mjiderhamn / pgjdbc

Postgresql JDBC Driver

# PostgreSQL JDBC driver

This is a simple readme describing how to compile and use the PostgreSQL JDBC driver.

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Info

This isn't a guide on how to use JDBC - for that refer to Oracle's website and the JDBC tutorial.

For problems with this driver, refer to driver's home page and associated mailing list.

Downloading pre-built drivers

Most people do not need to compile PgJDBC. You can download prebuilt versions of the driver from the PostgreSQL JDBC site or using your chosen dependency management tool:

Changelog

Notable changes for 9.4.1211 (2016-09-18):

• json type is returned as PGObject like in pre-9.4.1210 (fixed regression of 9.4.1210)
• 'current transaction is aborted' exception includes the original exception via caused-by chain

Notable changes for 9.4.1210 (2016-09-07):

• BUG: json datatype is returned as java.lang.String object, not as PGObject (fixed in 9.4.1211)
• Better support for RETURN_GENERATED_KEYS, statements with RETURNING clause
• Avoid user-visible prepared-statement errors if client uses DEALLOCATE/DISCARD statements (invalidate cache when those statements detected)
• Avoid user-visible prepared-statement errors if client changes search_path (invalidate cache when set search_path detected)
• Support comments when replacing {fn ...} JDBC syntax
• Support for Types.REF_CURSOR

Notable changes for 9.4.1209 (2016-07-15):

• Many improvements to insert into .. values(?,?) => insert .. values(?,?), (?,?)... rewriter. Give it a try by using reWriteBatchedInserts=true connection property. 2-3x improvements for insert batch can be expected
• Full test suite passes against PostgreSQL 9.6, and OpenJDK 9
• Performance optimization for timestamps (~TimeZone.getDefault optimization)
• Allow build-from-source on GNU/Linux without maven repositories, and add Fedora Copr test to the regression suite

Full change log can be found here: https://jdbc.postgresql.org/documentation/changelog.html#introduction

Supported PostgreSQL versions

Pgjdbc regression tests are run against all PostgreSQL versions since 8.4, including "build PostgreSQL from git master" version. Don't assume pgjdbc 9.4.x is only PostgreSQL 9.4 compatible.

Maven

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
  <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
  <version>9.4.1211</version> <!-- Java 8 -->
  <version>9.4.1211.jre7</version> <!-- Java 7 -->
  <version>9.4.1211.jre6</version> <!-- Java 6 -->
</dependency>

Gradle

Java 8:

'org.postgresql:postgresql:9.4.1211'

Java 7:

'org.postgresql:postgresql:9.4.1211.jre7'

Java 6:

'org.postgresql:postgresql:9.4.1211.jre6'

Ivy

Java 8:

<dependency org="org.postgresql" name="postgresql" rev="9.4.1211"/>

Java 7:

<dependency org="org.postgresql" name="postgresql" rev="9.4.1211.jre7"/>

Java 6:

<dependency org="org.postgresql" name="postgresql" rev="9.4.1211.jre6"/>

Development snapshots

Snapshot builds (builds from master branch) are deployed to Maven Central, so you can test current development version via

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
  <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
  <version>9.4.1212-SNAPSHOT</version> <!-- Java 8 -->
  <version>9.4.1212.jre7-SNAPSHOT</version> <!-- Java 7 -->
  <version>9.4.1212.jre6-SNAPSHOT</version> <!-- Java 6 -->
</dependency>

There are also available (snapshot) binary RPMs in Fedora's Copr repository, you can download them from: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/g/pgjdbc/pgjdbc-travis/

Build requirements

In order to build the source code for PgJDBC you will need the following tools:

• A git client
• A recent version of Maven (3.x)
• A JDK for the JDBC version you'd like to build (JDK6 for JDBC 4, JDK7 for JDBC 4.1 or JDK8 for JDBC 4.2)
• A running PostgreSQL instance

Additionally, in order to update translations (not typical), you will need the following additional tools:

• the gettext package, which contains the commands "msgfmt", "msgmerge", and "xgettext"

Checking out the source code

The PgJDBC project uses git for version control. You can check out the current code by running:

git clone https://github.com/pgjdbc/pgjdbc.git

This will create a pgjdbc directory containing the checked-out source code. In order do build jre7 or jre6 compatible versions, check out those repositories under pgjdbc

cd pgjdbc # <-- that is pgjdbc/pgjdbc.git clone
git clone https://github.com/pgjdbc/pgjdbc-jre7.git
git clone https://github.com/pgjdbc/pgjdbc-jre6.git

Note: all the source code is stored in pgjdbc.git repository, so just pgjdbc.git is sufficient for development.

