PostgreSQL Overview

PostgreSQL is one of the world's most advanced open source database systems, and it has many features that are widely used by developers and system administrators alike. Starting with PostgreSQL 10, many new features have been added to PostgreSQL, which contribute greatly to the success of this exceptional open source product. In this book, many of these cool features will be covered and discussed in great detail.

In this chapter, you will be introduced to PostgreSQL and its cool new features available in PostgreSQL 10.0 and beyond. All relevant new functionalities will be covered in detail. Given the sheer number of changes made to the code and given the size of the PostgreSQL project, this list of features is of course by far not complete, so I tried to focus on the most important aspects relevant to most people.

The features outlined in this chapter will be split into the following categories:

• Database administration
• SQL and developer related
• Backup, recovery, and replication
• Performance-related topics