Thread: upgrade?

upgrade?

From
Jodi Kanter
Date:
We are still running 7.1.3. Can anyone highlight the big differences or reasons to upgrade? Is there some documentation on this?
Thanks
Jodi

_______________________________
Jodi L Kanter
BioInformatics Database Administrator
University of Virginia
(434) 924-2846
jkanter@virginia.edu


 

 

 

Re: upgrade?

From
Tom Lane
Date:
Jodi Kanter <jkanter@virginia.edu> writes:
> We are still running 7.1.3. Can anyone highlight the big differences or rea=
> sons to upgrade? Is there some documentation on this?

The release notes always mention the main improvements.  Quoting from
http://www.ca.postgresql.org/users-lounge/docs/7.2/postgres/release.html:


Major changes in this release:

VACUUM

     Vacuuming no longer locks tables, thus allowing normal user access during the vacuum. A new VACUUM FULL
     command does old-style vacuum by locking the table and shrinking the on-disk copy of the table.

Transactions

     There is no longer a problem with installations that exceed four billion transactions.

OID's

     OID's are now optional. Users can now create tables without OID's for cases where OID usage is excessive.

Optimizer

     The system now computes histogram column statistics during ANALYZE, allowing much better optimizer choices.

Security

     A new MD5 encryption option allows more secure storage and transfer of passwords. A new Unix-domain socket
     authentication option is available on Linux and BSD systems.

Statistics

     Administrators can use the new table access statistics module to get fine-grained information about table and
     index usage.

Internationalization

     Program and library messages can now be displayed in several languages.


            regards, tom lane

Re: upgrade?

From
"Gareth Kirwan"
Date:
Yes there is documentation, yes there are changes.
if you're happy with what you're on, don't bother.
The main change I noticed was that it no longer allows the illegal syntax of  = NULL
( I KNOW I KNOW, but I liked using it! :p)
 
 
From the History file in Redhat RPM documentation for 7.2
 
Overview
 
   This release improves PostgreSQL for use in high-volume applications.
 
   Major changes in this release:
 
   VACUUM
 
           Vacuuming no longer locks tables, thus allowing normal user access
           during the vacuum. A new "VACUUM FULL" command does old-style
           vacuum by locking the table and shrinking the on-disk copy of the
           table.
 
   Transactions
 
           There is no longer a problem with installations that exceed four
           billion transactions.
 
   OID's
 
           OID's are now optional. Users can now create tables without OID's
           for cases where OID usage is excessive.
 
   Optimizer
 
           The system now computes histogram column statistics during
           "ANALYZE", allowing much better optimizer choices.
 
   Security
 
           A new MD5 encryption option allows more secure storage and
           transfer of passwords. A new Unix-domain socket authentication
           option is available on Linux and BSD systems.
 
   Statistics
 
           Administrators can use the new table access statistics module to
           get fine-grained information about table and index usage.
 
   Internationalization
 
           Program and library messages can now be displayed in several
           languages.
 
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Migration to version 7.2
 
   A dump/restore using "pg_dump" is required for those wishing to migrate
   data from any previous release.
 
   Observe the following incompatibilities:
 
     * The semantics of the "VACUUM" command have changed in this release.
       You may wish to update your maintenance procedures accordingly.
 
     * In this release, comparisons using = NULL will always return false (or
       NULL, more precisely). Previous releases automatically transformed
       this syntax to IS NULL. The old behavior can be re-enabled using a
       "postgresql.conf" parameter.
 
     * The "pg_hba.conf" and "pg_ident.conf" configuration is now only
       reloaded after receiving a SIGHUP signal, not with each connection.
 
     * The function "octet_length()" now returns the uncompressed data
       length.
 
     * The date/time value 'current' is no longer available. You will need to
       rewrite your applications.
 
     * The timestamp() function is no longer available.  Use timestamp
       'string' instead, or CAST.
 
   The SELECT ... LIMIT #,# syntax will be removed in the next release. You
   should change your queries to use separate LIMIT and OFFSET clauses, e.g.
   LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20.
-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org]On Behalf Of Jodi Kanter
Sent: 13 May 2002 15:39
To: Postgres Admin List
Subject: [ADMIN] upgrade?

We are still running 7.1.3. Can anyone highlight the big differences or reasons to upgrade? Is there some documentation on this?
Thanks
Jodi

_______________________________
Jodi L Kanter
BioInformatics Database Administrator
University of Virginia
(434) 924-2846
jkanter@virginia.edu