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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>PostgreSQL TODO List</title>
<meta name="generator" content="HTML::TextToHTML v2.25"/>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#FF0000" vlink="#A00000" alink="#0000FF">
<h1><a name="section_1">PostgreSQL TODO List</a></h1>
<p>Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<a href="mailto:bruce@momjian.us">bruce@momjian.us</a>)<br/>
Last updated: Thu Jan 31 21:41:04 EST 2008
</p>
<p>The most recent version of this document can be viewed at<br/>
<a href="http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.TODO.html">http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.TODO.html</a>.
</p>
<p><strong>A hyphen, "-", marks changes that will appear in the upcoming 8.3 release.</strong><br/>
<strong>A percent sign, "%", marks items that are easier to implement.</strong>
</p>
<p>Bracketed items, "[<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?"></a>]", have more detail.
</p>
<p>This list contains all known PostgreSQL bugs and feature requests. If<br/>
you would like to work on an item, please read the Developer's FAQ<br/>
first. There is also a developer's wiki at<br/>
<a href="http://developer.postgresql.org">http://developer.postgresql.org</a>.
</p>
<h1><a name="section_2">Administration</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Allow administrators to safely terminate individual sessions either
via an SQL function or SIGTERM
<p> Lock table corruption following SIGTERM of an individual backend
has been reported in 8.0. A possible cause was fixed in 8.1, but
it is unknown whether other problems exist. This item mostly
requires additional testing rather than of writing any new code.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00174.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00174.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Check for unreferenced table files created by transactions that were
in-progress when the server terminated abruptly
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00096.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00096.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Set proper permissions on non-system schemas during db creation
<p> Currently all schemas are owned by the super-user because they are copied
from the template1 database. However, since all objects are inherited
from the template database, it is not clear that setting schemas to the db
owner is correct.
</p>
</li><li>Add function to report the time of the most recent server reload
</li><li>Allow statistics collector information to be pulled from the collector
process directly, rather than requiring the collector to write a
filesystem file twice a second?
</li><li>Allow log_min_messages to be specified on a per-module basis
<p> This would allow administrators to see more detailed information from
specific sections of the backend, e.g. checkpoints, autovacuum, etc.
Another idea is to allow separate configuration files for each module,
or allow arbitrary SET commands to be passed to them.
</p>
</li><li>Simplify ability to create partitioned tables
<p> This would allow creation of partitioned tables without requiring
creation of triggers or rules for INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, and constraints
for rapid partition selection. Options could include range and hash
partition selection.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00375.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00375.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00151.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-04/msg00151.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow auto-selection of partitioned tables for min/max() operations
</li><li>Allow more complex user/database default GUC settings
<p> Currently ALTER USER and ALTER DATABASE support per-user and
per-database defaults. Consider adding per-user-and-database
defaults so things like search_path can be defaulted for a
specific user connecting to a specific database.
</p>
</li><li>Allow custom variable classes that can restrict who can set the values
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00911.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00911.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Implement the SQL standard mechanism whereby REVOKE ROLE revokes only
the privilege granted by the invoking role, and not those granted
by other roles
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-05/msg00010.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-05/msg00010.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow SSL authentication/encryption over unix domain sockets
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00924.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00924.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Configuration files
<ul>
<li>Allow pg_hba.conf to specify host names along with IP addresses
<p> Host name lookup could occur when the postmaster reads the
pg_hba.conf file, or when the backend starts. Another
solution would be to reverse lookup the connection IP and
check that hostname against the host names in pg_hba.conf.
We could also then check that the host name maps to the IP
address.
</p>
</li><li>%Allow postgresql.conf file values to be changed via an SQL
API, perhaps using SET GLOBAL
</li><li>Allow the server to be stopped/restarted via an SQL API
</li><li>Issue a warning if a change-on-restart-only postgresql.conf value
is modified and the server config files are reloaded
</li></ul>
</li><li>Tablespaces
<ul>
<li>Allow a database in tablespace t1 with tables created in
tablespace t2 to be used as a template for a new database created
with default tablespace t2
<p> Currently all objects in the default database tablespace must
have default tablespace specifications. This is because new
databases are created by copying directories. If you mix default
tablespace tables and tablespace-specified tables in the same
directory, creating a new database from such a mixed directory
would create a new database with tables that had incorrect
explicit tablespaces. To fix this would require modifying
pg_class in the newly copied database, which we don't currently
do.
</p>
</li><li>Allow reporting of which objects are in which tablespaces
<p> This item is difficult because a tablespace can contain objects
from multiple databases. There is a server-side function that
returns the databases which use a specific tablespace, so this
requires a tool that will call that function and connect to each
database to find the objects in each database for that tablespace.
