News

Source: https://pgbackrest.org/news.html

pgBackRest 2.59.2 Released

September 27, 2026

The pgBackRest community released pgBackRest 2.59.2. This backup and restore solution supports PostgreSQL databases and workloads of all sizes.

pgBackRest provides these backup and recovery features: parallel backup and restore; full, differential, incremental, and block incremental backups; and multiple repositories. It also supports delta restore, parallel asynchronous archiving, malware/ransomware protection, per-file checksums, and validation of enabled page checksums during backup. Other features include multiple compression types, encryption, partial/failed backup resume, standby backups, tablespaces, and links. Storage options include S3, Azure, GCS, and SFTP. pgBackRest also supports backup expiration, local or remote operation through SSH or TLS, and flexible configuration.

Install pgBackRest from the PostgreSQL Yum Repository or PostgreSQL APT Repository. Many other distributions also provide packages. Download source code from releases.

New Features and Bug Fixes

• PostgreSQL 19beta4 support (David Steele)
• Fix empty block map when file is truncated to zero during backup (David Steele)
• Disable read retry when filters are passed to the driver (David Steele)
• Fix pagination of S3 version listing (David Steele)
• Set the Azure version header for SAS authentication (David Steele)
• Fix async archive-push stalling on a zero-size backup history file (Andrew Kroh)
• Fix annotate command on a remote encrypted repository (Douglas J Hunley)

See the 2.59.2 Release Notes for additional fixes and improvements.

Important Notes

• PostgreSQL 19beta4 changed pg_control and WAL formats. Clusters and WAL from earlier 19 beta versions are no longer supported. Recreate those clusters with 19beta4.

Links

• Website
• User Guides
• Release Notes

Sponsorship

The following sponsors made this release possible: AWS, Supabase, pgEdge, Tiger Data, Percona, Eon, Xata, Dalibo, and Data Egret.

pgBackRest 2.59.1 Released

August 17, 2026

The pgBackRest community released pgBackRest 2.59.1. This backup and restore solution supports PostgreSQL databases and workloads of all sizes.

pgBackRest provides these backup and recovery features: parallel backup and restore; full, differential, incremental, and block incremental backups; and multiple repositories. It also supports delta restore, parallel asynchronous archiving, malware/ransomware protection, per-file checksums, and validation of enabled page checksums during backup. Other features include multiple compression types, encryption, partial/failed backup resume, standby backups, tablespaces, and links. Storage options include S3, Azure, GCS, and SFTP. pgBackRest also supports backup expiration, local or remote operation through SSH or TLS, and flexible configuration.

Install pgBackRest from the PostgreSQL Yum Repository or PostgreSQL APT Repository. Many other distributions also provide packages. Download source code from releases.

New Features and Bug Fixes

• PostgreSQL 19beta3 support (Lardière Sébastien)
• Fix hang when the chunk buffer is smaller than the input buffer (David Steele)
• Compare a new backup label only against its own full backup set (David Steele)
• Fix source archives generated by GitHub missing files required to build (David Steele)

See the 2.59.1 Release Notes for additional fixes and improvements.

Important Notes

• PostgreSQL 19beta3 changed the WAL format. WAL archived from earlier PostgreSQL 19 beta versions is no longer readable. Recreate those clusters with 19beta3.

Links

• Website
• User Guides
• Release Notes

Sponsorship

The following sponsors made this release possible: AWS, Supabase, pgEdge, Tiger Data, Percona, Eon, Xata, Dalibo, and Data Egret.

New Distribution Tarball

July 20, 2026

Starting with pgBackRest 2.59.0, each release includes a distribution tarball for simpler source builds. It contains generated source and prebuilt documentation. Unlike a Git checkout, it does not need code-generation or documentation tools to build and install pgBackRest.

The tarball contains source, pregenerated code, a command reference man page, HTML documentation, and a smoke test. Build it with meson and ninja and the usual pgBackRest libraries.

Each release includes pgbackrest-{version}.tar.gz and a matching .sha256sum checksum. Download them from GitHub releases. Follow the tarball README.md for build and test instructions.

Packagers should use the distribution tarball. This avoids the additional code-generation and documentation tools that future releases will require.

pgBackRest 2.59.0 Released

July 20, 2026

The pgBackRest community released pgBackRest 2.59.0. This backup and restore solution supports PostgreSQL databases and workloads of all sizes.

pgBackRest provides these backup and recovery features: parallel backup and restore; full, differential, incremental, and block incremental backups; and multiple repositories. It also supports delta restore, parallel asynchronous archiving, malware/ransomware protection, per-file checksums, and validation of enabled page checksums during backup. Other features include multiple compression types, encryption, partial/failed backup resume, standby backups, tablespaces, and links. Storage options include S3, Azure, GCS, and SFTP. pgBackRest also supports backup expiration, local or remote operation through SSH or TLS, and flexible configuration.

Install pgBackRest from the PostgreSQL Yum Repository or PostgreSQL APT Repository. Many other distributions also provide packages. Download source code from releases.

