40 Years of Postgres: Pages 7

Three diagrams: two people read and write the same database while a cutaway shows a new row version beside an old one (MVCC, 1999); a server logs each change before writing it, crashes, and replays the log on restart (WAL, 2001); a primary server streams changes to a standby that readers can use and that takes over on failure (Replication, 2010).

In a 2001 workshop a specialist fits a map tool labeled PostGIS into the workbench so a stack of addresses becomes points on a map; years later a pg_trgm hand tool matches a misspelled Brekeley card to Berkeley; a postgres_fdw cable connects the bench to a second database across the room.

Ready for production

Three releases turned a research system into trusted infrastructure. MVCC in 6.5 (1999) let readers stop blocking writers. Write-ahead logging in 7.1 (2001) made crash recovery reliable. Streaming replication and hot standby in 9.0 (2010) gave every database a live stand-in.

Sources

PostgreSQL 6.5.0 release notes (1999)
PostgreSQL 7.1.0 release notes (2001)
PostgreSQL 9.0.0 release notes (2010)
MVCC introduction (official documentation)

Room to extend

The 1986 design let users add their own types and index methods. PostGIS used exactly that in 2001 to put maps inside Postgres without changing the core. Later came pg_trgm for fuzzy matching and postgres_fdw (2013) for reaching other databases, and 9.1 (2011) gave extensions a package format.

Sources

PostGIS workshop: introduction (PostGIS 0.1, May 2001)
PostGIS at 20, The Beginning (2021)
GiST documentation (official)
PostgreSQL 9.1.0 release notes: CREATE EXTENSION (2011)

Ready for production

Sources

Room to extend

Sources

Solutions & Platform

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Change Management

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