The PostgreSQL Project today released updates to all active branches of the PostgreSQL object-relational database system, including versions 8.3.6, 8.2.12, 8.1.16, 8.0.20 and 7.4.24. These updates include two serious fixes, for autovacuum crashes in version 8.1 and GiST indexing data loss in 8.3, and those two versions should be updated as soon as possible.
These update releases also include patches for several low-risk security holes, as well as up to 17 other minor fixes, depending on your major version of PostgreSQL. Included as well are Daylight Savings Time changes for Nepal, Switzerland and Cuba. See the release notes for full details.
The first serious issue affects users who are using version 8.1 with Autovacuum, which will fail when XID rollover is required. The second serious issue can cause data loss when CLUSTER is used with GiST indexes (such as full text indexes) on version 8.3. Both issues are fixed in these releases.
As with other minor releases, users are not required to dump and reload their database in order to apply this update release; you can simply shut down PostgreSQL and update its binaries. Users skipping more than one update should check the release notes for extra, post-update steps. As previously announced, only versions 8.2.12 and 8.3.6 of the Windows binaries are being released, as we no longer support 8.0 and 8.1 on Windows.
Please note: if you downloaded a copy of the 8.3.6 source code, or Windows build 8.3.6-1, from www.postgresql.org before February 4th, you may have received a copy which contains a bug. Please replace it with today's download.
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