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https://github.com/maahl/awesome-postgres-resources

A curated list of awesome PostgreSQL resources to understand PostgreSQL
https://github.com/maahl/awesome-postgres-resources

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A curated list of awesome PostgreSQL resources to understand PostgreSQL

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# Awesome PostgreSQL resources

A curated list of awesome resources to understand PostgreSQL. Inspired by [awesome-postgres](https://github.com/dhamaniasad/awesome-postgres)



This is a WIP, contributions are welcome!



## Contents



* [Administration](#administration)

* [Hacking postgres](#hacking_postgres)

* [Internals](#internals)

* [SQL](#sql)



## Administration



* [Autovacuum, explained for engineers](http://blog.postgresql-consulting.com/2015/10/autovacuum-explained-for-engineers-new.html)  

  A presentation describing autovacuum.  

  Ilya Kosmodemiansky, 2015



* [Common misconceptions about locking in PostgreSQL](https://www.compose.com/articles/common-misconceptions-about-locking-in-postgresql/)  

  A blog post clarifying locks in PostgreSQL.  

  Robert Wysocki, 2015



* [It's a view, it's a table... no, it's a materialized view!](https://www.compose.com/articles/its-a-view-its-a-table-no-its-a-materialized-view/)  

  A fairly complete introduction to materialized views.  

  Robert Wysocki, 2015



* [Postgres autovacuum is not the enemy](https://www.citusdata.com/blog/2016/11/04/autovacuum-not-the-enemy/)  

  A blog post explaining the rationale behind autovacuum.  

  Joe Nelson, 2016



* [PostgreSQL monitoring cheatsheet](https://russ.garrett.co.uk/2015/10/02/postgres-monitoring-cheatsheet/)  

  A blog post listing some useful metrics when monitoring PostgreSQL.  

  Russ Garett, 2015



* [PostgreSQL primary key type analysis](http://gosimple.me/postgresql-primary-key-type-analysis/)  

  A blog post comparing the performance of primary keys using integer sequences

  and various UUID generation methods.  

  Adam Brusselback, 2016



## Hacking postgres



* [Hacking PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.eu/events/pgconfeu2018/sessions/session/2058/slides/96/hackingpg-present.pdf)  

  A conference presentation that gives an overview of PostgreSQL's source code,

  some important structures, and other useful info to get started in hacking

  postgres.  

  Stephen Frost, 2018



* [Introduction to MemoryContexts](http://blog.pgaddict.com/posts/introduction-to-memory-contexts)  

  [AllocationSet internals](http://blog.pgaddict.com/posts/allocation-set-internals)  

  [Examples of palloc overhead](http://blog.pgaddict.com/posts/palloc-overhead-examples)  

  [How much benefit do we get from Allocation set?](http://blog.pgaddict.com/posts/how-much-benefit-do-we-get-from-allocation-set)  

  A series of blog posts explaining the rationale behind `palloc` (postgres'

  replacement of `malloc`), how to use it and its consequences on

  performance.  

  Tomas Vondra, 2014



* [Postgresql hooks documentation](https://github.com/AmatanHead/psql-hooks)  

  A github repository documenting all function hooks in PostgreSQL  

  Begishev Nikita and Goncharov Vladimir, 2018



* [Review of Patch Reviewing](https://www.postgresql.eu/events/pgconfeu2018/sessions/session/2066/slides/95/patch_review-present.pdf)  

  An explanation of how to review a patch in postgres  

  Stephen Frost, 2018



* [Serverside Programming in C](http://hlinnaka.iki.fi/presentations/PGConf.eu-Serverside-Programming-in-C.pdf)  

  A good intro to get started in hacking postgres, including memory management,

  string handling, error reporting, useful structures, etc.  

