Bug Fixes:
* Fixed an issue where keep-alives could be starved out by lots of small files during multi-threaded backup. They were also completely absent from single/multi-threaded backup resume and restore checksumming. (Reported by Janice Parkinson, Chris Barber.)
* Fixed an issue where the expire command would refuse to run when explicitly called from the command line if the db-host option was set. This was not an issue when expire was run automatically after a backup (Reported by Chris Barber.)
* Fixed an issue where validation was being running on archive_command even when the archive-check option was disabled.
Features:
* Added check command to validate that pgBackRest is configured correctly for archiving and backups. (Contributed by Cynthia Shang.)
* Added the protocol-timeout option. Previously protocol-timeout was set as db-timeout + 30 seconds.
* Failure to shutdown remotes at the end of the backup no longer throws an exception. Instead a warning is generated that recommends a higher protocol-timeout.
* Experimental support for non-exclusive backups in PostgreSQL 9.6 beta2. Changes to the control/catalog/WAL versions in subsequent betas may break compatibility but pgBackRest will be updated with each release to keep pace.
Refactoring:
* The pg_xlogfile_name() function is no longer used to construct WAL filenames from LSNs. While this function is convenient it is not available on a standby. Instead, the archive is searched for the LSN in order to find the timeline. If due to some misadventure the LSN appears on multiple timelines then an error will be thrown, whereas before this condition would have passed unnoticed.
* Option handling is now far more strict. Previously it was possible for a command to use an option that was not explicitly assigned to it. This was especially true for the backup-host and db-host options which are used to determine locality.
* Improved handling of users/groups captured during backup that do not exist on the restore host. Also explicitly handle the case where user/group is not mapped to a name.
* Changed version variable to a constant. It had originally been designed to play nice with a specific packaging tool but that tool was never used.
Improved handling of users/groups captured during backup that do not exist on the restore host. Also explicitly handle the case where user/group is not mapped to a name.
This was worked out as part of the test suite refactor [c8f806a] but not committed with it because of the large number of expect logs changes involved. Keeping them separate made it easier to audit the changes in the refactor.
* Make the code more modular and object-oriented.
* Multiple Docker containers can now be created for a single test to simulate more realistic environments.
The pg_xlogfile_name() function is no longer used to construct WAL filenames from LSNs. While this function is convenient it is not available on a standby. Instead, the archive is searched for the LSN in order to find the timeline. If due to some misadventure the LSN appears on multiple timelines then an error will be thrown, whereas before this condition would have passed unnoticed.
* Fixed an issue where keep-alives could be starved out by lots of small files during multi-threaded operation and were completely absent during single-threaded operation when resuming from a previous incomplete backup.
Reported by Janice Parkinson.
* Added the protocol-timeout option. Previously protocol-timeout was set as db-timeout + 30 seconds.
* Failure to shutdown remotes at the end of the backup no longer throws an exception. A warning is still generated that recommends a higher protocol-timeout.
* Fixed an issue where the expire command would refuse to run when explicitly called from the command line if the db-host option was set. This was not an issue when expire was run after a backup, which is the usual case.
* Option handling is now far more strict. Previously it was possible for a command to use an option that was not explicitly assigned to it. This was especially true for the backup-host and db-host options which are used to determine locality.
Reported by Chris Barber.
* 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.
* Fix usage of sprintf() due to new constraints in Perl 5.22. Parameters not referenced in the format string are no longer allowed. (Fixed by Adrian Vondendriesch.)
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.
Release notes are now broken into sections so that bugs, features, and refactors are clearly delineated. An "Additional Notes" section has been added for changes to documentation and the test suite that do not affect the core code.
The change log was the last piece of documentation to be rendered in Markdown only. Wrote a converter so the document can be output by the standard renderers. The change log will now be located on the website and has been renamed to "Releases".
Somewhere between perl 5.14 and 5.20, constructs like this:
perl -e '$a = {}; keys $a'
started to throw warnings:
keys on reference is experimental at -e line 1.
Fix by adding a bunch of %{} and @{} casts.
* Enhanced text output of `info` command to include timestamps, sizes, and the reference list for all backups. Contributed by Cynthia Shang.
* Allow selective restore of databases from a cluster backup. 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.
* Experimental support for non-exclusive backups in PostgreSQL 9.6 beta1. Changes to the control/catalog/WAL versions in subsequent betas may break compatibility but pgBackRest will be updated with each release to keep pace.
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.