<!-- doc/src/sgml/release-18.sgml -->
<!-- See header comment in release.sgml about typical markup -->

 <sect1 id="release-18">
  <title>Release 18</title>

  <formalpara>
   <title>Release date:</title>
   <para>2025-??-??, CURRENT AS OF 2025-05-01</para>
  </formalpara>

  <sect2 id="release-18-highlights">
   <title>Overview</title>

   <para>
    <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 18 contains many new features
    and enhancements, including:
   </para>

   <itemizedlist>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      (to be completed)
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </itemizedlist>

   <para>
    The above items and other new features of
    <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 18 are explained in more detail
    in the sections below.
   </para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2  id="release-18-migration">

   <title>Migration to Version 18</title>

   <para>
    A dump/restore using <xref linkend="app-pg-dumpall"/> or use of
    <xref linkend="pgupgrade"/> or logical replication is required for
    those wishing to migrate data from any previous release.  See <xref
    linkend="upgrading"/> for general information on migrating to new
    major releases.
   </para>

   <para>
    Version 18 contains a number of changes that may affect compatibility
    with previous releases.  Observe the following incompatibilities:
   </para>

   <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-01-16 [d7674c9fa] Seek zone abbreviations in the IANA data before timezone
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change time zone abbreviation handling (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d7674c9fa">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The system will now favor the current session's time zone abbreviations before checking the server variable timezone_abbreviations. Previously timezone_abbreviations was
checked first.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-12-02 [db6a4a985] Deprecate MD5 passwords.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Deprecate MD5 password authentication (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;db6a4a985">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Warnings generated by their use can be disabled by the server variable md5_password_warnings.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-09-24 [62ddf7ee9] Add ONLY support for VACUUM and ANALYZE
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change VACUUM and ANALYZE to process the inheritance children of a parent (Michael Harris)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;62ddf7ee9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The previous behavior can be performed by using the new ONLY option.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-09-30 [770233748] Do not treat \. as an EOF marker in CSV mode for COPY IN
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-10-01 [da8a4c166] Reject a copy EOF marker that has data ahead of it on th
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Prevent COPY FROM from treating \. as an end-of-file marker when reading CSV files (Daniel Vérité, Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;770233748">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;da8a4c166">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
psql will still treat \. as an end-of-file marker when reading CSV files from STDIN.  Older psql clients connecting to Postgres 18 servers might experience \copy problems.  This
release also enforces that \. must appear alone on a line.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-10-03 [e2bab2d79] Remove support for unlogged on partitioned tables
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Disallow unlogged partitioned tables (Michael Paquier)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e2bab2d79">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Previously ALTER TABLE SET [UN]LOGGED did nothing, and the creation of an unlogged partitioned table did not cause its children to be unlogged.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-09-12 [fefa76f70] Remove old RULE privilege completely.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove non-functional support for RULE privileges in GRANT/REVOKE (Fujii Masao)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;fefa76f70">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
These have been non-functional since Postgres 8.2.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-08-12 [f0d112759] Remove "parent" column from pg_backend_memory_contexts
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove column pg_backend_memory_contexts.parent (Melih Mutlu)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;f0d112759">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is now longer needed since pg_backend_memory_contexts.path was added.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-07-25 [32d3ed816] Add path column to pg_backend_memory_contexts view
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change pg_backend_memory_contexts.level to be one-based (Melih Mutlu)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;32d3ed816">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
It was previously zero-based.
</para>
</listitem>

   </itemizedlist>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="release-18-changes">
   <title>Changes</title>

    <para>
     Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between
    <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 18 and the previous major
    release.
    </para>

