- [PR #1266](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1266), [PR #1268](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1268): Add network information to `/status`.
This release adds a new HTTP endpoint, located at `/db/request`. This endpoint accepts both read and write requests, including mixing both together in a single request. When requests are sent to this endpoint, rqlite will automatically perform the correct operation for each SQL statement in the request. This endpoint may be more convenient for some use cases, and means that client code doesn't have to decide on whether it should send requests to `/db/execute` or `/db/query`.
7.18.0 also includes some small improvements to [diagnostics and instrumentation](https://rqlite.io/docs/guides/monitoring-rqlite/).
- [PR #1256](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1256), [PR #1258](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1258), [PR #1260](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1260), [PR #1261](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1261), [PR #1265](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1265): Support a _Unified Endpoint_, which can accept both read and write requests. Fixes [issue #263](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/263).
- [PR #1253](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1253): Node optionally removes itself from the cluster automatically when gracefully shutting down. See the [documentation](https://rqlite.io/docs/clustering/general-guidelines/#removing-a-node-automatically-on-shutdown) for full details.
This release introduces the ability for a node to automatically recover from a backup in AWS S3. See the [documentation](https://rqlite.io/docs/guides/backup/#restoring-from-cloud-storage) for full details.
- [PR #1243](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1243): Support automatically restoring from AWS S3. Thanks to [VOXO](https://voxo.co/) for funding this development.
- [PR #1229](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1229), [PR #1232](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1232): Add support for automatic backups to AWS S3. Many thanks to [VOXO](https://voxo.co/) for funding this development.
This release is the first to includes various bug fixes and optimizations thanks to running much of the code through [Chat GPT-4](https://openai.com/product/gpt-4), most of which are not explicitly listed in the [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/edit/master/CHANGELOG.md), but you can check the commit history for details. Future releases of rqlite will probably include more such changes.
- [PR #1178](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1178): Fix parsing of Named Parameters with `NULL` as value. Fixes [issue #1177](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/1177). Thanks @wellescastro
This release sees the addition of mutual TLS support, and corrects some other issues related to the use of TLS and Certificate Authority configuration.
- [PR #1171](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1171): Support mutual TLS for both HTTP connections and inter-node traffic. See [issue #1167](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/1167). Thanks @otto-dev
- [f6c4b17](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/commit/f6c4b17a727809696f952a018b2262681932f521): By default, Leader node will stepdown if that node is shutting down.
- [PR #1116](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1116), [PR #1117](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1117): Support associative form for query responses. Fixes [issue #1115](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/1115).
- [PR #1097](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1097), [PR #1110](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1100): Start HTTP server as soon as possible after launch.
This release addresses a shortcoming in inter-node communications. Nodes now consistently encode the length of those communications using 8-byte values. **If any node in a cluster is upgraded to this release, then all nodes in that cluster should be**.
This release makes it more convenient to load SQLite files directly into rqlite, as any node can now process the request. For this to work however, all nodes in your cluster must be running 7.9.0 (or later). Otherwse 7.9.0 is fully compatible with earlier release, so a rolling upgrade process is an option.
This release makes it more convenient to retrieve a backup. Now any node can provide a backup of the underlying SQLite database. For this to work however, all nodes in your cluster must be running 7.8.0 (or later). Otherwse 7.8.0 is fully compatible with earlier release, so a rolling upgrade process is an option.
- [PR #1074](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1074): Support `NULL` as a paramterized value. Fixes [issue #1073](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/1073)
This release adds support for SQLite [`RANDOM()`](https://www.sqlite.org/deterministic.html), the first such [support for non-deterministic functions](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/NON_DETERMINISTIC_FUNCTIONS.md). It does this via statement-rewriting.
- [PR #1049](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1049): Ignore freshness when serving queries on Leader. Fixes [issue #1048](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/1048). Thanks to @Tjstretchalot for the bug report.
This release adds a new, higher-performance, option for writing to the database, known as Queued Writes. This allows users to trade off durability for high-performance writes to the database. See the [documentation](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/QUEUED_WRITES.md) for full details.
With this release rqlite supports restoring a node from an actual SQLite file, which is very much faster than restoring using the SQL dump representation of the same SQLite database.
- [PR #1017](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1017), [PR #1018](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/1018): Support restoring from SQLite data files. Fixes [issue #1005](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/1016).
Fixes an issue in the 7.3.0 release that prevented clusters, which used TLS for internode communications, from operating correctly. All deployments using TLS should be upgraded to this version.
- [PR #998](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/998): Node TLS mux needs to use advertised Raft address. Thanks to [Nathan Ferch](https://github.com/nferch) for the bug report.
With this release rqlite networking is based on whatever network identifiers are passed in at launch. If hostnames are passed they are no longer resolved into IP addresses internally by rqlite, and only the low-level networking layers will do so. This allows rqlite to operate correctly even when cluster node IP addresses change, as long as the hostnames remain the same. This is common in deployment environments such as Kubernetes, particularly when using [StatefulSets](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/statefulset/).
