PostgreSQL 8.1 Beta Program

[regic]

PostgreSQL 8.1 Beta Program

Beta Information

Feature freeze for version 8.1 took place on July 1st, 2005. Since that time we have gone through the submitted patch queue and applied all outstanding patches that were deemed ready for release. As of this time, we are now releasing beta releases for all to test. What can you do to help?

    * Take a backup of your current database system with both old and new versions of pg_dump and load them into 8.1. Any application you have that runs against a PostgreSQL database should be tested against the updated server. You can report any PostgreSQL bugs or errors using the bug reporting form.
    * If your platform is not listed in the automatic build farm, please download the source code and verify that you can build the release. You can send positive or negative results to pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org.
    * You might want to subscribe to the pgsql-hackers mailing list. This is where development of PostgreSQL takes place, and users involved in the beta program should be subscribed in order to recieve the most up to date information

Some important links you will need for testing PostgreSQL 8.1

    * You can find the latest beta release at http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/source/v8.1beta
    * The list of Open Items for 8.1
    * Release notes for 8.1
    * Developer version of the documentation

[mandy]

The latest release of the PostGreSQL 8.1 database is now available.

download it free here: http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/binary/v8.1.0/
source code: http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/source/v8.1.0/
release notes: http://developer.postgresql.org/docs/pos...ELEASE-8-1

New features include:

Improve concurrent access to the shared buffer cache
Allow index scans to use an intermediate in-memory bitmap
Add two-phase commit
Create a new role system that replaces users and groups
Automatically use indexes for MIN() and MAX()
Move /contrib/pg_autovacuum into the main server
Add shared row level locks using SELECT ... FOR SHARE
Add dependencies on shared objects, specifically roles
Improve performance for partitioned tables

See the release notes for a full description of new features and changes from previous versions.