today announced the release of [PostgreSQL 18](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/release-18.html),
the latest version of the world's most advanced open source database.
-PostgreSQL 18 improves performance for workloads of all sizes through a new I/O subsystem that has demonstrated up to 3× performance improvements when reading from storage, and also increases the number of queries that can use indexes. This release makes major-version upgrades less disruptive, accelerating upgrade times and reducing the time required to reach expected performance after an upgrade completes. Developers also benefit from PostgreSQL 18 features, including virtual generated columns that compute values at query time, and the database-friendly `uuidv7()` function that provides better indexing and read performance for UUIDs. PostgreSQL 18 makes it easier to integrate with single-sign on (SSO) systems with support for OAuth 2.0 authentication.
-
-"The efforts of the global open source community shape every PostgreSQL release and help deliver features that meet users where their data resides," said <PLACEHOLDER>. "PostgreSQL 18 builds on the project's long, rich history of delivering a reliable and robust data management experience, while continuing to expand the workloads it can support."
+PostgreSQL 18 improves performance for workloads of all sizes through a new I/O
+subsystem that has demonstrated up to 3× performance improvements when reading
+from storage, and also increases the number of queries that can use indexes.
+This release makes major-version upgrades less disruptive, accelerating upgrade
+times and reducing the time required to reach expected performance after an
+upgrade completes. Developers also benefit from PostgreSQL 18 features,
+including virtual generated columns that compute values at query time, and the
+database-friendly `uuidv7()` function that provides better indexing and read
+performance for UUIDs. PostgreSQL 18 makes it easier to integrate with single-sign
+on (SSO) systems with support for OAuth 2.0 authentication.
+
+"The efforts of the global open source community shape every PostgreSQL release
+and help deliver features that meet users where their data resides," said
+Jonathan Katz, a member of the PostgreSQL core team. "PostgreSQL 18 builds on the
+project's long, rich history of delivering a reliable and robust data management
+experience, while continuing to expand the workloads it can support."
PostgreSQL, an innovative data management system known for its reliability,
robustness, and extensibility, benefits from nearly 30 years of open source
### Introducing asynchronous I/O
-PostgreSQL previously relied on operating system readahead mechanisms to accelerate data retrieval. However, because operating systems lack insight into database-specific access patterns, they cannot always anticipate what data will be required, leading to suboptimal performance in many workloads.
+PostgreSQL previously relied on operating system readahead mechanisms to
+accelerate data retrieval. However, because operating systems lack insight into
+database-specific access patterns, they cannot always anticipate what data will
+be required, leading to suboptimal performance in many workloads.
-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.
+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`, 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
-A key PostgreSQL feature is the generation and storage of [statistics](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/planner-stats.html) that help PostgreSQL select the most efficient query plan. Before PostgreSQL 18, these statistics didn't carry over on a [major version upgrade](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html), which could cause significant query performance degradations on busy systems until the [`ANALYZE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-analyze.html) finished running. PostgreSQL 18 introduces the ability to keep planner statistics through a major version upgrade, which helps an upgraded cluster reach expected performance more quickly after the upgrade.
-
-Additionally, [`pg_upgrade`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html), a utility that performs major version upgrades, includes several enhancements in PostgreSQL 18, such as faster upgrades when a database contains many objects like tables and sequences. This release also lets `pg_upgrade` process its checks in parallel based on the settings of the `--jobs` flag, and adds the `--swap` flag that swaps upgrade directories instead of copying, cloning, or linking files.
+A key PostgreSQL feature is the generation and storage of
+[statistics](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/planner-stats.html) that help
+PostgreSQL select the most efficient query plan. Before PostgreSQL 18, these
+statistics didn't carry over on a [major version upgrade](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html),
+which could cause significant query performance degradations on busy systems
+until the [`ANALYZE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-analyze.html)
+finished running. PostgreSQL 18 introduces the ability to keep planner
+statistics through a major version upgrade, which helps an upgraded cluster
+reach expected performance more quickly after the upgrade.