</p>
</li><li>Allow WAL replay of CREATE TABLESPACE to work when the directory
structure on the recovery computer is different from the original
</li><li>Allow per-tablespace quotas
</li></ul>
</li><li>Point-In-Time Recovery (PITR)
<ul>
<li>Allow a warm standby system to also allow read-only statements
[<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?pitr">pitr</a>]
<p> This is useful for checking PITR recovery.
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00050.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00050.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>%Create dump tool for write-ahead logs for use in determining
transaction id for point-in-time recovery
</li><li>Allow recovery.conf to support the same syntax as
postgresql.conf, including quoting
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00497.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00497.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_3">Data Types</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Change NUMERIC to enforce the maximum precision
</li><li>Reduce storage space for small NUMERICs
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg01331.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg01331.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-02/msg00505.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-02/msg00505.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Fix data types where equality comparison isn't intuitive, e.g. box
</li><li>Add support for public SYNONYMs
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00519.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00519.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Fix CREATE CAST on DOMAINs
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-05/msg00072.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-05/msg00072.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01681.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01681.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add support for SQL-standard GENERATED/IDENTITY columns
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg00543.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg00543.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00038.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00038.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00344.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00344.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00076.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00076.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Improve XML support
<p> <a href="http://developer.postgresql.org/index.php/XML_Support">http://developer.postgresql.org/index.php/XML_Support</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider placing all sequences in a single table, or create a system
view
</li><li>Dates and Times
<ul>
<li>Allow infinite dates and intervals just like infinite timestamps
</li><li>Merge hardwired timezone names with the TZ database; allow either
kind everywhere a TZ name is currently taken
</li><li>Allow TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE to store the original timezone
information, either zone name or offset from UTC [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?timezone">timezone</a>]
<p> If the TIMESTAMP value is stored with a time zone name, interval
computations should adjust based on the time zone rules.
</p>
</li><li>Fix SELECT '0.01 years'::interval, '0.01 months'::interval
</li><li>Add a GUC variable to allow output of interval values in ISO8601
format
</li><li>Have timestamp subtraction not call justify_hours()?
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2006-10/msg00059.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2006-10/msg00059.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Improve timestamptz subtraction to be DST-aware
<p> Currently subtracting one date from another that crosses a
daylight savings time adjustment can return '1 day 1 hour', but
adding that back to the first date returns a time one hour in
the future. This is caused by the adjustment of '25 hours' to
'1 day 1 hour', and '1 day' is the same time the next day, even
if daylight savings adjustments are involved.
</p>
</li><li>Fix interval display to support values exceeding 2^31 hours
</li><li>Add overflow checking to timestamp and interval arithmetic
</li><li>Extend timezone code to allow 64-bit values so we can
represent years beyond 2038
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01363.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01363.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Use LC_TIME for localized weekday/month names, rather than
LC_MESSAGES
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00390.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00390.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add ISO INTERVAL handling
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-01/msg00250.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-01/msg00250.php</a><br/>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2006-04/msg00248.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2006-04/msg00248.php</a>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Support ISO INTERVAL syntax if units cannot be determined from
the string, and are supplied after the string
<p> The SQL standard states that the units after the string
specify the units of the string, e.g. INTERVAL '2' MINUTE
should return '00:02:00'. The current behavior has the units
restrict the interval value to the specified unit or unit
range, INTERVAL '70' SECOND returns '00:00:10'.
</p>
<p> For syntax that isn't uniquely ISO or PG syntax, like '1' or
'1:30', treat as ISO if there is a range specification clause,
and as PG if there no clause is present, e.g. interpret '1:30'
MINUTE TO SECOND as '1 minute 30 seconds', and interpret
'1:30' as '1 hour, 30 minutes'.
</p>
<p> This makes common cases like SELECT INTERVAL '1' MONTH
SQL-standard results. The SQL standard supports a limited
number of unit combinations and doesn't support unit names in
the string. The PostgreSQL syntax is more flexible in the
range of units supported, e.g. PostgreSQL supports '1 year 1
hour', while the SQL standard does not.
</p>
</li><li>Add support for year-month syntax, INTERVAL '50-6' YEAR
TO MONTH
</li><li>Interpret INTERVAL '1 year' MONTH as CAST (INTERVAL '1
year' AS INTERVAL MONTH), and this should return '12 months'
</li><li>Round or truncate values to the requested precision, e.g.
INTERVAL '11 months' AS YEAR should return one or zero
</li><li>Support precision, CREATE TABLE foo (a INTERVAL MONTH(3))
<ul>
<li>Arrays
<ul>
<li>Delay resolution of array expression's data type so assignment
coercion can be performed on empty array expressions
</li><li>Add support for arrays of domains
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00114.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00114.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow single-byte header storage for array elements
</li></ul>
</li><li>Binary Data
<ul>
<li>Improve vacuum of large objects, like contrib/vacuumlo?
</li><li>Add security checking for large objects
</li><li>Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted
<p> contrib/lo offers this functionality.
</p>
</li><li>Allow read/write into TOAST values like large objects
<p> This requires the TOAST column to be stored EXTERNAL.
</p>
</li><li>Add API for 64-bit large object access
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00781.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00781.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>MONEY data type
<ul>
<li>Add locale-aware MONEY type, and support multiple currencies
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2005-08/msg01432.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2005-08/msg01432.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01181.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01181.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>MONEY dumps in a locale-specific format making it difficult to
restore to a system with a different locale
</li><li>Allow MONEY to be easily cast to/from other numeric data types
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_4">Functions</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Allow INET subnet tests using non-constants to be indexed
</li><li>Allow to_date() and to_timestamp() accept localized month names
</li><li>Fix to_date()-related functions to consistently issue errors
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00915.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00915.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add missing parameter handling in to_char()
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-12/msg00948.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-12/msg00948.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow substring/replace() to get/set bit values
</li><li>Allow to_char() on interval values to accumulate the highest unit
requested
<p> 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.
</p>
<ul>
<li>to_char(INTERVAL '1 hour 5 minutes', 'MI') => 65
</li><li>to_char(INTERVAL '43 hours 20 minutes', 'MI' ) => 2600
</li><li>to_char(INTERVAL '43 hours 20 minutes', 'WK:DD:HR:MI') => 0:1:19:20
</li><li>to_char(INTERVAL '3 years 5 months','MM') => 41
</li></ul>
</li><li>Implement inlining of set-returning functions defined in SQL
</li><li>Allow SQL-language functions to return results from RETURNING queries
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00665.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00665.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow SQL-language functions to reference parameters by parameter name
<p> Currently SQL-language functions can only refer to dollar parameters,
e.g. $1
</p>
</li><li>Add SPI_gettypmod() to return the typemod for a TupleDesc
</li><li>Enforce typmod for function inputs, function results and parameters for
spi_prepare'd statements called from PLs
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01403.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01403.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow holdable cursors in SPI
</li><li>Tighten function permission checks
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00568.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00568.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Fix IS OF so it matches the ISO specification, and add documentation
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2003-08/msg00060.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2003-08/msg00060.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00060.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00060.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add missing operators for geometric data types
<p> Some geometric types do not have the full suite of geometric operators,
e.g. box @> point
</p>
</li><li>Implement Boyer-Moore searching in strpos()
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-08/msg00012.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-08/msg00012.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_5">Multi-Language Support</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Add NCHAR (as distinguished from ordinary varchar),
</li><li>Allow locale to be set at database creation
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Allow encoding on a per-column basis optionally using the ICU library:
<p> Right now only one encoding is allowed per database. [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?locale">locale</a>]
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-03/msg00932.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-03/msg00932.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-08/msg00309.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-08/msg00309.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-03/msg00233.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-03/msg00233.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg00662.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg00662.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add CREATE COLLATE? [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?locale">locale</a>]
</li><li>Support multiple simultaneous character sets, per SQL92
</li><li>Improve UTF8 combined character handling?
</li><li>Add octet_length_server() and octet_length_client()
</li><li>Make octet_length_client() the same as octet_length()?
</li><li>Fix problems with wrong runtime encoding conversion for NLS message files
</li><li>Add URL to more complete multi-byte regression tests
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-07/msg00272.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-07/msg00272.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Fix ILIKE and regular expressions to handle case insensitivity
properly in multibyte encodings
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2005-10/msg00001.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2005-10/msg00001.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-11/msg00173.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-11/msg00173.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Set client encoding based on the client operating system encoding
<p> Currently client_encoding is set in postgresql.conf, which
defaults to the server encoding.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg01696.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg01696.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_6">Views / Rules</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Automatically create rules on views so they are updateable, per SQL99
<p> We can only auto-create rules for simple views. For more complex
cases users will still have to write rules manually.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00586.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00586.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-08/msg00255.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-08/msg00255.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add the functionality for WITH CHECK OPTION clause of CREATE VIEW
</li><li>Allow NOTIFY in rules involving conditionals
</li><li>Allow VIEW/RULE recompilation when the underlying tables change
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Make it possible to use RETURNING together with conditional DO INSTEAD
rules, such as for partitioning setups
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00577.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00577.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add the ability to automatically create materialized views
<p> 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.
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_7">SQL Commands</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Add CORRESPONDING BY to UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT
</li><li>Add ROLLUP, CUBE, GROUPING SETS options to GROUP BY
</li><li>%Allow SET CONSTRAINTS to be qualified by schema/table name
</li><li>%Add a separate TRUNCATE permission
<p> Currently only the owner can TRUNCATE a table because triggers are not
called, and the table is locked in exclusive mode.
</p>
</li><li>Allow PREPARE of cursors
</li><li>Allow finer control over the caching of prepared query plans
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Improve logging of prepared transactions recovered during startup
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00092.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00092.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow LISTEN/NOTIFY to store info in memory rather than tables?
