timescaledb

Overview

Version

Build

You can build the RPM / DEB packages for timescaledb using pig build:

pig build pkg timescaledb         # build RPM / DEB packages

Install

You can install timescaledb directly. First, make sure the PGDG and PIGSTY repositories are added and enabled:

pig repo add pgsql -u          # Add repo and update cache

Install the extension using pig or apt/yum/dnf:

• Install
• pig
• dnf
• apt

pig install timescaledb;          # Install for current active PG version

pig ext install -y timescaledb -v 18  # PG 18
pig ext install -y timescaledb -v 17  # PG 17
pig ext install -y timescaledb -v 16  # PG 16
pig ext install -y timescaledb -v 15  # PG 15

dnf install -y timescaledb-tsl_18       # PG 18
dnf install -y timescaledb-tsl_17       # PG 17
dnf install -y timescaledb-tsl_16       # PG 16
dnf install -y timescaledb-tsl_15       # PG 15

apt install -y postgresql-18-timescaledb-tsl   # PG 18
apt install -y postgresql-17-timescaledb-tsl   # PG 17
apt install -y postgresql-16-timescaledb-tsl   # PG 16
apt install -y postgresql-15-timescaledb-tsl   # PG 15

Preload:

shared_preload_libraries = 'timescaledb';

Create Extension:

CREATE EXTENSION timescaledb;

Usage

Source: README, TimescaleDB changelog, create_hypertable() API, CREATE TABLE hypertable API, continuous aggregates guide, add_job() API, add_columnstore_policy() API

timescaledb is a PostgreSQL extension for time-series and event analytics. The current docs emphasize hypertables, continuous aggregates, automation jobs, and moving older chunks into the columnstore.

Hypertables

CREATE EXTENSION timescaledb;

CREATE TABLE ts_test (
  ts timestamptz NOT NULL,
  id bigint,
  v integer
);

SELECT create_hypertable('ts_test', by_range('ts'));

• create_hypertable() still works, but the API docs mark it as old since TimescaleDB 2.20.0 and point new users toward CREATE TABLE ... WITH (...).
• The current README also shows the newer pattern: CREATE TABLE ... WITH (tsdb.hypertable).

Continuous aggregates and jobs

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW ts_hourly
WITH (timescaledb.continuous) AS
SELECT time_bucket('1 hour', ts) AS bucket,
       count(*) AS cnt,
       avg(v)   AS avg_v
FROM ts_test
GROUP BY bucket;

SELECT add_continuous_aggregate_policy(
  'ts_hourly',
  start_offset => INTERVAL '3 hours',
  end_offset => INTERVAL '1 hour',
  schedule_interval => INTERVAL '1 hour'
);

SELECT add_job('user_defined_action', '1h');

• Continuous aggregates require time_bucket(...) on the hypertable’s time dimension.
• In TimescaleDB 2.13 and later, real-time aggregates are disabled by default unless configured otherwise.

Columnstore

ALTER TABLE ts_test SET (
  timescaledb.enable_columnstore,
  timescaledb.orderby = 'ts DESC'
);

CALL add_columnstore_policy('ts_test', after => INTERVAL '1 day');

• The docs treat add_columnstore_policy() and convert_to_columnstore() as the current APIs.
• Older compression functions such as add_compression_policy() are documented as old APIs replaced by the columnstore interface.

Caveats

• Upstream tags include 2.26.3, but the public changelog and visible release notes currently document the 2.26 line mainly through 2.26.0 and 2.26.2; those notes describe performance and bug-fix work rather than a fundamentally different usage surface.
• The 2.26 changelog highlights faster columnstore queries, better compressed-data filtering, and chunk-exclusion improvements, so this refresh focuses on current documented APIs instead of patch-level internals.