--- title: "Interesting bits of Postgres grammar" publication: "Postgres Weekly" issue: 605 published_at: "2025-06-26" canonical_url: "https://postgresweekly.com/issues/605" --- Plus some Postgres podcast and event updates. | #​605 — June 26, 2025 [Web Version](https://postgresweekly.com/issues/605) Together with [![pgAnalyze\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto,e_trim,w_350,h_100/e_make_transparent/co_white,e_outline:7/lhwcvgc1asd4fzaahty4.png)](https://pganalyze.com/blog/how-notion-runs-postgres-at-scale?utm_source=postgresweeklyprimary_06262025) Postgres Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/uvbpow6isegiaatrekwx.jpg)](https://steve.dignam.xyz/2025/06/20/interesting-bits-of-postgres-grammar/) [Interesting Bits of Postgres Grammar](https://steve.dignam.xyz/2025/06/20/interesting-bits-of-postgres-grammar/) — Steve has been building [a linter for Postgres migrations](https://squawkhq.com/) and has had to dig into some of the curiosities of grammar Postgres supports with a mix of standard SQL and Postgres-only approaches. Steve Dignam [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_limit,w_480,h_480,q_auto/copm/57ef18dd.png)](https://pganalyze.com/blog/how-notion-runs-postgres-at-scale?utm_source=postgresweeklyprimary_06262025) [How Notion Runs PostgreSQL at Scale](https://pganalyze.com/blog/how-notion-runs-postgres-at-scale?utm_source=postgresweeklyprimary_06262025) — Notion achieved a 733% performance improvement on a critical query by refining a single GIN index. Read how they scaled Postgres across 96 shards and resolved production issues faster with pganalyze. pganalyze sponsor [PLJS 1.0: JavaScript Language Plugin for Postgres](https://github.com/plv8/pljs) — [PLV8](https://github.com/plv8/plv8) has been the ‘go to’ way to use JavaScript as a procedural language within Postgres for years, but this [QuickJS](https://bellard.org/quickjs/quickjs.html)-based variant, from the same creator, has a much lighter footprint, is easier to maintain, and may be enough for your needs. Jerry Sievert **IN BRIEF:** - 🎧 [Nile](https://www.thenile.dev/) co-founder Gwen Shapira went on the _Postgres․fm_ podcast [to discuss multi-tenant architectures.](https://postgres.fm/episodes/multi-tenant-options) - 🎤 Talking of podcasts, I (Peter Cooper) [went on the Talking Postgres podcast](https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/12-years-of-postgres-weekly-with-peter-cooper) and spoke with host Claire Giordano about curation, Postgres history, RSS, publishing, and other fun stuff :-) - 🇱🇻 [Registration has opened for PGConf.EU 2025](https://www.postgresql.eu/events/pgconfeu2025/news/pgconfeu-2025-registration-opened-178/) taking place this October 21-24 in Riga, Latvia. - 🇬🇧 [Registration has also opened for PGDay UK](https://pgday.uk/events/pgdayuk2025/news/pgday-uk-2025-registration-open-11/) taking place in London this September. - Peter Eisentraut reflects on [support for a `vector` data type and related functions in the next SQL standard.](https://peter.eisentraut.org/blog/2025/06/24/waiting-for-sql-202y-vectors) - EDB's [Suraj Kharage](https://postgresql.life/post/suraj_kharage/) is this week's _PostgreSQL Person of the Week_interviewee. ▶[Performance Archaeology - 20 Years of Improvements](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY7Nl2sY9fQ) — A talk looking at performance changes in Postgres over the years, all the way from Postgres 8.0 (released in 2005) to now. It’s amazing to see how much we’ve gained over time, though big jumps in performance have slowed down since Postgres 11. Tomas Vondra 💡 If you'd rather read about this work, Tomas has [a blog post about what he did here.](https://vondra.me/posts/postgres-performance-archaeology-olap/) 📄 [Debugging Memory Leaks in Postgres – Jemalloc Edition](https://www.enterprisedb.com/blog/debugging-memory-leaks-postgres-jemalloc-edition) – Phil continues with his deep dives into debugging memory leaks. Phil Eaton 📄 [Which HA Solution Fits Your Needs: Pgpool or Patroni?](https://stormatics.tech/blogs/which-postgresql-ha-solution-fits-your-needs-pgpool-or-patroni) Semab Tariq 📄 [The Differences Between OrioleDB and Neon](https://www.orioledb.com/blog/orioledb-neon-differences) Alexander Korotkov ✂︎ Deep Cuts from the Queue Each day, we add interesting finds to a running queue of potential newsletter items. Not everything makes the cut each week, though, so the queue quietly grows. This week, we’ve dug back through and picked out a few highlights we think are still worth sharing: - Take a step back in time with [📄 The Design of Postgres](https://dsf.berkeley.edu/papers/ERL-M85-95.pdf), a 1986 paper by Michael Stonebreaker and Lawrence A. Rowe sharing the initial thoughts about Postgres's design as it emerged from the INGRES days. - VectorChord's Jinjing Zhou has some [tips for speeding up Postgres's built-in full-text search (FTS) functionality.](https://blog.vectorchord.ai/postgresql-full-text-search-fast-when-done-right-debunking-the-slow-myth) - Laurenz Albe [explains `EXPLAIN`'s `GENERIC_PLAN` option](https://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/explain-generic-plan-postgresql-16/) as has been available since Postgres 16. - Peter Eisentraut presents [an overview of Postgres' ICU collation settings.](https://peter.eisentraut.org/blog/2023/05/16/overview-of-icu-collation-settings) - Kirk Laurence Roybal explains [how to fix transaction ID wraparound exhaustion.](https://www.tigerdata.com/blog/how-to-fix-transaction-id-wraparound) - Shaun Thomas attempts to come up with [a definition for 'extreme high availability'](https://www.enterprisedb.com/blog/defining-extreme-high-availability-in-a-postgres-world) in the context of Postgres. - A useful tutorial on [how to automatically set up pgAdmin with a Docker database](https://event-driven.io/en/automatically_connect_pgadmin_to_database/) from Oskar Dudycz. **Got a new email?** You can [change your address here](https://postgresweekly.com/edit_subscription/*|UID|*). --- **Bored of us?** [Click here to stop getting Postgres Weekly](https://postgresweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*). --- **Got a link for us?** Reply and tell us. We can't include everything but we'll look at anything you send. _Thanks!_ --- Published by Cooper Press Ltd. Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, United Kingdom Postgres, PostgreSQL and the Slonik Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada. [Stop getting this newsletter](https://postgresweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*).