Significant New Features and Improvements

• PostgreSQL 19 support (David Steele)
• Add archive-expire-before option to clean up WAL archive (Stefan Fercot)
• Add support for S3 Outposts (Shiva Kumar Ambigi)
• Add S3 process authentication (David Steele)
• Add user/group caching for faster manifest build (Gunnar Lindholm)
• Reconnect SFTP storage after the server drops an idle connection (David Steele)
• Add per-repo backup progress to info command output (Will Morland)
• Add batch delete for Azure storage (David Steele)
• Add backup.info checks to verify command (Denis Garsh)
• Allow the S3 STS endpoint to be configured (Simon Gratton)
• Add systemd notify integration (Andrew Jackson)
• Error when running as root unless allow-root is enabled (David Steele)
• Exit async archive-push on first error (David Steele)

See the 2.59.0 Release Notes for additional features and improvements.

Important Notes

• By default, only restore can run as root. Use allow-root for other commands, although this is not recommended.
• Each release includes a distribution tarball with pregenerated documentation, man page, and code to simplify packaging. See New Distribution Tarball.
• libsystemd is a new optional dependency.

Links

• Website
• User Guides
• Release Notes

Sponsorship

The following sponsors made this release possible: AWS, Supabase, pgEdge, Tiger Data, Percona, Eon, Xata, Dalibo, and Data Egret.

pgBackRest Will Continue!

May 18, 2026

pgBackRest will continue. During the previous few weeks, several sponsors agreed to fund ongoing development. The project no longer depends on one sponsor. This supports its long-term stability.

We thank each sponsor:

Amazon Web Services provides on-demand cloud resources for individuals, companies, and governments. It offers computing, storage, databases, machine learning, and more than 200 services with usage-based payment. It supports growth and invests in shared communities.

Supabase is a PostgreSQL backend platform. It lets developers build and scale applications without managing infrastructure. It includes a Postgres database, user authentication, real-time subscriptions, file storage, edge functions, and serverless functions. An active open-source community supports it.

pgEdge is an enterprise open-source Postgres platform for AI and high availability. It includes agentic AI tools, a DBA workbench, monitoring, incident response, flexible deployment, and maintenance without downtime. Deployments range from one node to active-active multi-master clusters in cloud, on-premises, or air-gapped environments.

Tiger Data created TimescaleDB, an open-source PostgreSQL time-series database. It also operates Tiger Cloud for managed time-series, analytics, and AI workloads. Self-managed and cloud options let organizations capture, store, and analyze time-series data at scale, from edge locations to centralized cloud deployments.

Percona provides open-source database software, support, and services to help organizations control their data infrastructure. It supports secure, efficient operation of MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Valkey, and Redis. Services include freely available software, 24/7 expert support, and practical database assistance.

Eon.io provides cloud infrastructure for backup, recovery, and data management. It helps teams store and access backups efficiently and use the data for analytics and AI. It offers fast, granular recovery and substantially lower storage costs for Postgres and data-intensive workloads across clouds. Recovery includes accidental data loss and AI agent regressions.

These organizations use pgBackRest for disaster recovery in their products and customer services. Their investment reflects its role in the PostgreSQL ecosystem. Their combined support sustains the project over the long term.

I look forward to resuming work on features and optimizations for upcoming releases. Thank you to our sponsors for funding this work. Thank you to the community for its patience and support during this transition.

Maintenance Update

May 4, 2026

After I announced that I would stop maintaining pgBackRest, I received many messages. Many expressed thanks and good wishes for my work over the years. It took time to read them.

Many users want pgBackRest to continue with me as primary maintainer, especially users who support others using pgBackRest. I also want this. However, after months of fundraising, I had concluded that it was not possible.

The situation has changed. I now expect to secure enough funding to continue the project. Several sponsors will fund pgBackRest, so one acquisition will no longer determine whether I can continue. We should also be able to add another maintainer to share the workload and provide continuity.

I understand the shock and uncertainty. Please give us time. The current pgBackRest version works, with no outstanding critical bugs or security issues. There is no immediate need to fork the project.

I expect to make a more definite announcement by the end of the week. Until then, we are actively working to resume pgBackRest development.

pgBackRest Is No Longer Being Maintained

April 27, 2026

pgBackRest is no longer maintained. If you fork it, choose a new project name.

After careful thought, I have decided to stop working on pgBackRest. I have worked on this project for thirteen years, with corporate sponsorship for much of that time. I also spent many nights and weekends developing it with numerous contributors. This reflects the substantial personal commitment that an open-source project can require.

Since the sale of Crunchy Data, I have maintained pgBackRest while seeking a position that would support this work. I have not found one. Sponsorship efforts have also raised much less than the project needs to remain viable.

I need to earn a living, and few roles involve pgBackRest. I can now consider other opportunities, but they will leave no time for this project. Maintenance, bug fixes, PR reviews, and issue responses already require substantial time. New features, the work I most enjoy, need additional time. I have therefore decided to stop completely instead of working irregularly or inadequately.

Someone might eventually fork pgBackRest. That would be a new project with new maintainers. They would need to earn trust, as we did.

Thank you to all pgBackRest contributors over the years. I enjoyed working with you.