---
title: "Making a first contribution to Postgres"
publication: "Postgres Weekly"
issue: 549
published_at: "2024-04-03"
canonical_url: "https://postgresweekly.com/issues/549"
---

Plus a tribute to Simon Riggs, taming WAL files, and a bumper list of upcoming Postgres events. |        

#​549 — April 3, 2024 

[Web Version](https://postgresweekly.com/issues/549)   

📅 Several issues ago, we included a list of upcoming Postgres events. It was so popular, we're including it again with some updates. If you have an event you want listed, reply and let me know for next time!
__
_Your editor, Peter Cooper_ 

Together with [![Crunchydata\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto,w_430,h_100/e_make_transparent/co_white,e_outline:7/xyflkz7n00elwtgja9ne.png)](https://www.crunchydata.com/case-studies/ynab?utm_source=cppg)   

Postgres Weekly 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/bwlp6dezovelszoib7z4.jpg)](https://m6n.io/@fuzzychef/112172393647826741)   

[R.I.P. Postgres Maintainer Simon Riggs](https://m6n.io/@fuzzychef/112172393647826741) — It’s with much sadness we share the news that Postgres contributor (and author of [several Postgres books](https://riggs.business/books)) Simon Riggs [has died in a crash at Duxford airfield](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjex992z0wlo) in the UK. The core team [shared its own tribute](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/remembering-simon-riggs-2830/) noting his contributions, including point-in-time recovery, hot standby, and synchronous replication. His final talk was at PGConf EU in December about [▶️ the next 20 years of Postgres.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W-J36IxYv4) 

Josh Berkus et al.   

[Contributing to Postgres 101: A Beginner's Experience](https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/contributing-to-postgres-101-a-beginners-experience) — I’ve recently seen some people lament how difficult it can be to figure out how to contribute to certain open source projects, so if that’s you with Postgres, Elizabeth’s experiences in submitting a patch and getting it approved will be super useful. 

Elizabeth Christensen   [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/8222ad90.png)](https://www.crunchydata.com/case-studies/ynab?utm_source=cppg) 

[Optimize Database Performance with Crunchy Bridge](https://www.crunchydata.com/case-studies/ynab?utm_source=cppg) — Boost your Postgres performance with Crunchy Bridge! YNAB experienced 30% more IOPS and a 10% cost reduction. Scale seamlessly, stay on vanilla Postgres, and optimize spend. Read more in the YNAB case study. 

Crunchy Bridge sponsor   

[Taming WAL File Growth](https://pgdash.io/blog/taming-postgresql-wal-file-growth.html) — A quick introduction to the Write Ahead Log subsystem in Postgres, including a look at the key things to monitor for detecting WAL file build up. 

RapidLoop / pgDash   

_IN BRIEF:_ 

- David Wheeler's work on enhancing the Postgres extension distribution ecosystem continues – now he wants to know: [should PGXN v2's services and tools be written in Go or Rust?](https://justatheory.com/2024/03/pgxn-language-choices/)
- Tony Dang of Infisical writes about [his team's 'great migration' from MongoDB to Postgres](https://infisical.com/blog/postgresql-migration-technical).
- 📅 [POSETTE](https://www.citusdata.com/posette/2024/) is Microsoft's annual, online Postgres event and [the CFP is open for just 4 more days](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-database-for-postgresql/calling-postgres-speakers-posette-cfp-is-open-until-apr-7th-2024/ba-p/4094496).
- Reflections on [how Postgres is eating the database world.](https://medium.com/@fengruohang/postgres-is-eating-the-database-world-157c204dcfc4)
- 🤡 I didn't see many Postgres-themed April Fools attempts, but [Supabase had a try](https://supabase.com/blog/pg-paper-dump) with its new, novel, paper-based backup system.. 😅   

[`journald` and Syslog Logging in Postgres](https://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/postgresql-syslog-logging-with-journald/) — Using journald and syslog logging with Postgres isn’t a new idea, but Laurenz thinks more people should be giving it a go and so has put together this basic tutorial: _“I switched my PostgreSQL instance to syslog logging, and I don’t think I will switch back.”_ 

Laurenz Albe   

[Why Has Figma Reinveted the Wheel with Postgres?](https://medium.com/@magda7817/why-has-figma-reinveted-the-wheel-with-postgresql-3a1cb2e9297c) — A closer look at Figma’s custom sharding solution with motivations and future predictions. 