Compiling with Maven on the command line

After checking out the code you can compile and test the PgJDBC driver by running the following on a command line:

mvn package

Note: if you want to skip test execution, issue mvn package -DskipTests.

Note: in certain cases, proper build requires cleaning the results of previous one. For instance, if you remove a .java file, then clean is required to remove the relevant .class file. In such cases, use mvn clean or mvn clean package.

PgJDBC doesn't natively support building from IDEs like Eclipse, NetBeans or IntelliJ. However you can use the tools Maven support from within the IDE if you wish. You can use regular IDE tools to develop, execute tests, etc, however if you want to build final artifacts you should use mvn.

After running the build , and build a .jar file (Java ARchive) depending on the version of java and which release you have the jar will be named postgresql-...jre.jar. Where major,minor are the PostgreSQL major,minor version numbers. release is the jdbc release number. N is the version of the JDBC API which corresponds to the version of Java used to compile the driver.

The target directory will contain the driver jar. If you need source code, documentation and runtime dependencies use mvn package -P release-artifacts.

NOTE: default build produces Java 8 (JDBC 4.2) driver (in pgjdbc/target folder).

If you need a version for older Java, configure ~/.m2/toolchains.xml. Here's sample configuration for macOS:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF8"?>
<toolchains>
  <!-- JDK toolchains -->
  <toolchain>
    <type>jdk</type>
    <provides>
      <version>1.6</version>
      <vendor>oracle</vendor>
    </provides>
    <configuration>
      <jdkHome>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home</jdkHome>
    </configuration>
  </toolchain>
  <toolchain>
    <type>jdk</type>
    <provides>
      <version>1.7</version>
      <vendor>oracle</vendor>
    </provides>
    <configuration>
      <jdkHome>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_55.jdk/Contents/Home</jdkHome>
    </configuration>
  </toolchain>
  <toolchain>
    <type>jdk</type>
    <provides>
      <version>1.8</version>
      <vendor>oracle</vendor>
    </provides>
    <configuration>
      <jdkHome>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home</jdkHome>
    </configuration>
  </toolchain>
</toolchains>

Updating translations

From time to time, the translation packages will need to be updated as part of the build process. However, this is atypical, and is generally only done when needed such as by a project committer before a major release. This process adds additional compile time and generally should not be executed for every build.

Updating translations can be accomplished with the following command:

mvn -Ptranslate compile && git add pgjdbc && git commit -m "Translations updated"

Note that the maven profile "translate" can safely be called with other profiles, such as -P release-artifacts. Invocation of this command will generate new .po files, a new messages.pot file, and newly translated class files.

Releasing a snapshot version

TravisCI automatically deploys snapshots for each commit to master branch.

Git repository typically contains -SNAPSHOT versions, so you can use the following command:

mvn deploy && (cd pgjdbc-jre7; mvn deploy) && (cd pgjdbc-jre6; mvn deploy)

Releasing a new version

Prerequisites:

• JDK 6, JDK 7, and JDK8 configured in ~/.m2/toolchains.xml
• a PostgreSQL instance for running tests
• ensure that the RPM packaging CI isn't failing at copr web page - possibly bump parent poms or pgjdbc versions in RPM spec file.

Procedure:

Release a version for JDK8

• From a root folder, perform mvn release:clean release:prepare. That will ask you new version, update pom.xml, commit and push it to git.
• From a root folder, perform mvn release:perform. That will stage Java 8-compatible PgJDBC version to maven central.

Release a version for JDK7

• Update pgjdbc submodule in pgjdbc-jre7

cd pgjdbc-jre7/pgjdbc
git checkout master
git reset --hard REL9.4.1208
cd ..
git add pgjdbc
git commit -m "Update pgjdbc"

• Release pgjdbc-jre7

mvn release:clean release:prepare release:perform

Release a version for JDK6

• Update pgjdbc submodule in pgjdbc-jre7
• Release pgjdbc-jre6

mvn release:clean release:prepare release:perform

Close staging repository and release it:

• From a pgjdbc folder, perform

mvn nexus-staging:close -DstagingRepositoryId=orgpostgresql-1082

The staged repository will become open for smoke testing access at https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/orgpostgresql-1082/

If staged artifacts look fine, release it

 mvn nexus-staging:release -DstagingRepositoryId=orgpostgresql-1082

Update changelog:

• run ./release_notes.sh, edit as desired

Dependencies

PgJDBC has optional dependencies on other libraries for some features. These libraries must also be on your classpath if you wish to use those features; if they aren't, you'll get a PSQLException at runtime when you try to use features with missing libraries.

