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The free database system PostgreSQL is available in version 8.4 with numerous new features and enhancements.
The PostgreSQL Group counts 293 enhancements for its 8.4 release over its predecessor. Among the most important is Parallel Restore, with up to eight times faster backup file restoration, which can apply to 8.2 and 8.3 backups as well. As far as database security, column-level permissions can now be set along with the table itself.
The sorting methods (character collations) can be set by database apart from at installation, a welcome feature for multilingual environments. A few new monitoring features will also be helpful for large enterprise environments.
The query language was enhanced through advanced features of the SQL 2003 ANSI standard, such as aggregate operations through windowing. Common table expressions allowing named subqueries and recursive joins also reduce queries to far fewer than previously required.
An overview of the PostgreSQL 8.4 feature enhancements is available as a list or a matrix comparing it to the previous five releases.
PostgreSQL is ready for download under a BSD license. Apart from the source code, there are binary packages for 32-bit and 64-bit Intel CPUs, with specific distro packages also in the offering.
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