TODO list for PostgreSQL

========================

Last updated:Fri Jun4 23:16:01 EDT 1999

Last updated:Sun Jun6 22:08:59 EDT 1999

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

* David is David Hartwig <daveh@insightdist.com>

* Edmund is Edmund Mergl <E.Mergl@bawue.de>

* Goran is Goran Thyni <goran@kyla.kiruna.se>

* Hiroshi is Hiroshi Inoue<Inoue@tpf.co.jp>

* Jan is Jan Wieck <wieck@sapserv.debis.de>

* Marc is Marc Fournier <scrappy@hub.org>

* Massimo Dal Zotto <dz@cs.unitn.it>

* Vadim is "Vadim B. Mikheev" <vadim@krs.ru>

RELIABILITY

-----------

* Overhaul mdmgr/smgr to fix double unlinking and double opens, cleanup

* Overhaul bufmgr/lockmgr/transaction manager

* Remove EXTEND?

* Tables that start with xinv confused to be large objects

* Two and three dimensional arrays display improperly, missing {}

*SELECT a[1] FROM test fails, it needs test.a[1]

*UPDATE table SET table.value = 3 fails

*Select a[1] FROM test fails, it needs test.a[1]

*Update table SET table.value = 3 fails

* User who can create databases can modify pg_database table

* elog() does not free all its memory(Jan)

* views on subselects fail

* disallow inherited columns with the same name as new columns

* recover or force failure when disk space is exhausted

* views containing aggregates sometimes fail(Jan)

* ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN does not honor DEFAULT, add CONSTRAINT

* array index references without table name cause problems

* views with spaces in view name fail when referenced

* plpgsql does not handle quoted mixed-case identifiers

* do not allow bpchar column creation without length

* Elog() does not free all its memory(Jan)

* Disallow inherited columns with the same name as new columns

* Recover or force failure when disk space is exhausted

* Views containing aggregates sometimes fail(Jan)

* Alter TABLE ADD COLUMN does not honor DEFAULT, add CONSTRAINT

* Array index references without table name cause problems

* Views with spaces in view name fail when referenced

* Plpgsql does not handle quoted mixed-case identifiers

* Do not allow bpchar column creation without length

* INSERT INTO ... SELECT with AS columns matching result columns problem

ENHANCEMENTS

------------

* Transaction log, so re-do log can be on a separate disk

* Allow transaction commits with rollback with no-fsync performance

* Add referential integrity

* Add OUTER joins, left and right(Thomas)

* Allow long tuples by chaining or auto-storing outside db (chaining,large objs)

* Fix memory leak for expressions?, aggregates?

Exotic features:

* Add sql3 recursive unions

* Add the concept of dataspaces

* Add replication of distributed databases

* Allow queries across multiple databases

Admin:

* Better interface for adding to pg_group

* More access control over who can create tables and access the database

* Add full ANSI SQL capabilities

* add OUTER joins, left and right(Thomas)

* add sql3 recursive unions

* add the concept of dataspaces

* add BIT, BIT VARYING

* NCHAR (as distinguished from ordinary varchar),

* DOMAIN capability

* Add syslog functionality

* Allow elog() to return error codes, not just messages

* Allow international error message support and add error codes

* Generate postmaster pid file and remove flock/fcntl lock code

* Add ability to specifiy location of lock/socket files

Types:

* Add BIT, BIT VARYING

* Nchar (as distinguished from ordinary varchar),

* Domain capability

* Add STDDEV/VARIANCE() function for standard deviation computation/variance

* Allow compression of large fields or a compressed field type

* Large objects

* Fix large object mapping scheme, own typeid or reltype(Peter)

* Allow large text type to use large objects(Peter)

* not to stuff everything as files in a single directory

* Better interface for adding to pg_group

* allow row re-use without vacuum, maybe?(Vadim)

* Populate backend status area and write program to dump status data

* Add ALTER TABLE DROP/ALTER COLUMN feature

* Add syslog functionality

* Add STDDEV/VARIANCE() function for standard deviation computation/variance

* add UNIQUE capability to non-btree indexes

* certain indexes will not shrink, i.e. oid indexes with many inserts

* make NULL's come out at the beginning or end depending on the ORDER BY direction

* Restore unused oid's on backend exit if no one else has gotten oids

* have UPDATE/DELETE clean out indexes

* allow WHERE restriction on ctid

* allow pg_descriptions when creating types, tables, columns, and functions

* Allow psql to print nulls as distinct from ""(?)

* Allow cursors to be DECLAREd/OPENed/CLOSEed outside transactions

* Not to stuff everything as files in a single directory

* Allow pg_descriptions when creating types, tables, columns, and functions

* Add IPv6 capability to INET/CIDR types

* Make a separate SERIAL type?

* Store binary-compatible type information in the system

* Allow user to define char1 column

* Add support for & operator

Views:

* Allow DISTINCT on views

* Allow views of aggregate columns

* Allow flag to control COPY input/output of NULLs

* Allow CLUSTER on all tables at once, and improve CLUSTER

* Allow elog() to return error codes, not just messages

* allow international error message support and add error codes

* Allow views with subselects

* Allow subqueries in target list

* Allow queries across multiple databases

* Add replication of distributed databases

* Put sort files, large objects in their on directory

* Do autocommit so always in a transaction block

* Show location of syntax error in query

* Redesign the function call interface to handle NULLs better(Jan)

* Document/trigger/rule so changes to pg_shadow create pg_pwd

* Missing optimizer selectivities for date, etc.

Indexes:

* Allow CREATE INDEX zman_index ON test (date_trunc( 'day', zman ) datetime_ops)

fails index can't store constant parameters

* Allow creation of functional indexes to use default types

* Permissions on indexes - prevent them?

