### Query and general performance enhancements
-PostgreSQL 18 further accelerates query performance with features that automatically make your workloads faster. This release introduces "skip scan" lookups on [multicolumn B-tree indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/indexes-multicolumn.html), which improves execution time for queries that omit an `=` condition on one or more prefix index columns. It can also automatically optimize queries using `OR` or `IN (VALUES ...)` in `WHERE` clauses for faster execution. There are also numerous improvements for how PostgreSQL plans and executes table joins, from boosting the performance of hash joins to allowing merge joins to use incremental sorts.
+PostgreSQL 18 further accelerates query performance with features that automatically make your workloads faster. This release introduces "skip scan" lookups on [multicolumn B-tree indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/indexes-multicolumn.html), which improves execution time for queries that omit an `=` condition on one or more prefix index columns. It can also optimize queries that use `OR` conditions in a `WHERE` to use an index, leading to significantly faster execution. There are also numerous improvements for how PostgreSQL plans and executes table joins, from boosting the performance of hash joins to allowing merge joins to use incremental sorts.
-This release also builds on PostgreSQL support for hardware acceleration. PostgreSQL 18 adds support for ARM NEON and SVE CPU intrinsics for the `popcount` function, which is used by the [`bit_count`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-bitstring.html) and other internal capabilities. PostgreSQL 18 also supports using x86 AVX-512 instructions for CRC32 calculations, which are used in page checksums and are also available in the new [`crc32`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-binarystring.html#FUNCTIONS-BINARYSTRING-OTHER) function. Finally, PostgreSQL 18 introduces support for [NUMA awareness](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/install-make.html#CONFIGURE-OPTION-WITH-LIBNUMA) that adds basic [NUMA observability](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/view-pg-shmem-allocations-numa.html) to PostgreSQL.
+This release also builds on PostgreSQL support for hardware acceleration, including support for ARM NEON and SVE CPU intrinsics for the `popcount` function, which is used by the [`bit_count`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-bitstring.html) and other internal capabilities.
PostgreSQL 18 now supports parallel builds for [GIN indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/gin.html), joining B-tree and [BRIN indexes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/brin.html) in supporting this capability. Additionally, [materialized views](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/rules-materializedviews.html) can now use unique indexes that aren't B-trees as partition keys, expanding how you can construct materialized views.
PostgreSQL 18 introduces [virtual generated columns](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createtable.html#SQL-CREATETABLE-PARMS-GENERATED-STORED) that compute values at query time instead of storing them. This is now the default option for generated columns. Additionally, stored generated columns can now be logically replicated.
-This release adds the capability to access both the previous (`OLD`) and current (`NEW`) values in the [`RETURNING` clause](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/dml-returning.html) for `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, `DELETE` and `MERGE` commands. PostgreSQL 18 also adds UUIDv7 generation through the [`uuidv7()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) function, letting you generate random UUIDs that are timestamp-ordered to support better caching strategies. PostgreSQL 18 includes [`uuidv4()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) as an alias for `gen_rand_uuid`.
+This release adds the capability to access both the previous (`OLD`) and current (`NEW`) values in the [`RETURNING` clause](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/dml-returning.html) for `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, `DELETE` and `MERGE` commands. PostgreSQL 18 also adds UUIDv7 generation through the [`uuidv7()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) function, letting you generate random UUIDs that are timestamp-ordered to support better caching strategies. PostgreSQL 18 includes [`uuidv4()`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/functions-uuid.html#FUNC_UUID_GEN_TABLE) as an alias for `gen_rand_uuid()`.
-PostgreSQL 18 adds [temporal constraints](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/release-18.html#RELEASE-18-CONSTRAINTS) -- constraints over ranges -- for both `PRIMARY KEY` and `UNIQUE` constraints using the `WITHOUT OVERLAPS` clause, and on `FOREIGN KEY` constraints using the `PERIOD` clause.
+PostgreSQL 18 adds [temporal constraints](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/sql-createtable.html#SQL-CREATETABLE-PARMS-UNIQUE) -- constraints over ranges -- for both `PRIMARY KEY` and `UNIQUE` constraints using the `WITHOUT OVERLAPS` clause, and on `FOREIGN KEY` constraints using the `PERIOD` clause.
Finally, PostgreSQL 18 makes it easier to create the schema definition of a foreign table using the definition of a local table with the [`CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ... LIKE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createforeigntable.html) command.
### Authentication and security features
-PostgreSQL 18 introduces [`oauth` authentication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/auth-oauth.html), which lets users authenticate using OAuth 2.0 mechanisms supported through PostgreSQL extensions. Additionally, PostgreSQL 18 includes validation for [FIPS mode](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgcrypto.html#PGCRYPTO-OPENSSL-SUPPORT-FUNCS), and adds the [`ssl_tls13_ciphers`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-connection.html#GUC-SSL-TLS13-CIPHERS) parameters for configuring server-side TLS v1.3 cipher suites.
+PostgreSQL 18 introduces [`oauth` authentication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/auth-oauth.html), which lets users authenticate using OAuth 2.0 mechanisms supported through PostgreSQL extensions. Additionally, PostgreSQL 18 includes validation for [FIPS mode](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/pgcrypto.html#PGCRYPTO-OPENSSL-SUPPORT-FUNCS), and adds the [`ssl_tls13_ciphers`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config-connection.html#GUC-SSL-TLS13-CIPHERS) parameter for configuring server-side TLS v1.3 cipher suites.
This release deprecates `md5` password authentication, which will be removed in a future release. If you require PostgreSQL password-based authentication, use [SCRAM authentication](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/auth-password.html). PostgreSQL 18 also supports SCRAM passthrough authentication with both [`postgres_fdw`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/postgres-fdw.html) and [`dblink`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/dblink.html) for authenticating to remote PostgreSQL instances.
[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
+companies and organizations. Since its beginnings at the University of
+California, Berkeley over 40 years ago, 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.
There are several ways you can download PostgreSQL 18, including:
-* The [Official Downloads](https://www.postgresql.org/download/) page, with contains installers and tools for [Windows](https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/), [Linux](https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/), [macOS](https://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx/), and more.
+* The [Official Downloads](https://www.postgresql.org/download/) page, which contains installers and tools for [Windows](https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/), [Linux](https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/), [macOS](https://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx/), and more.
* [Source Code](https://www.postgresql.org/ftp/source/v18.0)
Other tools and extensions are available on the
projects / press.git / commitdiff