--- title: "Postgres 12.1, 11.6, 10.11, and others released" publication: "Postgres Weekly" issue: 332 published_at: "2019-11-20" canonical_url: "https://postgresweekly.com/issues/332" --- This week's PostgreSQL news and tutorials. #332 — November 20, 2019 [Read on the Web](https://postgresweekly.com/issues/332) Postgres Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/v1574257437/fy33fypgt7wfbu9xlcjd.jpg)](http://filemirror.s3.amazonaws.com/jsonpath-pgday.it-2019.pdf) 📄 [JSONPath: A Query Language for JSON](http://filemirror.s3.amazonaws.com/jsonpath-pgday.it-2019.pdf)– [PDF] — If you’ve heard that Postgres 12 has support for [SQL/JSON](https://paquier.xyz/postgresql-2/postgres-12-jsonpath/) (which Markus Winand has [called](https://twitter.com/MarkusWinand/status/1159467497516609536) _"the most complete and correct .. implementation I've seen."_) and wondered why that’s a big deal, this set of code-rich slides should fill you with ideas. I’m always a bit wary of linking to slidedecks, but these deserve a look as they're very good. Oleg Bartunov [PostgreSQL 12.1, 11.6, 10.11, 9.6.16, 9.5.20, and 9.4.25 Released](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/1994/) — A wide variety of releases to fix over 60 bugs that were reported in the last several months (including many which only affect Postgres 12). This is also a good time to note 9.4 will no longer receive such fixes after February 2020, so consider getting an upgrade plan into place if you’re still using it. PostgreSQL Global Development Group [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/7249a2f8.png)](https://hubs.ly/H0lS6kx0) [Whitepaper: Harden Your PostgreSQL Database](https://hubs.ly/H0lS6kx0) — Learn about Database Security and develop a deep understanding of industry best practices. Explore how to harden your PostgreSQL cluster and have confidence that your data is adequately protected from malicious attacks. 2ndQuadrant PostgreSQL Whitepapers sponsor [An Interview on What Makes Postgres Unique (Extensions)](http://www.craigkerstiens.com/2019/11/13/postgres-interview-from-art-of-postgresql/) — Dimitri Fontaine interviewed Craig Kerstiens about the importance of extensions in the Postgres ecosystem and what his favorites are. Craig Kerstiens [Dealing with Similarity in Postgres and Rails using Trigrams](https://pganalyze.com/blog/similarity-in-postgres-and-ruby-on-rails-using-trigrams) — A tutorial aimed at the Rubyists amongst us (yes, we have [a newsletter for that](https://rubyweekly.com/?utm_source=pgweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cross_promo&utm_content=332)) but the lessons can be used by any Postgres user as it leans upon `pg_trgm`, a core Postgres module that provides functions for determining the similarity of strings based on _trigram matching._ Leigh Halliday [`effective_cache_size`: What It Means in Postgres](https://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/effective_cache_size-what-it-means-in-postgresql/) — A brief explainer of what the `effective_cache_size` config setting is for and how it helps Postgres’s query planner. Hans-Jürgen Schönig [Avoiding 'OR' for Better Query Performance](https://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/avoid-or-for-better-performance/) — A look at different kinds of queries using SQL’s `OR` and how to rewrite them without OR for better performance. Laurenz Albe [Downloading Large Heroku Postgres Backups](https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2019-11-12-downloading-large-heroku-postgres-backups/) — The Heroku PaaS provides a variety of tools for working with Postgres databases including creating _forks_ of your database, scheduling backups, downloading dumps, and more. Justin Searls 📂**Code and Projects** [check_pgbackrest 1.6 Released](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/1995/) — [pgBackRest](https://pgbackrest.org/) is a Postgres backup and restore tool but `check_pgbackrest` is a Nagios plugin that monitors the backups pgBackRest takes. Dalibo [Crunchy High-Availability PostgreSQL Keeps Critical Applications Up](https://www.crunchydata.com/products/crunchy-postgresql-high-availability-suite/?utm_source=PostgresWeekly&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=CrunchyHA) — Leverage trusted open source software to ensure your PostgreSQL data is always available. Crunchy Data sponsor [Scaledger: A Double-Entry Accounting Database with a Typed GraphQL API](https://gitlab.com/df8org/scaledger) — The API is introspected directly from a Postgres schema. df8 [pg-minify: Minifies PostgreSQL Scripts, Reducing IO Usage](https://github.com/vitaly-t/pg-minify) Vitaly Tomilov 🗓**Upcoming Events** - [2Q PGCONF 2019](https://www.2qpgconf.com/) (December 4-5, 2019 in Chicago) — A conference dedicated to exchanging knowledge about the world’s most advanced open source database: PostgreSQL. - [PgDay SF](https://2020.pgdaysf.org/) (January 21, 2020 in San Francisco) — A 1-day, single-track Postgres event. **The CFP deadline is _this Friday_ on 22 November** — and they want your talk proposals ASAP. - [PgConf.Russia](https://pgconf.ru/2020) (Febuary 3-5, 2020 in Moscow, Russia) — One day of tutorials and two days of talks in three parallel sessions. - [PGConf India](https://pgconf.in/conferences/pgconfin2020) (Febuary 26-28, 2020 in Bengaluru, Maharashtra, India) — A dedicated training day and a multi-track two-day conference. - [pgDay Paris 2020](https://2020.pgday.paris/#%2319) (March 26, 2020 in Paris, France) — Learn more about the world’s most advanced open source database among your peers. - [Swiss PGDay 2020](http://www.pgday.ch/2020/) (June 18-19, 2020 in Switzerland) — A two track conference (one in English, one in German) aimed at the entire Postgres community. Curated by [Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/), [Peter Cooper](https://twitter.com/peterc), and [Craig Kerstiens](https://twitter.com/craigkerstiens). [Change your email address](https://postgresweekly.com/edit_subscription/*|UID|*) or[Stop getting this newsletter](https://postgresweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*) © Cooper Press Ltd · Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, United Kingdom