PostgreSQL 18 introduces a new asynchronous I/O (AIO) subsystem designed to address this limitation. AIO lets PostgreSQL issue multiple I/O requests concurrently instead of waiting for each to finish in sequence. This expands existing readahead and improves overall throughput. AIO operations supported in PostgreSQL 18 include sequential scans, bitmap heap scans, and vacuum. Benchmarking has demonstrated performance gains of up to 3x in certain scenarios.
-The new [`io_method`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-resource.html#GUC-IO-METHOD) setting lets you toggle between the AIO methods, including `worker` and `io_uring` (when built with PostgreSQL, available on certain Linux systems), or you can choose to maintain the current PostgreSQL behavior with the `sync` setting. There are now more parameters to consider tuning with AIO, which you can [learn more about in the documentation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-resource.html#RUNTIME-CONFIG-RESOURCE-IO).
+The new [`io_method`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-resource.html#GUC-IO-METHOD) setting lets you toggle between the AIO methods, including `worker` and `io_uring`, or you can choose to maintain the current PostgreSQL behavior with the `sync` setting. There are now more parameters to consider tuning with AIO, which you can [learn more about in the documentation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-resource.html#RUNTIME-CONFIG-RESOURCE-IO).
### Faster upgrades, better post-upgrade performance
### Query and general performance enhancements
-PostgreSQL 18 further accelerates query performance with features that automatically make your workloads faster. This release introduces "skip scan" lookups on [multicolumn B-tree indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/indexes-multicolumn.html), which improves execution time for queries that omit an `=` condition on one or more prefix index columns. It can also optimize queries that use `OR` conditions in a `WHERE` to use an index, leading to significantly faster execution. There are also numerous improvements for how PostgreSQL plans and executes table joins, from boosting the performance of hash joins to allowing merge joins to use incremental sorts.
+PostgreSQL 18 further accelerates query performance with features that automatically make your workloads faster. This release introduces "skip scan" lookups on [multicolumn B-tree indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/indexes-multicolumn.html) that improve execution time for queries that omit an `=` condition on one or more prefix index columns. It can also optimize queries that use `OR` conditions in a `WHERE` to use an index, leading to significantly faster execution. There are also numerous improvements for how PostgreSQL plans and executes table joins, from boosting the performance of hash joins to allowing merge joins to use incremental sorts. PostgreSQL 18 also supports parallel builds for [GIN indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/gin.html), joining B-tree and [BRIN indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/brin.html) in supporting this capability.
This release also builds on PostgreSQL support for hardware acceleration, including support for ARM NEON and SVE CPU intrinsics for the `popcount` function, which is used by the [`bit_count`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-bitstring.html) and other internal capabilities.
-PostgreSQL 18 now supports parallel builds for [GIN indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/gin.html), joining B-tree and [BRIN indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/brin.html) in supporting this capability. Additionally, [materialized views](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/rules-materializedviews.html) can now use unique indexes that aren't B-trees as partition keys, expanding how you can construct materialized views.
-
### Enhancing the developer experience
PostgreSQL 18 introduces [virtual generated columns](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createtable.html#SQL-CREATETABLE-PARMS-GENERATED-STORED) that compute values at query time instead of storing them. This is now the default option for generated columns. Additionally, stored generated columns can now be logically replicated.
-This release adds the capability to access both the previous (`OLD`) and current (`NEW`) values in the [`RETURNING` clause](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/dml-returning.html) for `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, `DELETE` and `MERGE` commands. PostgreSQL 18 also adds UUIDv7 generation through the [`uuidv7()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) function, letting you generate random UUIDs that are timestamp-ordered to support better caching strategies. PostgreSQL 18 includes [`uuidv4()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) as an alias for `gen_rand_uuid()`.
+This release adds the capability to access both the previous (`OLD`) and current (`NEW`) values in the [`RETURNING` clause](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/dml-returning.html) for `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, `DELETE` and `MERGE` commands. PostgreSQL 18 also adds UUIDv7 generation through the [`uuidv7()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) function, letting you generate random UUIDs that are timestamp-ordered to support better caching strategies. PostgreSQL 18 includes [`uuidv4()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) as an alias for `gen_random_uuid()`.
PostgreSQL 18 adds [temporal constraints](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/sql-createtable.html#SQL-CREATETABLE-PARMS-UNIQUE) -- constraints over ranges -- for both `PRIMARY KEY` and `UNIQUE` constraints using the `WITHOUT OVERLAPS` clause, and on `FOREIGN KEY` constraints using the `PERIOD` clause.