Upgrading an earlier cluster to this release is possible, simply by explicitly setting the IP address of each node at the command line. Alternatively, simply [backup your previous node](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/BACKUPS.md) and [restore it](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/RESTORE_FROM_SQLITE.md) into a new 7.3.0 node. **In any event, backing up your data is always recommended before any upgrade takes place.**
- [PR #993](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/993): Support IP addresses changing by not explicitly resolving network addresses. Fixes [issue #695](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/695), [issue #774](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/744), and [issue #991](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/991). Thanks to @git001 for help testing this change.
This release introduces supported for [DNS-based](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-dns/) and [DNS SRV -based](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/dns-records/dns-srv-record/) autoclustering. rqlite can now lookup a DNS record for specified host, and use the network addresses returned to bootstrap the cluster. This can make it much easier to create rqlite clusters using the kinds of Service-Discovery mechanisms you find on Consul and Kubernetes, which are often based on DNS. See the [documentation](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/AUTO_CLUSTERING.md) for full details on using DNS-based autoclustering.
- [PR #979](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/979): Add support for DNS-based autoclustering. Fixes [issue #554](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/554)
- [PR #985](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/985): Add support for DNS SRV -based autoclustering. Fixes [issue #554](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/554)
This release introduces a new automatic clustering approach, known as _Bootstrapping_, which allows rqlite clusters to form without assistance from an external system such as Consul. This can be very useful for certain deployment scenarios. See the [documentation](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/AUTO_CLUSTERING.md) for full details on using the new Bootstrapping mode. Special thanks to [Nathan Ferch](https://github.com/nferch) for his advice regarding the design and development of this feature.
### New features
- [PR #974](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/974): Add support for automatically bootstrapping clusters from just rqlite nodes.
This release introduces new node-discovery integration with [Consul](https://www.consul.io/) and [etcd](https://etcd.io/). By using one of those systems with rqlite, automatic clustering of rqlite is much easier. The [legacy Discovery mode](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/DISCOVERY.md) is not supported by release 7.0, but may be supported in a future release. So, for now, if you wish to continue using legacy Discovery, you will need to run rqlite 6.x, or earlier.
See the [new documentation](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/AUTO_CLUSTERING.md) for full details on using Consul and etcd.
This release uses a new database for the Raft system, which should be compatible with earlier releases. However it is strongly recommended you [backup any existing Leader nodes](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/BACKUPS.md) before you run 7.0, in the event there are any issues.
- The disco-related command-line arguments have changed to support Consul and etcd. If you wish to continue to use legacy Discovery, you can't upgrade to 7.0 -- or consider using Consul or etcd for node-discovery.
- The command-line argument `-RaftWaitForLeader` has been removed. If you need to wait for a node to have a Leader, you should poll the `/readyz` endpoint.
- [PR #957](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/957): Support autoclustering via use [Consul](https://www.consul.io/) and [etcd](https://etcd.io/) KV stores.
- [PR #947](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/947): CLI takes list of hosts, so it can try another node if first node is unresponsive. Fixes [issue #157](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/157). Thanks @chermehdi
This release enhances the authentication and authorization system, making it more convenient to use. It also fixes some minor bugs, and migrates the end-to-end test suite to Python 3.
### New features
- [PR #940](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/940): Support specifying the user to join a cluster with, via `-join-as`.
- [PR #940](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/940): Add support for pseudo username `*` to authentication configuration, providing more control over access.
- [PR #934](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/934): Use correct MIME media type for JSON text. Fixes [issue #933](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/933).
- [PR #932](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/932): Add support for named parameters. Fixes [issue #675](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/675).
- [PR #925](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/925): Ignore disco ID if there is preexisting state. Fixes [issue #347](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/347).
This release is the first to statically link `libc` for the Linux version of rqlite. While this does increase the size of binary, one of the main goals of rqlite is ease of deployment. With fully static linking, official releases will run on an even wider range of distributions.
- [PR #911](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/911): Statically link all requirements, including `libc`, for rqlite on Linux. macOS retains dynamically linking.
- [PR #909](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/909): Support intra-cluster responses up to 4MB in size. Fixes [issue #908](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/908).
- [PR #907](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/907): Make it clearer when writes are sent to the wrong endpoint. See [issue #903](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/903).
- [PR #898](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/898): Support recovering clusters that have permanently lost quorum. Fixes [issue #897](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/897).
This release introduces transparent request forwarding, which simplifies interacting with rqlite clusters. Client requests that must be served by the leader will no longer return HTTP 301, and will be forwarded transparently to the leader if necessary. Client software does not need to change to take advantage of this new functionality.
Systems running earlier 6.x software can be upgraded to this release without doing any special, but all nodes in the new cluster must be running this release. This release cannot communicate with nodes running earlier 6.x software.
This release makes significant changes to SQLite database connection handling, resulting in proper support for high-performance concurrent reads of in-memory databases (an in-memory SQLite database is the default option for rqlite).
- [PR #842](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/842): Use `vfs=memdb` allowing proper concurrent reads of in-memory databases. Special thanks to [@rittneje](https://github.com/rittneje).
- [PR #842](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/842): Use read-only database connections for read queries, ensuring write SQL commands are not executed on the wrong endpoint.
- [PR #842](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/842): Remove explicit support for Foreign Key constraint control and journal mode. Those controls are best left to the rqlite system now.
- [PR #835](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/835): Use Go standard libary sql/database abstraction. Fixes [issue #830](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/830).
- [PR #840](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/840): Upgrade to rqlite/go-sqlite3 v1.20.4. See [this issue](https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3/issues/963).
- [PR #822](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/822): Don't ignore `-join` even if previous state exists. Fixes [issue #818](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/818).
This release implements a significant design change, which improves rqlite cluster reliability. With this change a rqlite node can more reliably direct read and write requests to the correct node.
In the 5.0 series, _Follower_ nodes learned the HTTP API address of the cluster Leader via information - known as _Metadata_ - that each node wrote to the Raft log. This Metadata was then available to each node in the cluster, if that node needed to redirect queries to the cluster Leader (assuming that node wasn't the Leader at that time). However that design was somewhat complex, and required the tracking of extra state, in addition to the SQLite database. It also meant that if the Metadata got out of sync with the Raft state, the cluster could be in a degraded state.
In this new design, a node now queries the Leader as needed, when that node needs to learn the Leader's HTTP API address. As a result, the Metadata component has been removed from rqlite, since it is no longer needed. And without any possibility of discrepancy between Metadata and Raft state, a whole class of potential bugs is removed. Any request for the Leader HTTP API address means the requesting node node connects to a TCP port already open on the Leader for Raft connections, so does not introduce any new failure modes. This multiplexing of the Raft TCP port is performed via the `mux` package.
This new design does mean that nodes running earlier software cannot communicate with 6.0 nodes, as 6.0 software no longer performs Metadata updates. As a result, **rqlite clusters running 5.x software or earlier must be explicitly upgraded**. To upgrade from an earlier version to this release you should [backup your Leader node](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/BACKUPS.md), and [restore the database dump](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/RESTORE_FROM_SQLITE.md) into a new 6.0 cluster.
- [PR #796](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/796): `nodes/` API reports real-time status of other nodes in cluster. Fixes [issue #768](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/768).
- [PR #745](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/745): TLS version 1.0 and 1.1 disabled by default, but can be re-enabled at the command line. Fixes [issue #743](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/743).
- [PR #719](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/719): Exit if any arguments passed at command line after data directory. Fixes [issue #718](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/718).
- [PR #654](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/654): Allow number of Join attempts and Join interval to be specified at startup. Fixes [issue #653](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/653).
This release fixes a very significant bug, whereby snapshotting was never occuring due to a zero snapshot-interval being passed to the Raft subsystem. This meant that the Raft log would grow without bound, and could result in very long start-up times if the Raft log was very large.
This release uses a new Raft consensus version, with the move to Hashicorp Raft v1. As a result **the Raft system in 5.0 is not compatible with the 4.0 series**. To upgrade from an earlier version to this release you should backup your 4.0 leader node, and restore the database dump into a new 5.0 cluster.
The rqlite server also supports explicitly setting the node ID. While it's not required to set this, it's recommended for production clusters. See the [cluster documentation](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/CLUSTER_MGMT.md) for more details.
_This release adds significant new functionality to the command-line tool, including much more control over backup and restore of the database. [Visit the Releases page](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/releases/tag/v4.6.0) to download this release._
- Allow the Raft election timeout [to be set](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/commit/2e91858e1ee0feee19f4c20c6f56a21261bcd44a).
## 4.3.1 (October 10th 2018)
- Allow a node to be re-added with same IP address and port, even though it was previously removed. Fixes [issue #534](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/534).
- [PR #334](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/334): Set Content-Type to "application/octet-stream" for backup endpoint. Fixes [issue #333](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/333).
**The 4.0 release has renamed command-line options relative to earlier releases.** This means that previous commands used to launch rqlited will not work. However the command-line changes are cosmetic, and each previous option maps 1-to-1 to a renamed option. Otherwise deployments of earlier releases can be upgraded to the 4.0 series without any other work.
- [PR #297](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/297): CLI should explicitly handle redirects due to Go1.8. Fixes [issue #295](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/295).
- [PR #268](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/268): Allow Store to wait for application of initial logs. Fixes [issue #260](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/260).
- [PR #278](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/278): Add support for dot-commands `.tables` and `.schema` to rqlite CLI. Fixes [issue #277](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/277).
- [PR #258](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/258): Remove check that all queries begin with SELECT. Fixes [issue #255](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/255).
- [PR #221](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/221): Start full support for various SQLite text types. Fix [issue #240](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/issues/240).
- [PR #206](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/206), [#217](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/pull/217): Support loading data directly from SQLite dump files.
**The Raft log format in 3.0 is not compatible with the 2.0 series**. To upgrade from an earlier version to this release you should backup your 2.0 leader node, and replay the database dump into a new 3.0 cluster. The HTTP API remains unchanged however.
