---
title: What's New in v20.1.0-beta.4
toc: true
summary: Additions and changes in CockroachDB version v20.1.0-beta.4
---

## March 30, 2020

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### Downloads

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### Docker image

{% include copy-clipboard.html %}
~~~shell
$ docker pull cockroachdb/cockroach-unstable:v20.1.0-beta.4
~~~


### Security updates

- The `admin` role is now required to use the new [`cockroach nodelocal upload`](../v20.1/cockroach-nodelocal-upload.html) functionality. [#46265][#46265]

### Enterprise edition changes

- Incremental [`BACKUP`](../v20.1/backup.html) can now quickly skip unchanged data. This makes frequent incremental backups 10-100x faster depending on data size and frequency. [#46390][#46390]

### SQL language changes

- Added `get_bits()` and `set_bit()` [builtin functions](../v20.1/functions-and-operators.html) for bits. [#45957][#45957]
- Modified the `get_bits()` and `set_bit()` [builtin functions](../v20.1/functions-and-operators.html) to support [byte array](../v20.1/sql-constants.html#byte-array-literals). [#46380][#46380]
- Arrays can now be compared using the `<`, `<=`, `>`, and `>=` operations. [#46254][#46254]
- [`EXPLAIN BUNDLE`](../v20.1/explain.html) now contains distsql diagrams. [#46225][#46225]
- Previously, when creating a non-partitioned index on a partitioned table with the `sql_safe_updates` [session variable](../v20.1/set-vars.html) set to `true`, CockroachDB would error out. CockroachDB now sends a NOTICE stating that creating a non-partitioned index on a partitioned table is not performant. [#46223][#46223]
- Added new internal tables `crdb_internal.node_transactions` and `crdb_internal.cluster_transactions` that contain some metadata about active user transactions. [#46206][#46206]
- Added the column `txn_id` to the `crdb_internal.node_queries` and   `crdb_internal.cluster_queries` tables. These fields represent the transaction ID of each query in each row. [#46206][#46206]
- Columns in the process of being added to or removed from a table are now always set to their default or computed value if another transaction concurrently [`INSERT`](../v20.1/insert.html)s, [`UPDATE`](../v20.1/update.html)s, or [`UPSERT`](../v20.1/upsert.html)s a row. This fixes an issue where a column being backfilled would not get properly set by concurrent transactions. [#46285][#46285]
- [`ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT`](../v20.1/rollback-transaction.html) (for either regular savepoints or "restart savepoints" defined with `cockroach_restart`) now causes a "feature not supported" error after a DDL statement in a HIGH PRIORITY transaction, in order to avoid a transaction deadlock. See issue [#46414][#46414] for details. [#46415][#46415]
- Added support for the `stddev_samp` aggregate [builtin function](../v20.1/functions-and-operators.html), which is the same as `stddev` (according to PostgreSQL documentation, the latter is actually the historical alias of the former). [#46279][#46279]

### Command-line changes

- Ensured the correct error messages are shown to the user when using [`cockroach nodelocal upload`](../v20.1/cockroach-nodelocal-upload.html). [#46311][#46311]

### Bug fixes

- Fixed a crash when [`IMPORT`](../v20.1/import.html)ing a table without a table definition. [#46193][#46193]
- Added support for queries with qualified stars that refer to tables in outer scopes. [#46233][#46233]
- Fixed an incorrect "no data source matches prefix" error in some cases involving subqueries that use views. [#46226][#46226]
- Previously, the `experimental_strftime` and `experimental_strptime` [builtin functions](../v20.1/functions-and-operators.html) used the non-POSIX standard `%f` for nanosecond display. However, as CockroachDB only supports up to microsecond precision and [Python's `strftime` has `%f` to microsecond](https://docs.python.org/3.9/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior), we have similarly switched %f to use microsecond instead of nanosecond precision. [#46263][#46263]
- Added a check that detects invalid sequence numbers in the RocksDB write-ahead log and returns an error during node startup instead of applying the invalid log entries. [#46328][#46328]
- [Follower reads](../v20.1/follower-reads.html) that hit intents no longer have a chance of entering an infinite loop. This bug was present in earlier versions of the v20.1 release. [#46234][#46234]
- Fixed an internal error that could occur when an aggregate inside the right-hand side of a `LATERAL` [join](../v20.1/joins.html) was scoped at the level of the left-hand side. [#46227][#46227]
- Fixed an error that incorrectly occurred when an aggregate was used inside the `WHERE` or `ON` clause of a [subquery](../v20.1/subqueries.html) but was scoped at an outer level of the query. [#46227][#46227]
- Reverted performance improvements to incremental [`BACKUP`](../v20.1/backup.html)s until a potential correctness issue is addressed. [#46385][#46385]
- [CDC](../v20.1/change-data-capture.html) no longer combines with long running transactions to trigger an assertion. Previously, this could crash a server if the right sequence of events occurred. This was typically rare, but was much more common when CDC was in use. [#46391][#46391]
- Fixed a race in the [vectorized execution engine](../v20.1/vectorized-execution.html). [#46360][#46360]
- Fixed a rare bug causing transactions that have performed schema changes to deadlock after they restart. [#46384][#46384]

### Doc updates

- Added docs for [`cockroach nodelocal upload`](../v20.1/cockroach-nodelocal-upload.html), which uploads a file to the external IO directory on a node's (the gateway node, by default) local file system. [#6871][#6871]
- Added [guidance](../v20.1/create-table.html#create-a-table-with-a-hash-sharded-primary-index) on using [hash-sharded indexes](../v20.1/indexes.html#hash-sharded-indexes). [#6820][#6820]
- Updated [production checklist](../v20.1/recommended-production-settings.html#azure) and [Azure deployment guides](../v20.1/deploy-cockroachdb-on-microsoft-azure.html) to recommend compute-optimize F-series VMs in Azure deployments. [#7005][#7005]

### Contributors

This release includes 46 merged PRs by 20 authors.
We would like to thank the following contributors from the CockroachDB community:

- Amit Sadaphule (first-time contributor)
- Andrii Vorobiov
- Marcus Gartner (first-time contributor, CockroachDB team member)
- abhishek20123g

[#45957]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/45957
[#46193]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46193
[#46206]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46206
[#46223]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46223
[#46225]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46225
[#46226]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46226
[#46227]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46227
[#46233]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46233
[#46234]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46234
[#46254]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46254
[#46263]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46263
[#46265]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46265
[#46274]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46274
[#46279]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46279
[#46285]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46285
[#46311]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46311
[#46328]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46328
[#46337]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46337
[#46360]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46360
[#46380]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46380
[#46384]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46384
[#46385]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46385
[#46390]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46390
[#46391]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46391
[#46415]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46415
[#46423]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/46423
[20fb4c256]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/commit/20fb4c256
[34e58c6ec]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/commit/34e58c6ec
[fec430353]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/commit/fec430353
[#6871]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/docs/pull/6871
[#6820]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/docs/pull/6820
[#7005]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/docs/pull/7005