  Heikki Linnakangas, 2018



* [Writing Postgres extensions - the basics](http://big-elephants.com/2015-10/writing-postgres-extensions-part-i/)  

  [Writing Postgres extensions - types and operators](http://big-elephants.com/2015-10/writing-postgres-extensions-part-ii/)  

  [Writing Postgres extensions - debugging](http://big-elephants.com/2015-10/writing-postgres-extensions-part-iii/)  

  [Writing Postgres extensions - testing](http://big-elephants.com/2015-11/writing-postgres-extensions-part-iv/)  

  [Writing Postgres extensions - code organization and versioning](http://big-elephants.com/2015-11/writing-postgres-extensions-part-v/)  

  A series of blog posts that explain in details how to code your own extensions  

  Manuel Kniep and adjust GmbH, 2015



## Internals



* [Access path selection in a relational database management system](https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/12453180/selinger-etal-1979.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1524048486&Signature=2e%2Fpd9Wk57zalZ7lwQAixWYl%2FPg%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DAccess_path_selection_in_a_relational_da.pdf)  

  The original article describing the query optimizer dynamic algorithm for join

  order selection, originally implemented in System R but still used in many

  DBMSs, including PostgreSQL.  

  Patricia Selinger et al., 1976



* [All you need to know about sorting in Postgres](https://madusudanan.com/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-sorting-in-postgres/)  

  An overview of the sorting algorithms used in PostgreSQL and how PostgreSQL

  chooses which one to use.  

  Madusudanan.B.N, 2016



* [A look at how postgres executes a join](http://patshaughnessy.net/2015/11/24/a-look-at-how-postgres-executes-a-tiny-join)  

  A detailed description of join execution.  

  Pat Shaughnessy, 2015



* [Backend flowchart](https://www.postgresql.org/developer/backend/)  

  A chart describing the role of each component in the backend. Don't forget to

  also check the [full

  index](https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Backend_flowchart) that is

  associated to it.  

  PostgreSQL, 2012



* [Buffer manager](http://www.interdb.jp/pg/pgsql08.html)  

  A detailed description of the cache handling in PostgreSQL.  

  Hironobu Suzuki, 2016



* [Explaining `CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY`](http://blog.2ndquadrant.com/create-index-concurrently/)  

  A blog post explaining in great detail how PostgreSQL builds an index without

  locking the table from updates.  

  Pavan Deolasee, 2017



* [Explaining the query optimizer](http://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/optimizer.pdf)  

  A presentation introducing the query planner.  

  Bruce Momjian, 2016



* [Explicit locking](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/explicit-locking.html)  

  The section in PostgreSQL docs that explains the various locks available and

  how they interact with each other.  

  PostgreSQL, current



* [HOT](https://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git;a=blob;f=src/backend/access/heap/README.HOT;hb=HEAD)  

  The readme in the PostgreSQL source code that describes in great details how

  Heap-Only Tuples (HOT) work.  

  PostgreSQL, 2012



* [Index internals](https://www.pgcon.org/2016/schedule/attachments/434_Index-internals-PGCon2016.pdf)  

  A presentation ([video

  available](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6B8-srOsrs)) that describes how

  the different indexes in PostgreSQL store data.  

  Heikki Linnakangas, 2016



* [PostgreSQL internals through pictures](https://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/internalpics.pdf)  

  A presentation doing a broad overview of PostgreSQL internals.  

  Bruce Momjian, 2016



* [PostgreSQL query optimization](http://jinchengli.me/post/postgres-query-opt/)  

  A blog post introducing query evaluation plans and the algorithm to generate

  them.  

  Jincheng Li, 2016



* [Query execution techniques in PostgreSQL](http://www.neilconway.org/talks/executor.pdf)  

  A presentation that describes how plan nodes are executed.  

  Neil Conway, 2007



## SQL



* [Explanation of jsonb introduced by PostgreSQL](http://stackoverflow.com/a/22910602/2451259)  

  A stackoverflow answer that explains concisely the differences between hstore,

  json and jsonb formats.  

  pozs, 2014



* [PostgreSQL cheat sheet: string functions](http://postgresql-backup.com/postgresql-blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PostgreSQL-Cheat-Sheet_-String-Functions.pdf)  

  A cheat sheet for string operations in PostgreSQL.  

  PostgreSQL Backup, 2016



* [Postgres window magic](http://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/window.pdf)  

  A presentation detailing the possibilities of window functions.  

  Bruce Momjian, 2017



* [SQL joins visualizer](http://sql-joins.leopard.in.ua/)  

  Describe the data you want to get from a join using Venn diagrams, and the

  corresponding SQL join is generated.  

  Alexey Vasiliev, 2016