<p> Currently LISTEN/NOTIFY information is stored in pg_listener. Storing
such information in memory would improve performance.
</p>
</li><li>Add optional textual message to NOTIFY
<p> This would allow an informational message to be added to the notify
message, perhaps indicating the row modified or other custom
information.
</p>
</li><li>Allow multiple identical NOTIFY events to always be communicated to the
client, rather than sent as a single notification to the listener
</li><li>Add a GUC variable to warn about non-standard SQL usage in queries
</li><li>Add SQL-standard MERGE command, typically used to merge two tables
[<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?merge">merge</a>]
<p> This is similar to UPDATE, then for unmatched rows, INSERT.
Whether concurrent access allows modifications which could cause
row loss is implementation independent.
</p>
</li><li>Add REPLACE or UPSERT command that does UPDATE, or on failure, INSERT
[<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?merge">merge</a>]
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00501.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00501.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00536.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00536.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add NOVICE output level for helpful messages like automatic sequence/index
creation
</li><li>Add GUC to issue notice about statements that use unjoined tables
</li><li>Allow EXPLAIN to identify tables that were skipped because of
constraint_exclusion
</li><li>Allow EXPLAIN output to be more easily processed by scripts, perhaps XML
</li><li>Enable standard_conforming_strings
</li><li>Make standard_conforming_strings the default in 8.5?
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Simplify dropping roles that have objects in several databases
</li><li>Allow COMMENT ON to accept an expression rather than just a string
</li><li>Allow the count returned by SELECT, etc to be represented as an int64
to allow a higher range of values
</li><li>Add SQL99 WITH clause to SELECT
</li><li>Add SQL:2003 WITH RECURSIVE (hierarchical) queries to SELECT
</li><li>Add DEFAULT .. AS OWNER so permission checks are done as the table
owner
<p> This would be useful for SERIAL nextval() calls and CHECK constraints.
</p>
</li><li>Allow DISTINCT to work in multiple-argument aggregate calls
</li><li>Add column to pg_stat_activity that shows the progress of long-running
commands like CREATE INDEX and VACUUM
</li><li>Implement SQL:2003 window functions
</li><li>Improve failure message when DROP DATABASE is used on a database that
has prepared transactions
</li><li>Allow INSERT/UPDATE ... RETURNING inside a SELECT 'FROM' clause
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2006-09/msg00803.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2006-09/msg00803.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00693.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00693.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Increase locking when DROPing objects so dependent objects cannot
get dropped while the DROP operation is happening
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00937.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00937.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>CREATE
<ul>
<li>Allow CREATE TABLE AS to determine column lengths for complex
expressions like SELECT col1 || col2
</li><li>Have WITH CONSTRAINTS also create constraint indexes
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-04/msg00149.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-04/msg00149.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>UPDATE
<ul>
<li>Allow UPDATE tab SET ROW (col, ...) = (SELECT...)
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg01306.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg01306.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00865.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00865.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Research self-referential UPDATEs that see inconsistent row versions
in read-committed mode
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00507.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00507.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00016.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-06/msg00016.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow GLOBAL temporary tables to exist as empty by default in
all sessions
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00006.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00006.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>ALTER
<ul>
<li>%Have ALTER TABLE RENAME rename SERIAL sequence names
</li><li>Have ALTER SEQUENCE RENAME rename the sequence name stored
in the sequence table
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-09/msg00092.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-09/msg00092.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-10/msg00007.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-10/msg00007.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add ALTER DOMAIN to modify the underlying data type
</li><li>%Allow ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... RENAME
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-02/msg00168.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-02/msg00168.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>%Allow ALTER TABLE to change constraint deferrability and actions
</li><li>Add missing object types for ALTER ... SET SCHEMA
</li><li>Allow ALTER TABLESPACE to move to different directories
</li><li>Allow databases to be moved to different tablespaces
</li><li>Allow moving system tables to other tablespaces, where possible
<p> Currently non-global system tables must be in the default database
tablespace. Global system tables can never be moved.
</p>
</li><li>Prevent parent tables from altering or dropping constraints
like CHECK that are inherited by child tables unless CASCADE
is used
</li><li>%Prevent child tables from altering or dropping constraints
like CHECK that were inherited from the parent table
</li><li>Have ALTER INDEX update the name of a constraint using that index
</li><li>Add ALTER TABLE RENAME CONSTRAINT, update index name also
</li><li>Allow column display reordering by recording a display,
storage, and permanent id for every column?
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00782.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00782.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>CLUSTER
<ul>
<li>Automatically maintain clustering on a table
<p> 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.
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2004-08/msg00349.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2004-08/msg00349.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>%Add default clustering to system tables
<p> To do this, determine the ideal cluster index for each system
table and set the cluster setting during initdb.
