First draft of PostgreSQL 15 Beta 1 announcement

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+The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces that the first beta release of
+PostgreSQL 15 is now [available for download](https://www.postgresql.org/download/).
+This release contains previews of all features that will be available when
+PostgreSQL 15 is made generally available, thouh some details of the release can
+change during the beta period.
+
+You can find information about all of the features and changes found in
+PostgreSQL 15 in the [release notes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html):
+
+  [https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html)
+
+In the spirit of the open source PostgreSQL community, we strongly encourage you
+to test the new features of PostgreSQL 15 in your systems to help us eliminate
+bugs or other issues that may exist. While we do not advise you to run
+PostgreSQL 15 Beta 1 in your production environments, we encourage you to find
+ways to run your typical application workloads against this beta release.
+
+Your testing and feedback will help the community ensure that the PostgreSQL 15
+release upholds our standards of delivering a stable, reliable release of the
+world's most advanced open source relational database. Please read more about
+our [beta testing process](https://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta/) and how
+you can contribute:
+
+  [https://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta/](https://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta/)
+
+PostgreSQL 15 Feature Highlights
+--------------------------------
+
+### Developer Experience
+
+PostgreSQL 15 adds new features for simplifying and enhancing the developer
+experience.
+
+This release introduces [`MERGE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-merge.html),
+a SQL standard command for conditionally perform write operations (`INSERT`,
+`UPDATE`, or `DELETE`) on data. Prior to this release, the same behavior could
+be accomplished either using stored procedures or, on a limited-basis, with
+[`INSERT ... ON CONFLICT`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-insert.html).
+With PostgreSQL 15, developers can write simple, expressive queries to choose
+the appropriate data modification action to take.
+
+PostgreSQL added support for JSON in 2012 as part of the [9.2 release](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/postgresql-92-released-1415/). The SQL/JSON standard, published five years
+later, specified a variety of interfaces for accessing and manipulating JSON
+data stored in relational databases. PostgreSQL 15 builds on its existing
+support for the SQL/JSON path language by including more standard
+[SQL/JSON functions](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-json.html#FUNCTIONS-SQLJSON).
+These include [SQL/JSON constructors](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-json.html#FUNCTIONS-SQLJSON-PRODUCING),
+[query / introspection functions](FUNCTIONS-SQLJSON-QUERYING),
+and the ability to [convert JSON data into a table](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-json.html#FUNCTIONS-JSONTABLE).
+
+PostgreSQL 15 adds [more regular expression functions](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-matching.html#FUNCTIONS-POSIX-REGEXP),
+including `regexp_count` , `regexp_instr`, `regexp_like`, and `regexp_substr`.
+he [`range_agg`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-aggregate.html)
+function, introduced in PostgreSQL 15 for aggregating
+[`range` data types](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/rangetypes.html) into
+`multirange` types, now supports aggregating `multirange` types too.
+
+### Performance
+
+PostgreSQL 15 continues to build on its performance gains over the past several
+releases. This release includes a significant speedup for sorting data when
+sorting over larger data sets. In particular, these are data sets that exceed
+the `work_mem` parameter. Early benchmarks show that these sorts may see on
+average an 2x speedup for these workloads on PostgreSQL 15.
+
+The performance gains of PostgreSQL 15 extend to a variety of query types.
+This includes the introduction of parallelization for
+[`SELECT DISTINCT`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/queries-select-lists.html#QUERIES-DISTINCT)
+statements and improvements in performance to
+[window functions](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/functions-window.html)
+that use `row_number()`, `rank()`, and `count()`. Applications that use 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) to manage
+data on remote PostgreSQL servers can now enable
+[transactions to be committed in parallel](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/postgres-fdw.html#id-1.11.7.47.11.7). There are also several performance enhancements for queries
+involving tables with partitions.
+
+PostgreSQL system and [TOAST](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/storage-toast.html)
+tables, used for storing data that is larger than a single page (8kB), can now
+utilize
+[index deduplication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/btree-implementation.html#BTREE-DEDUPLICATION)
+and benefit from smaller indexes and faster lookups.
+
+The psql `\copy` command, used to bulk load data, also has performance
+improvements in PostgreSQL 15.
+
+### Backups, Archiving, and Compression
+
+Building on the previous release that introduced LZ4 compression, PostgreSQL 15
+adds support for Zstandard (zstd) compression to various components.
+
+[`pg_basebackup`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/app-pgbasebackup.html), a
+utility used to take full backups of a PostgreSQL cluster, now supports
+server-side compression using Gzip, LZ4, or Zstandard compression. The
+`pg_basebackup` client can now also decompress backups that use LZ4 an Zstandard
+compression.
