---
title: "Understanding and Reading the Postgres System Catalog"
publication: "Postgres Weekly"
issue: 268
published_at: "2018-08-08"
canonical_url: "https://postgresweekly.com/issues/268"
---

The latest Postgres news, articles, tools, and projects.       

#268 — August 8, 2018 

[Read on the Web](https://postgresweekly.com/issues/268)   

Postgres Weekly  

[Understanding and Reading the Postgres System Catalog](https://severalnines.com/blog/understanding-and-reading-postgresql-system-catalog) — The _System Catalog_ is a schema of tables and views that contain metadata about the other objects inside a database, and more. Use it to discover when various operations happen, how tables or indexes are accessed, etc. 

Brian Fehrle   

[SQL vs. Flux: Choosing the Right Query Language for Time-Series Data](https://blog.timescale.com/sql-vs-flux-influxdb-query-language-time-series-database-290977a01a8a) — An examination of the strengths and weaknesses of SQL, and why query planners exist, by way of comparing TimescaleDB (a PostgreSQL extension) and InfluxDB. 

Matvey Arye   [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/484ee99d.png)](https://www.datadoghq.com/postgres-monitoring/?utm_source=Advertisement&utm_medium=CooperPress&utm_campaign=CooperPress-PostgresWeeklyP) 

[Real-time Postgres Performance Monitoring](https://www.datadoghq.com/postgres-monitoring/?utm_source=Advertisement&utm_medium=CooperPress&utm_campaign=CooperPress-PostgresWeeklyP) — Collect out-of-the-box and custom Postgres metrics and correlate them with your infrastructure, application, and log data. Gain real-time performance insights, search and analyze distributed traces, and set intelligent alerts with Datadog. [Try it free](https://www.datadoghq.com/postgres-monitoring/?utm_source=Advertisement&utm_medium=CooperPress&utm_campaign=CooperPress-PostgresWeeklyP). 

Datadog sponsor   

[Simple Monthly Reports with 'generate_series'](https://rob.conery.io/2018/08/01/simple-monthly-reports-in-postgresql-using-generate_series/) — Working with dates and/or a series of dates is easy in Postgres, especially when using `generate_series`. 

Rob Conery   

[pgenv: A New, Simple Postgres Binary Manager](https://justatheory.com/2018/08/pgenv/) — A new, simple, shell-based utility to build and run different releases of Postgres including switching between them. Ideal for compatibility testing against apps. 

David E. Wheeler   

[Designing the Most Performant Row Level Security Strategy](https://medium.com/@cazzer/designing-the-most-performant-row-level-security-strategy-in-postgres-a06084f31945) — An interesting comparison of a few ways to implement row level security in Postgres. 

Caleb Brewer   

[Taking a Tour of PostgreSQL with Jonathan Katz](https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/postgresql-with-jonathan-katz-episode-42/) — The co-organizer of NYC PostgreSQL User Group discusses how Postgres started and how it has grown over the years. 

The Data Engineering Podcast   

[EDB Postgres Ark DBaaS for Hybrid Cloud Deployments](https://www.enterprisedb.com/products/edb-dbaas-framework-for-hybrid-clouds) 

EnterpriseDB sponsor   

[Using Kubernetes to Deploy Postgres](https://severalnines.com/blog/using-kubernetes-deploy-postgresql) — How to run a PostgreSQL database on a Kubernetes cluster using Docker containerization. 

Severalnines   

[Using the CIS PostgreSQL Benchmark to Enhance Your Security](https://info.crunchydata.com/blog/using-the-cis-postgresql-benchmark-to-enhance-your-security) — How to use the [CIS PostgreSQL Benchmark](https://www.cisecurity.org/benchmark/postgresql/) to secure your database. 

Jonathan S. Katz  

Events  

[PostgresOpen SV 2018](https://2018.postgresopen.org/) — **September 5-7 (San Francisco, CA)** Two days packed with tutorials and presentations about PostgreSQL.    

[PostgreSQL Conference Europe](https://2018.pgconf.eu/) — **October 23-26 (Lisbon, Portugal)** The 10th Annual PostgreSQL Conference Europe which will be held at the Lisbon Marriott Hotel.    

[PostgresConf South Africa 2018](https://postgresconf.org/conferences/SouthAfrica2018) — **October 9-10 (Johannesburg, South Africa)** An opportunity for the database administration and developer community to exchange ideas and learn about current features and upcoming trends.          

Curated by [Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/) and [Craig Kerstiens](https://twitter.com/craigkerstiens) 

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