   <sect3 id="release-18-server">
    <title>Server</title>

    <sect4 id="release-18-optimizer">
     <title>Optimizer</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Alexander Korotkov <akorotkov@postgresql.org>
2025-02-17 [fc069a3a6] Implement Self-Join Elimination
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove some unnecessary table self-joins (Andrey Lepikhov, Alexander Kuzmenkov, Alexander Korotkov, Alena Rybakina)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;fc069a3a6">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This optimization can be disabled using server variable enable_self_join_elimination.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Alexander Korotkov <akorotkov@postgresql.org>
2025-04-04 [c0962a113] Convert 'x IN (VALUES ...)' to 'x = ANY ...' then approp
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Convert some 'IN (VALUES ...)' to 'x = ANY ...' for better optimizer statistics (Alena Rybakina, Andrei Lepikhov)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c0962a113">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Alexander Korotkov <akorotkov@postgresql.org>
2024-11-24 [ae4569161] Teach bitmap path generation about transforming OR-claus
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow transforming OR-clauses to arrays for faster index processing (Alexander Korotkov, Andrey Lepikhov)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ae4569161">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-09-10 [52c707483] Use a hash table to de-duplicate column names in ruleuti
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-12-19 [276279295] Convert SetOp to read its inputs as outerPlan and innerP
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-12-19 [8d96f57d5] Improve planner's handling of SetOp plans.
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-09-05 [908a96861] Optimize WindowAgg's use of tuplestores
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Speed up the processing of INTERSECT, EXCEPT, window aggregates, and view column aliases (Tom Lane, David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;52c707483">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;276279295">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8d96f57d5">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;908a96861">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Richard Guo <rguo@postgresql.org>
2024-11-26 [a8ccf4e93] Reordering DISTINCT keys to match input path's pathkeys
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow the keys of SELECT DISTINCT to be internally reordered to avoid sorting (Richard Guo)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a8ccf4e93">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This optimization can be disabled using enable_distinct_reordering.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-12-12 [bd10ec529] Detect redundant GROUP BY columns using UNIQUE indexes
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Ignore GROUP BY columns that are functionally dependent on other columns (Zhang Mingli, Jian He, David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bd10ec529">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
If a GROUP BY clause includes all columns of a unique index, as well as other columns of the same table, those other columns are redundant and can be dropped
from the grouping.  This was already true for non-deferred primary keys.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Richard Guo <rguo@postgresql.org>
2024-10-09 [67a54b9e8] Allow pushdown of HAVING clauses with grouping sets
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow some HAVING clauses on GROUPING SETS to be pushed to WHERE clauses (Richard Guo)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;67a54b9e8">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This allows earlier row filtering.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-07-09 [036bdcec9] Teach planner how to estimate rows for timestamp generat
Author: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
2024-12-02 [97173536e] Add a planner support function for numeric generate_seri
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve row estimates for generate_series() using numeric and timestamp values (David Rowley, Song Jinzhou)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;036bdcec9">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;97173536e">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Richard Guo <rguo@postgresql.org>
2024-07-05 [aa86129e1] Support "Right Semi Join" plan shapes
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow the optimizer to use "Right Semi Join" plans (Richard Guo)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;aa86129e1">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Semi-joins are used when needing to find if there is at least one match.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Richard Guo <rguo@postgresql.org>
2024-10-09 [828e94c9d] Consider explicit incremental sort for mergejoins
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow merge joins to use incremental sorts (Richard Guo)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;828e94c9d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-08-20 [adf97c156] Speed up Hash Join by making ExprStates support hashing
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-12-11 [0f5738202] Use ExprStates for hashing in GROUP BY and SubPlans
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-03-24 [4d143509c] Create accessor functions for TupleHashEntry.
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-03-24 [a0942f441] Add ExecCopySlotMinimalTupleExtra().
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-03-24 [626df47ad] Remove 'additional' pointer from TupleHashEntryData.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve the performance and reduce memory usage of hash joins and GROUP BY (David Rowley, Jeff Davis)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;adf97c156">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0f5738202">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4d143509c">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a0942f441">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;626df47ad">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This also improves hash set operations used by EXCEPT, and hash lookups of subplan values.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Amit Langote <amitlan@postgresql.org>
2025-04-04 [88f55bc97] Make derived clause lookup in EquivalenceClass more effi
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2025-04-08 [d69d45a5a] Speedup child EquivalenceMember lookup in planner
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow partitions to be pruned more efficienty (Ashutosh Bapat, Yuya Watari, David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;88f55bc97">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d69d45a5a">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Amit Langote <amitlan@postgresql.org>
2025-01-30 [bb3ec16e1] Move PartitionPruneInfo out of plan nodes into PlannedSt
Author: Amit Langote <amitlan@postgresql.org>
2025-01-31 [d47cbf474] Perform runtime initial pruning outside ExecInitNode()
Author: Amit Langote <amitlan@postgresql.org>
2025-02-07 [cbc127917] Track unpruned relids to avoid processing pruned relatio
Author: Amit Langote <amitlan@postgresql.org>
2025-02-20 [525392d57] Don't lock partitions pruned by initial pruning
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Avoid the locking of pruned partitions during planning (Amit Langote)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bb3ec16e1">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d47cbf474">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cbc127917">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;525392d57">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Richard Guo <rguo@postgresql.org>
2024-07-30 [9b282a935] Fix partitionwise join with partially-redundant join cla
Author: Richard Guo <rguo@postgresql.org>
2024-07-29 [513f4472a] Reduce memory used by partitionwise joins
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow partitionwise joins in more cases, and reduce its memory usage (Richard Guo, Tom Lane, Ashutosh Bapat)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9b282a935">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;513f4472a">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Alexander Korotkov <akorotkov@postgresql.org>
2025-03-10 [fae535da0] Teach Append to consider tuple_fraction when accumulatin
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve cost estimates of partition queries (Nikita Malakhov, Andrei Lepikhov)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;fae535da0">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-04-02 [0dca5d68d] Change SQL-language functions to use the plan cache.
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-04-17 [09b07c295] Minor performance improvement for SQL-language functions
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve SQL-language function plan caching (Alexander Pyhalov, Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0dca5d68d">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;09b07c295">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2024-08-21 [e22253467] Treat number of disabled nodes in a path as a separate c
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve handling of disabled optimizer features (Robert Haas)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e22253467">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-indexes">
     <title>Indexes</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>
2025-04-04 [92fe23d93] Add nbtree skip scan optimization.
Author: Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>
2025-04-04 [8a510275d] Further optimize nbtree search scan key comparisons.
Author: Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>
2025-04-04 [8a510275d] Further optimize nbtree search scan key comparisons.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow skip scans of btree indexes (Peter Geoghegan)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;92fe23d93">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8a510275d">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8a510275d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is effective if the earlier non-referenced columns contain few unique values.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-18 [f278e1fe3] Allow non-btree unique indexes for partition keys
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-18 [9d6db8bec] Allow non-btree unique indexes for matviews
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow non-btree unique indexes to be used as partition keys and in materialized views (Mark Dilger)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;f278e1fe3">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9d6db8bec">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The index type must still support equality.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2025-03-03 [8492feb98] Allow parallel CREATE INDEX for GIN indexes
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow GIN indexes to be created in parallel (Tomas Vondra, Matthias van de Meent)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8492feb98">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
2025-04-02 [e9e7b6604] Add GiST and btree sortsupport routines for range types
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow values to be sorted to speed rangetype GiST and btree index builds (Bernd Helmle)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e9e7b6604">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-performance">
     <title>General Performance</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-17 [02844012b] aio: Basic subsystem initialization
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-17 [da7226993] aio: Add core asynchronous I/O infrastructure
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-18 [55b454d0e] aio: Infrastructure for io_method=worker
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-18 [247ce06b8] aio: Add io_method=worker
Author: Thomas Munro <tmunro@postgresql.org>
2025-03-19 [10f664684] Introduce io_max_combine_limit.
Author: Thomas Munro <tmunro@postgresql.org>
2025-03-19 [06fb5612c] Increase io_combine_limit range to 1MB.
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-26 [c325a7633] aio: Add io_method=io_uring
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-29 [50cb7505b] aio: Implement support for reads in smgr/md/fd
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-30 [047cba7fa] bufmgr: Implement AIO read support
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-30 [12ce89fd0] bufmgr: Use AIO in StartReadBuffers()
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-30 [2a5e709e7] Enable IO concurrency on all systems
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add an asynchronous I/O subsystem (Andres Freund, Thomas Munro, Nazir Bilal Yavuz, Melanie Plageman)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;02844012b">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;da7226993">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;55b454d0e">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;247ce06b8">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;10f664684">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;06fb5612c">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c325a7633">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;50cb7505b">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;047cba7fa">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;12ce89fd0">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;2a5e709e7">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is enabled by server variable io_method, with server variables io_combine_limit and io_max_combine_limit added to control it.  This also enables
effective_io_concurrency and maintenance_io_concurrency values greater than zero for systems without fadvise() support.  The new system view pg_aios shows the file handles being used
for asynchronous I/O.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2024-09-21 [c4d5cb71d] Increase the number of fast-path lock slots
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve the locking performance of queries that access many relations (Tomas Vondra)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c4d5cb71d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
2025-02-11 [052026c9b] Eagerly scan all-visible pages to amortize aggressive va
Author: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
2025-03-03 [06eae9e62] Trigger more frequent autovacuums with relallfrozen
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow normal vacuums to freeze some pages, even though they are all-visible (Melanie Plageman)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;052026c9b">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;06eae9e62">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This reduces the overhead of later full-relation freezing.  The aggressiveness of this can be controlled by server variable and per-table setting vacuum_max_eager_freeze_failure_rate.
Previously vacuum never processed all-visible pages until freezing was required.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-20 [0164a0f9e] Add vacuum_truncate configuration parameter.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable vacuum_truncate to control file truncation during VACUUM (Nathan Bossart, Gurjeet Singh)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0164a0f9e">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
A storage-level parameter with the same name and behavior already existed.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
2025-03-12 [ff79b5b2a] Increase default effective_io_concurrency to 16
Author: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
2025-03-18 [cc6be07eb] Increase default maintenance_io_concurrency to 16
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Increase server variables effective_io_concurrency's and maintenance_io_concurrency's default values to 16 (Melanie Plageman)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ff79b5b2a">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cc6be07eb">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This more accurately reflects modern hardware.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-monitoring">
     <title>Monitoring</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
2025-03-12 [9219093ca] Modularize log_connections output
Author: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
2025-03-12 [18cd15e70] Add connection establishment duration logging
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Increase the logging granularity of server variable log_connections (Melanie Plageman)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9219093ca">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;18cd15e70">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This server variable was previously only boolean;  these options are still supported.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-04-07 [3516ea768] Add local-address escape "%L" to log_line_prefix.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add log_line_prefix escape "%L" to output the client IP address (Greg Sabino Mullane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;3516ea768">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2025-03-14 [6d376c3b0] Add GUC option to log lock acquisition failures.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable log_lock_failure to log lock acquisition failures (Yuki Seino)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6d376c3b0">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Specifically it reports SELECT ... NOWAIT lock failures.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-01-28 [30a6ed0ce] Track per-relation cumulative time spent in [auto]vacuum
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Modify pg_stat_all_tables and its variants to report the time spent in vacuum, analyze, and their automatic variants (Sami Imseih)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;30a6ed0ce">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The new columns are total_vacuum_time, total_autovacuum_time, total_analyze_time, and total_autoanalyze_time.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-02-11 [bb8dff999] Add cost-based vacuum delay time to progress views.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-02-14 [7720082ae] Add delay time to VACUUM/ANALYZE (VERBOSE) and autovacuu
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add delay time reporting to VACUUM and ANALYZE (Bertrand Drouvot, Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bb8dff999">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7720082ae">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This information appears in the autovacuum logs, the system views pg_stat_progress_vacuum and pg_stat_progress_analyze, and the output of VACUUM and ANALYZE when in VERBOSE
mode; tracking must be enabled with the server variable track_cost_delay_timing.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-12-19 [9aea73fc6] Add backend-level statistics to pgstats
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-03-03 [3f1db99bf] Handle auxiliary processes in SQL functions of backend s
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add per-backend I/O statistics reporting (Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9aea73fc6">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;3f1db99bf">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The statistics are accessed via pg_stat_get_backend_io().  Per-backend I/O statistics can be cleared via pg_stat_reset_backend_stats().
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-01-14 [f92c854cf] Make pg_stat_io count IOs as bytes instead of blocks for
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_stat_io columns to report I/O activity in bytes (Nazir Bilal Yavuz)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;f92c854cf">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The new columns are read_bytes, write_bytes, and extend_bytes.  The op_bytes column, which always equaled BLCKSZ, has been removed.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-04 [a051e71e2] Add data for WAL in pg_stat_io and backend statistics
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-20 [4538bd3f1] doc: Add details about object "wal" in pg_stat_io
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-03-06 [7f7f324eb] Add more monitoring data for WAL writes in the WAL recei
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add WAL I/O activity rows to pg_stat_io (Nazir Bilal Yavuz, Bertrand Drouvot, Michael Paquier)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a051e71e2">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4538bd3f1">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7f7f324eb">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This includes WAL receiver activity and a wait event for such writes.
</para>