+
+Additionally, [`pg_upgrade`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html),
+a utility that performs major version upgrades, includes several enhancements in
+PostgreSQL 18, such as faster upgrades when a database contains many objects
+like tables and sequences. This release also lets `pg_upgrade` process its
+checks in parallel based on the settings of the `--jobs` flag, and adds the
+`--swap` flag that swaps upgrade directories instead of copying, cloning, or
+linking files.
### 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) 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 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.
### 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_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.
-
-Finally, PostgreSQL 18 makes it easier to create the schema definition of a foreign table using the definition of a local table with the [`CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ... LIKE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createforeigntable.html) command.
+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_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.
+
+Finally, PostgreSQL 18 makes it easier to create the schema definition of a
+foreign table using the definition of a local table with the
+[`CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ... LIKE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createforeigntable.html)
+command.
### 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/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).
+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. 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).
+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. 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 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.
+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
-PostgreSQL 18 improves its [vacuum](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/routine-vacuuming.html) strategy by proactively freezing more pages during regular vacuums, reducing overhead and helping in situations that require aggressive vacuums.
+PostgreSQL 18 improves its [vacuum](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/routine-vacuuming.html)
+strategy by proactively freezing more pages during regular vacuums, reducing
+overhead and helping in situations that require aggressive vacuums.
-PostgreSQL 18 adds more details to [`EXPLAIN`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/using-explain.html), which provides information about query plan execution, and as of this release now automatically shows how many buffers (the fundamental unit of data storage) are accessed when executing `EXPLAIN ANALYZE`. Additionally, `EXPLAIN ANALYZE` now shows how many index lookups occur during an index scan, and `EXPLAIN ANALYZE VERBOSE` includes CPU, WAL, and average read statistics. PostgreSQL 18 includes more info in [`pg_stat_all_tables`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/monitoring-stats.html#MONITORING-PG-STAT-ALL-TABLES-VIEW) on time spent on vacuum and related operations, as well as per-connection statistics on I/O and WAL utilization.
+PostgreSQL 18 adds more details to [`EXPLAIN`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/using-explain.html),
+which provides information about query plan execution, and as of this release
+now automatically shows how many buffers (the fundamental unit of data storage)
+are accessed when executing `EXPLAIN ANALYZE`. Additionally, `EXPLAIN ANALYZE`
+now shows how many index lookups occur during an index scan, and `EXPLAIN ANALYZE VERBOSE`
+includes CPU, WAL, and average read statistics. PostgreSQL 18 includes more info
+in [`pg_stat_all_tables`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/monitoring-stats.html#MONITORING-PG-STAT-ALL-TABLES-VIEW)
+on time spent on vacuum and related operations, as well as per-connection
+statistics on I/O and WAL utilization.
### Other notable changes
-Databases initialized with PostgreSQL 18 [`initdb`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/app-initdb.html) now have page checksums enabled by default. This can affect upgrades from non-checksum enabled clusters, which would require you to create a new PostgreSQL 18 cluster with the `--no-data-checksums` option when using [`pg_upgrade`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html).
-
-PostgreSQL 18 also introduces a new version (3.2) of the PostgreSQL wire protocol, the first new protocol version since PostgreSQL 7.4 (2003). [`libpq`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/libpq-connect.html) still uses version 3.0 by default while clients (e.g., drivers, poolers, proxies) add support for the new protocol version.
+Databases initialized with PostgreSQL 18 [`initdb`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/app-initdb.html)
+now have page checksums enabled by default. This can affect upgrades from
+non-checksum enabled clusters, which would require you to create a new
+PostgreSQL 18 cluster with the `--no-data-checksums` option when using
+[`pg_upgrade`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgupgrade.html).
+
+PostgreSQL 18 also introduces a new version (3.2) of the PostgreSQL wire
+protocol, the first new protocol version since PostgreSQL 7.4 (2003).
+[`libpq`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/libpq-connect.html) still uses
+version 3.0 by default while clients (e.g., drivers, poolers, proxies) add
+support for the new protocol version.
### Additional Features
projects / press.git / commitdiff