Postgres 18 just dropped with a bunch of cool new goodies—think UUIDv7, an “over explain” module, and composite index skip scans—but the real headline is asynchronous IO. After wrestling with blocking calls in previous releases, you can now choose between worker-based IO and the blazing-fast io_uring path (with a fallback sync mode).
In The Backend Engineering Show, Hussein breaks down sync vs async IO, revisits how Postgres 17 handled disk access, and walks through the challenges and solutions in Postgres 18’s async implementation. He covers each io_method (worker, io_uring, sync), flags what’s still cooking (better backend writer support, direct IO, sharper worker performance) and wraps up with a concise summary of what’s live—and what’s coming next.
Watch on YouTube
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