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Hacking on PostgreSQL snap at Snapcraft Summit 2018

As you may know, Command Prompt, Inc. develops and maintains PostgreSQL snap packages as a service to community. If you used it, you also know that unfortunately it is not yet a drop-in replacement for DEB builds distributed via PGDG APT repository.

PostgreSQL is one of the major open source projects out there that is extremely popular with all sorts of crowds: from enthusiasts to unicorn startups. And as the …

Is it time for a newbie-hacker mentor for PostgreSQL.org?

At PostgresConf US 2018, Bruce Momjian, Grant Zhou, and I had a meeting to discuss potential opportunities for the Chinese PostgreSQL community to participate in the wider International community, including submitting patches to PostgreSQL.Org. Then at Postgres Open China the International Consultants Committee had a meeting to discuss more opportunities in depth. Between the two meetings there were a lot of ideas but one opportunity that was considered needs …

Went to Bejing for Postgres Open China and China Open Source, Open Source World

I spent the week of June 25th in Bejing, China with the outstanding Chinese Open Source and Postgres Communities. I was there to speak atboth Postgres Open China and the China Open Source World conferences as well as participate in a Chinese Open Source panel and the International Consultants committee meeting, of which I am the President. This was my first trip to Asia and it was amazing. The Chinese …

The 401 on Silicon Valley Postgres

August 2017

We launched the Silicon Valley Postgres Meetup.

March 6th, 2018

We have reached 401 members in what is proving to be one of the fastest growing Postgres meetups in the United States. We launched the meetup along with Vancouver B.C., Denver, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix.

Between these and other meetups we help organize such as New York, Philly, and Dallas, we are reaching more people than ever …

Speaking at PGConf Seattle, are you going?

Jim Mlodgenski in attendence at the 9th Annual PGConf.EU and I am working hard on updating my slides for my presentation at PGConf Seattle. PGConf Seattle is being held at the downtown Seattle Sheraton on November 13th and 14th.  I will be speaking on Postgres version 10. I will also be training on Postgres Performance and Maintenance (you can buy your ticket here). If you are planning on attending …

Postgres is better than MySQL but not because of how long it took to fix a bug

Many argue which is better: PostgreSQL or MySQL. A recent post by MySQL evangelist and community manager Frederic Descamps prompted some criticism of the amount of time that it took for a particular bug to be fixed -- 14.5 years to be exact, from the initial report.

There’s a long list of technical and performance comparisons, but here’s the number one reason to choose Postgres over MySQL.

Community Drives Change …

Postgres, upcoming community awesomeness

Upcoming community awesomeness

Now that summer is over and we have officially decided never to schedule anything in August again, we need to share a bunch of upcoming community goodness!

Never lose sight of the goal

Postgres deferred PRIMARY KEYS, a hidden gem

Oracle 7.3 supports it!

That is how this all started. A gentleman tweeted about a Postgres limitation that Oracle has not had since at least since Oracle 7.3

The problem

As you can see in the tweet, Postgres by default will not defer a PRIMARY KEY check. Without the check being deferred the following will not work:

postgres=# select * from demo;
 id  
----
  1
  2
 (2 rows)
postgres=# …

Postgres autovacuum, bloat and tpc-c style workloads

For most workloads the Postgres Autovacuum daemon works just fine. You go about your day with 3 workers that wake up once a minute to make sure that everything is nice and tidy. If things are dirty enough (around 10%) then one of the workers gets in gear and cleans things up. Unfortunately, if you have an inverted load from the norm, Autovacuum may not be able to keep up …

Where is the Postgres community?

A recent poll was conducted @amplifypostgres to determine where the Postgres community should have its interactive communication. Options included were Google Hangouts, Slack, Reddit or “Other”.

The results were not surprising, with Google Hangouts beating Slack with 157 votes cast. There were also notable mentions of IRC, and Gitter. A couple of long time Postgresql.Org members asked the inevitable, “What is wrong with IRC?” Of course there is nothing wrong with …