Denis Magda      

📰 Classifieds   

What’s the State of the Database Landscape 2024? Our survey reveals how data professionals are feeling in 2024. [How will this impact you?](https://www.red-gate.com/solutions/entrypage/state-of-database-landscape-2024/overview?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mc-202401-t1-sodl-navigating-the-db-landscape-gc-all&utm_content=Aprilad) 

--- 

📅 The [PASS Data Community Summit](https://passdatacommunitysummit.com/) is a major database event that has added Postgres coverage in recent years. This year it's in Seattle, November 4-8, and [the CFP is open.](https://passdatacommunitysummit.com/about/news/2024-calls-for-speakers-volunteers-are-now-open/)      

[Real-Time Text Translation using the `azure_ai` Extension in _Azure Database for PostgreSQL_](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-database-for-postgresql/real-time-text-translation-using-the-azure-ai-extension-in-azure/ba-p/4081157) 

Denzil Ribeiro   

[Building a Managed Postgres Service in Rust: Part 1](https://tembo.io/blog/managed-postgres-rust) — A little peek behind the scenes at [Tembo.](https://tembo.io/) 

Adam Hendel   

[Best `pg_basebackup` Compression Settings for v15+](https://kmoppel.github.io/2024-03-27-best-basebackup-compression-settings-for-v15-and-above/) 

Kaarel Moppel    

🛠 Code and Tools  

- [DoltgreSQL 0.5](https://github.com/dolthub/doltgresql) – Version-controlled Postgres – a Postgres-flavored version of[Dolt](https://github.com/dolthub/dolt), a Git-inspired database.
- [PGlite 0.1.1](https://github.com/electric-sql/pglite) – Lightweight Postgres packaged as WASM into a TypeScript library for the browser, Node.js, Bun and Deno. Now supports Postgres array types.
- [Ora2Pg 24.3](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/ora2pg-243-have-been-released-2832/) – Tool to help migrate from Oracle to Postgres.
- [pg_partman 5.1 & 4.8](https://github.com/pgpartman/pg_partman/releases/tag/v5.1.0) – Partition management extension.
- [sqlc 1.26](https://github.com/sqlc-dev/sqlc) – Generate type-safe Go code from SQL. _(Includes an important security fix for users using output plugins.)_
- [pgmoneta 0.10](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgmoneta-010-2831/) – Postgres backup / restore solution.
- [Prisma 5.12](https://github.com/prisma/prisma/releases/tag/5.12.0) – Popular ORM for Node.js and TypeScript.
- [scany 2.1.2](https://github.com/georgysavva/scany) – Go library to slurp data from a DB into structs.
- [plpgsql_check 2.7.5](https://github.com/okbob/plpgsql_check) – PL/pgSQL linter.      

🗓 **Upcoming Events** 

- 🇻🇳 [PGDay at FOSSASIA Summit (April 8-9)](https://summit.fossasia.org/pgday) — Takes place in Hanoi, Vietnam, as part of the broader _FOSSASIA Summit._
- 🇩🇪 [PostgreSQL Conference Germany 2024 (April 12)](https://2024.pgconf.de/) — The next iteration takes place in Munich.
- 🇧🇾 [PG BootCamp Minsk 2024 (April 16)](https://www.postgresql.org/about/event/pg-bootcamp-minsk-2024-2502/)
- 🇺🇸 [Postgres Conference 2024 (April 17-19)](https://postgresconf.org/) — Taking place in San Jose, California.
- 🇺🇸 [PDXPUG April Meeting (April 18)](https://pdxpug.wordpress.com/2024/03/29/pdxpug-april-meeting-whats-new-in-postgresql-17/) — A 2-hour community meetup in Portland, Oregon, focusing on what's new in Postgres 17.
- 🇺🇸 [PGDay Chicago 2024 (April 26)](https://2024.pgdaychicago.org/) — Part of a non–profit, community–run conference series. [Here's the schedule](https://postgresql.us/events/pgdaychicago2024/schedule/) and here are [some talks Henrietta Dombrovskaya is excited to see.](https://hdombrovskaya.wordpress.com/2024/03/29/pg-day-chicago-the-talks-i-am-most-excited-about-part-i/)
- 🇧🇪 [PGConf.BE 2024 (May 7)](https://pgconf.be/) — In Haasrode, Belgium.
- 🇨🇦 [PostgreSQL Development Conference 'pgconf.dev' 2024 (May 28-31)](https://2024.pgconf.dev/) — This year in Vancouver, Canada.
- 🇨🇿 [Prague PostgreSQL Developer Day 2024 (June 4-5)](https://p2d2.cz/)
- 🌎 [POSETTE (June 11-13)](https://www.citusdata.com/posette/2024/) — A free, virtual developer event organized by the Postgres team at Microsoft. [The CFP is open](https://www.citusdata.com/posette/2024/cfp/) for just four more days!
- 🇨🇭 [Swiss PGDay 2024 (June 27-28)](https://www.pgday.ch/2024/) — Two day conference with presentations in both English and German.
- 🇺🇸 [PGConf NYC 2024 (September 30-October 2)](https://2024.pgconf.nyc) — A 3-day conference in New York City. [The CFP is open](https://2024.pgconf.nyc/callforpapers/) until June.     

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