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Introduction

In this post, we’ll cover a way to generate short, alphanumeric, pseudo random identifiers using native Postgres tactics.

These identifiers can be used for things like transactions or reservations, where users need to read and share them easily. This approach is an alternative to using long, random generated values like UUID values, which have downsides for usability and performance.

I last wrote about auto-releasing PostgreSQL extensions on PGXN back in 2020, but I thought it worthwhile, following my Postgres Extensions Day talk last week, to return again to the basics.

Improved user experience with new transformers, YAML configuration, CLI refactoring and table filtering.

I’m pleased to welcome seven new Google Summer of Code 2025 contributors to the Postgres community!

I encourage you to welcome contributors during these first weeks to get them excited and invested in our community. You will meet them on mailing lists, Slack, Discord, and other media.

The table below details information about this year’s project, contributors, and mentors!

A very short edition this week...

PostgreSQL 18 changes this week

Following last week's beta1 release , things seem to have been quite quiet on all fronts, which hopefully means people are busy testing and not finding issues. From previous experience, this is the point in the release cycle where I start to review the changes over the past year and work out what I've missed ( feedback always welcome!).

Next month, I'll be hosting 2 or 3 discussions of Masahiko Sawada's talk, PostgreSQL meets ART - Using Adaptive Radix Tree to speed up vacuuming, from 2024.pgconf.dev. If you're interested in joining us, please sign up using this form and I will send you an invite to one of the sessions.

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The final PostgresSQL Extension Mini-Summit took place on May 7. Gabriele Bartolini gave an overview of PostgreSQL extension management in CloudNativePG (CNPG).

Taming ReorderBufferWrite - Boost Logical Decoding in PostgresPerformance bottlenecks in Postgres logical replication or Change Data Capture (CDC) stream can be subtle, but one specific wait event, ReorderBufferWrite, often points directly at how your application interacts with the database during these processes. Let's unpack this wait-event and see how your application's workload patterns can

The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.6.0alpha1! Best Served with PostgreSQL 18 Beta1 and GEOS 3.13.1.

This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta1, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+. To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.12+ is needed. To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 2.1.0+ is needed.

The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.5.3.

This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta1, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+. To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.12+ is needed. SFCGAL 1.4+ is needed to enable postgis_sfcgal support. To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 1.5+ is needed.

Backfilling data into a TimescaleDB hypertable in production can be very tricky, especially when automated processes like compression policies are involved. From past experience, we have seen that if backfill operations aren’t handled properly, they can interfere with these automated tasks, sometimes causing them to stop working altogether. 

This blog covers a safer and more reliable approach to backfilling hypertables, along with best practices to prevent disruptions to compression and other background processes.

What is a Backfill Operation?

An Vercammen, Gregory Gioffredi and Wim Bertels organized PGConf.BE 2025, with help from Vera Demaiter and Aimée Lynn Backiel.

Pre-Conference Travels: Debian & Berlin

The week before this year's PGConf.DE, I attended the Debian MiniDebConf in Hamburg. Adding Berlin to the itinerary made for a busy two weeks on the road. Still, it gave me time to prep for my PGConf talk while catching up on Debian-related discussions.

Relaunching Xata as "Postgres at scale". A Postgres platform with Copy-on-Write branching, data masking, and separation of storage from compute.

I’m pleased to welcome Mankirat Singh to the Postgres community as a 2025 Google Summer of Code contributor. Mankirat will be developing an ABI compliance checker and reporting system to help identify and prevent unintentional ABI changes in future minor Postgres releases.

Physical streaming replication in PostgreSQL allows you to maintain a live copy of your database on a standby server, which continuously receives updates from the primary server’s WAL (Write-Ahead Log). This standby (or hot standby) can handle read-only queries and be quickly promoted to primary in case of failover, providing high availability and disaster recovery.

PGConf.DE 2025, the 9th Annual PostgreSQL Conference Germany, was held on May 8–9, 2025, at the Marriott Hotel near Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. The event interconnected PostgreSQL enthusiasts, developers, DBAs, and industry sponsors for two days of fascinating talks across four parallel tracks. It was the biggest event so far, with 347 attendees. The whole conference was very well organized, and therefore special thanks are due to all the organizers—in particular Andreas Scherbaum, the main organizer—for their efforts and hard work.

This week saw the routine quarterly round of PostgreSQL minor version updates , so now is your chance to upgrade. Note that PostgreSQL 13 is now officially EOL , so now is your chance to start planning upgrades.

PostgreSQL 18 changes this week

As expected, the PostgreSQL beta1 release is now available, and the PostgreSQL 18 documentation is now available, together with the release notes . Note that as the REL_18_STABLE branch has not yet been created, the PostgreSQL 18 and devel documentation are currently identical.

We’re now in the “feature freeze” phase of Postgres 18 development. That means no new features will get in - only bugfixes and cleanups of already committed changes. The goal is to test and stabilize the code before a release. PG 18 beta1 was released a couple days ago, so it’s a perfect time to do some testing and benchmarking.

PostgreSQL 18 beta has been released, and it’s the perfect time to start exploring the new features we can expect in the General Availability (GA) release. One feature that particularly caught my attention relates to improvements in statistics collection and usage.

Here’s an excerpt from the official PostgreSQL release notes: