The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces that the alpha release of PostgreSQL 9.5, the latest version of the world's leading open source database, is available today. This release contains previews of all of the features which will be available in the final release of version 9.5, although some details will change before then. Please download, test, and report what you find.

Major Features

Among new major features available for testing in this alpha are:

• Block-Range Indexes (BRIN) which enable compact indexing of very large tables
• Large speed improvements in in-memory sorting and hashing
• Automated management of transaction log size
• INSERT ON CONFLICT UPDATE, otherwise known as "UPSERT"
• Grouping Sets, CUBE and ROLLUP analytic operations
• Row-Level Security (RLS) support
• More JSONB data manipulation functions and operators
• Added the pg_rewind tool and other high availability improvements to replication
• Multiple enhancements to Foreign Data Wrappers, including IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA
• Large increases in multi-core and large memory scalability

These features expand the capabilities of PostgreSQL, and introduce new syntax, APIs, and management interfaces. Of course, there are many more features detailed in the release notes, some of which may be more exciting to you than the above. Please test every one you can.

Help Test for Bugs

As with other major releases, the improvements in PostgreSQL include changes to large amounts of code. We count on you to test the altered version with your workloads and testing tools in order to find bugs and regressions before the release of PostgreSQL 9.5.0. In addition to testing that the new features work as documented, consider testing the following:

• Do the improvements in sorting and general performance actually increase performance in your application?
• Do our code changes cause PostgreSQL to not function on your platform?
• We've made changes to the transaction log, including compression. Does failover and disaster recovery still work as expected?
• Do the changes in operator precedence change the results of your queries?
• Does RLS work correctly to secure your data?

As this is an Alpha, changes to database behaviors, feature details, and APIs are still possible. Your feedback and testing will help determine the final tweaks on the new features, so test soon. The quality of user testing helps determine when we can make a final release.

Alpha and Beta Schedule

This is the alpha release of version 9.5, indicating that some changes to features are still possible before release. The PostgreSQL Project will release 9.5 beta 1 in August, and then periodically release additional betas as required for testing until the final release in late 2015. For more information, and suggestions on how to test the alpha and betas, see the Beta Testing page.

Full documentation and release notes of the new version is available online and also installs with PostgreSQL. Also see the What's New page for details on some features.

Links

• Downloads Page
• Alpha Testing Information
• 9.5 Alpha Release Notes
• What's New in 9.5