</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-26 [6c349d83b] Re-add GUC track_wal_io_timing
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change server variable track_wal_io_timing to control tracking WAL timing in pg_stat_io instead of pg_stat_wal (Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6c349d83b">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-24 [2421e9a51] Remove read/sync fields from pg_stat_wal and GUC track_w
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-26 [6c349d83b] Re-add GUC track_wal_io_timing
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove read/sync columns from pg_stat_wal (Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;2421e9a51">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6c349d83b">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This removes columns wal_write, wal_sync, wal_write_time, and wal_sync_time.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-03-11 [76def4cdd] Add WAL data to backend statistics
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function pg_stat_get_backend_wal() to return per-backend WAL statistics (Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;76def4cdd">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Per-backend WAL statistics can be cleared via pg_stat_reset_backend_stats().
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-10-11 [4e1fad378] Add pg_ls_summariesdir().
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function pg_ls_summariesdir() to specifically list the contents of PGDATA/pg_wal/summaries (Yushi Ogiwara)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4e1fad378">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-09-30 [559efce1d] Add num_done counter to the pg_stat_checkpointer view.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add column pg_stat_checkpointer.num_done to report the number of completed checkpoints (Anton A. Melnikov)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;559efce1d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Columns num_timed and num_requested count both completed and skipped checkpoints.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-10-02 [17cc5f666] Fix inconsistent reporting of checkpointer stats.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add column pg_stat_checkpointer.slru_written to report SLRU buffers written (Nitin Jadhav)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;17cc5f666">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Also, modify the checkpoint server log message to report separate shared buffer and SLRU buffer values.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-11-11 [e7a9496de] Add two attributes to pg_stat_database for parallel work
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add columns to pg_stat_database to report parallel workers activity (Benoit Lobréau)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e7a9496de">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The new columns are parallel_workers_to_launch and parallel_workers_launched.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-03-18 [62d712ecf] Introduce squashing of constant lists in query jumbling
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-03-27 [9fbd53dea] Remove the query_id_squash_values GUC
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Have query jumbling of arrays consider only the first and last array elements (Dmitry Dolgov, Sami Imseih)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;62d712ecf">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9fbd53dea">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Jumbling is used by pg_stat_statements.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-03-26 [787514b30] Use relation name instead of OID in query jumbling for R
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Adjust query jumbling to group together queries using the same relation name (Michael Paquier, Sami Imseih)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;787514b30">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is true even if the tables in different schemas have different column names.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-04-08 [042a66291] Add function to get memory context stats for processes
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-04-08 [c57971034] Rename argument in pg_get_process_memory_contexts().
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function pg_get_process_memory_contexts() to report process memory context statistics (Rahila Syed)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;042a66291">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c57971034">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-07-01 [12227a1d5] Add context type field to pg_backend_memory_contexts
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add column pg_backend_memory_contexts.type to report the type of memory context (David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;12227a1d5">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-07-25 [32d3ed816] Add path column to pg_backend_memory_contexts view
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add column pg_backend_memory_contexts.path to show memory context parents (Melih Mutlu)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;32d3ed816">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-privileges">
     <title>Privileges</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-07-04 [4564f1ceb] Add pg_get_acl() to get the ACL for a database object
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-07-10 [d898665bf] Extend pg_get_acl() to handle sub-object IDs
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function pg_get_acl() to retrieve database access control details (Joel Jacobson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4564f1ceb">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d898665bf">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-09-12 [4eada203a] Add has_largeobject_privilege function.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function has_largeobject_privilege() to check large object privileges (Yugo Nagata)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4eada203a">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2025-04-04 [0d6c47766] Extend ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES to define default privil
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES to define large object default privileges (Takatsuka Haruka, Yugo Nagata, Laurenz Albe)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0d6c47766">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-07-09 [ccd38024b] Introduce pg_signal_autovacuum_worker.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add predefined role pg_signal_autovacuum_worker (Kirill Reshke)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ccd38024b">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This allows sending signals to autovacuum workers.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-server-config">
     <title>Server Configuration</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-02-20 [b3f0be788] Add support for OAUTHBEARER SASL mechanism
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the OAuth authentication method (Jacob Champion, Daniel Gustafsson, Thomas Munro)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;b3f0be788">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This adds an "oauth" authentication method to pg_hba.conf, libpq OAuth options, a server variable oauth_validator_libraries to load token validation libraries, and
a configure flag --with-libcurl to add the required compile-time libraries.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2024-10-24 [45188c2ea] Support configuring TLSv1.3 cipher suites
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable ssl_tls13_ciphers to allow specification of multiple colon-separated TLSv1.3 cipher suites (Erica Zhang, Daniel Gustafsson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;45188c2ea">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-03-18 [daa02c6bd] Add X25519 to the default set of curves
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change server variable ssl_groups's default to include elliptic curve X25519 (Daniel Gustafsson, Jacob Champion)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;daa02c6bd">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2024-10-24 [3d1ef3a15] Support configuring multiple ECDH curves
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Rename server variable ssl_ecdh_curve to ssl_groups and allow multiple colon-separated ECDH curves to be specified (Erica Zhang, Daniel Gustafsson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;3d1ef3a15">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>The previous name still works.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-01-24 [924d89a35] pgcrypto: Add function to check FIPS mode
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function pg_check_fipsmode() to report the server's FIPS mode (Daniel Gustafsson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;924d89a35">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
2025-04-02 [a460251f0] Make cancel request keys longer
Author: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
2024-07-29 [9d9b9d46f] Move cancel key generation to after forking the backend
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Make cancel request keys 256 bits (Heikki Linnakangas, Jelte Fennema-Nio)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a460251f0">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9d9b9d46f">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is only possible when the server and client support wire protocol version 3.2, introduced in this release.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-01-06 [c758119e5] Allow changing autovacuum_max_workers without restarting
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable autovacuum_worker_slots to specify the maximum number of background workers (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c758119e5">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
With this variable set, autovacuum_max_workers can be adjusted at runtime up to this maximum without a server restart.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-02-05 [306dc520b] Introduce autovacuum_vacuum_max_threshold.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow specification of the fixed number of dead tuples that will trigger an autovacuum (Nathan Bossart, Frédéric Yhuel)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;306dc520b">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The server variable is autovacuum_vacuum_max_threshold.  Percentages are still used for triggering.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-03-24 [adb5f85fa] Redefine max_files_per_process to control additionally o
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change server variable max_files_per_process to limit only files opened by a backend (Andres Freund)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;adb5f85fa">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Previously files opened by the postmaster were also counted toward this limit.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-07-26 [0dcaea569] Introduce num_os_semaphores GUC.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable num_os_semaphores to report the required number of semaphores (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0dcaea569">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is useful for operating system configuration.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-19 [4f7f7b037] extension_control_path
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable extension_control_path to specify the location of extension control files (Peter Eisentraut, Matheus Alcantara)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4f7f7b037">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-replication">
     <title>Streaming Replication and Recovery</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2025-02-19 [ac0e33136] Invalidate inactive replication slots.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow inactive replication slots to be automatically invalided using server variable idle_replication_slot_timeout (Nisha Moond, Bharath Rupireddy)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ac0e33136">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2025-03-21 [04ff636cb] Add GUC option to control maximum active replication ori
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable max_active_replication_origins to control the maximum active replication origins (Euler Taveira)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;04ff636cb">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This was previously controlled by max_replication_slots, but this new setting allows a higher origin count in cases where fewer slots are required.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-logical">
     <title><link linkend="logical-replication">Logical Replication</link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-10-30 [745217a05] Replicate generated columns when specified in the column
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-11-07 [7054186c4] Replicate generated columns when 'publish_generated_colu
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-12-04 [87ce27de6] Ensure stored generated columns must be published when r
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2025-01-30 [6252b1eaf] Doc: Generated column replication.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow the values of generated columns to be logically replicated (Shubham Khanna, Vignesh C, Zhijie Hou, Shlok Kyal, Peter Smith)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;745217a05">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7054186c4">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;87ce27de6">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6252b1eaf">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
If the publication specifies a column list, all specified columns, generated and non-generated, are published.  Without a specified column list, publication option publish_generated_columns
controls whether generated columns are published. Previously generated columns were not replicated and the subscriber had to compute the values if possible;  this is particularly
useful for non-Postgres subscribers which lack such a capability.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-10-28 [1bf1140be] Change the default value of the streaming option to 'par
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change the default CREATE SUBSCRIPTION streaming option from "off" to "parallel" (Hayato Kuroda, Masahiko Sawada, Peter Smith, Amit Kapila)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1bf1140be">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-07-24 [1462aad2e] Allow altering of two_phase option of a SUBSCRIPTION.
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2025-04-03 [4868c96bc] Fix slot synchronization for two_phase enabled slots.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow ALTER SUBSCRIPTION to change the replication slot's two-phase commit behavior (Hayato Kuroda, Ajin Cherian, Amit Kapila, Zhijie Hou)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1462aad2e">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4868c96bc">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-08-20 [9758174e2] Log the conflicts while applying changes in logical repl
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-08-22 [edcb71258] Doc: explain the log format of logical replication confl
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-08-29 [640178c92] Rename the conflict types for the origin differ cases.
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2024-09-04 [6c2b5edec] Collect statistics about conflicts in logical replicatio
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2025-03-24 [73eba5004] Detect and Log multiple_unique_conflicts type conflict.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Log conflicts while applying logical replication changes (Zhijie Hou, Nisha Moond)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9758174e2">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;edcb71258">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;640178c92">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6c2b5edec">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;73eba5004">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Also report in new columns of pg_stat_subscription_stats.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="release-18-utility">
    <title>Utility Commands</title>

