PostgreSQL 9.6 Beta 3 Released

Posted on 2016-07-21 by PostgreSQL Global Development Group

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces today that the third beta release of PostgreSQL 9.6 is available for download. This release contains previews of all of the features which will be available in the final release of version 9.6, including fixes to many of the issues found in the first and second betas. Users are encouraged to continue testing their applications against 9.6 beta 3.

Changes Since Beta 2

Our users and contributors tested the first two betas, and found and reported many bugs and usability issues. This beta release fixes many of those issues. If you reported an issue, please test this beta to ensure that it's completely fixed.

This included many more fixes to parallel query:

  • adding support for TABLESAMPLE
  • correcting cost data in Gather nodes
  • check parallel-safety of all appended relations
  • fix planner issues with initPlans
  • fix several issues with client_encoding
  • clean up EXPLAIN output for parallel queries
  • multiple changes to parallel aggregation internals

Among the other issues addressed were:

  • add conninfo field to pg_stat_wal_receiver
  • clear all-frozen visibilitymap status when locking tuples
  • correctly dump database and tablespace ACLs
  • avoid invalidating all foreign-join cached plans when user mappings change
  • fix nested NOT operation cleanup in tsquery
  • allow IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA within pl/pgsql
  • print a given subplan only once in EXPLAIN
  • change the GetForeignUpperPaths API
  • fix several issues in postgres_fdw
  • added many additional regression tests
  • many documentation updates and clarifications
  • multiple translation updates for the docs

Due to changes in system catalogs, a pg_upgrade or dump and restore will be required for users migrating databases from earlier betas. This includes a version update to the pg_control tool, making it incompatible with PostgreSQL 9.4 and earlier. This beta also includes patches to many issues shared with earlier versions, which will be updated in an upcoming minor release.

Note that some known issues remain unfixed. Before reporting a bug in the beta, please check the Open Items page.

Beta Schedule

This is the third beta release of version 9.6. The PostgreSQL Project will release additional betas as required for testing, followed by one or more release candidates, until the final release in late 2016. For further information please see the Beta Testing page.

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