</p>
</li><li>%Add VERBOSE option to report tables as they are processed,
like VACUUM VERBOSE
</li></ul>
</li><li>COPY
<ul>
<li>Allow COPY to report error lines and continue
<p> This requires the use of a savepoint before each COPY line is
processed, with ROLLBACK on COPY failure.
</p>
</li><li>Allow COPY on a newly-created table to skip WAL logging
<p> 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.
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>GRANT/REVOKE
<ul>
<li>Allow column-level privileges
</li><li>%Allow GRANT/REVOKE permissions to be applied to all schema objects
with one command
<p> The proposed syntax is:
</p><p> GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN public TO phpuser;
GRANT SELECT ON NEW TABLES IN public TO phpuser;
</p>
</li><li>Allow GRANT/REVOKE permissions to be inherited by objects based on
schema permissions
</li><li>Allow SERIAL sequences to inherit permissions from the base table?
</li></ul>
</li><li>CURSOR
<ul>
<li>Prevent DROP TABLE from dropping a row referenced by its own open
cursor?
</li></ul>
</li><li>INSERT
<ul>
<li>Allow INSERT/UPDATE of the system-generated oid value for a row
</li><li>In rules, allow VALUES() to contain a mixture of 'old' and 'new'
references
</li></ul>
</li><li>SHOW/SET
<ul>
<li>Add SET PERFORMANCE_TIPS option to suggest INDEX, VACUUM, VACUUM
ANALYZE, and CLUSTER
</li></ul>
</li><li>Referential Integrity
<ul>
<li>Add MATCH PARTIAL referential integrity
</li><li>Change foreign key constraint for array -> element to mean element
in array?
</li><li>Fix problem when cascading referential triggers make changes on
cascaded tables, seeing the tables in an intermediate state
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-09/msg00174.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow DEFERRABLE and end-of-statement UNIQUE constraints?
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://people.planetpostgresql.org/greg/index.php?/archives/2006/06/10.html">http://people.planetpostgresql.org/greg/index.php?/archives/2006/06/10.html</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01458.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg01458.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>Server-Side Languages
<ul>
<li>PL/pgSQL
<ul>
<li>Fix RENAME to work on variables other than OLD/NEW
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2002-03/msg00591.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2002-03/msg00591.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01615.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01615.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01587.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg01587.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow function parameters to be passed by name,
get_employee_salary(12345 AS emp_id, 2001 AS tax_year)
</li><li>Allow handling of %TYPE arrays, e.g. tab.col%TYPE[<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?"></a>]
</li><li>Allow listing of record column names, and access to
record columns via variables, e.g. columns := r.(*),
tval2 := r.(colname)
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00458.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00458.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-05/msg00302.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-05/msg00302.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00031.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00031.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add support for SCROLL cursors
</li><li>Add support for WITH HOLD cursors
</li><li>Allow row and record variables to be set to NULL constants,
and allow NULL tests on such variables
<p> Because a row is not scalar, do not allow assignment
from NULL-valued scalars.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00070.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00070.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>Other
<ul>
<li>Add table function support to pltcl, plpythonu
</li><li>Add support for polymorphic arguments and return types to
languages other than PL/PgSQL
</li><li>Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES
</li><li>Add support for OUT and INOUT parameters to languages other
than PL/PgSQL
</li><li>Add PL/PythonU tracebacks
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-02/msg00288.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-02/msg00288.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow data to be passed in native language formats, rather
than only text
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00289.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-05/msg00289.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_8">Clients</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Have pg_ctl look at PGHOST in case it is a socket directory?
</li><li>Allow pg_ctl to work properly with configuration files located outside
the PGDATA directory
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>psql
<ul>
<li>Have psql show current values for a sequence
</li><li>Move psql backslash database information into the backend, use
mnemonic commands? [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?psql">psql</a>]
<p> This would allow non-psql clients to pull the same information out
of the database as psql.
</p>
</li><li>Fix psql's \d commands more consistent
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00014.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00014.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00014.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00014.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consistently display privilege information for all objects in psql
</li><li>Add auto-expanded mode so expanded output is used if the row
length is wider than the screen width.
<p> Consider using auto-expanded mode for backslash commands like \df+.
</p>
</li><li>Prevent tab completion of SET TRANSACTION from querying the
database and therefore preventing the transaction isolation
level from being set.
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Add a \set variable to control whether \s displays line numbers
<p> Another option is to add \# which lists line numbers, and
allows command execution.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00255.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00255.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>pg_dump
<ul>
<li>%Add dumping of comments on index columns and composite type columns
</li><li>%Add full object name to the tag field. eg. for operators we need
'=(integer, integer)', instead of just '='.
</li><li>Add pg_dumpall custom format dumps?
