The PostgreSQL Global Development Group today announced the release of [PostgreSQL 15](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html), the latest version of the world’s [most advanced open source database](https://www.postgresql.org/). PostgreSQL 15 builds on the performance improvements of recent releases with noticeable gains for managing workloads in both local and distributed deployments, including improved sorting. This release improves the developer experience with the addition of the popular [`MERGE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-merge.html) command, and adds more capabilities for observing the state of the database. [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org), an innovative data management system known for its reliability and robustness, benefits from over 25 years of open source development from a [global developer community](https://www.postgresql.org/community/) and has become the preferred open source relational database for organizations of all sizes. ### Improved Sort Performance and Compression In this latest release, PostgreSQL improves on its in-memory and on-disk [sorting](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/queries-order.html) algorithms, with benchmarks showing speedups of 25% - 400% based on which data types are sorted. Using `row_number()`, `rank()`, `dense_rank()`, and `count()` as [window functions](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-window.html) also have performance benefits in PostgreSQL 15. Queries using [`SELECT DISTINCT`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/queries-select-lists.html#QUERIES-DISTINCT) can now be [executed in parallel](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/parallel-query.html). Building on work from the [previous PostgreSQL release](https://www.postgresql.org/about/press/presskit14/) for allowing async remote queries, the [PostgreSQL foreign data wrapper](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/postgres-fdw.html), [`postgres_fdw`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/postgres-fdw.html), now supports [asynchronous commits](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/postgres-fdw.html#id-1.11.7.47.11.7). The performance improvements in PostgreSQL 15 extend to its archiving and backup facilities. PostgreSQL 15 adds support for LZ4 and Zstandard (zstd) [compression to write-ahead log (WAL) files](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-WAL-COMPRESSION), which can have both space and performance benefits for certain workloads. On certain operating systems, PostgreSQL 15 adds support to [prefetch pages referenced in WAL](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-RECOVERY-PREFETCH) to help speed up recovery times. PostgreSQL's built-in backup command, [`pg_basebackup`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/app-pgbasebackup.html), now supports server-side compression of backup files with a choice of gzip, LZ4, and zstd. PostgreSQL 15 includes the ability to use [custom modules for archiving](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/archive-modules.html), which eliminates the overhead of using a shell command. ### Expressive Developer Features PostgreSQL 15 includes the SQL standard [`MERGE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-merge.html) command. `MERGE` lets you write conditional SQL statements that can include `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, and `DELETE` actions within a single statement. This latest release adds [new functions for using regular expressions](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-matching.html#FUNCTIONS-POSIX-REGEXP) to inspect strings: `regexp_count()`, `regexp_instr()`, `regexp_like()`, and `regexp_substr()`. PostgreSQL 15 also extends the `range_agg` function to aggregate [`multirange` data types](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/rangetypes.html), which were introduced in the [previous release](https://www.postgresql.org/about/press/presskit14/). PostgreSQL 15 lets users [create views that query data using the permissions of the caller, not the view creator](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-createview.html). This option, called `security_invoker`, adds an additional layer of protection to ensure that view callers have the correct permissions for working with the underlying data. ### More Options with Logical Replication PostgreSQL 15 provides more flexibility for managing [logical replication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/logical-replication.html). This release introduces [row filtering](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/logical-replication-row-filter.html) and [column lists](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/logical-replication-col-lists.html) for [publishers](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/logical-replication-publication.html), letting users choose to replicate a subset of data from a table. PostgreSQL 15 adds features to simplify [conflict management](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/logical-replication-conflicts.html), including the ability to skip replaying a conflicting transaction and to automatically disable a subscription if an error is detected. This release also includes support for using two-phase commit (2PC) with logical replication. ### Logging and Configuration Enhancements PostgreSQL 15 introduces a new logging format: [`jsonlog`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/runtime-config-logging.html#RUNTIME-CONFIG-LOGGING-JSONLOG). This new format outputs log data using a defined JSON structure, which allows PostgreSQL logs to be processed in structured logging systems. This release gives database administrators more flexibility in how users can manage PostgreSQL configuration, adding the ability to grant users permission to alter server-level configuration parameters. Additionally, users can now search for information about configuration using the `\dconfig` command from the [`psql`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/app-psql.html) command-line tool. ### Other Notable Changes PostgreSQL [server-level statistics](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/monitoring-stats.html) are now collected in shared memory, eliminating both the statistics collector process and periodically writing this data to disk. PostgreSQL 15 makes it possible to make an [ICU collation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/collation.html) the default collation for a cluster or an individual database. This release also adds a new built-in extension, [`pg_walinspect`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/pgwalinspect.html), that lets users inspect the contents of write-ahead log files directly from a SQL interface. PostgreSQL 15 also [revokes the `CREATE` permission from all users](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/ddl-schemas.html#DDL-SCHEMAS-PATTERNS) except a database owner from the `public` (or default) schema. PostgreSQL 15 removes both the long-deprecated "exclusive backup" mode and support for Python 2 from PL/Python. ### About PostgreSQL [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org) is the world's most advanced open source database, with a global community of thousands of users, contributors, companies and organizations. Built on over 35 years of engineering, starting at the University of California, Berkeley, PostgreSQL has continued with an unmatched pace of development. PostgreSQL's mature feature set not only matches top proprietary database systems, but exceeds them in advanced database features, extensibility, security, and stability. ### Links * [Download](https://www.postgresql.org/download/) * [Release Notes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html) * [Press Kit](https://www.postgresql.org/about/press/) * [Security Page](https://www.postgresql.org/support/security/) * [Versioning Policy](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/) * [Follow @postgresql on Twitter](https://twitter.com/postgresql)