    <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-02-07 [83ea6c540] Virtual generated columns
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-28 [cdc168ad4] Add support for not-null constraints on virtual generate
Author: Richard Guo <rguo@postgresql.org>
2025-02-25 [1e4351af3] Expand virtual generated columns in the planner
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow generated columns to be virtual, and make them the default (Peter Eisentraut, Jian He, Richard Guo, Dean Rasheed)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;83ea6c540">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cdc168ad4">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1e4351af3">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Virtual generated columns generate their values when the columns are read, not written.  The write behavior can still be specified via the STORED option.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
2025-01-16 [80feb727c] Add OLD/NEW support to RETURNING in DML queries.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add OLD/NEW support to RETURNING in DML queries (Dean Rasheed)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;80feb727c">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Previously RETURNING only returned new values for INSERT and UPDATE, old values for DELETE;  MERGE would return the appropriate value for the internal query executed.  This new syntax
allows INSERT with an ON CONFLICT action to return old values, UPDATE to return old values, and DELETE to return new values if the query assigned to an ON DELETE row would return new
values.  New syntax allows changeable relation aliases "old" and "new" to specify which values should be returned.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-19 [302cf1575] Add support for LIKE in CREATE FOREIGN TABLE
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow foreign tables to be created like existing local tables (Zhang Mingli)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;302cf1575">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The syntax is CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ... LIKE.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-11-27 [85b7efa1c] Support LIKE with nondeterministic collations
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow LIKE with nondeterministic collations (Peter Eisentraut)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;85b7efa1c">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-02-21 [329304c90] Support text position search functions with nondetermini
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow text position search functions with nondeterministic collations (Peter Eisentraut)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;329304c90">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
These used to generate an error.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-01-17 [d3d098316] Support PG_UNICODE_FAST locale in the builtin collation
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add builtin collation provider PG_UNICODE_FAST (Jeff Davis)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d3d098316">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This locale supports case mapping, but sorts in code point order, not natural language order.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-09-24 [62ddf7ee9] Add ONLY support for VACUUM and ANALYZE
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow VACUUM and ANALYZE to process partitioned tables without processing their children (Michael Harris)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;62ddf7ee9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is enabled with the new ONLY option.  This is useful since autovacuum does not process partitioned tables, just its children.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2024-10-11 [e839c8ecc] Create functions pg_set_relation_stats, pg_clear_relatio
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2024-10-24 [d32d14639] Add functions pg_restore_relation_stats(), pg_restore_at
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [650ab8aaf] Stats: use schemaname/relname instead of regclass.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add functions to modify per-relation and per-column optimizer statistics (Corey Huinker)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e839c8ecc">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d32d14639">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;650ab8aaf">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The functions are pg_restore_relation_stats(), pg_restore_attribute_stats(), pg_clear_relation_stats(), and pg_clear_attribute_stats.
</para>
</listitem>


<!--
Author: Thomas Munro <tmunro@postgresql.org>
2025-04-08 [f78ca6f3e] Introduce file_copy_method setting.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add server variable file_copy_method to control the file copying method (Nazir Bilal Yavuz)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;f78ca6f3e">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This controls whether CREATE DATABASE ... STRATEGY=FILE_COPY and ALTER DATABASE ... SET TABLESPACE uses file copy or clone.
</para>
</listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

    <sect4 id="release-18-constraints">
     <title><link linkend="ddl-constraints">Constraints</link></title>

      <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-09-17 [fc0438b4e] Add temporal PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE constraints
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow the specification of non-overlapping PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE constraints (Paul A. Jungwirth)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;fc0438b4e">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is specified by WITHOUT OVERLAPS on the last column.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-01-11 [ca87c415e] Add support for NOT ENFORCED in CHECK constraints
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-04-02 [eec0040c4] Add support for NOT ENFORCED in foreign key constraints
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow CHECK and foreign key constraints to be specified as NOT ENFORCED (Amul Sul)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ca87c415e">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;eec0040c4">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This also adds column pg_constraint.conenforced.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-11-15 [9321d2fdf] Fix collation handling for foreign keys
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Require primary/foreign key relationships to use either deterministic collations or the the same nondeterministic collations (Peter Eisentraut)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9321d2fdf">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The restore of a pg_dump, also used by pg_upgrade, will fail if these requirements are not met;  schema changes must be made for these upgrade methods to succeed.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2024-11-08 [14e87ffa5] Add pg_constraint rows for not-null constraints
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Store column NOT NULL specifications in pg_constraint (Álvaro Herrera, Bernd Helmle)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;14e87ffa5">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This allows names to be specified for NOT NULL constraint.  This also adds NOT NULL constraints to foreign tables and NOT NULL inheritance control to local tables.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-04-07 [a379061a2] Allow NOT NULL constraints to be added as NOT VALID
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow ALTER TABLE to set the NOT VALID attribute of NOT NULL constraints (Rushabh Lathia, Jian He)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a379061a2">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-03-05 [f4e53e10b] Add ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... SET [NO] INHERI
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-03-27 [4a02af8b1] Simplify syntax for ALTER TABLE ALTER CONSTRAINT NO INHE
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow modification of the inheritability of NOT NULL constraints (Suraj Kharage, Álvaro Herrera)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;f4e53e10b">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4a02af8b1">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The syntax is ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... [NO] INHERIT.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-01-23 [b663b9436] Allow NOT VALID foreign key constraints on partitioned t
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow NOT VALID foreign key constraints on partitioned tables (Amul Sul)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;b663b9436">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2024-09-30 [4dea33ce7] Don't disallow DROP of constraints ONLY on partitioned t
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow dropping of constraints ONLY on partitioned tables (Álvaro Herrera)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4dea33ce7">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This was previously erroneously prohibited.
</para>
</listitem>

      </itemizedlist>
    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-copy">
     <title><link linkend="sql-copy"><command>COPY</command></link></title>

