PostgreSQL 8.0

• Release notes
• Released: 2005-01-19 (announcement)
• Final minor version: 8.0.26
• EOL: 2010-10

Major features

• tablespaces introduced (initial commit 2467394e)
• native Windows support added (initial commit 1a7f4ed5)
• ALTER TABLE improvements (see section SQL changes; initial commit 077db40f)
• savepoints (initial commit 573a71a5)
• archive recovery/Point-In-Time Recovery (initial commit 66ec2db7)
• built-in log rotation (commit bdf8ef69)

Backend changes

General

• background writer added (initial commit cfeca621)
• dollar quoting support added (commit 58e70532)

Planner

• able to fold "stable" functions to constants when forming selectivity estimates (commit 9a633cbb)

SPI

• following functions added (commit 65a0db19):
  • SPI_getargtypeid()
  • SPI_getargcount()
  • SPI_is_cursor_plan()

Vacuuming

• cost-based vacuum delay feature added (commit f425b605)

WAL

• concept of timelines added (commit 2042b342)

Data type changes

• IPV6 support added to inet and cidr data types (commit 945543d9)

SQL changes

General

• SQL expressions can contain arbitrary row expresssions (commit 2f63232d)

Added:

• ALTER INDEX (commit 09d4e96d)
• ALTER OPERATOR (commit 0adfa2c3)
• ALTER TABLESPACE (commit 0adfa2c3)
• ALTER TYPE (commit 0adfa2c3)
• CREATE TABLESPACE (commit 2467394e)
• RELEASE SAVEPOINT (initial commit cc813fc2)
• ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT (initial commit cc813fc2)
• ROW() constructor (commit 2f63232d)
• SAVEPOINT (initial commit cc813fc2)

Modified:

• ALTER AGGREGATE
  • ALTER AGGREGATE ... OWNER TO ... syntax added (commit 0adfa2c3)
• ALTER CONVERSION
  • ALTER CONVERSION ... OWNER TO ... syntax added (commit 0adfa2c3)
• ALTER DATABASE
  • ALTER DATABASE ... OWNER TO ... syntax added (commit cfbfdc55)
• ALTER FUNCTION
  • ALTER FUNCTION ... OWNER TO ... syntax added (commit 0adfa2c3)
• ALTER OPERATOR CLASS
  • ALTER OPERATOR CLASS ... OWNER TO ... syntax added (commit 0adfa2c3)
• ALTER SCHEMA
  • ALTER SCHEMA ... OWNER TO ... syntax added (commit 0adfa2c3)
• ALTER TABLE
  • ALTER TABLE ... ADD COLUMN with defaults and NOT NULL constraints (commit 077db40f)
  • ALTER TABLE ... SET TABLESPACE ... syntax added (commit af4de814)
  • ALTER TABLE ... SET WITHOUT CLUSTER syntax added (commit 1cdc5872)
  • column types can be altered (commit 077db40f)
  • multiple ALTER actions in a single ALTER TABLE command supported (commit 077db40f)
• COMMENT ON
  • COMMENT ON CAST added (commit 42ce74bf)
  • COMMENT ON CONVERSION added (commit 42ce74bf)
  • COMMENT ON LARGE OBJECT added (commit 42ce74bf)
  • COMMENT ON OPERATOR CLASS added (commit 42ce74bf)
  • COMMENT ON [ PROCEDURAL ] LANGUAGE added (commit 42ce74bf)
• COPY
  • CSV option added (commit 862b20b3)
• CREATE DATABASE
  • option TABLESPACE added to define the default tablespace for the database (commit 2467394e)
  • LOCATION option removed (commit 2467394e)
• CREATE INDEX
  • option TABLESPACE added (commit 2467394e)
• CREATE RULE
  • ALSO keyword added (commit 943eae92)
• CREATE TABLE
  • CREATE TABLE ... TABLESPACE ... syntax added (commit 2467394e)
  • USING INDEX TABLESPACE ... syntax added (commit f0efe264)
• CREATE TABLE AS
  • options WITH / WITHOUT OIDS added (commit 98dcf085)
• CREATE TYPE
  • option ANALYZE added (commit 69946411)
• EXECUTE
  • now returns a completion tag that matches the executed statement (commit 914042fe)
• GRANT
  • GRANT ... ON TABLESPACE syntax added (commit 2467394e)
• LOCK
  • option NOWAIT added (initial commit 0b86ade1)

System catalogue changes

Tables

Added:

• pg_tablespace (commit 2467394e)

Modified:

• pg_amproc
  • column amprocsubtype added (commit fa5c8a05)
• pg_attribute
  • column attisset removed (commit 375369ac)
• pg_database
  • column dattablespace added (commit 2467394e)
  • column datpath removed (commit 2467394e)

Views

Modified:

• pg_indexes
  • column tablespace added (commit 4690cc9c)
• pg_settings
  • following columns added (commit 66989aa2)
    • category
    • short_desc
    • extra_desc
• pg_tables
  • column tablespace added (commit 4690cc9c)
• pg_type
  • column typanalyze added (commit 69946411)

System functions

Added:

• bit_and() (commit 8096fe45)
• bit_or() (commit 8096fe45)
• bool_and() (commit 8096fe45)
• bool_or() (commit 8096fe45)
• ceiling() (commit fc7fd501)
• family() (commit 945543d9)
• generate_series() (commit 12661642)
• inet_client_addr() (commit 97d625dd)
• inet_client_port() (commit 97d625dd)
• inet_server_addr() (commit 97d625dd)
• inet_server_port() (commit 97d625dd)
• has_tablespace_privilege() (commit e47cbb3b)
• pg_cancel_backend() (commit e8d9d68c)
• pg_get_serial_sequence() (commit a0e842d8)
• pg_start_backup() (commit 58c41712)
• pg_stop_backup() (commit 58c41712)
• pg_tablespace_databases() (commit 0b89d261)
• pg_terminate_backend() (commit e8d9d68c)
• width_bucket() (commit commit|]0079547bcbedff2a653204571c3cda22c35907d4])

