[Pgpool-general] pgpool-II 3.1.0 alpha2 released

[Toshihiro Kitagawa]

Pgpool Global Development Group is pleased to announce the
availability of pgpool-II 3.1.0 alpha2.

Users are encouraged to take part in our alpha test program.
pgpool-II 3.1.0 alpha2 can be down loaded here:

http://pgfoundry.org/frs/download.php/3024/pgpool-II-3.1.0-alpha2.tar.gz

Attached are release note of pgpool-II 3.1.0 alpha2.
Please help us in testing and making pgpool-II 3.1 better!

Incompatible changes
====================

- Deprecate backend_socket_dir. Instead, if backend_hostname starts
  with '/' it is regarded the as path to Unix domain. If backend_hostname
  is left empty, then default Unix domain path(/tmp) is used. This
  follows the convention of libpq interface. Patch contributed by
  Jehan-Guillaume (ioguix) de Rorthais. Additional fixes by me(Tatsuo)

- Enhance online recovery in streaming replication mode.
  Now restarting pgpool-II children is avoided when recovery finished. So
  existing sessions can be continued while doing online recovery(Tatsuo)

- Now "pgpool_walrecrunning()" was not used. pgpool-II used to consider
  the node that is promoted a primary node using the function. Now,
  pgpool-II waits for completing of the promotion to primary node
  because it did not work as we intended. But we still have a problem
  that pgpool-II waits while recovery_timeout, when there is no primary
  node(Kitagawa)

- Add node_id to each PostgreSQL DB node info in the output of
  show pool_nodes. Patch contributed by Jean-Paul Argudo(Gleu)

New features
============

- Add syslog support. Patch contributed by Gilles Darold. Review and
  editing by Guillaume Lelarge(Tatsuo)

- Adapt application_name introduced in PostgreSQL 9.0. When reusing
  connection, send application_name in the startup packet to backend
  and send parameter status to frontend(Tatsuo)

- Add relcache_expire directive to control the expiration of the
  internal system catalog cache. ALTER TABLE might make these
  cache values obsoleted and the new directive will make the risk
  lower(Tatsuo).

- Add follow_master_command directive. This directive specifies a
  command to run in master/slave streaming replication only after
  a master failover. Patch contributed by Gilles Darold(Kitagawa)

- Add pcp_promote_node command. This command promotes a new master
  node to pgpool-II. This can use in master/slave streaming replication
  only. Patch contributed by Gilles Darold(Kitagawa)

- Add pcp_pool_status command which produces similar output of show
  pool_status. Also C API for this command is added. Patch
  contributed by Jehan-Guillaume (ioguix) de Rorthais(Tatsuo)

Bug fixes
=========

- Fix pgpool-regclass() to be compiled in PostgreSQL 8.0 or later.
  7.4 still produces errors(Tatsuo)

- Fix possible hangup when using /*NO LOAD BALANCE*/ comment in
  streaming replication(Kitagawa)

- Fix hangup when received Flush(H) message or CloseComplete(C)
  message(Kitagawa)

- Fix possible hangup that happen for the receiving timing of
  ReadyForQuery(Z) message after pgpool-II connects to backends(Kitagawa)

- Add description about parameters for recovery_1st_stage_command and
  recovery_2nd_stage_command(Tatsuo)

- Increase size of the internal system catalog cache from 32 to 128.
  This has the effect of reducing "unnamed prepared statement does not
  exist" error(Tatsuo, Kitagawa)

- Fix bug with pcp_connect() which causes double free. Patch contributed 
  by Jehan-Guillaume (ioguix) de Rorthais(Tatsuo)

- Fix bug with start_recoery() which is apparently wrong usage of
  PQfinish()(Tatsuo)

Enhancements
============

- Import PostgreSQL 9.0 parser. This allows to use CREATE INDEX with
  implicit index name, which is new in 9.0. Patch contributed by
  Akio Ishida(Tatsuo)

- Allow to use regular expressions in black and white function list.
  Patch contributed by Gilles Darold. Patch reviewd by Guillaume Lelarge
  (Tatsuo)

- Reorganize pgpool.conf sample files so that they are easier to read
  (Gleu)

- Add <a name="..."> tags into all parameters in the pgpool-II user
  manual(Haruka Takatsuka)

- Enhance online recovery documents in streaming replication(Tatsuo)