Postgres 19 adds concurrent repack and query plan pinning

Postgres 19 is poised to be released in the coming months, introducing capabilities that have long been relegated to the extension ecosystem. The most notable addition is 'repack concurrently,' which allows administrators to remove table bloat in the background without holding locks. This functionality was previously available only through extensions such as PG Repack or PG Squeeze, adding complexity to maintenance workflows. Craig Kirsteins described the release as the most significant in a decade, arguing that moving these advanced management features into the core reduces operational overhead for developers.

The release also introduces query plan pinning, a feature that allows developers to force specific query plans. This prevents performance surprises caused by changing data distributions, a problem that has historically required workarounds in Postgres but is common in Oracle. Additional improvements include 'group by all' for simplified SQL syntax and enhanced logical replication. The project remains maintained by a small community of roughly 50 committers, including long-time core contributor Tom Lane. By integrating these tools natively, Postgres 19 aims to streamline database management and improve performance consistency for enterprise users.