25 years of contributing to Postgres with Peter Eisentraut

How does a fix for psql tab completion turn into 25 years of contributing to Postgres? In Episode 43 of Talking Postgres, Peter Eisentraut—PostgreSQL committer, core team member, SQL standards contributor, and Chief Architect of Database Servers at EDB—joins Claire to trace that journey. We dig into how scratch-your-own-itch development drew him in, why “the things you do, people welcome them” kept him coming back, and how Postgres changed as it grew from a small database community into a massive ecosystem where, from the Postgres mailing list perspective, “most of the user base is silent.” Plus: what it feels like when code you commit goes straight to everybody who uses Postgres, and the implications of the EU Cyber Resilience Act.

Previously on Talking Postgres:

• Talking Postgres podcast Ep24: Why mentor Postgres developers with Robert Haas
• Talking Postgres podcast Ep26: Open Source Leadership with Bruce Momjian
• Talking Postgres podcast Ep32: The Fundamental Interconnectedness of All Things with Boriss Mejías

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Conference: FOSDEM 2027
• LinkedIn: FOSDEM PGDay 2027 announcement
• Conference: Prague PostgreSQL Developers Day (P2D2)
• Conference: PGDay Lowlands 2026 (the “friendliest” conference)
• Conference: PGConf EU 2026 in Valencia on 20-23 Oct
• PGConfEU Conference talk: What does the EU Cyber Resilience Act mean for PostgreSQL and its community
• Wikipedia: EU Cyber Resilience Act
• PGConf.dev on LinkedIn: PGConf.dev account
• PGConf.dev conference talk: Committer Review: An Exercise in Paranoia, by Robert Haas
• PostgreSQL.org: Committers
• PostgreSQL mailing list: Postgres 19 release management team
• Blog: Peter Eisentraut Blog
• Blog post: Where are all the PostgreSQL users, by Peter Eisentraut 
• PGCA non-profit: PostgreSQL Community Association
• Brett Cannon at PyCon 2014: I came for the language but I stayed for the community 
• Planet PostgreSQL: Blog aggregation feed

In this episode, we covered:

00:00 Intro & music

02:14 Tinkering with the Commodore 64 

07:57 The itch that became psql tab completion

15:43 Had to make opportunities

23:05 From posting at night to posting during the day

24:40 Why he stopped committing in the afternoon

28:04 On the ground floor of something that grew

30:34 What the Postgres core team actually does

31:47 Borrowing ideas from other OSS projects

36:51 Bringing Postgres into the SQL standards process

38:40 Getting to hang out with database nerds

42:01 Mentoring Postgres contributors

50:56 Making time for Postgres conferences

53:35 What the Cyber Resilience Act means for Postgres

57:36 Where are all the Postgres users?

1:07:00 Becoming a committer early on in Postgres

1:16:22 Contributing to Postgres isn't just writing code

1:19:40 Why FOSDEM is still his favorite

1:22:15 Finding familiar problems in a compiler devroom

1:26:14 Shout-out to the Planet Postgres feed