Updates for PostgreSQL 9.1 and 9.2 fix critical bugs

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released updates to the 9.2.x and 9.1.x branches of its open source relational database. According to the project's developers, these updates fix two critical bugs that could lead to potential data corruption and which were accidentally introduced "as a side effect of performance optimisations and new features, mainly Unlogged Tables".

The problems are said to be caused when a server crashes, fails to standby correctly or is shut down with the "Immediate" option. The first of these critical bugs concerns corruption of BTREE and GIN indexes for databases, while the other affects relation visibility maps. Users of the 9.2.x and 9.1.x branches are urged to install the new versions as soon as possible, and run VACUUM and/or index rebuilds after upgrading; instructions can be found on the PostgreSQL wiki.

Updates for the 9.0.x, 8.4.x, and 8.3.x branches have also been released, fixing a number of minor issues. As these fixes are not considered to be critical, the developers advise users to update during their next scheduled maintenance downtime.

A full list of changes and fixes can be found in the 9.2.1, 9.1.6, 9.0.10, 8.4.14 and 8.3.21 release notes. The new versions of PostgreSQL are available from the project's download page. Source code and binaries are made available under the PostgreSQL Licence, a permissive open source licence similar to the BSD and MIT licences.

See also:

• PostgreSQL 9.2 works faster and smarter, a report from The H.

(crve)