PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

Developer(s)	PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Initial release	July 8, 1996; 20 years ago (1996-07-08)
Stable release	9.6.2 / February 9, 2017; 25 days ago (2017-02-09)
Repository	git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git
Written in	C
Operating system	Cross-platform, i.e. most Unix-like operating systems and Windows
Type	ORDBMS
License	PostgreSQL License
Website	postgresql.org

PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database (ORDBMS) – i.e. an RDBMS, with additional (optional use) "object" features – with an emphasis on extensibility and standards compliance. As a database server, its primary functions are to store data securely and return that data in response to requests from other software applications. It can handle workloads ranging from small single-machine applications to large Internet-facing applications (or for data warehousing) with many concurrent users; on macOS Server, PostgreSQL is the default database; and it is also available for Microsoft Windows and Linux (supplied in most distributions).

PostgreSQL is ACID-compliant and transactional. PostgreSQL has updatable views and materialized views, triggers, foreign keys; supports functions and stored procedures, and other expandability.

PostgreSQL is developed by the PostgreSQL Global Development Group, a diverse group of many companies and individual contributors. It is free and open-source software, released under the terms of the PostgreSQL License, a permissive free-software license.

PostgreSQL's developers pronounce PostgreSQL as /ˈpoʊstɡrɛs ˌkjuː ˈɛl/. It is abbreviated as Postgres because of ubiquitous support for the SQL Standard among most relational databases. The community considered changing the name back to Postgres; however, the PostgreSQL Core Team announced in 2007 that the product would continue to use the name PostgreSQL. The name Postgres (Post Ingres) refers to the project's origins in that database which was developed at University of California, Berkeley.