Versioning Policy

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group releases a new major version containingnew features about once a year. Each major version receives bug fixes and, ifneed be,security fixes that are released atleast once every three months in what we call a "minor release." For moreinformation on the minor release schedule, you can view theminor release roadmap.

If the release team determines that a critical bug or security fix is tooimportant to wait until the regularly scheduled minor release, it may makea release available outside of the minor release roadmap.

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group supports a major version for 5 yearsafter its initial release. After this, a final minor version will be releasedand the software will then be unsupported (end-of-life).

Version Numbering

Starting with PostgreSQL 10, a major version is indicated by increasing thefirst part of the version, e.g. 10 to 11. Before PostgreSQL 10, a major versionwas indicated by increasing either the first or second part of the versionnumber, e.g. 9.5 to 9.6.

Minor releases are numbered by increasing the last part of the version number.Beginning with PostgreSQL 10, this is the second part of the version number,e.g. 10.0 to 10.1; for older versions this is the third part of the versionnumber, e.g. 9.5.3 to 9.5.4.

Upgrading

Major versions make complex changes, so the contents of the data directorycannot be maintained in a backward compatible way. A dump/reload of thedatabase or use of thepg_upgrade application is requiredfor major upgrades. We also recommend reading theupgrading section of the majorversion you are planning to upgrade to. You can upgrade from one major versionto another without upgrading to intervening versions, but we recommend readingtherelease notes of all intervening majorversions prior to doing so.

Minor release upgrades do not require a dump and restore; you simply stop the database server, install the updated binaries, and restart the server. Such upgrades might require additional steps so always read the release notes first.

Minor releases only contain fixes for frequently-encountered bugs, low-risk fixes,security issues, and data corruption problems.The community considers performing minor upgrades to be less risky than continuing to run an old minor version.

We recommend that users always run the current minor release associated with their major version.

Releases