PostgreSQL Finally Lands Support For "REINDEX CONCURRENTLY"

It's been on the project's TODO list for more than one decade but finally support for the "REINDEX CONCURRENTLY" command was added today to the PostgreSQL database server.

REINDEX CONCURRENTLY allows for read/write operations to still happen on the parent table while a reindexing operation is happening. This option will basically create a new index and then replaces the existing index at the very end of the operation. The ability to support REINDEX CONCURRENTLY was something that was talked a lot about in 2012~2013 (and their TODO entry for it dates back to 2008) while waking up today it was a surprise to see this commit land in PostgreSQL Git.

More details on PostgreSQL's REINDEX CONCURRENTLY can be found via their Wiki. This addition will also be coming in PostgreSQL 12. It's also for that next major PostgreSQL release where we might see their JIT enabled by default.