* Allow SQL function indexes

* Add FILLFACTOR to index creation

Commands:

* ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN to inherited table put column in wrong place

* Add ALTER TABLE DROP/ALTER COLUMN feature

* Allow CLUSTER on all tables at once, and improve CLUSTER

* Generate error on CREATE OPERATOR of ~~, ~ and and ~*

* allow psql \copy to allow delimiters

* add a function to return the last inserted oid, for use in psql scripts

* allow creation of functional indexes to use default types

* put sort files, large objects in their on directory

* do autocommit so always in a transaction block

* add SIMILAR TO to allow character classes, 'pg_[a-c]%'

* improve reporting of syntax errors by showing location of error in query

* allow chaining of pages to allow >8k tuples, auto-large object use

* redesign the function call interface to handle NULLs better(Jan)

* permissions on indexes - prevent them?

* document/trigger/rule so changes to pg_shadow create pg_pwd

* generate postmaster pid file and remove flock/fcntl lock code

* add ability to specifiy location of lock/socket files

* auto-destroy sequence on DROP of table with SERIAL

* make a separate serial type?

* allow user to define char1 column

* allow LOCK TABLE tab1, tab2, tab3 so all tables locked in unison

* allow INSERT/UPDATE of system-generated oid value for a row

* missing optimizer selectivities for date, etc.

* Add support for & operator

* store binary-compatible type information in the system

* Add SIMILAR TO to allow character classes, 'pg_[a-c]%'

* Auto-destroy sequence on DROP of table with SERIAL

* Allow LOCK TABLE tab1, tab2, tab3 so all tables locked in unison

* Allow INSERT/UPDATE of system-generated oid value for a row

* Allow ESCAPE '\' at the end of LIKE for ANSI compliance

*rewrite the LIKE handling by rewriting the user string with the

*Rewrite the LIKE handling by rewriting the user string with the

supplied ESCAPE

* Fix memory leak for expressions?, aggregates?

* Allow Subplans to use efficient joins(hash, merge) with upper variable

* Move LIKE index optimization handling to the optimizer

Clients:

* Make NULL's come out at the beginning or end depending on the

ORDER BY direction

* Allow flag to control COPY input/output of NULLs

* Update reltuples from COPY command

* Allow CREATE INDEX zman_index ON test (date_trunc( 'day', zman ) datetime_ops)

fails index can't store constant parameters

* allow SQL function indexes

* ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN to inherited table put column in wrong place

* Add IPv6 capability to INET/CIDR types

* Allow PQrequestCancel() to terminate when in waiting-for-lock state

* Allow psql \copy to allow delimiters

* Add a function to return the last inserted oid, for use in psql scripts

* Allow psql to print nulls as distinct from ""(?)

* Increase identifier length(NAMEDATALEN) if small performance hit

* Fix for long table/column name auto-sequence serial name

* Allow row re-use without vacuum, maybe?(Vadim)

* Add UNIQUE capability to non-btree indexes

* Certain indexes will not shrink, i.e. oid indexes with many inserts

* Restore unused oid's on backend exit if no one else has gotten oids

* Have UPDATE/DELETE clean out indexes

* Allow WHERE restriction on ctid

* Allow cursors to be DECLAREd/OPENed/CLOSEed outside transactions

* Allow PQrequestCancel() to terminate when in waiting-for-lock state

* Transaction log, so re-do log can be on a separate disk

* Populate backend status area and write program to dump status data

* Make oid use unsigned int more reliably, pg_atoi()

* Add PL/Perl(Mark Hollomon)

PERFORMANCE

-----------

* Allow transaction commits with rollback with no-fsync performance

* Prevent fsync in SELECT-only queries

* Use indexes in ORDER BY for restrictive data sets, min(), max()

* Pull requested data directly from indexes, bypassing heap data

* Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with

non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses

* Use index with constants on functions

* Allow LIMIT ability on single-table queries that have no ORDER BY to use

a matching index

*Pull requested data directly from indexes, bypassing heap data

*Improve LIMIT processing by using index to limit rows processed

* Cache most recent query plan(s?)

* Shared catalog cache, reduce lseek()'s by caching table size in shared area

* Allow compression of log and meta data

* Add FILLFACTOR to index creation

* update pg_statistic table to remove operator column

* make index creation use psort code, because it is now faster(Vadim)

* Update pg_statistic table to remove operator column

* Make index creation use psort code, because it is now faster(Vadim)

* Allow char() not to use variable-sized header to reduce disk size

* Do async I/O to do better read-ahead of data

* Fix memory exhaustion when using many OR's

* Get faster regex() code from Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.utoronto.ca>

when it is available

* use mmap() rather than SYSV shared memory(?)

* use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with

non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses

* use index with constants on functions

* process const = const parts of OR clause in separate pass

* make oid use oidin/oidout not int4in/int4out in pg_type.h

* make oid use unsigned int more reliably, pg_atoi()

* create more system table indexes for faster cache lookups

* Move LIKE index optimization handling to the optimizer

* Improve LIMIT processing by using index to limit rows processed

* Use mmap() rather than SYSV shared memory(?)

* Process const = const parts of OR clause in separate pass

* Make oid use oidin/oidout not int4in/int4out in pg_type.h

* Create more system table indexes for faster cache lookups

* Improve Subplan list handling

* Allow Subplans to use efficient joins(hash, merge) with upper variable

DOCUMENTATION

Fix for DEFAULT handles single quotes in value requiring too many quotes

Fix security problem with non-super users importing/exporting large objects(Tom)

Rollback of transaction that creates table cleaned up properly(Tom)

Fix to allow long table and column names to generate proper serial names(Tom)

Enhancements

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