PostgreSQL 11 Released!

Posted on 2018-10-18 by PostgreSQL Global Development Group

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group today announced the release of

PostgreSQL 11, the latest version of the world’s most advanced open source
database.

PostgreSQL 11 provides users with improvements to overall performance of the

database system, with specific enhancements associated with very large databases
and high computational workloads. Further, PostgreSQL 11 makes significant
improvements to the table partitioning system, adds support for stored procedures
capable of transaction management, improves query parallelism and adds
parallelized data definition capabilities, and introduces just-in-time (JIT) compilation
for accelerating the execution of expressions in queries.

"For PostgreSQL 11, our development community focused on adding features that
improve PostgreSQL's ability to manage very large databases," said Bruce Momjian,
a core team member of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group. "On top
of PostgreSQL's proven performance for transactional workloads, PostgreSQL 11
makes it even easier for developers to run big data applications at scale."

PostgreSQL benefits from over 20 years of open source development and has
become the preferred open source relational database for developers. The project
continues to receive recognition across the industry, and has been featured as the
"DBMS of the Year 2017" by DB-Engines and in the SD Times 2018 100.

PostgreSQL 11 is the first major release since PostgreSQL 10 was released on

October 5, 2017. The next update release for PostgreSQL 11 containing bug fixes will
be PostgreSQL 11.1, and the next major release with new features will be
PostgreSQL 12.

Increased Robustness and Performance for

Partitioning
PostgreSQL 11 adds the ability to partition data by a hash key, also known as hash
partitioning, adding to the current ability to partition data in PostgreSQL by a list of
values or by a range. PostgreSQL 11 further improves its data federation abilities
with functionality improvements for partitions that use the PostgreSQL foreign data
wrapper, postgres_fdw.

To help with managing partitions, PostgreSQL 11 introduces a catch-all default

partition for data that does not match a partition key, and the ability to create
primary keys, foreign keys, indexes, and triggers on partitioned tables that are
passed down to all partitions. PostgreSQL 11 also supports automatically moving
rows to the correct partition if the partition key for that row is updated.
PostgreSQL 11 improves upon query performance when reading from partitions by
using a new partition elimination strategy. Additionally, PostgreSQL 11 now supports
the popular "upsert" feature on partitioned tables, which helps users to simplify
application code and reduce network overhead when interacting with their data.

Transactions Supported in Stored Procedures

Developers have been able to create user-defined functions in PostgreSQL for over
20 years, but prior to PostgreSQL 11, these functions were unable to manage their
own transactions. PostgreSQL 11 adds SQL procedures that can perform full
transaction management within the body of a function, enabling developers to
create more advanced server-side applications, such as ones involving incremental
bulk data loading.

SQL procedures can be created using the CREATE PROCEDURE command, executed
using the CALL command, and are supported by the server-side procedural
languages PL/pgSQL, PL/Perl, PL/Python, and PL/Tcl.

Enhanced Capabilities for Query Parallelism

PostgreSQL 11 improves parallel query performance, with performance gains in
parallel sequential scans and hash joins along with more efficient scans of
partitioned data. PostgreSQL can now execute SELECT queries that use UNION in
parallel if the underlying queries are unable to be parallelized.
PostgreSQL 11 adds parallelism to several data definition commands, notably for the
creation of B-tree indexes that are generated by executing the standard CREATE
INDEX command. Several data definition commands that either create tables or
materialized views from queries are also parallel capable now, including the CREATE
TABLE .. AS, SELECT INTO, and CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW.

Just-in-Time (JIT) Compilation for Expressions

PostgreSQL 11 introduces support for Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation to accelerate the
execution of certain expressions during query execution. JIT expression compilation
for PostgreSQL uses the LLVM project to speed up the execution of expressions in
WHERE clauses, target lists, aggregates, projections, and some internal operations.

To take advantage of JIT compilation, you will need to install the LLVM dependencies
and enable JIT compilation in either your PostgreSQL settings file by setting jit =
on or from your PostgreSQL session by executing SET jit = on.

General User Experience Improvements

The enhancements to the PostgreSQL relational database are not possible without
the feedback from an active user community and the hard work by the people who
work on PostgreSQL. Below highlights a few of the many features included in
PostgreSQL 11 designed to improve the overall user experience:
 •Removing the need for ALTER TABLE .. ADD COLUMN .. DEFAULT .. with a
not NULL default to rewrite the whole table on execution, which provides a
significant performance boost when running this command.
•"Covering indexes," which allows a user to add additional columns to an index
using the INCLUDE clause and are helpful for performing index-only scans,
especially on data types that are not indexable by B-tree indexes.
•Additional functionality for working with window functions, including
allowing RANGE to use PRECEDING/FOLLOWING, GROUPS, and frame exclusion
•The inclusion of the keywords "quit" and "exit" in the PostgreSQL command-
line interface to help make it easier to leave the command-line tool

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/11/static/release-11.html