Postgres FM

Nik and Michael are joined by Bruce Momjian to discuss his new talk "What’s Missing in Postgres?" Here are some links to things they mentioned: Bruce Momjian https://postgres.fm/people/bruce-momjianEDB https://www.enterprisedb.comWhat’s Missing in Postgres? (Bruce’s slides) https://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/missing.pdfThe Wonderful World of WAL (Bruce’s slides) https://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/wal.pdfGetting started with benchmarking (our episode with Melanie Plageman) https://postgres.fm/episodes/getting-started-with-benchmarkingMyths and Truths about Synchronous Replication in Postgres (talk by Alexander Kukushkin) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFn9qRGzTMcThe Future of Postgres Sharding (Bruce’s slides) https://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/sharding.pdfMultiXact member space exhaustion https://postgres.fm/episodes/multixact-member-space-exhaustion~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael discuss long-running transactions, including when they're harmless, when they cause issues, and how to mitigate those issues. Here are some links to things they mentioned: transaction_timeout https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-client.html#GUC-TRANSACTION-TIMEOUTOur episode on transaction_timeout https://postgres.fm/episodes/transaction_timeoutOur episode on slow queries (which was also our first ever episode!) https://postgres.fm/episodes/slow-queries-and-slow-transactionsOur episode on locks https://postgres.fm/episodes/lockslock_timeout https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-client.html#GUC-LOCK-TIMEOUTTransaction Isolation levels https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/transaction-iso.htmlpg_current_xact_id_if_assigned() https://pgpedia.info/p/pg_current_xact_id_if_assigned.htmlMonitor xmin horizon to prevent XID/MultiXID wraparound and high bloat (how-to guide by Nik) https://postgres.ai/docs/postgres-howtos/performance-optimization/monitoring/how-to-monitor-xmin-horizonidle_replication_slot_timeout https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-replication.html#GUC-IDLE-REPLICATION-SLOT-TIMEOUTPREPARE TRANSACTION https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-prepare-transaction.htmllog_autovacuum_min_duration https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/runtime-config-logging.html#GUC-LOG-AUTOVACUUM-MIN-DURATIONPostgreSQL Subtransactions Considered Harmful (blog post by Nikolay) https://postgres.ai/blog/20210831-postgresql-subtransactions-considered-harmfulstatement_timeout https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-client.html#GUC-STATEMENT-TIMEOUTidle_in_transaction_session_timeout https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-client.html#GUC-IDLE-IN-TRANSACTION-SESSION-TIMEOUTlock_timeout https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-client.html#GUC-LOCK-TIMEOUT~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael are joined by Regina Obe and Paul Ramsey to discuss PostGIS. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Regina Obe https://postgres.fm/people/regina-obePaul Ramsey https://postgres.fm/people/paul-ramseyPostGIS https://postgis.netMobilityDB https://github.com/MobilityDB/MobilityDBpgRouting https://github.com/pgRouting/pgroutingGoogle BigQuery GIS public alpha blog post https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/whats-happening-bigquery-integrated-machine-learning-maps-and-morePostGIS Day 2025 talk recordings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuNO_cW2g-0&list=PLavJpcg8cl1EkQWoCbczsOjFTe-SHg_8mpg_lake https://github.com/Snowflake-Labs/pg_lakeGeoParquet https://geoparquet.orgST_DWithin https://postgis.net/docs/ST_DWithin.htmlPostgres JSONB Columns and TOAST: A Performance Guide https://www.snowflake.com/en/engineering-blog/postgres-jsonb-columns-and-toastFOSS4G https://foss4g.orgOpenStreetMap https://www.openstreetmap.orgPgDay Boston https://2026.pgdayboston.orgSKILL.md file https://github.com/postgis/postgis/blob/68dde711039986b47eb62feda45bb24b13b0ea37/doc/SKILL.mdProduction query plans without production data (blog post by Radim Marek) https://boringsql.com/posts/portable-statsPostgreSQL: Up and Running, 4th Edition (by Regina Obe, Leo Hsu) https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/postgresql-up-and/9798341660885~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael discuss query plan flips in Postgres — what they are, some causes, mitigations, longer term solutions, and the recent outage at Clerk. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Recent postmortem from Clerk https://clerk.com/blog/2026-02-19-system-outage-postmortemThe real cost of random I/O (blog post by Tomas Vondra) https://vondra.me/posts/the-real-cost-of-random-ioautovacuum_analyze_scale_factor https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-vacuum.html#GUC-AUTOVACUUM-ANALYZE-SCALE-FACTORdefault_statistics_target https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-query.html#GUC-DEFAULT-STATISTICS-TARGETpg_hint_plan https://github.com/ossc-db/pg_hint_planAurora PostgreSQL query plan management https://docs.aws.amazon.comAmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/AuroraPostgreSQL.Optimize.Start.htmlpg_stat_plans https://github.com/pganalyze/pg_stat_planspg_plan_alternatives https://jnidzwetzki.github.io/2026/03/04/pg-plan-alternatives.htmlWaiting for Postgres 19: Better Planner Hints with Path Generation Strategies https://pganalyze.com/blog/5mins-postgres-19-better-planner-hints~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.ai and creator of pg_ash, builds lightweight PostgreSQL tooling for observability and performance. He introduces pg_ash, its low-footprint, non-extension design, and compact per-second sampling approach. Discussion covers storage rotations, dictionary management, pg_cron scheduling, and plans for retention and rollups.

