PostgreSQL 9.6 Beta 2 Released

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces today that the
second beta release of PostgreSQL 9.6 is available for download. This
release contains previews of all of the features which will be
available in the final release of version 9.6, including fixes to many
of the issues found in the first beta.  Users are encouraged to begin
testing their applications against 9.6 beta 2.

Changes Since Beta1
-------------------

Our users and contributors reported bugs against 9.6 beta 1, and some
of them have been fixed in this release.  This includes multiple fixes
for failure and performance issues in parallel query.  We urge our
community to re-test to ensure that these bugs are actually fixed,
including:

* update most contrib extensions for parallel query
* two fixes for pg_trgm (trigram bugs
* rewrite code to estimate join sizes for better performance
* correct handling of argument and result datatypes for partial aggregation
* fix lazy_scan_heap so that it won't mark pages all-frozen too soon
* mark additional functions as parallel-unsafe
* check PlaceHolderVars before pushing down a join in postgres_fdw
* improve the situation for parallel query versus temp relations
* don't generate parallel paths for rels with parallel-restricted outputs
* make psql_crosstab plans more stable
* finish loose ends for SQL ACCESS METHOD objects, including pg_dump
* stop the executor if no more tuples can be sent from worker to leader
* several pg_upgrade fixes to support new features
* fix regression tests for phrase search
* add new snapshot fields to serialize/deserialize functions
* measure Bloom index signature-length reloption in bits, not words
* many improvements to parallel regression tests
* many documentation updates and clarifications
* multiple translation updates for the docs

Additionally, we've made some user-visible changes to parameters and
functions.  These may cause dump/restore between beta 1 and beta 2 to
generate errors. This includes:

* rename max_parallel_degree to max_parallel_workers_per_gather
* add integrity-checking functions to pg_visibility
* add VACUUM (DISABLE_PAGE_SKIPPING for emergencies
* add pg_truncate_visibility_map function
* add min_parallel_relation_size GUC
* change default of backend_flush_after GUC to 0 (disabled

Note that some known issues remain unfixed.  Before reporting a bug in
the beta, please check the Open Items page.

Beta Schedule
-------------

This is the second beta release of version 9.6. The PostgreSQL Project
will release additional betas as required for testing, followed by one
or more release candidates, until the final release in late 2016. For
further information please see the Beta Testing:
http://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta page.

Links
-----

* Downloads Page:
  http://www.postgresql.org/download/
* Beta Testing Information:
  http://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta
* 9.6 Beta Release Notes:
  http://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/static/release-9-6.html
* What's New in 9.6:
  https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Newin96
* 9.6 Open Items:
  https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_9.6_Open_Items


--
Dave Page
PostgreSQL Core Team
http://www.postgresql.org/