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<sect1 id="release-8-5">

<title>Release 8.5alpha2</title>

reported.

</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>

<title>Testing</title>

<para>

The primary reason we release alphas is to get users to test new

features as early as possible. If you are interested in helping

with organized testing, please see

<ulink url="http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/HowToBetaTest">the

testing information page</ulink>.

</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>

<title>Changes</title>

<sect3>

<title>SQL Features</title>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem override="box">

<para>

<emphasis>Modify the definition of window-function PARTITION

BY and ORDER BY clauses so that their elements are always

taken as simple expressions over the query's input

columns.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Fix bug with WITH RECURSIVE immediately inside WITH

RECURSIVE.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Define a new, more extensible syntax for COPY options.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Add ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command, which allows

users to adjust the privileges that will be applied to

subsequently-created objects.</>

<emphasis>Add SQL-compliant triggers on columns, which fire only if

certain columns are named in the UPDATE's SET list.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Support use of function argument names to identify which

actual arguments match which function parameters. The syntax

uses AS, for example funcname(value AS arg1, anothervalue AS

arg2).</>

<emphasis>Add CREATE LIKE INCLUDING COMMENTS and STORAGE, and INCLUDING

ALL shortcut to allow users to make an exact copy of a table including

all options and features.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Add CREATE LIKE INCLUDING COMMENTS and STORAGE, and INCLUDING

ALL shortcut.</>

<emphasis>Define a new, more extensible syntax for COPY options

in order to support additional COPY options in the future.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Add GRANT/REVOKE ON ALL TABLES/SEQUENCES/FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA.</>

<emphasis>Modify the definition of window-function PARTITION

BY and ORDER BY clauses so that their elements are always

taken as simple expressions over the query's input

columns. This fixes a bug.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Add SQL-compliant triggers on columns, ie fire only if

certain columns are named in the UPDATE's SET list.</>

<emphasis>Fix bug with nested WITH RECURSIVE statements.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Implement &quot;join removal&quot; for cases where the inner side

of a left join is unique and is not referenced above the join.</>

of a left join is unique and is not referenced above the join. This should

speed up many ORM-generated and reporting tool queries.</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Remove the use of the flat files pg_auth and

pg_database in order to improve performance. (Warning: pgbouncer

and possibly other tools currently suggest referring to the pg_auth

file for its user database. Such schemes will no longer work.)</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Make it possibly to specify server configuration parameters

per user and perdatabase. psql has gained adrds command to

per user-database combination. Add a \drds command to psql to

display the settings.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<emphasis>Allow the collection of statistics on sequences.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Increase the maximum value of extra_float_digits to

3, and have pg_dump use that value when the backend is new

enough to allow it, because it is possible to need 3 extra

digits for float4 values (but not for float8 values).</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

Add the ability to include the SQLSTATE error code of any error

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</sect3>

<sect3>

<title>Server Configuration</title>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Increase the maximum value of extra_float_digits to

3, and have pg_dump use that value when the backend is new

enough to allow it, because it is possible to need 3 extra

digits for float4 values (but not for float8 values).</>

</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</sect3>

<sect3>

<title>Security</title>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Add ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command, which allows

users to adjust the privileges that will be applied to

subsequently-created objects.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Add GRANT/REVOKE ON ALL TABLES/SEQUENCES/FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA.

This makes it easier to manage permissions on database objects.</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Support &quot;samehost&quot; and &quot;samenet&quot; specifications

in pg_hba.conf.</emphasis>

in pg_hba.conf. This allows users with dynamic server addresses to run

PostgreSQL without frequently modifying pg_hba.conf</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

the postmaster from a boot-time script.</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Remove the use of the flat files pg_auth and

pg_database. (At least pgbouncer currently suggests referring

to the pg_auth file for its user database. Such schemes will

no longer work.)</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

pg_dump/pg_restore --clean now drops large objects.

code without having to create a function for it.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Support use of function argument names to identify which

actual arguments match which function parameters. The syntax

uses AS, for example funcname(value AS arg1, anothervalue AS

arg2).</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Fix/improve bytea and boolean support in PL/Python. Data type

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Allow plpgsqlIN parametersto be assigned to.</>

<emphasis>PL/pgSQLIN parametersnow accept value assignments.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Allow MOVE FORWARD n, MOVE BACKWARD n,MOVE FORWARD ALL, MOVE

BACKWARD ALL in PL/pgSQL.</>

<emphasis>Allowcursor commandsMOVE FORWARD n, MOVE BACKWARD n,

MOVE FORWARD ALL, MOVEBACKWARD ALL in PL/pgSQL.</>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Assorted improvements in contrib/hstore.</>

<emphasis>Multiple improvements in contrib/hstore, including

raising limits on keys and values, conversions to and from

records and arrays, and support for GROUP BY and DISTINCT.</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</sect3>

<sect3>

<title>Programming Tools</title>

<itemizedlist>

<title>Development</title>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Add ECPG function that returns the current transaction status.</>

<listitem>

<para>

<emphasis>Make libpq reject non-numeric and out-of-range port numbers with a

suitable error message.</>

suitable error message.</emphasis>

</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</sect3>

<sect3>

<title>Development</title>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>

Functions which conflict with C++ reserved words have been renamed,