Maven will download additional dependencies from the Internet (from Maven repositories) to satisfy build requirements. Whether or not you intend to use the optional features the libraries used to implement them they must be present to compile the driver.

Currently Waffle-JNA and its dependencies are required for SSPI authentication support (only supported on a JVM running on Windows). Unless you're on Windows and using SSPI you can leave them out when you install the driver.

Installing the driver

To install the driver, the postgresql jar file has to be in the classpath. When running standalone Java programs, use the -cp command line option, e.g.

java -cp postgresql-<major>.<minor>.<release>.jre<N>.jar -jar myprogram.jar

If you're using an application server or servlet container, follow the instructions for installing JDBC drivers for that server or container.

For users of IDEs like Eclipse, NetBeans, etc, you should simply add the driver JAR like any other JAR to use it in your program. To use it within the IDE itself (for database browsing etc) you should follow the IDE specific documentation on how to install JDBC drivers.

Using the driver

Java 6 and above do not need any special action to enable the driver - if it's on the classpath it is automatically detected and loaded by the JVM.

JDBC URL syntax

The driver recognises JDBC URLs of the form:

jdbc:postgresql/

jdbc:postgresql:database

jdbc:postgresql://host/database

jdbc:postgresql://host/

jdbc:postgresql://host:port/database

jdbc:postgresql://host:port/

When the parameter database is omitted it defaults to the username.

Also, you can supply both username and passwords as arguments, by appending them to the URL. e.g.:

jdbc:postgresql:database?user=me
jdbc:postgresql:database?user=me&password=mypass

Notes:

• If you are connecting to localhost or 127.0.0.1 you can leave it out of the URL. i.e.: jdbc:postgresql://localhost/mydb can be replaced with jdbc:postgresql:mydb

• The port defaults to 5432 if it's left out.

There are many options you can pass on the URL to control the driver's behaviour. See the full JDBC driver documentation for details.

More information

For more information see the the PgJDBC driver documentation and the JDBC tutorial.

Bug reports, patches and development

PgJDBC development is carried out on the PgJDBC mailing list and on GitHub.

Set of "backend protocol missing features" is collected in backend_protocol_v4_wanted_features.md

Bug reports

For bug reports please post on pgsql-jdbc or add a GitHub issue. If you include additional unit tests demonstrating the issue, or self-contained runnable test case including SQL scripts etc that shows the problem, your report is likely to get more attention. Make sure you include appropriate details on your environment, like your JDK version, container/appserver if any, platform, PostgreSQL version, etc. Err on the site of excess detail if in doubt.

Bug fixes and new features

If you've developed a patch you want to propose for inclusion in PgJDBC, feel free to send a GitHub pull request or post the patch on the PgJDBC mailing list. Make sure your patch includes additional unit tests demonstrating and testing any new features. In the case of bug fixes, where possible include a new unit test that failed before the fix and passes after it.

For information on working with GitHub, see: http://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo and http://learn.github.com/p/intro.html.

Testing

Remember to test proposed PgJDBC patches when running against older PostgreSQL versions where possible, not just against the PostgreSQL you use yourself.

You also need to test your changes with older JDKs. PgJDBC must support JDK6 ("Java 1.6") and newer. Code that is specific to a particular spec version may use features from that version of the language. i.e. JDBC4.1 specific may use JDK7 features, JDBC4.2 may use JDK8 features. Common code and JDBC4 code needs to be compiled using JDK6.

Three different versions of PgJDBC can be built, the JDBC 4, 4.1 and 4.2 drivers. These require JDK6, JDK7 and JDK8 respectively. The driver to build is auto-selected based on the JDK version used to run the build. The best way to test a proposed change is to build and test with JDK6, 7 and 8.

You can get old JDK versions from the Oracle Java Archive.

Then, to test against old JDK, run mvn test in pgjdbc-jre6 or pgjdbc-jre7 modules.

For information about the unit tests and how to run them, see org/postgresql/test/README

Sponsors

PostgreSQL International