Nik and Michael discuss query level comments, object level comments, and another way of adding object level metadata. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Object comments https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-comment.htmlQuery comment syntax (from an old version of the docs) https://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.0/syntax519.htmSQL Comments, Please! (Post by Markus Winand) https://modern-sql.com/caniuse/comments“While C-style block comments are passed to the server for processing and removal, SQL-standard comments are removed by psql.” https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/app-psql.htmlmarginalia https://github.com/basecamp/marginaliatrack_activity_query_size https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-statistics.html#GUC-TRACK-ACTIVITY-QUERY-SIZECustom Properties for Database Objects Using SECURITY LABELS (post by Andrei Lepikhov) https://www.pgedge.com/blog/custom-properties-for-postgresql-database-objects-without-core-patches~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael are joined by Lev Kokotov for an update on all things PgDog. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Lev Kokotov https://postgres.fm/people/lev-kokotovPgDog https://github.com/pgdogdev/pgdogOur first PgDog episode (March 2025) https://postgres.fm/episodes/pgdogSharding pgvector (blog post by Lev) https://pgdog.dev/blog/sharding-pgvectorPrepared statements and partitioned table lock explosion (series by Nik) https://postgres.ai/blog/20251028-postgres-marathon-2-009~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael are joined by Radim Marek from boringSQL to talk about RegreSQL, a regression testing tool for SQL queries they forked and improved recently. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Radim Marek https://postgres.fm/people/radim-marekboringSQL https://boringsql.comRegreSQL: Regression Testing for PostgreSQL Queries (blog post by Radim) https://boringsql.com/posts/regresql-testing-queriesDiscussion on Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45924619 Radim’s fork of RegreSQL on GitHub https://github.com/boringSQL/regresql Original RegreSQL on GitHub (by Dimitri Fontaine) https://github.com/dimitri/regresql The Art of PostgreSQL (book) https://theartofpostgresql.comHow to make the non-production Postgres planner behave like in production (how-to post by Nik) https://postgres.ai/docs/postgres-howtos/performance-optimization/query-tuning/how-to-imitate-production-planner Just because you’re getting an index scan, doesn't mean you can’t do better! (Blog post by Michael) https://www.pgmustard.com/blog/index-scan-doesnt-mean-its-fastboringSQL Labs https://labs.boringsql.com~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael discuss the events and trends they thought were most important in the Postgres ecosystem in 2025. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Postgres 18 release notes https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/release-18.htmlOur episode on Postgres 18 https://postgres.fm/episodes/postgres-18LWLock:LockManager benchmarks for Postgres 18 (blog post by Nik) https://postgres.ai/blog/20251009-postgres-marathon-2-005PostgreSQL bug tied to zero-day attack on US Treasury https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/14/postgresql_bug_treasuryPgDog episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/pgdogMultigres episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/multigresNeki announcement https://planetscale.com/blog/announcing-nekiOur 100TB episode from 2024 https://postgres.fm/episodes/to-100tb-and-beyondPlanetScale for Postgres https://planetscale.com/blog/planetscale-for-postgresOracle's MySQL job cuts https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/11/oracle_slammed_for_mysql_jobAmazon Aurora DSQL is now generally available https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2025/05/amazon-aurora-dsql-generally-availableAnnouncing Azure HorizonDB https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/adforpostgresql/announcing-azure-horizondb/4469710Lessons from Replit and Tiger Data on Storage for Agentic Experimentation https://www.tigerdata.com/blog/lessons-replit-tiger-data-storage-agentic-experimentationInstant database clones with PostgreSQL 18 https://boringsql.com/posts/instant-database-clonesturbopuffer episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/turbopufferCrunchy joins Snowflake https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/crunchy-data-joins-snowflakeNeon joins Databricks https://neon.com/blog/neon-and-databricks~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael discuss a listener question about archiving a database. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Listener request to talk about archiving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFRK8PiIvTg&lc=UgyiFrO37gEgUaVhRgN4AaABAg Our episode on “Is pg_dump a backup tool?” https://postgres.fm/episodes/is-pg_dump-a-backup-tool ~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork