Download PostgreSQL 9.0 Beta 4

PostgreSQL is an open source relational database management system that can be run on various operating systems. The developers released the fourth beta version of PostgreSQL 9.0 a few days ago. This branch features 64bit support for the Windows platform, Python 3 support in PL/Python, and conditional per-column triggers. The announcements since the previous entry in the Meuktracker look like this:

PostgreSQL 9.0 Beta4 Released

The fourth beta release for PostgreSQL version 9.0 is now available. This beta contains numerous fixes and a few changes since beta3. As this is likely to be the last beta release, please download, install, and test it so that we can move toward final release of 9.0.

Beta4 contains primarily bug fixes in response to user testing reports since Beta3. The one significant user-facing change is to report \timing information even when psql is being run in “quiet” mode. Fixes include:

• Report disk space error properly and do not load .psqlrc when using pg_upgrade;
• Allow full SSL certificate verification when host and hostaddr are both specified, backpatched to 8.4;
• Fix for pg_dump’s handling of SQL/MED objects;
• Bugfix and performance improvement for scans of lossy GIN index pointers;
• Fix for possible page corruption in ALTER TABLE .. SET TABLESPACE;
• Properly replay CREATE TABLESPACE during crash recovery;
• Cleanup subtransactions in FOR loops, and avoid deep recursion when assigning XIDs to multiple levels of subtransactions, both backpatched to 8.0.

Unlike previous betas, there has been no system catalog change since Beta3, so an initdb should not be required to upgrade test databases from Beta3. Upgrading test databases from earlier versions or betas will require an initdb, however, so we urge users to take the opportunity to test upgrading their database using 9.0’s pg_upgrade and report the results.

If you are able to help with beta testing, please see the Beta testing page.

Betas are not stable and should never be used in production; they are for testing only. A release candidate will be available for testing soon.

Source code, as well as binary installers for many platforms, is available from the PostgreSQL Web Site.

PostgreSQL 9.0 Beta 3 Now Available

The third beta release for PostgreSQL version 9.0 is now available. This beta contains numerous fixes and several changes since Beta2, including a final clean-up of Streaming Replication and Hot Standby. Please download, install, and test it so that we can move towards final release of 9.0.

Some significant changes have been introduced in beta3 which will require some applications to be re-tested with 9.0. These include:

• Fixes for hot standby:
  • close walwriter file handles faster
  • fsync on master before sending WAL
  • improved handling of archive cleanup (archive_cleanup_command and pg_archivecleanup contrib module)
  • better handling of WAL record corruption
  • change of standby delay settings and timing
• Fix for array handling in plpython
• Many dblink fixes
• TCP keep-alive support in libpq
• Fix for checkSeek() behavior on old platforms (was causing pg_dump to occasionally fail)

Note that, due to a system catalog change, an initdb and database reload will be required for upgrading from 9.0Beta1. We encourage users to use this opportunity to test pg_upgrade for the upgrade from Beta2 or an earlier version of 9.0. Please report your results.

PostgreSQL 9.0 Beta 2 Now Available

The second beta release for PostgreSQL version 9.0 is now available. This beta contains numerous fixes and several changes since Beta1. Please download, install, and test it so that we can move towards final release of 9.0.

Some significant changes have been introduced in beta2 which will require some applications to be re-tested with 9.0. These include:

• Fixes for security issues, as in the 2010-05-17 security update release
• Named parameter syntax has been changed
• pg_upgrade has been added to /contrib
• changes to parameters and options in the recovery.conf file
• multiple bug fixes for issues reported during beta1

Note that, due to a system catalog change, an initdb and database reload will be required for upgrading from 9.0Beta1. We encourage users to use this opportunity to test pg_upgrade for the upgrade from Beta1 or an earlier version of 9.0. Please report your results.