Features:
* The archive-push command is now partially coded in C which allows the PostgreSQL archive_command to run significantly faster when processing status messages from the asynchronous archive process. (Reviewed by Cynthia Shang.)
Improvements:
* Improve check command to verify that the backup manifest can be built. (Contributed by Cynthia Shang.)
* Improve performance of HTTPS client. Buffering now takes the pending bytes on the socket into account (when present) rather than relying entirely on select(). In some instances the final bytes would not be flushed until the connection was closed.
* Improve S3 delete performance. The constant S3_BATCH_MAX had been replaced with a hard-coded value of 2, probably during testing.
* Allow any non-command-line option to be reset to default on the command-line. This allows options in pgbackrest.conf to be reset to default which reduces the need to write new configuration files for specific needs.
* The C library is now required. This eliminates conditional loading and eases development of new library features.
* The pgbackrest executable is now a C binary instead of Perl. This allows certain time-critical commands (like async archive-push) to run more quickly.
* Rename db-* options to pg-* and backup-* options to repo-* to improve consistency. repo-* options are now indexed although currently only one is allowed.
It would be better if the hostnames were also pg1 and pg2 to illustrate that primaries and standbys can change hosts, but at this time the configuration ends up being confusing since pg1, pg2, etc. are also used in the option naming. So, for now leave the names as pg-primary and pg-standby to avoid confusion.
* More optimized container suite that greatly improves build time.
* Added static Debian packages for Devel::Cover to reduce build time.
* Add deprecated state for containers. Deprecated containers may only be used to build packages.
* Remove Debian 8 from CI because it does not provide additional coverage over Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04.
Bug Fixes:
* Fixed the info command so the WAL archive min/max displayed is for the current database version. (Fixed by Cynthia Shang.)
* Fixed the backup command so the backup-standby option is reset (and the backup proceeds on the master) if the standby is not configured and/or reachable. (Fixed by Cynthia Shang.)
* Fixed config warnings raised from a remote process causing errors in the master process. (Fixed by Cynthia Shang.)
Features:
* Amazon S3 repository support. (Reviewed by Cynthia Shang.)
Refactoring:
* Refactor storage layer to allow for new repository filesystems using drivers. (Reviewed by Cynthia Shang.)
* Refactor IO layer to allow for new compression formats, checksum types, and other capabilities using filters. (Reviewed by Cynthia Shang.)
* Move modules in Protocol directory in subdirectories.
* Move backup modules into Backup directory.
Refactor storage layer to allow for new repository filesystems using drivers. (Reviewed by Cynthia Shang.)
Refactor IO layer to allow for new compression formats, checksum types, and other capabilities using filters. (Reviewed by Cynthia Shang.)
Making this dynamic in commit 5d2e792 broke doc builds from cache. The long-term solution is to create a special user for doc builds but that’s beyond the scope of this release.
The stanza-upgrade command provides a mechanism for upgrading a stanza after upgrading to a new major version of PostgreSQL.
Contributed by Cynthia Shang.
This option allows pgBackRest to validate page checksums in data files when checksums are enabled on PostgreSQL >= 9.3. Note that this functionality requires a C library which may not initially be available in OS packages. The option will automatically be enabled when the library is present and checksums are enabled on the cluster.
Bug Fixes:
* Fixed and issue that suppressed exceptions in PDF builds.
Features:
* Allow a source to be included as a section so large documents can be broken up.
* Added section link support to Markdown output.
* Added list support to PDF output.
* Added include option to explicitly build sources (complements the exclude option though both cannot be used in the same invocation).
* Added keyword-add option to add keywords without overriding the default keyword.
* Added debug option to doc.pl to easily add the debug keyword to documentation builds.
* Added pre option to doc.pl to easily add the pre keyword to documentation builds.
Refactoring:
* Improvements to markdown rendering.
* Remove code dependency on project variable, instead use title param.
This regression was introduced in v1.09 and affected efficiency only, all WAL segments were correctly archived in asynchronous mode.
Reported by Stephen Frost.
Controls whether console log messages are sent to stderr or stdout. By default this is set to warn which represents a change in behavior from previous versions, even though it may be more intuitive. Setting log-level-stderr=off will preserve the old behavior.
Suggested by Sascha Biberhofer.
* Fixed an issue where retention-archive was not automatically being set when retention-archive-type=diff, resulting in a less aggressive than intended expiration of archive.
* Additional warnings when archive retention settings may not have the intended effect or would allow indefinite retention.
* Closed#235: "Retention policy question" by adding documentation for archive retention.
Contributed by Cynthia Shang.
A connection to the primary cluster is still required to start/stop the backup and copy files that are not replicated, but the vast majority of files are copied from the standby in order to reduce load on the master.
Master and standby can both be configured on the backup server and pgBackRest will automatically determine which is the master. This means no configuration changes for backup are required after failing over from a master to standby when a separate backup server is used.
* Make the code more modular and object-oriented.
* Multiple Docker containers can now be created for a single test to simulate more realistic environments.
* Containers now use a squid proxy for apt/yum to speed builds.
* Obsolete containers are removed by the <br-option>--vm-force</br-option> option.
* Greatly reduced the quantity of Docker containers built by default. Containers are only built for PostgreSQL versions specified in db-minimal and those required to build documentation. Additional containers can be built with --db-version=all or by specifying a version, e.g. --db-version=9.4.
Allow hidden options to be added to a command. This allows certain commands (like apt-get) to be forced during the build without making that a part of the documentation.
* Recommended install location for pgBackRest modules is now /usr/share/perl5 since /usr/lib/perl5 has been removed from the search path in newer versions of Perl.
* Added instructions for removing prior versions of pgBackRest.
Added an execution cache so that documentation can be generated without setting up the full container environment. This is useful for packaging, keeps the documentation consistent for a release, and speeds up generation when no changes are made in the execution list.
This feature can result in major space and time savings when only specific databases are restored. Unrestored databases will not be accessible but must be manually dropped before they will be removed from the shared catalogue.
Added a note to documentation that only 64-bit distributions are supported. It seems unlikely that anybody would be running a production server on anything else these days so we'll wait for a field report before taking further action.
* All files and directories linked from PGDATA are now included in the backup. By default links will be restored directly into PGDATA as files or directories. The --link-all option can be used to restore all links to their original locations. The --link-map option can be used to remap a link to a new location.
* Removed --tablespace option and replaced with --tablespace-map-all option which should more clearly indicate its function.
* Added detail log level which will output more information than info without being as verbose as debug.
* The repo-path option now always refers to the repository where backups and archive are stored, whether local or remote, so the repo-remote-path option has been removed. The new spool-path option can be used to define a location for queueing WAL segments when archiving asynchronously. Otherwise, a local repository is no longer required.
* Implemented a new config format which should be far simpler to use. See the User Guide and Configuration Reference for details but for a simple configuration all options can now be placed in the stanza section. Options that are shared between stanzas can be placed in the [global] section. More complex configurations can still make use of command sections though this should be a rare use case.
* The default configuration filename is now pgbackrest.conf instead of pg_backrest.conf. This was done for consistency with other naming changes but also to prevent old config files from being loaded accidentally.
* The default repository name was changed from /var/lib/backup to /var/lib/pgbackrest.
* Lock files are now stored in /tmp/pgbackrest by default. These days /run/pgbackrest would be the preferred location but that would require init scripts which are not part of this release. The lock-path option can be used to configure the lock directory.
* Log files are now stored in /var/log/pgbackrest by default and no longer have the date appended so they can be managed with logrotate. The log-path option can be used to configure the lock directory.
* Executable filename changed from pg_backrest to pgbackrest.
This makes make the migrated file functions available to parts of the code that don't have access to a File object. They still exist as wrappers in the File object to support remote calls.
Fixed an issue where document generation failed because some OSs are not tolerant of having multiple installed versions of PostgreSQL. A separate VM is now created for each version. Also added a sleep after database starts during document generation to ensure the database is running before the next command runs.
Reported by John Harvey.
1) Started on a general markdown renderer
2) Internal links now work in PDF
3) Improvements to PDF styling
4) Some comment and formatting fixes
5) User guide edits.