+
+Write-ahead log (WAL) files can now be compressed using both LZ4 an Zstandard
+compression through the
+[`wal_compression`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-WAL-COMPRESSION)
+configuration parameter. Additionally, PostgreSQL 15 also adds the
+[`recovery_prefetch`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-RECOVERY-PREFETCH)
+that can help speed up all recovery operations by prefetching data blocks. This
+release adds a new module called
+[`pg_walinspect`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/pgwalinspect.html) that
+lets you inspect information about WAL files directly from SQL.
+
+PostgreSQL 15 lets you perform WAL archiving without running a shell command by
+specifying an
+[`archive_library`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-ARCHIVE-LIBRARY).
+An example WAL archiving library can be found in the
+[`basic_archive`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/basic-archive.html) module.
+Additionally, extensions can now define their own WAL resource managers that
+lets them work with logical replication.
+
+### Logical Replication
+
+PostgreSQL 15 introduces both
+[row filtering](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/logical-replication-row-filter.html) and
+[column filtering](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-createpublication.html)
+for logical replication. Additionally, users can now conveniently specify to
+publish all tables in a schema, where previously it was only possible to do this
+for all tables in a database.
+
+This release also adds more support for handling
+[conflicts](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/logical-replication-conflicts.html).
+A subscriber can now specify `disable_on_error` to automatically stop logical
+replication on an error.
+PostgreSQL 15 makes it possible to skip applying changes using the
+[`ALTER SUBSCRIPTION ... SKIP`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-altersubscription.html).
+
+### Administration
+
+PostgreSQL 15 introduces the
+[`jsonlog` format for logging](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/runtime-config-logging.html#RUNTIME-CONFIG-LOGGING-JSONLOG). This allows PostgreSQL logs to be consumed by many programs
+that perform structured logging aggregation and analysis. PostgreSQL 15 now by
+default logs checkpoints and slow autovacuum operations.
+
+The [`psql`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/app-psql.html) client now has a
+command called `\dconfig` for inspecting the values of configuration parameters.
+By default, `\dconfig` displays any configuration parameter that is not set to
+its default value.
+
+PostgreSQL 15 now stores all server-level statistics in shared memory. The
+server no longer runs a statistics collector process.
+
+The [`ALTER TABLE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-altertable.html)
+command can now modify a table's `ACCESS METHOD`, which is used to set the
+storage system used by the table.
+
+### Security
+
+PostgreSQL 15 introduces new defaults when databases are created within a
+PostgreSQL cluster. When a new database is created, users outside of the
+database owner (represented by [`pg_database_owner`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/predefined-roles.html))
+and superusers can no longer create objects in the default `public` schema.
+
+PostgreSQL 15 adds support for
+"[security invoker views](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-createview.html)",
+which users the privileges of the user executing the query instead of the user
+who created the view.
+
+Unprivileged users in PostgreSQL 15 can now be
+[granted privileges](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/sql-grant.html) to
+change server variables via `SET` and `ALTER SYSTEM`.
+
+Additional Features
+-------------------
+
+Many other new features and improvements have been added to PostgreSQL 15. Many
+of these may also be helpful for your use cases. Please see the
+[release notes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html) for a
+complete list of new and changed features:
+
+  [https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html)
+
+Testing for Bugs & Compatibility
+--------------------------------
+
+The stability of each PostgreSQL release greatly depends on you, the community,
+to test the upcoming version with your workloads and testing tools in order to
+find bugs and regressions before the general availability of PostgreSQL 15. As
+this is a Beta, minor changes to database behaviors, feature details, and APIs
+are still possible. Your feedback and testing will help determine the final
+tweaks on the new features, so please test in the near future. The quality of
+user testing helps determine when we can make a final release.
+
+A list of [open issues](https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_15_Open_Items)
+is publicly available in the PostgreSQL wiki.  You can
+[report bugs](https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/) using this form on
+the PostgreSQL website:
+
+  [https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/](https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/)
+
+Beta Schedule
+-------------
+
+This is the first beta release of version 15. The PostgreSQL Project will
+release additional betas as required for testing, followed by one or more
+release candidates, until the final release in late 2022. For further
+information please see the [Beta Testing](https://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta/)
+page.
+
+Links
+-----
+
+* [Download](https://www.postgresql.org/download/)
+* [Beta Testing Information](https://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta/)
+* [PostgreSQL 15 Beta Release Notes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/15/release-15.html)
+* [PostgreSQL 15 Open Issues](https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_15_Open_Items)
+* [Submit a Bug](https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/)