      <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-10-08 [4ac2a9bec] Add REJECT_LIMIT option to the COPY command.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add REJECT_LIMIT to control the number of invalid rows COPY FROM can ignore (Atsushi Torikoshi)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4ac2a9bec">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is available when ON_ERROR = 'ignore'.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2025-04-04 [534874fac] Allow "COPY table TO" command to copy rows from material
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow COPY TO to copy rows from populated materialized view (Jian He)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;534874fac">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-10-03 [e7834a1a2] Add LOG_VERBOSITY = 'silent' support to COPY command.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add COPY LOG_VERBOSITY level "silent" to suppress log output of ignored rows (Atsushi Torikoshi)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e7834a1a2">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This new level suppresses output for discarded input rows when on_error = 'ignore'.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-02-06 [401a6956f] Disallow COPY FREEZE on foreign tables.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Disallow COPY FREEZE on foreign tables (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;401a6956f">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Previously, the COPY worked but the FREEZE was ignored, so disallow this command.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>
    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-explain">
     <title><link linkend="sql-explain"><command>EXPLAIN</command></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-12-11 [c2a4078eb] Enable BUFFERS with EXPLAIN ANALYZE by default
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Automatically include BUFFERS output in EXPLAIN ANALYZE (Guillaume Lelarge, David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c2a4078eb">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2024-08-13 [4c1b4cdb8] Add resource statistics reporting to ANALYZE VERBOSE.
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2024-09-09 [bb7775234] Add WAL usage reporting to ANALYZE VERBOSE output.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add WAL, CPU, and average read statistics output to EXPLAIN ANALYZE VERBOSE (Anthonin Bonnefoy)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4c1b4cdb8">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bb7775234">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-17 [320545bfc] Add information about WAL buffers being full to EXPLAIN
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-17 [6a8a7ce47] Add information about WAL buffers full to VACUUM/ANALYZE
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add full WAL buffer count to EXPLAIN (WAL), VACUUM/ANALYZE (VERBOSE), and autovacuum log output (Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;320545bfc">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6a8a7ce47">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>
2025-03-11 [0fbceae84] Show index search count in EXPLAIN ANALYZE, take 2.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
In EXPLAIN ANALYZE, report the number of index lookups used per index scan node (Peter Geoghegan)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0fbceae84">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-02-21 [ddb17e387] Allow EXPLAIN to indicate fractional rows.
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-02-27 [95dbd827f] EXPLAIN: Always use two fractional digits for row counts
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Modify EXPLAIN to output fractional row counts (Ibrar Ahmed, Ilia Evdokimov, Robert Haas)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ddb17e387">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;95dbd827f">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-07-05 [1eff8279d] Add memory/disk usage for Material nodes in EXPLAIN
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-07-05 [53abb1e0e] Fix newly introduced issue in EXPLAIN for Materialize no
Author: Tatsuo Ishii <ishii@postgresql.org>
2024-09-17 [95d6e9af0] Add memory/disk usage for Window aggregate nodes in EXPL
Author: Tatsuo Ishii <ishii@postgresql.org>
2024-09-23 [40708acd6] Add memory/disk usage for more executor nodes.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add memory and disk usage details to Material, Window Aggregate, and common table expression nodes in EXPLAIN (David Rowley, Tatsuo Ishii)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1eff8279d">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;53abb1e0e">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;95d6e9af0">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;40708acd6">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>


<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-03-11 [8b1b34254] Improve EXPLAIN's display of window functions.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add details about window function arguments to EXPLAIN output (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8b1b34254">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-07-09 [5a1e6df3b] Show Parallel Bitmap Heap Scan worker stats in EXPLAIN A
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add "Parallel Bitmap Heap Scan" worker cache statistics to EXPLAIN ANALYZE (David Geier, Heikki Linnakangas, Donghang Lin, Alena Rybakina, David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;5a1e6df3b">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2024-08-21 [c01743aa4] Show number of disabled nodes in EXPLAIN ANALYZE output.
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-10-11 [161320b4b] Adjust EXPLAIN's output for disabled nodes
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-10-29 [84b8fccbe] Doc: add detail about EXPLAIN's "Disabled" property
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Indicate disabled nodes in EXPLAIN ANALYZE output (Robert Haas, David Rowley, Laurenz Albe)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c01743aa4">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;161320b4b">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;84b8fccbe">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="release-18-datatypes">
    <title>Data Types</title>

    <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-01-23 [4e7f62bc3] Add support for Unicode case folding.
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-01-17 [286a365b9] Support Unicode full case mapping and conversion.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve Unicode full case mapping and conversion (Jeff Davis)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4e7f62bc3">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;286a365b9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This adds the ability to do conditional and title case mapping, and case map single characters to multiple characters.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-01-24 [a5579a90a] Make jsonb casts to scalar types translate JSON null to
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow jsonb NULL values to be cast to scalar types as NULL (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a5579a90a">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Previously such casts generated an error.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
2025-03-05 [4603903d2] Allow json{b}_strip_nulls to remove null array elements
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add optional parameter to json{b}_strip_nulls to allow removal of null array elements (Florents Tselai)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4603903d2">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-04-01 [6c12ae09f] Introduce a SQL-callable function array_sort(anyarray).
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function array_sort() which sorts an array's first dimension (Junwang Zhao, Jian He)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6c12ae09f">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-11-01 [49d6c7d8d] Add SQL function array_reverse()
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function array_reverse() which reverses an array's first dimension (Aleksander Alekseev)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;49d6c7d8d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-13 [0697b2390] Add reverse(bytea).
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function reverse() to reverse bytea bytes (Aleksander Alekseev)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0697b2390">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
2025-03-07 [6da469bad] Allow casting between bytea and integer types.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow casting between integer types and bytea (Aleksander Alekseev)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6da469bad">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The integer values are stored as bytea two's complement values.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-04-03 [82a46cca9] Update Unicode data to Unicode 16.0.0
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Update Unicode data to Unicode 16.0.0 (Peter Eisentraut)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;82a46cca9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-02-18 [b464e51ab] Update to latest Snowball sources.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add full text search stemming for Estonian (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;b464e51ab">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-09-24 [cd838e200] Neaten up our choices of SQLSTATEs for XML-related error
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve the XML error codes to more closely match the SQL standard (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cd838e200">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
These errors are reported via SQLSTATE.
</para>
</listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="release-18-functions">
    <title>Functions</title>

    <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-01-24 [bfc599206] Add SQL function CASEFOLD().
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function CASEFOLD() to allow for more sophisticated case-insensitive matching (Jeff Davis)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bfc599206">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Allows more accurate comparison, i.e., a character can have multiple upper or lower case equivalents, or upper or lower case conversion changes the number of characters.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-07-11 [a0f1fce80] Add min and max aggregates for composite types (records)
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-10-08 [2d24fd942] Add min and max aggregates for bytea type.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow MIN()/MAX() aggregates on arrays and composite types (Aleksander Alekseev, Marat Buharov)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a0f1fce80">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;2d24fd942">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-08-16 [6be39d77a] Fix extraction of week and quarter fields from intervals
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add a WEEK option to EXTRACT() (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6be39d77a">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-08-16 [6be39d77a] Fix extraction of week and quarter fields from intervals
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve the output EXTRACT(QUARTER ...) for negative values (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6be39d77a">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-01-22 [172e6b3ad] Support RN (roman-numeral format) in to_number().
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add roman numeral support to to_number() (Hunaid Sohail)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;172e6b3ad">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is accessed via the "RN" pattern.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2024-12-11 [78c5e141e] Add UUID version 7 generation function.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add UUID version 7 generation function uuidv7() (Andrey Borodin)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;78c5e141e">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This UUID value is temporally sortable.  Function alias uuidv4() has been added to explicitly generate version 4 UUIDs.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-08-12 [760162fed] Add user-callable CRC functions.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add functions crc32() and crc32c to compute CRC values (Aleksander Alekseev)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;760162fed">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
2025-03-26 [a3b6dfd41] Add support for gamma() and lgamma() functions.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add math functions gamma() and lgamma() (Dean Rasheed)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a3b6dfd41">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-03-03 [246dedc5d] Allow =&gt; syntax for named cursor arguments in plpgsql.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow "=&gt;" syntax for named cursor arguments in plpgsql (Pavel Stehule)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;246dedc5d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
We previously only accepted ":=".
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-07-25 [580f8727c] Add argument names to the regexp_XXX functions.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow regexp_match[es]/regexp_like/regexp_replace/regexp_count/regexp_instr/regexp_substr/regexp_split_to_table/regexp_split_to_array() to use named arguments (Jian He)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;580f8727c">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="release-18-libpq">
    <title><link linkend="libpq">libpq</link></title>

