#PostgreSQL

September 25th marks the release of PostgreSQL 18. This article covers the March CommitFest and concludes the series covering the new features of the upcoming update. This article turned out quite large, as the last March CommitFest is traditionally the biggest and richest in new features. You can find previous reviews of PostgreSQL 18 CommitFests here: 2024-07 , 2024-09 , 2024-11 , 2025-01 . Client and Server Applications pg_dump[all]/pg_restore: dump and restore statistics Collect statistics after server upgrade pg_upgrade --swap: migrate directories to a new cluster pg_combinebackup --link: hard links instead of copying files pg_dump[all], pg_restore: --no-policies pg_createsubscriber: enable two_phase for all subscriptions pg_createsubscriber: remove publications on subscriber pg_createsubscriber: create subscriptions for every database on the publication server psql: pipeline mode psql: current connection information psql: set the default time interval for \watch psql: \dx displays the default extension version Monitoring NUMA: monitoring tools for non-uniform memory access architectures pg_stat_get_backend_wal: WAL statistics for a specific process EXPLAIN: actual rows shown to two decimal places EXPLAIN: an interface for adding more options to the command Log failed lock attempts Log session time-to-connect log_line_prefix: local server IP address pg_stat_statements: normalize commands with lists of constants in IN Additional WAL buffer overflow monitoring tools Track vacuum and analyze delays [Auto]vacuum and Analysis vacuum_truncate: manage the truncation of empty pages at the end of a table More frequent autovacuuming of dead tuples in large tables Autovacuum triggers sooner after new rows are inserted Eager freezing to amortize aggressive vacuum Performance Asynchronous input/output io_combine_limit: increase maximum allowed limit to 1MB Read stream interface usage BTree indexes: skipping the condition on the index’s leading column GiST indexes: fast index creation using the sortsupport method Planner: replacing IN (VALUES ...) with array search Planner: eliminating redundant self-joins Procedural Languages PL/pgSQL: passing named values of cursor parameters using => Replication multiple_unique_conflicts: another logical replication conflict idle_replication_slot_timeout: canceling inactive slots by timeout max_active_replication_origins: maximum number of replication origins Security Support for the OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol dblink: using pass-through SCRAM authentication pgcrypto: support for sha256crypt and sha512crypt password hashing algorithms pgcrypto: support for CFB mode for the AES encryption standard ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES and large objects libpq: the sslkeylogfile parameter Server Temporal primary, unique, and foreign keys Virtual computed columns NOT NULL integrity constraints: creation without validation, enabling and disabling inheritance Integrity constraints: NOT ENFORCED file_copy_method: method for copying files when creating a database extension_control_path: location of extension control files Nondeterministic collations: support for substring search functions The gamma and lgamma functions Conversion of integer types to bytea and back The pg_get_loaded_modules function: information about libraries loaded into shared memory pg_buffercache: evict tables or the entire cache amcheck: GIN index verification SQL commands and built-in functions CREATE FOREIGN TABLE LIKE COPY ... TO: materialized view support The json_strip_nulls function removes empty values in arrays New array_sort function ...

Postgres Professional, a developer of data management products, has released version 17.5.1 of its Postgres Pro Enterprise DBMS. The system now supports embedded analytics, offers automated database tuning, introduces a new backup technology, and much more .

Postgres Professional introduces a scheduled update to the Postgres Pro Enterprise Manager (PPEM) platform—a comprehensive administration and maintenance solution for Postgres Pro databases. The new release includes features for real-time infrastructure monitoring, performance bottleneck detection, and management of Patroni-based high-availability clusters.

Postgres Professional has issued updates for Postgres Pro Standard. Versions 13.21.1, 14.18.1, 15.13.1, 16.9.1 and 17.5.1 are now available for download and upgrade from the official repository. Below is an overview of the fixes and enhancements that have been updated or newly introduced for 17.5.1 users.

We continue to follow the news about PostgreSQL 18. The January CommitFest brings in some notable improvements to monitoring, as well as other new features. You can find previous reviews of PostgreSQL 18 CommitFests here: 2024-07 , 2024-09 , 2024-11 . EXPLAIN (analyze): buffers on by default pg_stat_io: input/output statistics in bytes instead of pages pg_stat_io: WAL statistics pg_stat_get_backend_io: I/O statistics for a specific process VACUUM(verbose): visibility map information Total vacuum and analysis time per table autovacuum: change the number of workers without restarting the server psql: connection service information psql: expanded display for \d* commands psql: leakproof flag in \df* output jsonb: null conversion to other types MD5 encryption algorithm: end-of-support preparations New function uuidv7 postgres_fdw: SCRAM authentication without storing the password passwordcheck: minimum password length New function casefold and pg_unicode_fast collation DML commands: RETURNING with OLD and NEW to_number: convert a string of roman numberals to numeric

We continue the series of articles about new patches coming to PostgreSQL 18, this one covering the news of the November CommitFest. If you missed the previous reviews, you can check them out here: 2024-07 , 2024-09 . initdb: checksum calculation enabled by default Planner: array lookup instead of multiple similar conditions under OR Planner: switching around expressions in DISTINCT clauses GROUPING SETS: HAVING -> WHERE Data type cache entry invalidation and temporary tables Planner: incremental sorting during Merge Join New function array_reverse Functions min and max for the type bytea Parallel worker usage statistics New function pg_ls_summariesdir new contrib module: pg_logicalsnapinspect Improved extension installation error messages NOT NULL constraints in the system catalog A TOAST table for pg_index COPY... FROM and file_fdw: rejected row limit LIKE support with nondetermenistic collations TLS v1.3: cipher suites

The conference gathered about 100 people, including PostgreSQL developers, DBA and customers from all over the world.