Release 2.29.0

[timescale-automation]

2.29.0 (2026-07-28)

This release contains performance improvements and bug fixes since the 2.28.3 release. We recommend that you upgrade at the next available opportunity.

Release Highlights

• Chunk exclusion for DML operations drastically improves the performance of UPDATE and DELETE statements on hypertables. By acquiring exclusive locks only on the specific chunks being modified rather than the entire hypertable, this enhancement eliminates massive lock contention and keeps high-concurrency workloads running smoothly without unnecessary slowdowns.
• Intelligent row-by-row decompression enables the query planner to decompress data row-by-row rather than in large batches when an operation prioritizes a fast initial response (such as queries with LIMIT clauses). This dramatically reduces memory overhead and query latency, ensuring lightning-fast performance when you only need to retrieve a small subset of records from your compressed hypertables.

Important: PostgreSQL 15 Support Removed
TimescaleDB 2.29.0 removes support for PostgreSQL 15. This release supports PostgreSQL 16, 17, and 18. If you are still running PostgreSQL 15, upgrade PostgreSQL before upgrading to TimescaleDB 2.29.0.

Backward-Incompatible Changes

• #10041 Remove support for PostgreSQL 15

Features

• #9315 Speed up DML operations on hypertables by using the optimized TimescaleDB hypertable expansion code instead of the generic PostgreSQL inheritance hierarchy expansion
• #9534 Speed up expression evaluation in the columnar pipeline by caching common subexpressions
• #9684 Add _timescaledb_functions.decompress_batch() SQL function
• #9732 Speed up some queries with small LIMIT by switching to row-by-row query execution pipeline
• #9917 Decompress less data in DML on compressed hypertables by accounting for prepared statement parameters
• #9957 Add compact_chunk() function
• #10048 Support concurrent refresh policies on hierarchical continuous aggregates
• #10081 Add samplerate argument to _timescaledb_functions.estimate_uncompressed_size()
• #10100 Skip classifying compressed relations to speed up planning
• #10118 Don't track compressed relations as separate chunk
• #10119 Reduce memory usage of INSERT queries using direct compress and spanning multiple chunks
• #10163 Add a compaction policy for unordered chunks
• #10204 Don't create separate hypertable catalog entry for hypertables with compression
• #10217 Initial placeholder version of granular refresh API
• #10225 Add config_merge parameter to alter_job() for merging jsonb into the existing job configuration
• #10226 Add recompress_unordered columnstore policy option
• #10231 Use regclass for storing relation reference in chunk table
• #10237 Add helper functions for decoding hypertable status
• #10240 Add the tsdb.direct_compress storage parameter that allows enabling direct compress for a given hypertable independent of global settings
• #10266 Add max_batches to compact_chunk()
• #10299 Add continuous_aggs_tenant_tracking and hypertable_cagg_settings catalogs

Bugfixes

• #10013 Make ownership error messages on continuous aggregates consistent
• #10052 Result of MIN / MAX aggregate functions in columnar aggregation pipeline possibly inconsistent with plain PostgreSQL result
• #10071 Prune the real-time branch of hierarchical continuous aggregates at any nesting depth
• #10143 Fix division by zero when planning time_bucket with zero width
• #10199 Fix initial_start handling in build_job_info
• #10213 Cache sort pathkeys per hypertable
• #10221 Fix incremental refresh skipping the last bucket
• #10278 Drop job_errors view in bgw_job_stat_history migration
• #10280 RETURNING clause returned no rows for INSERT using direct compress
• #10281 Disable direct compress when the destination table has an exclusion constraint so the constraint is still enforced
• #10282 Only count directly compressed rows toward the command tag when the INSERT sets it
• #10286 Propagate VACUUM on a chunk to the compressed relation when running on the chunk directly
• #10302 Fix useless-join removal and self-join elimination for hypertables
• #10313 Allow running ALTER EXTENSION timescaledb UPDATE inside a transaction block
• #10315 Fix overlap detection with running max
• #10324 Fix stale index entries after rebuild_sparse_index() on compressed chunks

GUCs

• timescaledb.enable_hypertable_expansion_for_dml: allow using the optimized TimescaleDB hypertable expansion code for UPDATE and DELETE instead of the generic PostgreSQL inheritance hierarchy expansion. On by default.

Thanks

• @FrancescEthon and @ManuelEthon for reporting the issue
• @h0rn3t for reporting a problem with VACUUM not propagating to the compressed relation
• @MaximeEthon for reporting an issue with prepared statement parameters in DML decompression
• @proddata for reporting a problem when upgrading from 2.15.3 to 2.28.2
• @tureba for reporting and fixing stale sparse-index entries after rebuild
• @viniciusrsouza for reporting an issue with hierarchical continuous aggregates