From 83677ccdbd646d00aa3a8347f132941f4a8c1053 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Jonathan S. Katz" Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 16:31:09 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Draft for PostgreSQL 12 press release. --- releases/12/en/release.en.md | 117 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 117 insertions(+) create mode 100644 releases/12/en/release.en.md diff --git a/releases/12/en/release.en.md b/releases/12/en/release.en.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55f5ab3 --- /dev/null +++ b/releases/12/en/release.en.md @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +# PostgreSQL 12 Released! + +The PostgreSQL Global Development Group today announced the release of +PostgreSQL 12, the latest version of the world’s most advanced open source +database. + +PostgreSQL 12 enhancements include notable improvements +to query performance, particularly over larger data sets, and overall space +utilization. This release provides application developers with new capabilities +such as SQL/JSON path expression support, optimizations for how common-table +expression ("WITH") queries are executed, and generated columns. The PostgreSQL +community continues to support the extensibility and robustness of PostgreSQL, +with further additions to internationalization, authentication, and providing +easier ways to administrate PostgreSQL. This release also introduces the +pluggable table storage interface, which allows developers to create their own +methods for storing data. + +**HOLD FOR QUOTE** + +PostgreSQL benefits from over 20 years of open source development and has become +the preferred open source relational database for organizations of all sizes. +The project continues to receive recognition across the industry, including +being featured for the second year in a row as the "DBMS of the Year" in 2018 by +DB-Engines and receiving the "Lifetime Achievement" open source award at OSCon +2019. + +## Overall Performance Improvements + +PostgreSQL 12 provides significant performance and maintenance enhancements to +its indexing system and to partitioning. + +B-tree Indexes, the standard type of indexing in PostgreSQL, have been optimized +in PostgreSQL 12 to better handle workloads where the indexes are frequently +modified. Using a fair use implementation of the TPC-C benchmark, PostgreSQL 12 +demonstrated on average a 40% reduction in space utilization and an overall gain +in query performance. + +Queries on partitioned tables have also seen demonstrable improvements, +particularly for tables with thousands of partitions that only need to retrieve +data from a select few. PostgreSQL 12 also improvements the performance of +adding data to partitioned tables via "INSERT" and "COPY", and a new partition +can be attached to a table with blocking any queries on it. + +There are additional enhancements to indexing in PostgreSQL 12 that affect +overall performance, including lower overhead in write-head-log generation for +GiST, GIN, and SP-GiST indexes, the ability to create covering indexes (the +"INCLUDE" clause) on GiST indexes, and the ability to perform K-nearest +neighbor queries with the distance operator ("<->") using SP-GiST indexes. + +## Enhancements to SQL Conformance & Functionality + +PostgreSQL is known for its conformance to the SQL standard – one reason why it +was renamed from "POSTGRES" to "PostgreSQL" – and PostgreSQL 12 adds several +features that build on the implementation of the SQL standard and offer enhanced +functionality. + +PostgreSQL 12 introduces the ability to run queries over JSON documents using +JSON path expressions defined in the SQL/JSON standard. Additionally, certain +JSON path expressions can utilize the existing indexing mechanisms for documents +stored in the JSONB format to efficiently retrieve data. + +Common table expressions, aka "WITH" queries, can now be automatically inlined +by PostgreSQL 12, which in turn can help increase the performance of many +existing queries. In this release, a WITH query can be inlined if it is not +recursive, does not have any side-effects, and is only referenced once in a +later part of a query. + +PostgreSQL 12 also introduces generated columns, which is a type of column that +can be computed its value from other columns in the same table. Currently, +PostgreSQL only supports "stored generated columns," where the computed value is +stored on the disk. + +## Internationalization + +PostgreSQL 12 extends its support of ICU collations by allowing users to define +"nondeterministic collations" that can, for example, allow case-insensitive or +accent-insensitive comparisons. + +## Authentication + +PostgreSQL expands on its robust authentication method support with several +enhancements that provide additional security and functionality in +PostgreSQL 12. This release introduces both client and server-side encryption +for authentication over GSSAPI interfaces, as well as the ability for PostgreSQL +to discover LDAP servers using if it was compiled with OpenLDAP. + +Additionally, PostgreSQL 12 now supports a form of multifactor authentication. A +PostgreSQL server can now require an authentication client to provide a valid +SSL certificate with their username using the "clientcert=verify-full" option +and combine this with the requirement of a separate authentication method (e.g. +"scram-sha-256"). + +## Administration + +PostgreSQL 12 introduces the ability to rebuild indexes without blocking writes +to an index via the "REINDEX CONCURRENTLY" command, allowing users to avoid +downtime scenarios for lengthy index rebuilds. + +Additionally, PostgreSQL 12 can now enable or disable page checksums in an +offline cluster using the "pg_checksums" command. Previously page checksums, a +feature to help verify the integrity of data stored to disk, could only be +enabled at the time a PostgreSQL cluster was initialized with "initdb." + +For a full list of features included in this release, please read the release +notes, which can be found at: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/static/release-12.html + +## About PostgreSQL + +PostgreSQL is the world's most advanced open source database, with a global +community of thousands of users, contributors, companies and organizations. The +PostgreSQL Project builds on over 30 years of engineering, starting at the +University of California, Berkeley, and has continued with an unmatched pace of +development. PostgreSQL's mature feature set not only matches top proprietary +database systems, but exceeds them in advanced database features, extensibility, +security, and stability. + +Learn more about PostgreSQL and participate in our community at PostgreSQL.org. -- 2.39.5