    <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2024-09-09 [cdb6b0fdb] Add PQfullProtocolVersion() to surface the precise proto
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function PQfullProtocolVersion() to report the full, including minor, protocol version number (Jacob Champion, Jelte Fennema-Nio)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cdb6b0fdb">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
2025-04-02 [285613c60] libpq: Add min/max_protocol_version connection options
Author: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
2025-04-02 [507034910] libpq: Handle NegotiateProtocolVersion message different
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add libpq connection parameters and environment variables to specify the minimum and maximum acceptable protocol version for connections (Jelte Fennema-Nio)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;285613c60">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;507034910">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-12-18 [4b99fed75] libpq: Add service name to PGconn and PQservice()
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add libpq function PQservice() to return the connection service name (Michael Banck)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4b99fed75">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2024-08-19 [28a1121fd] Mark search_path as GUC_REPORT
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2024-08-19 [0d06a7eac] Document that search_path is reported by the server
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Report search_path changes to the client (Alexander Kukushkin, Jelte Fennema-Nio, Tomas Vondra)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;28a1121fd">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0d06a7eac">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2024-08-12 [ea92f3a0a] libpq: Trace frontend authentication challenges
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2024-08-14 [a5c6b8f22] libpq: Trace responses to SSLRequest and GSSENCRequest
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2024-08-16 [b8b3f861f] libpq: Trace all messages received from the server
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-02-24 [e87c14b19] libpq: Trace all NegotiateProtocolVersion fields
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2024-08-09 [7adec2d5f] libpq: Trace StartupMessage/SSLRequest/GSSENCRequest cor
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add PQtrace() output for all message types, including authentication (Jelte Fennema-Nio)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ea92f3a0a">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a5c6b8f22">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;b8b3f861f">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e87c14b19">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7adec2d5f">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-04-03 [2da74d8d6] libpq: Add support for dumping SSL key material to file
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add libpq connection parameter sslkeylogfile which dumps out SSL key material (Abhishek Chanda, Daniel Gustafsson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;2da74d8d6">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is useful for debugging.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Thomas Munro <tmunro@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [3c86223c9] libpq: Deprecate pg_int64.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Modify some libpq function signatures to use int64_t (Thomas Munro)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;3c86223c9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
These previously used pg_int64, which is now deprecated.
</para>
</listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="release-18-psql">
     <title><xref linkend="app-psql"/></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-08-22 [d55322b0d] psql: Add more meta-commands able to use the extended pr
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow psql to parse, bind, and close named prepared statements (Anthonin Bonnefoy, Michael Paquier)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d55322b0d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is accomplished with new commands \parse, \bind_named, and \close.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-21 [41625ab8e] psql: Add support for pipelines
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-03-18 [17caf6644] psql: Add \sendpipeline to send query buffers while in a
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-03-19 [2cce0fe44] psql: Allow queries terminated by semicolons while in pi
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add psql backslash commands to allowing issuance of pipeline queries (Anthonin Bonnefoy)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;41625ab8e">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;17caf6644">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;2cce0fe44">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The new commands are \startpipeline, \syncpipeline, \sendpipeline, \endpipeline, \flushrequest, \flush, and \getresults.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-25 [3ce357584] psql: Add pipeline status to prompt and some state varia
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow adding pipeline status to the psql prompt and add related state variables (Anthonin Bonnefoy)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;3ce357584">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The new prompt character is "%P" and the new psql variables are PIPELINE_SYNC_COUNT, PIPELINE_COMMAND_COUNT, and PIPELINE_RESULT_COUNT.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-12-18 [477728b5d] psql: Add more information about service name
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow adding the connection service name to the psql prompt or access it via psql variable (Michael Banck)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;477728b5d">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
2025-01-14 [00f4c2959] psql: Add option to use expanded mode to all list comman
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add psql option to use expanded mode on all list commands (Dean Rasheed)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;00f4c2959">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Adding 'x' enables this.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-02-22 [bba2fbc62] Change \conninfo to use tabular format
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change psql's \conninfo to use tabular format and include more information (Álvaro Herrera, Maiquel Grassi, Hunaid Sohail)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bba2fbc62">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
2025-01-14 [2355e5111] psql: Add leakproof indicator to \df+, \do+, \dAo+, and
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add function's leakproof indicator to psql's \df+, \do+, \dAo+, and \dC+ outputs (Yugo Nagata)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;2355e5111">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-07-02 [978f38c77] Add information about access method for partitioned rela
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add access method details for partitioned relations in \dP+ (Justin Pryzby)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;978f38c77">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net>
2025-03-24 [d696406a9] psql: show default extension version in \dx output
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add "default_version" to the psql \dx extension output (Magnus Hagander)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d696406a9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [1a759c832] psql: Make default \watch interval configurable
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add psql variable WATCH_INTERVAL to set the default \watch wait time (Daniel Gustafsson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1a759c832">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

      </itemizedlist>

    </sect3>

    <sect3 id="release-18-server-apps">
     <title>Server Applications</title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-10-01 [983a588e0] initdb: Add new option "- -no-data-checksums"
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-10-16 [04bec894a] initdb: Change default to using data checksums.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change initdb to default to enabling checksums (Greg Sabino Mullane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;983a588e0">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;04bec894a">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The new initdb option --no-data-checksums disables checksums.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [cf131fa94] initdb: Add - -no-sync-data-files.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add initdb option --no-sync-data-files to avoid syncing heap/index files (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cf131fa94">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
initdb --no-sync is still available to avoid syncing any files.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-18 [edba754f0] vacuumdb: Add option for analyzing only relations missin
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-04-30 [987910502] vacuumdb: Don't skip empty relations in - -missing-stats-
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add vacuumdb option --missing-stats-only to compute only missing optimizer statistics (Corey Huinker, Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;edba754f0">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;987910502">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This option can only be used by --analyze-only and --analyze-in-stages.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-03-17 [99aeb8470] pg_combinebackup: Add -k, - -link option.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_combinebackup option -k/--link to enable hard linking (Israel Barth Rubio, Robert Haas)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;99aeb8470">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Only some files can be hard linked.  This should not be used if the backups will be used independently.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2024-09-27 [8dfd31290] pg_verifybackup: Verify tar-format backups.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow pg_verifybackup to verify tar-format backups (Amul Sul)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8dfd31290">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2025-03-12 [4ecdd4110] pg_rewind: Add dbname to primary_conninfo when using - -w
-->

<listitem>
<para>
If pg_rewind's --source-server specifies a database name, use it in --write-recovery-conf output (Masahiko Sawada)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4ecdd4110">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2025-02-21 [30666d185] pg_resetwal: Add - -char-signedness option to change the
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_resetwal option --char-signedness to change the default char signedness (Masahiko Sawada)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;30666d185">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

