Release Notes for v25.3-v25.3.0-rc.1 (#19986)

* Update release notes for v25.3-v25.3.0-rc.1

---------

Co-authored-by: Joe Lodin <joe.lodin@cockroachlabs.com>
Co-authored-by: Ryan Kuo <8740013+taroface@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: 3 people

src/current/_data/releases.yml

@@ -9185,3 +9185,31 @@
     docker_arm_limited_access: false
   source: true
   previous_release: v25.3.0-beta.2
+
+
+- release_name: v25.3.0-rc.1
+  major_version: v25.3
+  release_date: '2025-07-23'
+  release_type: Testing
+  go_version: go1.23.7
+  sha: 1af04df44b5ca356a187946834ee122b155241e4
+  has_sql_only: true
+  has_sha256sum: true
+  mac:
+    mac_arm: true
+    mac_arm_experimental: true
+    mac_arm_limited_access: false
+  windows: true
+  linux:
+    linux_arm: true
+    linux_arm_experimental: false
+    linux_arm_limited_access: false
+    linux_intel_fips: true
+    linux_arm_fips: false
+  docker:
+    docker_image: cockroachdb/cockroach-unstable
+    docker_arm: true
+    docker_arm_experimental: false
+    docker_arm_limited_access: false
+  source: true
+  previous_release: v25.3.0-beta.3

src/current/_includes/releases/v25.3/v25.3.0-rc.1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+## v25.3.0-rc.1
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2025
+
+{% include releases/new-release-downloads-docker-image.md release=include.release %}
+
+<h3 id="v25-3-0-rc-1-sql-language-changes">SQL language changes</h3>
+
+- The `CITEXT` data type is now supported, enabling case-insensitive comparisons for `CITEXT` columns. Internally, `CITEXT` is equivalent to using the undetermined level 2 collation `und-u-ks-level2`. For example, under `CITEXT`, the expression `'test' = 'TEST'` returns `TRUE`.
+ [#149819][#149819]
+- Added support for automatically determining the region column for a `REGIONAL BY ROW` table using a foreign key constraint. The foreign key is specified by setting a new table storage parameter `infer_rbr_region_col_using_constraint`, and must contain the region column. This can be useful for applications that are unable to guarantee that a child row is inserted or updated from the same region as the matching parent row.
+ [#150366][#150366]
+- The session setting `optimizer_min_row_count`, which sets a lower bound on row count estimates for relational expressions during query planning, is now set to `1` by default.
+ [#150376][#150376]
+
+<h3 id="v25-3-0-rc-1-operational-changes">Operational changes</h3>
+
+- A new feature is now available that automatically captures Go execution traces on a scheduled interval. This feature incurs a performance penalty and is generally intended for use under the guidance of Cockroach Labs Support. This feature can be configured using the following cluster settings:
+  - `obs.execution_tracer.interval`: Enables the tracer and sets the interval for capturing traces. Set to a value greater than 0 to activate.
+  - `obs.execution_tracer.duration`: Specifies the duration for each captured trace.
+  - `obs.execution_tracer.total_dump_size_limit`: Sets the maximum disk space allowed for storing execution traces. Older traces are automatically deleted when this limit is reached.
+ [#149705][#149705]
+- The value of `sql.stats.error_on_concurrent_create_stats.enabled` now defaults to `false`, suppressing error counters for auto stats jobs that fail due to concurrent stats jobs in progress.
+ [#149857][#149857]
+
+<h3 id="v25-3-0-rc-1-bug-fixes">Bug fixes</h3>
+
+- Fixed a slow memory leak that was introduced in v25.1.8, v25.2.1, v25.2.2, and v25.3 betas. The leak would accumulate whenever a node executed a part of the distributed plan (the gateway node of the plan was not affected), and could only be mitigated by restarting the node.
+ [#149920][#149920]
+- Fixed an issue where some SQL metrics were not reported when `server.child_metrics.enabled` was enabled, `server.child_metrics.include_aggregate.enabled` was disabled, and `sql.metrics.application_name.enabled` and `sql.metrics.database_name.enabled` were also disabled. Specifically, metrics with no children now report their aggregate metrics regardless of the `server.child_metrics.include_aggregate.enabled` cluster setting.
+ [#149929][#149929]
+- Fixed a bug that would allow a race condition in foreign key cascades under `READ COMMITTED` and `REPEATABLE READ` isolation levels.
+ [#150296][#150296]
+- Fixed an issue where discarding zone configs on sequences did not actually remove the configuration.
+ [#150360][#150360]
+
+<h3 id="v25-3-0-rc-1-performance-improvements">Performance improvements</h3>
+
+- Mutation statements (`UPDATE` and `DELETE`) that perform lookup joins into multi-region tables (perhaps as part of a `CASCADE`) are now more likely to parallelize the lookups across ranges, improving their performance.
+ [#150016][#150016]
+
+
+[#150376]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/150376
+[#149705]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/149705
+[#149857]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/149857
+[#149929]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/149929
+[#150360]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/150360
+[#149819]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/149819
+[#150366]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/150366
+[#149920]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/149920
+[#150296]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/150296
+[#150016]: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pull/150016