This update modifies how PostgreSQL handles a `fsync()` failure: PostgreSQL will no longer retry calling `fsync()` but instead will panic. In this case, PostgreSQL can then replay the data from the write-ahead log (WAL) to help ensure the data is written. While this may appear to be a suboptimal solution, there are presently few alternatives and, based on reports, the problem case occurs extremely rarely.
+A new server parameter `data_sync_retry` has been added to manage this behavior. If you are certain that your kernel does not discard dirty data buffers in such scenarios, you can set `data_sync_retry` to `on` to restore the old behavior.
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Bug Fixes and Improvements
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-This update introduces a change into how release notes are packaged. As of this update, all currently supported version of PostgreSQL will only contain their major version-specific release notes. For example, PostgreSQL 11 only packages the release notes for version 11.2, 11.1, and 11.0. The release notes for unsupported versions (PostgreSQL 9.3 and older) can be viewed from the [archive](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/) on the PostgreSQL website.
+This update introduces a change into how release notes are packaged. As of this update, all currently supported versions of PostgreSQL will only contain their major version-specific release notes. For example, PostgreSQL 11 only packages the release notes for version 11.2, 11.1, and 11.0. The release notes for unsupported versions (PostgreSQL 9.3 and older) can be viewed from the [archive](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/) on the PostgreSQL website.
This update also fixes over 70 bugs that were reported in the last several months. Some of these issues affect only version 11, but many affect all supported versions.
Users who have skipped one or more update releases may need to run additional, post-update steps; please see the release notes for earlier versions for details.
-Users on PostgreSQL 9.4 should plan to upgrade to a supported version of PostgreSQL as the community will stop releasing fixes for it on February 12, 2019. Please see our [versioning policy](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/) for more information.
+Users on PostgreSQL 9.4 should plan to upgrade to a supported version of PostgreSQL as the community will stop releasing fixes for it on February 12, 2020. Please see our [versioning policy](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/) for more information.
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