Modified:

• date_trunc()
  • week added as supported field value (commit 19739718)
• factorial()
  • return type changed to numeric (commit 04a4821a)
• length()
  • now disregards trailing whitespace in char values (commit f27976c8)
• to_ascii()
  • support for the LATIN9 encoding added (commit ed068249)

Configuration changes

Added:

• archive_command (commit 66ec2db7)
• block_size (commit 66989aa2)
• data_directory (commit 130f89e9)
• default_tablespace (commit 98e8b480)
• default_with_oids (commit 7ce9b7c0)
• external_pid_file (initial commit 130f89e9)
• hba_file (initial commit 130f89e9)
• ident_file (initial commit 130f89e9)
• integer_datetimes (commit 66989aa2)
• listen_addresses (commit 2e45c143)
• log_destination (commit 6165bbab)
• log_disconnections (commit c53611e3)
• log_directory (commit bdf8ef69)
• log_filename (commit bdf8ef69)
• log_line_prefix (commit 2d3fe86b)
• log_rotation_age (commit bdf8ef69)
• log_rotation_size (commit bdf8ef69)
• log_truncate_on_rotation (commit 8c603f2c)
• maintenance_work_mem (renamed from vacuum_mem; commit 391c3811)
• max_function_args (commit 66989aa2)
• max_identifier_length (commit 66989aa2)
• max_index_keys (commit 66989aa2)
• max_stack_depth (commit 8899a2ab)
• redirect_stderr (commit bdf8ef69)
• vacuum_cost_delay (commit f425b605)
• vacuum_cost_limit (commit f425b605)
• vacuum_cost_page_dirty (commit f425b605)
• vacuum_cost_page_hit (commit f425b605)
• vacuum_cost_page_miss (commit f425b605)
• work_mem (renamed from sort_mem; commit 391c3811)

Modified:

• log_statement
  • changed from boolean to enum with possible values none, ddl, mod, all (commit 6a25c6e1)

Deprecated:

• sort_mem (replaced by work_mem; commit 391c3811)

Removed:

• max_expr_depth (commit 8899a2ab)
• tcpip_socket (replaced by listen_addresses; commit 2e45c143))
• vacuum_mem (renamed to maintenance_work_mem; commit 391c3811)
• virtual_host (replaced by listen_addresses; commit 2e45c143))

Replication changes

Configuration

Added:

• recovery_target_inclusive (commit 66ec2db7)
• recovery_target_time (commit 66ec2db7)
• recovery_target_timeline (commit 2042b342)
• recovery_target_xid (commit 66ec2db7)

Procedual language changes

PL/pgSQL

• ELSEIF permitted as an alternative to ELSIF (commit 480777e5)
• NULL statement added (commit 64410289)
• support for EXCEPTION clauses added (initial commit beda4814)
• FOR loop syntax improvements (commit a72dd7a9)

PL/Perl

• following improvements (commit 1732cb0d):
  • shared data space and namespace
  • support for triggers
  • records can now be returned as hash references
  • new function spi_exec_query()
  • PL/Perl functions can return RECORD and SETOF RECORD

libpq changes

• PQcancel() function added (commit 44e8a968)
• PQprepare()/PQsendPrepared() functions added (commit 9d9cfb1a)
• PQserverVersion() added (commit f79fbb2b)

information schema changes

• support for named parameters in information_schema.parameters (commit 9d888807)

Server utilities

Modified:

• initdb
  • converted from a shell script to a fully-fledged C program (initial commit: 279598bb)
  • option --pwfile added, intended for use by tools which call initdb (commit 1b80b6da)
• pg_ctl
  • converted from a shell script to a fully-fledged C program (commit f3d6d948)
  • pg_ctl can no longer be executed by the root user (commit c58675b4)
  • register and kill options added for Windows support (commit f8dd00c3)
• pg_resetxlog
  • execution as root user prohibited (commit 75e39c44)

Core utilities

Modified:

• pg_dump
  • start/stop times shown when -v/--verbose option used (commit 91366138)
• pg_dumpall
  • support for pg_dump options -S/--superuser, -O/--no-owner, -X disable-dollar-quoting/--disable-dollar-quoting and -X disable-triggers/--disable-triggers added (commit a0db74a3)
  • start/stop times shown when -v/--verbose option used (commit 91366138)
• pg_restore
  • option -e/--exit-on-error added (commit daa076c4)
  • option --use-set-session-authorization added (commit dc0e76ca)

psql

•  able to handle tilde user expansion for filenames (commit 55a92063)

Contrib modules

Added:

• pg_trgm (commit cbfa4092)

Modified:

• btree_gist
  • revised version with support for a wide range of data types (commit 42d06988)
• dblink
  • general overhaul (commit 6a1e2b3c)
• dbsize
  • following functions added (commit 528ac10c):
    • pg_database_size()
    • pg_relation_size()
    • pg_tablespace_size()
• fuzzystrmatch
  • dmetaphone() and dmetaphone_alt() functions added (commit 13629df5)
• pg_autovacuum
  • following options added (commit c47fc6d0):
    • -c (vacuum_cost_delay)
    • -C (vacuum_cost_page_hit)
    • -m (vacuum_cost_page_miss)
    • -n (vacuum_cost_page_dirty)
    • -N (vacuum_cost_limit)

Other

• pg_test_fsync added as an internal tool (commit 9f2696f2)
• PGXS added (commit adf57cd7)