Your Hitchhiker's Guide to the Postgres Documentation

PGconf.de
2022-05-13

Who am I

• Lætitia Avrot
• mydbanotebook.org
• PostgreSQL recognized Contributer
• founder of #PostgresWomen
• EDB Field CTO
• @l_avrot

Postgres documentation

• How to begin
• Choose your own adventure!
• Postgres DBA
• Software developer
• Database user

How to begin?

• Postgres doc is huge
• 420 tables, but only 3 figures
• Different formats (html, pdf, man)

What is Postgres doc?

• Written in PostgreSQL git repo
• DocBook (xml)
• built with bison and flex

Clickable versions

Search engine

site:https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ [keyword here]

Doc page about the doc

Glossary

Doc how to build the doc

Jokes!

Jokes!

Jokes!

By 1996, it became clear that the name “Postgres95” would not stand the test of time.

Jokes!

Besides the documentation, that is, this book, there are other resources about PostgreSQL:

• Wiki
• Web Site
• Mailing Lists
• Yourself!

Questionable advises

Questionable advises

Choose your own adventure: Postgres DBA

What do DBAs do?

• Installs
• Upgrades
• Server setups
• Configuration
• Backup/Restore
• High availability
• Roles
• Maintenance
• Monitoring
• Troubleshooting

The DBA's absolute guide

The DBA's absolute guide: Part III

• Server setup → Chapter 19
• Server configuration → Chapter 20 and Chapter 21
• DB's roles → Chapter 22
• Maintenance → Chapter 25

The DBA's absolute guide: Part III

• Backup and restore → Chapter 26
• High availability → Chapter 27
• Monitoring → Chapter 28 and Chapter 29
• WALs → Chapter 30

The DBA's absolute guide: Part III

• Logical replication → Chapter 31
• JIT → Chapter 32
• Regression tests → Chapter 33

Other interesting nuggets

• System administration functions → Sub-chapter 9.27
• SQL, client and server apps reference → Part IV
• System catalog → Chapter 52
• "Official" contribs → Appendix F
• Release notes → Appendix E

Choose your own adventure: Software developer

What do devs need?

• How to run queries
• Details about datatypes
• Details about included functions
• Details about SQL features
• How to write stored functions/procedures

The dev's absolute guide: Part II

• SQL → Chapter 4
• DDL → Chapter 5
• DML → Chapter 6
• Advanced querying → Chapter 7

The dev's absolute guide: Part II

• Data types → Chapter 8
• Functions and operators → Chapter 9
• Type conversion → Chapter 10
• Indexes → Chapter 11
• Full text search → Chapter 12

The dev's absolute guide: Part II

• Transaction isolation → Chapter 13
• Performance → Chapter 14
• Parallelism → Chapter 15

Another useful guide: Part V

• SQL functions → Chapter 38
• Triggers and Rules → Chapter 39, 40, and 41
• PL/pgSQL → Chapter 43
• Other languages (PL/Tcl, PL/Perl, PL/Python)
• Logical decoding → Chapter 49

Cherry on the top

• SQL reference → Chapter VI.I
• SQL key words → Appendix C
• Feature Matrix → Outside the documentation
• psql documentation → psql
• Data export/import → Part 26.1

Choose your own adventure: database user

What does a database user need?

• A good SQL client
• Help on queries
• Help on performance

The user's absolute guide:

• psql documentation → psql
• That's all 🦄

So long and thanks for all the fish!