PostgreSQL 9.5 now on Compose

PostgreSQL 9.5 is now available with Compose. To be precise, PostgreSQL 9.5.2, the very latest release is now available on Compose.

We've been tracking PostgreSQL 9.5's development since last May, testing out upsert and many more of its new features. Since 9.5 became generally available in January, we've been making sure that it works well on the Compose platform.

Now, with our testing complete, and with the release of an important update for PostgreSQL 9.5, we're ready to give you the latest PostgreSQL version: 9.5.2. Let's have a quick look at some of the new features in PostgreSQL 9.5:

Upsert - lets you manage data changes more easily by inserting a row only if it does not already exist; if the row is already there, then the row will be updated with the changed data instead

Row-Level Security - lets you have more control over the data by allowing for user permissions at the row level so that only certain users can see certain rows

BRIN Indexes - lets you index block ranges (like timestamps or sequentially-numbered identifiers) for large datasets but takes up less disk space than B-tree indexes

JSONB Enhancements - lets you manipulate JSONB documents in a variety of ways and includes hierarchy-aware features like the new #- operator for removing nested keys and values and jsonb_set() which lets you replace a key value in a nested document

New Aggregation Options - lets you group sets, cube on combinations of groups, and rollup metrics to a higher level for more efficient analytics

There are many more enhancements in the 9.5 release than what we've touched on here. Importantly, though, one feature Abbreviated Keys mentioned there has just been removed in PostgreSQL 9.5.2, at least for the forseeable future, because of a problem with consistency of string compression in glibc which it relied on.

Over the next few days, and weeks, we'll be taking a deeper look at some of these new features so you can take full advantage them.

Availability

PostgreSQL 9.5.2 is now available for new PostgreSQL deployments on Compose. Existing Compose PostgreSQL 9.4 users will have an in-place upgrade option available to them soon. We're currently testing our making the process to ensure it is as reliable as possible.

If you can't wait for the 9.5 in-place upgrade option, remember you can bring up a new 9.5 deployment and then use pg_dump on your 9.4 databases to create backup files and psql to restore those backups into your 9.5 database.

Coming Next

There are lots of exciting new features to explore on Compose PostgreSQL and in the coming days and weeks, we'll be looking at how you can make best use of them. We'll also be tracking the development on 9.6 in Compose's Little Bits (every Friday on Compose Articles) and in future articles.