</li><li>Allow selection of individual object(s) of all types, not just
tables
</li><li>In a selective dump, allow dumping of an object and all its
dependencies
</li><li>Add options like pg_restore -l and -L to pg_dump
</li><li>Stop dumping CASCADE on DROP TYPE commands in clean mode
</li><li>Allow pg_dump --clean to drop roles that own objects or have
privileges
</li><li>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.
</li><li>Remove unnecessary function pointer abstractions in pg_dump source
code
</li></ul>
</li><li>ecpg
<ul>
<li>Docs
<p> Document differences between ecpg and the SQL standard and
information about the Informix-compatibility module.
</p>
</li><li>Solve cardinality > 1 for input descriptors / variables?
</li><li>Add a semantic check level, e.g. check if a table really exists
</li><li>fix handling of DB attributes that are arrays
</li><li>Use backend PREPARE/EXECUTE facility for ecpg where possible
</li><li>Implement SQLDA
</li><li>Fix nested C comments
</li><li>%sqlwarn[<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?6">6</a>] should be 'W' if the PRECISION or SCALE value specified
</li><li>Make SET CONNECTION thread-aware, non-standard?
</li><li>Allow multidimensional arrays
</li><li>Add internationalized message strings
</li><li>Implement COPY FROM STDIN
</li></ul>
</li><li>libpq
<ul>
<li>Add PQescapeIdentifierConn()
</li><li>Prevent PQfnumber() from lowercasing unquoted the column name
<p> PQfnumber() should never have been doing lowercasing, but
historically it has so we need a way to prevent it
</p>
</li><li>Allow statement results to be automatically batched to the client
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Consider disallowing multiple queries in PQexec() as an
additional barrier to SQL injection attacks
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00184.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00184.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add PQexecf() that allows complex parameter substitution
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01803.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01803.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_9">Triggers</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Add deferred trigger queue file
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Allow triggers to be disabled in only the current session.
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>With disabled triggers, allow pg_dump to use ALTER TABLE ADD FOREIGN KEY
<p> If the dump is known to be valid, allow foreign keys to be added
without revalidating the data.
</p>
</li><li>Allow statement-level triggers to access modified rows
</li><li>Support triggers on columns
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00107.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00107.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow AFTER triggers on system tables
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Tighten trigger permission checks
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00564.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00564.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow BEFORE INSERT triggers on views
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-02/msg01466.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-02/msg01466.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add ability to trigger on TRUNCATE
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2008-01/msg00050.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2008-01/msg00050.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_10">Indexes</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Add UNIQUE capability to non-btree indexes
</li><li>Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modify the column
<p> Uniqueness (index) checks are done when updating a column even if the
column is not modified by the UPDATE.
</p>
</li><li>Allow the creation of on-disk bitmap indexes which can be quickly
combined with other bitmap indexes
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00512.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-07/msg00512.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01107.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01107.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow accurate statistics to be collected on indexes with more than
one column or expression indexes, perhaps using per-index statistics
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2006-10/msg00222.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2006-10/msg00222.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01131.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01131.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider compressing indexes by storing key values duplicated in
several rows as a single index entry
</li><li>Add REINDEX CONCURRENTLY, like CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Allow multiple indexes to be created concurrently, ideally via a
single heap scan, and have a restore of a pg_dump somehow use it
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-05/msg01274.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-05/msg01274.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Inheritance
<ul>
<li>Allow inherited tables to inherit indexes, UNIQUE constraints,
and primary/foreign keys
</li><li>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
<p> The main difficulty with this item is the problem of
creating an index that can span multiple tables.
</p>
</li><li>Allow SELECT ... FOR UPDATE on inherited tables
</li></ul>
</li><li>GIST
<ul>
<li>Add more GIST index support for geometric data types
</li><li>Allow GIST indexes to create certain complex index types, like
digital trees (see Aoki)
</li></ul>
</li><li>Hash
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00051.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-09/msg00051.php</a>
<ul>
<li>Pack hash index buckets onto disk pages more efficiently
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-06/msg00168.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-06/msg00168.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider sorting hash buckets so entries can be found using a
binary search, rather than a linear scan
</li><li>In hash indexes, consider storing the hash value with or instead
of the key itself
</li><li>Add WAL logging for crash recovery
</li><li>Allow multi-column hash indexes
</li><li>During index creation, pre-sort the tuples to improve build speed
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01199.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01199.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_11">Fsync</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Determine optimal fdatasync/fsync, O_SYNC/O_DSYNC options
<p> Ideally this requires a separate test program that can be run
at initdb time or optionally later. Consider O_SYNC when
O_DIRECT exists.