   </itemizedlist>


    <sect4 id="release-18-pgdump">
     <title><link
     linkend="app-pgdump"><application>pg_dump</application></link>/<link
     linkend="app-pg-dumpall"><application>pg_dumpall</application></link>/<link
     linkend="app-pgrestore"><application>pg_restore</application></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
2025-04-04 [1495eff7b] Non text modes for pg_dumpall, correspondingly change pg
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow pg_dumpall to dump in the same output formats as pg_dump supports (Mahendra Singh Thalor, Andrew Dunstan)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1495eff7b">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Also modify pg_restore to handle such dumps.  Previously pg_dumpall only supported text format.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [bde2fb797] Add pg_dump - -with-{schema|data|statistics} options.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_dump options --with-schema, --with-data, and --with_statistics (Jeff Davis)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bde2fb797">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The negative versions of these options already existed.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [9c49f0e8c] pg_dump: Add - -sequence-data.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_dump option --sequence-data to dump sequence data that would normally be excluded (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9c49f0e8c">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-02-20 [1fd1bd871] Transfer statistics during pg_upgrade.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_dump, pg_dumpall, and pg_restore options --statistics-only, --no-statistics, --no-data, and --no-schema (Corey Huinker, Jeff Davis)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1fd1bd871">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-03-16 [cd3c45125] pg_dump, pg_dumpall, pg_restore: Add - -no-policies optio
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add option --no-policies to pg_dump, pg_dumpall, pg_restore to avoid policy specification (Nikolay Samokhvalov)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cd3c45125">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is useful for migrating to systems with different policies.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-pgupgrade">
     <title><link linkend="pgupgrade"><application>pg_upgrade</application></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-02-20 [1fd1bd871] Transfer statistics during pg_upgrade.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-18 [c9d502eb6] Update guidance for running vacuumdb after pg_upgrade.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-04-30 [d5f1b6a75] Further adjust guidance for running vacuumdb after pg_up
Author: Jeff Davis <jdavis@postgresql.org>
2025-02-20 [1fd1bd871] Transfer statistics during pg_upgrade.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow pg_upgrade to preserve optimizer statistics (Corey Huinker, Jeff Davis, Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1fd1bd871">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c9d502eb6">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;d5f1b6a75">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1fd1bd871">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Extended statistics are not preserved.  Also add pg_upgrade option --no-statistics to disable statistics preservation.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [40e2e5e92] Introduce framework for parallelizing various pg_upgrade
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [6d3d2e8e5] pg_upgrade: Parallelize retrieving relation information.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [7baa36de5] pg_upgrade: Parallelize subscription check.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [46cad8b31] pg_upgrade: Parallelize retrieving loadable libraries.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [6ab8f27bc] pg_upgrade: Parallelize retrieving extension updates.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [bbf83cab9] pg_upgrade: Parallelize data type checks.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [9db3018cf] pg_upgrade: Parallelize contrib/isn check.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [c34eabfbb] pg_upgrade: Parallelize postfix operator check.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [cf2f82a37] pg_upgrade: Parallelize incompatible polymorphics check.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [f93f5f7b9] pg_upgrade: Parallelize WITH OIDS check.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-16 [c880cf258] pg_upgrade: Parallelize encoding conversion check.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow pg_upgrade to process database checks in parallel (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;40e2e5e92">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6d3d2e8e5">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7baa36de5">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;46cad8b31">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6ab8f27bc">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;bbf83cab9">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9db3018cf">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c34eabfbb">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cf2f82a37">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;f93f5f7b9">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c880cf258">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is controlled by the existing --jobs option.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [626d7236b] pg_upgrade: Add - -swap for faster file transfer.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_upgrade option --swap to swap directories rather than copy, clone, or link files (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;626d7236b">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This mode is potentially the fastest.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2025-02-21 [a8238f87f] pg_upgrade: Preserve default char signedness value from
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2025-02-21 [1aab68059] pg_upgrade: Add - -set-char-signedness to set the default
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_upgrade option --set-char-signedness to set the default char signedness of new cluster (Masahiko Sawada)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a8238f87f">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;1aab68059">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is to handle cases where a pre-Postgres 18 cluster's default CPU signedness does not match the new cluster.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-logicalrep-app">
     <title>Logical Replication Applications></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2025-03-28 [fb2ea12f4] pg_createsubscriber: Add '- -all' option.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_createsubscriber option --all to create logical replicas for all databases (Shubham Khanna)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;fb2ea12f4">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2025-03-20 [e5aeed4b8] pg_createsubscriber: Add -R publications option.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_createsubscriber option --remove to remove publications (Shubham Khanna)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e5aeed4b8">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
2025-02-26 [e117cfb2f] Add two-phase option in pg_createsubscriber.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_createsubscriber option --enable-two-phase to enable prepared transactions (Shubham Khanna)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e117cfb2f">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2025-04-04 [cf2655a90] pg_recvlogical: Add - -failover option.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_recvlogical option --failover to specify failover slots (Hayato Kuroda)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cf2655a90">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2025-03-25 [c68100aa4] Allow pg_recvlogical - -drop-slot to work without - -dbnam
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow pg_recvlogical --drop-slot to work without --dbname (Hayato Kuroda)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c68100aa4">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="release-18-source-code">
    <title>Source Code</title>

    <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-07-05 [4b211003e] Support loading of injection points
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-07-18 [a0a5869a8] Add INJECTION_POINT_CACHED() to run injection points dir
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Separate the loading and running of injection points (Michael Paquier, Heikki Linnakangas)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4b211003e">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a0a5869a8">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Injection points can now be created, but not run, via INJECTION_POINT_LOAD(), and such injection points can be run via INJECTION_POINT_CACHED().
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
2024-07-26 [20e0e7da9] Add test for early backend startup errors
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow inline injection point test code with IS_INJECTION_POINT_ATTACHED() (Heikki Linnakangas)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;20e0e7da9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-08-05 [ca6fde922] Optimize JSON escaping using SIMD
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve the performance of processing long JSON strings using SIMD instructions (David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ca6fde922">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: John Naylor <john.naylor@postgresql.org>
2025-04-06 [3c6e8c123] Compute CRC32C using AVX-512 instructions where availabl
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Speed up CRC32C calculations using x86 AVX-512 instructions (Raghuveer Devulapalli, Paul Amonson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;3c6e8c123">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-28 [6be53c276] Optimize popcount functions with ARM Neon intrinsics.
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-03-28 [519338ace] Optimize popcount functions with ARM SVE intrinsics.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add ARM Neon and SVE CPU intrinsics for popcount (integer bit counting) (Chiranmoy Bhattacharya, Devanga Susmitha, Rama Malladi)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6be53c276">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;519338ace">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
2024-08-15 [8dc28d7eb] Optimise numeric multiplication using base-NBASE^2 arith
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Improve the speed of multiplication (Joel Jacobson, Dean Rasheed)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8dc28d7eb">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2025-04-07 [65c298f61] Add support for basic NUMA awareness
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2025-04-07 [8cc139bec] Introduce pg_shmem_allocations_numa view
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2025-04-07 [ba2a3c230] Add pg_buffercache_numa view with NUMA node info
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add configure option --with-libnuma to enable NUMA awareness (Jakub Wartak, Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;65c298f61">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8cc139bec">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ba2a3c230">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The function pg_numa_available() reports on NUMA awareness, and system views pg_shmem_allocations_numa and pg_buffercache_numa which report on shared memory distribution across
NUMA nodes.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2024-09-18 [b52c4fc3c] Add TOAST table to pg_index.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add TOAST table to pg_index to allow for very large index expression indexes (Nathan Bossart)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;b52c4fc3c">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: David Rowley <drowley@postgresql.org>
2024-12-20 [02a8d0c45] Remove pg_attribute.attcacheoff column
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove column pg_attribute.attcacheoff (David Rowley)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;02a8d0c45">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
2025-03-03 [99f8f3fbb] Add relallfrozen to pg_class
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add column pg_class.relallfrozen (Melanie Plageman)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;99f8f3fbb">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-09-10 [56fead44d] Add amgettreeheight index AM API routine
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-07 [af4002b38] Rename amcancrosscompare
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add amgettreeheight, amconsistentequality, and amconsistentordering to the index access method API (Mark Dilger)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;56fead44d">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;af4002b38">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-09-17 [7406ab623] Add stratnum GiST support function
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add GiST support function stratnum (Paul A. Jungwirth)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7406ab623">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2025-02-21 [44fe30fda] Add default_char_signedness field to ControlFileData.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Record the default CPU signedness of "char" in pg_controldata (Masahiko Sawada)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;44fe30fda">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-12 [72a3d0462] Prepare for Python "Limited API" in PL/Python
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-14 [0793ab810] Activate Python "Limited API" in PL/Python
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add support for Python "Limited API" in PL/Python (Peter Eisentraut)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;72a3d0462">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;0793ab810">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This helps prevent problems caused by Python 3.x version mismatches.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Jacob Champion <jchampion@postgresql.org>
2025-04-29 [45363fca6] Bump the minimum supported Python version to 3.6.8
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Change the minimum supported Python version to 3.6.8 (Jacob Champion)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;45363fca6">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2024-09-02 [a70e01d43] Remove support for OpenSSL older than 1.1.0
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2024-10-24 [6c66b7443] Raise the minimum supported OpenSSL version to 1.1.1
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove support for OpenSSL versions older than 1.1.1 (Daniel Gustafsson)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a70e01d43">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6c66b7443">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-10-01 [972c2cd28] jit: Require at least LLVM 14, if enabled.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
If LLVM is enabled, require version 14 or later (Thomas Munro)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;972c2cd28">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-03-26 [9324c8c58] Introduce PG_MODULE_MAGIC_EXT macro.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add macro PG_MODULE_MAGIC_EXT to allow extensions to report their name and version (Andrei Lepikhov)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9324c8c58">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This information can be access via the new function pg_get_loaded_modules().
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-09-09 [218527d01] Don't bother checking the result of SPI_connect[_ext] an
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Document that SPI_connect/SPI_connect_ext() always returns success (SPI_OK_CONNECT) (Stepan Neretin)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;218527d01">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Errors are always reported via ereport().
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-01-27 [5afaba629] doc: Meson is not experimental on Windows
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove the experimental designation of Meson builds on Windows (Aleksander Alekseev)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;5afaba629">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2024-07-31 [e54a42ac9] Add API and ABI stability guidance to the C language doc
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add documentation section about API and ABI compatibility (David Wheeler, Peter Eisentraut)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e54a42ac9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Thomas Munro <tmunro@postgresql.org>
2024-07-30 [e25626677] Remove - -disable-spinlocks.
Author: Thomas Munro <tmunro@postgresql.org>
2024-07-30 [813852613] Remove - -disable-atomics, require 32 bit atomics.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove configure options --disable-spinlocks and --disable-atomics (Thomas Munro)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e25626677">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;813852613">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
Thirty-two bit atomic operations are now required.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2024-07-01 [edadeb071] Remove support for HPPA (a/k/a PA-RISC) architecture.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Remove support for the HPPA/PA-RISC architecture (Tom Lane)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;edadeb071">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="release-18-modules">
    <title>Additional Modules</title>

