.  Change standby_mode
+  example to 'on or 'off' rather than 'true' or 'false', as shown in
+  docs.  Add restartpoint_command.  Add section header for recovery
+  target parameters, matching docs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c, move system startup
+  message prior to any calls out of data directory.  This allows us to
+  see what mode the server is in before it starts to perform actions
+  that can block or hang. Otherwise server messages may not appear
+  until after messages that say FATAL the database server is starting
+  up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Clarify some behaviours of REASSIGN OWNED and DROP OWNED BY.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c, check compulsory
+  parameters in recovery.conf in standby_mode, per docs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/stylesheet-man.xsl, allow for more room in the
+  man page title, so that "CREATE TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION" is not
+  truncated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Peter Eisentraut committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/plpython.sgml, add some documentation about
+  PL/Python limitations.  Suggested by Steve White (bug #5272)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/plpython.sgml, add some information about what
+  it means for PL/Python to be untrusted.  Similar information already
+  appears in the PL/Perl and PL/Tcl chapters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml, add note that XML Schema
+  validation is not supported.  Requested by Andrew Lardinois.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Separate targets "make docs" and "make install-docs" for the
+  documentation.  It is no longer installed by default, but included
+  in "make world"/"make install-world".  Documentation updated
+  accordingly.  Also, fix vpathsearch function to work when calling
+  make install-docs without previous make docs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/libpq/auth.c, message tuning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/Makefile, fix the build and install rules for
+  man pages with SQL section != 7.  The previous coding failed in
+  various scenarios possibly including vpath builds and doing make
+  install without preceding make all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Remove unnecessary xref endterm attributes and title ids.  The
+  endterm attribute is mainly useful when the toolchain does not
+  support automatic link target text generation for a particular
+  situation.  In the past, this was required by the man page tools for
+  all reference page links, but that is no longer the case, and it now
+  actually gets in the way of proper automatic link text generation.
+  The only remaining use cases are currently xrefs to refsects.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml, clarify documentation of to_char
+  EEEE pattern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/interfaces/ecpg/preproc/type.c, message quoting style
+  tuning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bruce Momjian committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/utils/misc/postgresql.conf.sample, add comma
+  missing from postgresql.conf comment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtxlog.c, properly initialize
+  local varaible in btree_xlog_delete_get_latestRemovedXid().  This
+  variable was only tested in assert builds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Change recovery.conf.sample to match postgresql.conf by showing only
+  default values, with example comments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml, document why 'cp -i </dev/null'
+  is suggested for archive command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml, clarify ellipses use in
+  archive_command example, per Josh Kupershmidt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml, Revert change that prevented
+  ellipses from looking like ../.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Improve 9.0 release notes by removing extra parentheses and linking
+  to a more appropriate place for exclusion constraints.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml, use test -e rather than test -f.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release-9.0.sgml, add full names for release
+  note item authors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml, add contraint exclusion section to
+  contraint docs.  ITAGAKI Takahiro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml, change test -e to test -f in
+  docs, for portability.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Heikki Linnakangas committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c, change the retry-loop in
+  standby mode to also try restoring files from pg_xlog directory.
+  This is essential for replaying WAL records that were streamed from
+  the master, after a standby server restart.  If a corrupt record is
+  seen in a file restored from the archive or streamed from the
+  master, log it as a WARNING and keep retrying.  If the corruption is
+  permanent, and not just a glitch in the whatever copies the files to
+  the archive or a network error not caught by CRC checks in TCP for
+  example, we will keep retrying and logging the WARNING indefinitely.
+  But that's better than shutting down completely, the standby is
+  still useful for running read-only queries.  In PITR the recovery
+  ends at such a corrupt record, which is a bit questionable, but
+  that's the behavior we had in previous releases and we don't feel
+  like chaning it now.  It does make sense for tools like pg_standby.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/high-availability.sgml, enhance documentation
+  of the built-in standby mode, explaining the retry loop in standby
+  mode, trying to restore from archive, pg_xlog and streaming.  Move
+  sections around to make the high availability chapter more coherent:
+  the most prominent part is now a "Log-Shipping Standby Servers"
+  section that describes what a standby server is (like the old "Warm
+  Standby Servers for High Availability" section), and how to set up a
+  warm standby server, including streaming replication, using the
+  built-in standby mode.  The pg_standby method is described in
+  another section called "Alternative method for log shipping", with
+  the added caveat that it doesn't work with streaming replication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/client-auth.sgml, mention that if special
+  keywords like "sameuser" and "replication" are quoted in
+  pg_hba.conf, they lose their special meaning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/high-availability.sgml, enhance standby
+  documentation.  Original patch by Fujii Masao, with heavy editing
+  and bitrot-fixing after my other commit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/doc/src/sgml/high-availability.sgml, fix typos, spotted by
+  Thom Brown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/backend/postmaster/syslogger.c, don't pass an invalid
+  file handle to dup2(). That causes a crash on Windows, thanks to a
+  feature in CRT called Parameter Validation.  Backpatch to 8.2, which
+  is the oldest version supported on Windows. In 8.2 and 8.3 also
+  backpatch the earlier change to use DEVNULL instead of NULL_DEV
+  #define for a /dev/null-like device. NULL_DEV was hard-coded to
+  "/dev/null" regardless of platform, which didn't work on Windows,
+  while DEVNULL works on all platforms. Restarting syslogger didn't
+  work on Windows on versions 8.3 and below because of that.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Michael Meskes committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Give a more precise error message if a variable is re-used as cursor
+  name in ecpg.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Applied Zoltan's patch to make ecpg spit out warnings if a local
+  variable hides a global one with the same name.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Zoltan Boszormenyi beautified his hidden-variable-patch for ecpg.
+  This also makes sure we get an error message instead of a warning if
+  the variable have different types.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/interfaces/ecpg/preproc/type.c, FATAL errors are meant
+  to stop ecpg immediately, e.g. because the syntax is corrupted.
+  This error, however, does is not a compilation problem but a runtime
+  one, so we can keep compiling but still have to declare ERROR.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/interfaces/ecpg/preproc/ecpg.c, make ecpg in line with
+  other compilers in that it deletes its output if there was an error
+  processing the input file.  Work done by Zoltan Boszormenyi.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robert Haas committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Refer to max_wal_senders in a more consistent fashion.  The error
+  message now makes explicit reference to the GUC that must be changed
+  to fix the problem, using wording suggested by Tom Lane.  Along the
+  way, rename the GUC from MaxWalSenders to max_wal_senders for
+  consistency and grep-ability.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Version stamp 9.0alpha5.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Andrew Dunstan committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Use a file of patterns of filenames to exclude from pgindent runs,
+  instead if using multiple invocations of egrep.  Add perl ppport.h
+  to the current list.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Sync perl's ppport.h on all branches back to 7.4 with recent update
+  on HEAD, ensuring we can build older branches with modern Perl
+  installations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/contrib/fuzzystrmatch/dmetaphone.c, make dmetaphone.c safe
+  for pgindent and fussy compilers. Still to do: make it properly
+  encoding aware w.r.t. chars U+00C7 and U+00D1.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/tools/pgindent/pgindent, exclude unwanted typedef
+  symbols in pgindent, including FD_SET which is found on some Windows
+  platforms.  Also, silence unnecessary messages and +make awk happier
+  about literal '*' on some platforms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Magnus Hagander committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/contrib/pageinspect/heapfuncs.c, fix minor typos in
+  comments.  Josh Kupershmidt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- Update a number of broken links in comments.  Josh Kupershmidt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+ITAGAKI Takahiro committed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+- In pgsql/src/bin/pg_ctl/pg_ctl.c, use a new API rather than a
+  deprecated one in in cygwin.  cygwin_conv_to_full_win32_path should
+  be replaced with cygwin_conv_path.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Rejected Patches (for now)</h2>
+<p>
+No one was disappointed this week :-)
+</p>
+
+<h2>Pending Patches</h2>
+<p>
+David Christensen sent in a patch for 9.1 to add a -C option to
+initdb, which would then allow people to set various postgresql.conf
+directives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Robert Haas sent in a patch to add the maximum number of keys for a
+syscache from 4 to 5.  This is support infrastructure, at first, for
+K-Nearest Neighbor GiST searches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+ITAGAKI Takahiro sent in a patch to fix an issue with PG_MODULE_MAGIC
+on Windows builds with MSVC.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pavel Stehule sent in a patch to allow psql's \ef (edit function) to
+take an optional "lines offset" option, and adds a \sf[+] to show the
+body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fujii Masao sent in a doc patch for streaming replication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fujii Masao sent in two updated patches to add a new smart shutdown
+mode for hot standby and streaming replication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fujii Masao sent in another revision of a patch for streaming
+replication which adds handling for timeline and location to
+pg_xlogfile_name().
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mike Lewis sent in two revisions of a patch to detoast the headers for
+arrays in contrib/intarray before detoasting what's needed of the
+rest.  This makes accesses to large arrays faster.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fujii Masao and Thom Brown traded patches to clarify messages around
+error conditions for streaming replication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+ITAGAKI Takahiro sent in a doc patch which adds exclusion constraints
+as a primary index term.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zoltan Boszormenyi sent in a patch for ECPG intended to resolve an
+issue with standard DECLARE behavior on cursors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pavel Stehule sent in two more revisions of the fulltext dictionary
+preload patch using mmap().
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zoltan Boszormenyi sent in another revision of the ECPG patch to check
+for variables hidden by local ones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Peter Eisentraut sent in a patch to change casts and operators to
+include pg_catalog qualification.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fujii Masao sent in a patch per Heikki Linnakangas's suggestion to
+make ReservedBackends = superuser_reserved_connections +
+max_wal_senders and MaxBackends = max_connections +
+autovacuum_max_workers + max_wal_senders + 1.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yeb Havinga sent in another version of the patch to make EXPLAIN's
+subplans clearer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zoltan Boszormenyi sent in a WIP patch for ECPG which deletes the
+output file when certain kinds of error occur.
+
+</p>
+