</p>
</li><li>Add program to test if fsync has a delay compared to non-fsync
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_12">Cache Usage</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Speed up COUNT(*)
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Provide a way to calculate an "estimated COUNT(*)"
<p> Perhaps by using the optimizer's cardinality estimates or random
sampling.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00943.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-11/msg00943.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow data to be pulled directly from indexes
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Consider automatic caching of statements at various levels:
<ul>
<li>Parsed query tree
</li><li>Query execute plan
</li><li>Query results
</li></ul>
</li><li>Consider increasing internal areas when shared buffers is increased
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-10/msg01419.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-10/msg01419.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider decreasing the amount of memory used by PrivateRefCount
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00797.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00797.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00752.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00752.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_13">Vacuum</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Improve speed with indexes
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00024.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg00024.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2007-05/msg00296.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2007-05/msg00296.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Auto-fill the free space map by scanning the buffer cache or by
checking pages written by the background writer
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-02/msg01125.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-02/msg01125.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00011.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00011.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Create a bitmap of pages that need vacuuming
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01188.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01188.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00121.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00121.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>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
</li><li>Allow FSM page return free space based on table clustering, to assist
in maintaining clustering?
</li><li>Improve dead row detection during multi-statement transactions usage
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-03/msg00358.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-03/msg00358.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Auto-vacuum
<ul>
<li>%Issue log message to suggest VACUUM FULL if a table is nearly
empty?
</li><li>Improve control of auto-vacuum
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00876.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00876.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Prevent long-lived temporary tables from causing frozen-xid
advancement starvation
<p> The problem is that autovacuum cannot vacuum them to set frozen xids;
only the session that created them can do that.
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-06/msg01645.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-06/msg01645.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_14">Locking</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Fix priority ordering of read and write light-weight locks (Neil)
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00893.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00893.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00905.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-11/msg00905.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Fix problem when multiple subtransactions of the same outer transaction
hold different types of locks, and one subtransaction aborts
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg01011.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg01011.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00001.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg00001.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00435.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00435.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow UPDATEs on only non-referential integrity columns not to conflict
with referential integrity locks
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00073.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00073.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add idle_in_transaction_timeout GUC so locks are not held for long
periods of time
</li><li>Improve deadlock detection when a page cleaning lock conflicts
with a shared buffer that is pinned
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-01/msg00138.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-01/msg00138.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00873.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00873.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2008-01/msg00365.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2008-01/msg00365.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_15">Startup Time Improvements</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Experiment with multi-threaded backend for backend creation [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?thread">thread</a>]
<p> 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.
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_16">Write-Ahead Log</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Eliminate need to write full pages to WAL before page modification [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?wal">wal</a>]
<p> 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.
</p>
<ul>
<li>When off, write CRC to WAL and check file system blocks
on recovery
<p> If CRC check fails during recovery, remember the page in case
a later CRC for that page properly matches.
</p>
</li><li>Write full pages during file system write and not when
the page is modified in the buffer cache
<p> 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.
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>Allow WAL traffic to be streamed to another server for stand-by
replication
</li><li>Reduce WAL traffic so only modified values are written rather than
entire rows
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01589.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01589.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow WAL information to recover corrupted pg_controldata
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00025.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-06/msg00025.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Find a way to reduce rotational delay when repeatedly writing
last WAL page
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Allow WAL logging to be turned off for a table, but the table
might be dropped or truncated during crash recovery [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?walcontrol">walcontrol</a>]
<p> 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 [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo? DROP | TRUNCATE | DEFAULT "> DROP | TRUNCATE | DEFAULT </a>]. 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.
</p>
</li><li>Allow WAL logging to be turned off for a table, but the table would
avoid being truncated/dropped [<a href="http://momjian.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/pgtodo?walcontrol">walcontrol</a>]
<p> 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.
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_17">Optimizer / Executor</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Improve selectivity functions for geometric operators
</li><li>Precompile SQL functions to avoid overhead
</li><li>Create utility to compute accurate random_page_cost value
</li><li>Improve ability to display optimizer analysis using OPTIMIZER_DEBUG
</li><li>Have EXPLAIN ANALYZE issue NOTICE messages when the estimated and
actual row counts differ by a specified percentage
</li><li>Consider using hash buckets to do DISTINCT, rather than sorting
<p> This would be beneficial when there are few distinct values. This is
already used by GROUP BY.
</p>
</li><li>Log statements where the optimizer row estimates were dramatically
different from the number of rows actually found?
</li><li>Consider compressed annealing to search for query plans
<p> This might replace GEQO, <a href="http://sixdemonbag.org/Djinni">http://sixdemonbag.org/Djinni</a>.
</p>
</li><li>Improve merge join performance by allowing mark/restore of
tuple sources
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00096.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-01/msg00096.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_18">Miscellaneous Performance</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Do async I/O for faster random read-ahead of data
<p> Async I/O allows multiple I/O requests to be sent to the disk with
results coming back asynchronously.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00820.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00820.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00027.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-12/msg00027.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Use mmap() rather than SYSV shared memory or to write WAL files?
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Consider mmap()'ing files into a backend?