    <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Masahiko Sawada <msawada@postgresql.org>
2024-10-14 [7cdfeee32] Add contrib/pg_logicalinspect.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add extension pg_logicalinspect to inspect logical snapshots (Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7cdfeee32">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-03-26 [8d5ceb113] pg_overexplain: Additional EXPLAIN options for debugging
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add extension pg_overexplain which adds debug details to EXPLAIN output (Robert Haas)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;8d5ceb113">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-07-26 [c297a47c5] postgres_fdw: Add "used_in_xact" column to postgres_fdw_
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-07-26 [857df3cef] postgres_fdw: Add connection status check to postgres_fd
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-09-18 [4f08ab554] postgres_fdw: Extend postgres_fdw_get_connections to ret
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2025-03-03 [fe186bda7] postgres_fdw: Extend postgres_fdw_get_connections to ret
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add output columns to postgres_fdw_get_connections() (Hayato Kuroda, Sagar Dilip Shedge)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c297a47c5">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;857df3cef">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4f08ab554">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;fe186bda7">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
New output column "used_in_xact" indicates if the foreign data wrapper is being used by a current transaction, "closed" indicates if it is closed, "user_name" indicates the
user name, and "remote_backend_pid" indicates the remote backend process identifier.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-01-15 [761c79508] postgres_fdw: SCRAM authentication pass-through
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow SCRAM authentication from the client to be passed to postgres_fdw servers (Matheus Alcantara, Peter Eisentraut)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;761c79508">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This avoids storing postgres_fdw authentication information in the database, and is enabled with the postgres_fdw "use_scram_passthrough" connection option.  libpq uses new connection
parameters scram_client_key and scram_server_key.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
2025-03-26 [3642df265] dblink: SCRAM authentication pass-through
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow SCRAM authentication from the client to be passed to dblink servers (Matheus Alcantara)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;3642df265">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-10-03 [a1c4c8a9e] file_fdw: Add on_error and log_verbosity options to file
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add on_error and log_verbosity options to file_fdw (Atsushi Torikoshi)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;a1c4c8a9e">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
These control how file_fdw handles and reports invalid file rows.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Fujii Masao <fujii@postgresql.org>
2024-11-20 [6c8f67032] file_fdw: Add REJECT_LIMIT option to file_fdw.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add "reject_limit" to control the number of invalid rows file_fdw can ignore (Atsushi Torikoshi)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6c8f67032">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is active when ON_ERROR = 'ignore'.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
2025-01-07 [f7e1b3828] Add passwordcheck.min_password_length.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add configurable variable min_password_length to passwordcheck (Emanuele Musella, Maurizio Boriani)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;f7e1b3828">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This controls the minimum password length.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tatsuo Ishii <ishii@postgresql.org>
2024-10-11 [cae0f3c40] pgbench: Improve result outputs related to failed transa
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Have pgbench report the number of failed transactions (Yugo Nagata)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cae0f3c40">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
2025-03-16 [448904423] contrib/isn: Make weak mode a GUC setting, and fix relat
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add isn server variable "weak" to control invalid check digit acceptance (Viktor Holmberg)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;448904423">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This was previously only controlled by function isn_weak().
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
2025-04-03 [e4309f73f] Add support for sorted gist index builds to btree_gist
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow values to be sorted to speed btree_gist index builds (Bernd Helmle, Andrey Borodin)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;e4309f73f">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@postgresql.org>
2025-03-29 [14ffaece0] amcheck: Add gin_index_check() to verify GIN index
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add amcheck function gin_index_check() to verify GIN indexes (Grigory Kryachko, Heikki Linnakangas, Andrey Borodin)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;14ffaece0">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
2025-04-08 [dcf7e1697] Add pg_buffercache_evict_{relation,all} functions
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add functions pg_buffercache_evict_relation() and pg_buffercache_evict_all() to evict unpinned shared buffers (Nazir Bilal Yavuz)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;dcf7e1697">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The existing function pg_buffercache_evict() now returns the buffer flush status.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-03-18 [c65bc2e1d] Make it possible for loadable modules to add EXPLAIN opt
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-03-18 [4fd02bf7c] Add some new hooks so extensions can add details to EXPL
Author: Robert Haas <rhaas@postgresql.org>
2025-03-20 [50ba65e73] Add an additional hook for EXPLAIN option validation.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow extensions to install custom EXPLAIN options (Robert Haas, Sami Imseih)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;c65bc2e1d">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;4fd02bf7c">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;50ba65e73">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-08-04 [7949d9594] Introduce pluggable APIs for Cumulative Statistics
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-08-05 [2eff9e678] Add helper routines to retrieve data for custom fixed-nu
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow extensions to use the server's cumulative statistics API (Michael Paquier)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;7949d9594">&sect;</ulink>
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;2eff9e678">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

    <sect4 id="release-18-pgstatstatements">
     <title><link linkend="pgstatstatements"><application>pg_stat_statements</application></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-10-28 [6b652e6ce] Set query ID for inner queries of CREATE TABLE AS and DE
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow the queries of CREATE TABLE AS and DECLARE to be tracked by pg_stat_statements (Anthonin Bonnefoy)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;6b652e6ce">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
They are also now assigned query ids.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-09-30 [dc6851596] Show values of SET statements as constants in pg_stat_st
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Allow the parameterization of SET values in pg_stat_statements (Greg Sabino Mullane, Michael Paquier)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;dc6851596">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This reduces the bloat caused by SET statements with differing constants.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2024-10-09 [cf54a2c00] pg_stat_statements: Add columns to track parallel worker
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_stat_statements columns to report parallel activity (Guillaume Lelarge)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;cf54a2c00">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
The new columns are parallel_workers_to_launch and parallel_workers_launched.
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
2025-02-17 [ce5bcc4a9] pg_stat_statements: Add wal_buffers_full
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pg_stat_statements.wal_buffers_full to report full WAL buffers (Bertrand Drouvot)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;ce5bcc4a9">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>

    </sect4>

    <sect4 id="release-18-pgcrypto">
     <title><link linkend="pgcrypto"><application>pgcrypto</application></link></title>

     <itemizedlist>

<!--
Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
2025-04-05 [749a9e20c] Add modern SHA-2 based password hashes to pgcrypto.
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pgcrypto functions sha256crypt() and sha512crypt() (Bernd Helmle)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;749a9e20c">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-02-14 [9ad1b3d01] pgcrypto: Add support for CFB mode in AES encryption
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add CFB mode to pgcrypto encryption and decryption (Umar Hayat)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;9ad1b3d01">&sect;</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>

<!--
Author: Daniel Gustafsson <dgustafsson@postgresql.org>
2025-01-24 [035f99cbe] pgcrypto: Make it possible to disable built-in crypto
-->

<listitem>
<para>
Add pgcrypto server variable builtin_crypto_enabled to allow disabling builtin non-FIPS mode cryptographic functions (Daniel Gustafsson, Joe Conway)
<ulink url="&commit_baseurl;035f99cbe">&sect;</ulink>
</para>

<para>
This is useful for guaranteeing FIPS mode behavior.
</para>
</listitem>

     </itemizedlist>
    </sect4>

   </sect3>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="release-18-acknowledgements">
   <title>Acknowledgments</title>

   <para>
    The following individuals (in alphabetical order) have contributed
    to this release as patch authors, committers, reviewers, testers,
    or reporters of issues.
   </para>

   <simplelist>
    <member>(to be completed)</member>
   </simplelist>
  </sect2>

 </sect1>
