during it:

When bgwriter is active, the startup process can't perform mdsync() correctly
because it won't see the fsync requests accumulated in bgwriter's private
pendingOpsTable. Therefore make bgwriter responsible for the end-of-recovery
checkpoint as well, when it's active.

When bgwriter is active (= archive recovery), the startup process must not
accumulate fsync requests to its own pendingOpsTable, since bgwriter won't
see them there when it performs restartpoints. Make startup process drop its
pendingOpsTable when bgwriter is launched to avoid that.

Update minimum recovery point one last time when leaving archive recovery.
It won't be updated by the end-of-recovery checkpoint because XLogFlush()
sees us as out of recovery already.

This fixes bug #4879 reported by Fujii Masao.

links work.

acting like runs inside WAL recovery, but it doesn't. I must've copy-pasted
this from a redo-function in the relation forks patch. Noticed by Tom Lane
while he was looking through callers of smgrdounlink().

file to be a symlink. We tried to fix this issue with an earlier server-side
patch, but it didn't fix the whole issue.

The same bug is present in older releases as well, but the 8.4 train is
about to leave the station, and I'm not sure if have consensus on whether
we can remove the -l option in back-branches or do we need to attempt a
server-side fix to make symlinking safe.

Patch by Simon Riggs, per discussion on bug identified by Fujii Masao.

we already do it for PAM.

return value in the *error_p variable.

Noted by Tom.

section of the docs.  Per suggestion from Brad Bowman.

most external engines.

Per report and initial code from Lars Kanis

a number of other geometric operators also depend on.  It miscalculated the
slope of the perpendicular to the given line segment anytime that slope was
other than 0, infinite, or +/-1.  In some cases the error would be masked
because the true closest point on the line segment was one of its endpoints
rather than the intersection point, but in other cases it could give an
arbitrarily bad answer.  Per bug #4872 from Nick Roosevelt.

Bug goes clear back to Berkeley days, so patch all supported branches.
Make a couple of cosmetic adjustments while at it.

used to work as intended, but got broken some time ago (a quoted empty string
is not an empty string), and got broken some more by the changes to generate
ecpg's preproc.y automatically.  Given all the unprotected uses of $(PERL)
elsewhere, it seems best to make use of the $(missing) script rather than
trying to ensure each such use is protected individually.  Also fix various
bits of documentation that omitted to mention Perl as a requirement for
building from a CVS pull.  Per a complaint from Robert Haas.

bundle RC2

of the 256KB limit originally enforced by a patch committed 2008-11-06.
Per recent test results, the smaller size resulted in an undesirable decrease
in bulk data loading speed, due to COPY processing frequently getting blocked
for WAL flushing.  This area might need more tweaking later, but this setting
seems to be good enough for 8.4.

even when not in FM mode.  This improves compatibility with Oracle and with
our pre-8.4 behavior, as per bug #4862.

Brendan Jurd

Add a couple of regression test cases for this.  In passing, get rid of the
labeling of the individual test cases; doesn't seem to be good for anything
except causing extra work when inserting a test...

Tom Lane

per David Wheeler

ArrayBuildState, per trouble report from Merlin Moncure.  By adopting
this fix, we are essentially deciding that aggregate final-functions
should not modify their inputs ever.  Adjust documentation and comments
to match that conclusion.

fixed up in the .so links.

This is pretty much a workaround for incomplete tools, but having the man
page names in upper case looks more natural anyway.

per Erik Rijkers

variables. Remove the confusing term "reference cursor".

visibilitymap.c by me.

types in CREATE TRIGGER.  While at it, clean up the amazingly tedious and
inextensible way that the trigger event type list was handled.  Per report
from Greg Sabino Mullane.

Most of those changes were good, but some not so good ...

aggregated tuple of a run.  Per report from Laurenz Albe.  This is a new
bug in 8.4, but only because prior versions rejected SRFs in an Agg plan
node altogether.

This prevents autovacuum from reclaiming free space in them and causing
the test's output row order to change, which is causing intermittent
bogus failure reports in the buildfarm.

Backpatch to 8.3.  The issue exists further back, but since autovacuum was
not on by default before 8.3, it's not a problem for buildfarm testing.

via hashing.  Eventually we ought to make that possible, but it won't happen
for 8.4.  Per yesterday's report from Robert Haas.

on hackers.  Also, take that string out of the translation roster, since
it's now entirely pseudo-SQL.

Dimitri Fontaine

without static.  Per testing with a compiler that complains about this.

time to tag rc1 ...