<p> 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 <u>prevent</u> I/O to disk from the dirty shared buffers so changes
could hit disk before WAL is written.
</p>
</li><li>Add a script to ask system configuration questions and tune postgresql.conf
</li><li>Consider ways of storing rows more compactly on disk
<ul>
<li>Reduce the row header size?
</li><li>Consider reducing on-disk varlena length from four bytes to
two because a heap row cannot be more than 64k in length
</li></ul>
</li><li>Consider increasing NUM_CLOG_BUFFERS
</li><li>Consider having the background writer update the transaction status
hint bits before writing out the page
<p> Implementing this requires the background writer to have access to system
catalogs and the transaction status log.
</p>
</li><li>Allow user configuration of TOAST thresholds
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00213.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-02/msg00213.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow configuration of backend priorities via the operating system
<p> Though backend priorities make priority inversion during lock
waits possible, research shows that this is not a huge problem.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-02/msg00493.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2007-02/msg00493.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Experiment with multi-threaded backend better resource utilization
<p> 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.
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_19">Source Code</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Add use of 'const' for variables in source tree
</li><li>Move some things from contrib into main tree
</li><li>%Remove warnings created by -Wcast-align
</li><li>Move platform-specific ps status display info from ps_status.c to ports
</li><li>Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages
</li><li>Improve documentation to build only interfaces (Marc)
</li><li>Remove or relicense modules that are not under the BSD license, if possible
</li><li>Acquire lock on a relation before building a relcache entry for it
</li><li>Allow cross-compiling by generating the zic database on the target system
</li><li>Improve NLS maintenance of libpgport messages linked onto applications
</li><li>Clean up casting in contrib/isn
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00245.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00245.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Use UTF8 encoding for NLS messages so all server encodings can
read them properly
</li><li>Update Bonjour to work with newer cross-platform SDK
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg02238.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-09/msg02238.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-10/msg00048.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-10/msg00048.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider detoasting keys before sorting
</li><li>Consider GnuTLS if OpenSSL license becomes a problem
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-05/msg00040.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-05/msg00040.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01213.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-12/msg01213.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider changing documentation format from SGML to XML
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-docs/2006-12/msg00152.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-docs/2006-12/msg00152.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider making NAMEDATALEN more configurable in future releases
</li><li>Update our code to handle 64-bit timezone files to match the zic
source code, which now uses them
</li><li>Have configure choose integer datetimes by default
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00046.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2007-05/msg00046.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Support scoped IPv6 addresses
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-05/msg00111.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2007-05/msg00111.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider allowing 64-bit integers and floats to be passed by value on
64-bit platforms
<p> Also change 32-bit floats (float4) to be passed by value at the same
time.
</p>
</li><li>Win32
<ul>
<li>Remove configure.in check for link failure when cause is found
</li><li>Remove readdir() errno patch when runtime/mingwex/dirent.c rev
1.4 is released
</li><li>Remove psql newline patch when we find out why mingw outputs an
extra newline
</li><li>Allow psql to use readline once non-US code pages work with
backslashes
</li><li>Fix problem with shared memory on the Win32 Terminal Server
</li><li>Improve signal handling
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-06/msg00027.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2005-06/msg00027.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
</li><li>Wire Protocol Changes
<ul>
<li>Allow dynamic character set handling
</li><li>Add decoded type, length, precision
</li><li>Use compression?
</li><li>Update clients to use data types, typmod, schema.table.column names
of result sets using new statement protocol
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_20">Exotic Features</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>Add pre-parsing phase that converts non-ISO syntax to supported
syntax
<p> This could allow SQL written for other databases to run without
modification.
</p>
</li><li>Allow plug-in modules to emulate features from other databases
</li><li>Add Oracle-style packages (Pavel)
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00384.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00384.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Consider allowing control of upper/lower case folding of unquoted
identifiers
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-04/msg00818.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-04/msg00818.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg01527.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg01527.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Add autonomous transactions
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00893.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00893.php</a>
</p>
</li></ul>
<h1><a name="section_21">Features We Do <u>Not</u> Want</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>All backends running as threads in a single process (not wanted)
<p> 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.
</p>
</li><li>Optimizer hints (not wanted)
<p> Optimizer hints are used to work around problems in the optimizer. We
would rather have the problems reported and fixed.
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00506.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-08/msg00506.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00517.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00517.php</a>
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00663.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-10/msg00663.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Allow AS in "SELECT col AS label" to be optional (not wanted)
<p> Because we support postfix operators, it isn't possible to make AS
optional and continue to use bison.
<a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-04/msg00436.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-04/msg00436.php</a>
</p>
<p> <a href="http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2006-08/msg00164.php">http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2006-08/msg00164.php</a>
</p>
</li><li>Embedded server (not wanted)
<p> 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.</p>
</li></ul>
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