Pgpool-II 4.6.4, 4.5.9, 4.4.14, 4.3.17, and 4.2.24 released
A new batch of Pgpool-II updates has been released, bringing stability and performance enhancements to this PostgreSQL tool. Among them are versions 4.6.4, 4.5.9, 4.4.14, 4.3.17, and 4.2.24.
These new releases cover several versions, 4.6.4 among others, plus updates to older branches up through the changes in the 4.x series (specifically ending support with version 4.2.24 for users on that track). Pgpool-II remains a valuable tool, adding features like connection pooling and load balancing capabilities to PostgreSQL.
Version 4.6.4 introduces a noteworthy change, discontinuing the treatment of application_name. There was an extra bit added earlier to set this value when reusing connections, but it turned out to be unnecessary because other parts of the system (DISCARD ALL followed by send_params()) already handle resetting and setting the required connection information properly.
Then there's a technical tweak related to time calculations in 4.6.4: they switched from using standard long (which might be 32 bits) for these computations to long long. This makes sense, especially considering systems like OpenBSD use very large timestamps (time_t). It helps ensure compatibility down the line when those enormous year values start showing up and prevents potential integer overflow problems on clean 64-bit time_t setups.
Beyond that specific technical change, these releases have addressed several bugs. For instance, a segfault related to CopyOut in extended query mode has been fixed by Tatsuo Ishii. This enhancement is definitely something for those using the advanced features. Furthermore, there's improved handling of watchdog split-brain scenarios, making it more robust.
Other bug fixes tackle specific issues: preventing errors from non-existing prepared statements and fixing problems with certain PostgreSQL connection flags (-p and -P) have both been resolved. Plus, some annoying compilation trouble on 32-bit systems has been sorted out. On the system management side, Taiki Koshino worked on safer directory deletion in a sample file during recovery, while Tatsuo Ishii fixed a potential issue with leftover lock files when pgpool shuts down.
So overall, these updates help keep Pgpool-II stable and smooth for PostgreSQL users. We encourage you to review the release notes. You can access the source code and RPMs here.