### Improved text processing
-PostgreSQL 18 makes text processing easier and faster with several new enhancements. This release adds the [`PG_UNICODE_FAST`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/locale.html#LOCALE-PROVIDERS), which accelerates lookups using the `upper` and `lower` string comparison functions, and helps speed up the new [`casefold`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-string.html#FUNCTIONS-STRING-OTHER) function for case-insensitive comparisons. Additionally, PostgreSQL 18 now supports making `LIKE` comparisons over text that uses a [nondeterministic collation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/collation.html#COLLATION-NONDETERMINISTIC), simplifying how you can perform more complex pattern matching. This release also changes [full text search](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/textsearch.html) to use the default collation provider of a cluster instead of always using libc, which may require you to reindex all [full text search](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/textsearch-tables.html#TEXTSEARCH-TABLES-INDEX) and [`pg_trgm`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-INDEX) indexes after running [`pg_upgrade`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html).
+PostgreSQL 18 makes text processing easier and faster with several new enhancements. This release adds the [`PG_UNICODE_FAST`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/collation.html#COLLATION-MANAGING-STANDARD) collation, which provides full Unicode semantics for case transformations while helping to accelerate many comparisons. This includes the `upper` and `lower` string comparison functions and the new [`casefold`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-string.html#FUNCTIONS-STRING-OTHER) function for case-insensitive comparisons. Additionally, PostgreSQL 18 now supports making `LIKE` comparisons over text that uses a [nondeterministic collation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/collation.html#COLLATION-NONDETERMINISTIC), simplifying how you can perform more complex pattern matching. This release also changes [full text search](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/textsearch.html) to use the default collation provider of a cluster instead of always using libc, which may require you to reindex all [full text search](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/textsearch-tables.html#TEXTSEARCH-TABLES-INDEX) and [`pg_trgm`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-INDEX) indexes after running [`pg_upgrade`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html).
### Authentication and security features
PostgreSQL 18 introduces [`oauth` authentication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/auth-oauth.html), which lets users authenticate using OAuth 2.0 mechanisms supported through PostgreSQL extensions. Additionally, PostgreSQL 18 includes validation for [FIPS mode](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgcrypto.html#PGCRYPTO-OPENSSL-SUPPORT-FUNCS), and adds the [`ssl_tls13_ciphers`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-connection.html#GUC-SSL-TLS13-CIPHERS) parameter for configuring server-side TLS v1.3 cipher suites.
-This release deprecates `md5` password authentication, which will be removed in a future release. If you require PostgreSQL password-based authentication, use [SCRAM authentication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/auth-password.html). PostgreSQL 18 also supports SCRAM passthrough authentication with both [`postgres_fdw`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/postgres-fdw.html) and [`dblink`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/dblink.html) for authenticating to remote PostgreSQL instances.
+This release deprecates `md5` password authentication, which will be removed in a future release. If you require PostgreSQL password-based authentication, use [SCRAM authentication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/auth-password.html). PostgreSQL 18 also supports SCRAM passthrough authentication with both [`postgres_fdw`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/postgres-fdw.html) and [`dblink`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/dblink.html) for authenticating to remote PostgreSQL instances. Additionally, [`pgcrypto`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgcrypto.html) now supports [SHA-2 encryption for password hashing](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgcrypto.html#PGCRYPTO-CRYPT-ALGORITHMS).
### Replication
-PostgreSQL 18 now supports reporting logical replication write conflicts in logs and in the [`pg_stat_subscription_stats`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/monitoring-stats.html#MONITORING-PG-STAT-SUBSCRIPTION-STATS) view. Additionally, [`CREATE SUBSCRIPTION`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createsubscription.html) now defaults to use parallel streaming for applying transactions, which can help improve performance. The [`pg_createsubscriber`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/app-pgcreatesubscriber.html) now has an `--all` flag so you can create logical replicas for all databases in an instance with a single command. PostgreSQL 18 also lets you automatically [drop idle replication slots](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-replication.html#GUC-IDLE-REPLICATION-SLOT-TIMEOUT) to help prevent storing too many write-ahead log files on a publisher.
+PostgreSQL 18 supports reporting logical replication write conflicts in logs and in the [`pg_stat_subscription_stats`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/monitoring-stats.html#MONITORING-PG-STAT-SUBSCRIPTION-STATS) view. Additionally, [`CREATE SUBSCRIPTION`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createsubscription.html) now defaults to using parallel streaming for applying transactions, which can help improve performance. The [`pg_createsubscriber`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/app-pgcreatesubscriber.html) utility now has an `--all` flag so you can create logical replicas for all databases in an instance with a single command. PostgreSQL 18 also lets you automatically [drop idle replication slots](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-replication.html#GUC-IDLE-REPLICATION-SLOT-TIMEOUT) to help prevent storing too many write-ahead log files on a publisher.
### Maintenance and observability
projects / press.git / commitdiff