[postgis-users] PostGIS 2.5.0 alpha released

[Regina Obe]

The PostGIS development team is pleased to release PostGIS 2.5.0alpha.

This release is a work in progress, and some features are still slated to be
added. Although this release will work for PostgreSQL 9.4 and above, to take
full advantage of what PostGIS 2.5 will offer, 
you should be running PostgreSQL 11beta+.

Best served with PostgreSQL 11beta which was recently released.

View all closed tickets for 2.5.0.

* [source download](
https://download.osgeo.org/postgis/source/postgis-2.5.0alpha.tar.gz )
* [pdf doc download](
https://download.osgeo.org/postgis/docs/postgis-2.5.0alpa.pdf )
* [html doc download](
https://download.osgeo.org/postgis/docs/doc-html-2.5.0alpha.tar.gz )
* [epub doc download](
https://download.osgeo.org/postgis/docs/postgis-2.5.0alpha.epub )
* [Changelog](https://svn.osgeo.org/postgis/tags/2.5.0alpha/ChangeLog )

Please test these new features.  Report bugs with details as noted in:
http://postgis.net/support/

--- NEWS WORTHY ITEMS ---

* New Features *
  - #4056, ST_FilterByM (Nicklas Avén)
  - #4050, ST_ChaikinSmoothing (Nicklas Avén)
  - #3989, ST_Buffer single sided option (Stephen Knox)
  - #3876, ST_Angle function (Rémi Cura)
  - #3564, ST_LineInterpolatePoints (Dan Baston)
  - #3896, PostGIS_Extensions_Upgrade() (Regina Obe)
  - #3913, Upgrade when creating extension from unpackaged (Sandro Santilli)
  - #2256, _postgis_index_extent() for extent from index (Paul Ramsey)
  - #3176, Add ST_OrientedEnvelope (Dan Baston)
  - #4029, Add ST_QuantizeCoordinates (Dan Baston)
  - #4063, Optional false origin point for ST_Scale (Paul Ramsey)
  - #4082, Add ST_BandFileSize and ST_BandFileTimestamp,
           extend ST_BandMetadata (Even Rouault)
  - #2597, Add ST_Grayscale (Bborie Park)
  - #4007, Add ST_SetBandPath (Bborie Park)
  - #4008, Add ST_SetBandIndex (Bborie Park)

* Breaking Changes *
  - #4054, ST_SimplifyVW changed from > tolerance to >= tolerance
  - #3885, version number removed from address_standardize lib file
          (Regina Obe)
  - #3893, raster support functions can only be loaded in the same schema
           with core PostGIS functions.
  - #4035, remove dummy pgis_abs type from aggregate/collect routines.
  - #4069, drop support for GEOS < 3.5 and PostgreSQL < 9.4 (Regina Obe)
  - #4082, ST_BandMetaData extended to include filesize, timestamp (Even
Rouault)

* Enhancements and Fixes*
  - #3944, Update to EPSG register v9.2 (Even Rouault)
  - #3927, Parallel implementation of ST_AsMVT
  - #3925, Simplify geometry using map grid cell size before generating MVT
  - #3899, BTree sort order is now defined on collections of EMPTY and
           same-prefix geometries (Darafei Praliaskouski)
  - #3864, Performance improvement for sorting POINT geometries
           (Darafei Praliaskouski)
  - #3900, GCC warnings fixed, make -j is now working (Darafei
Praliaskouski)
  - TopoGeo_addLinestring robustness improvements (Sandro Santilli)
    #1855, #1946, #3718, #3838
  - #3234, Do not accept EMPTY points as topology nodes (Sandro Santilli)
  - #1014, Hashable geometry, allowing direct use in CTE signatures (Paul
Ramsey)
  - #3097, Really allow MULTILINESTRING blades in ST_Split() (Paul Ramsey)
  - #3942, geojson: Do not include private header for json-c >= 0.13 (Björn
Esser)
  - #3954, ST_GeometricMedian now supports point weights (Darafei
Praliaskouski)
  - #3965, ST_ClusterKMeans used to lose some clusters on initialization
           (Darafei Praliaskouski)
  - #3971, ST_ClusterKMeans now uses better initial seed (Darafei
Praliaskouski)
  - #3977, ST_ClusterKMeans is now faster and simpler (Darafei
Praliaskouski)
  - #3982, ST_AsEncodedPolyline supports LINESTRING EMPTY and MULTIPOINT
EMPTY
           (Darafei Praliaskouski)
  - #3986, ST_AsText now has second argument to limit decimal digits
           (Marc Ducobu, Darafei Praliaskouski)
  - #4020, Casting from box3d to geometry now returns correctly connected
           PolyhedralSurface (Matthias Bay)
  - #2508, ST_OffsetCurve now works with collections (Darafei Praliaskouski)
  - #4006, ST_GeomFromGeoJSON support for json and jsonb as input
           (Paul Ramsey, Regina Obe)
  - #4037, Invalid input geometry is fixed with MakeValid for GEOS
exceptions in
           ST_Intersection, ST_Union, ST_Difference, ST_SymDifference
(Darafei
           Praliaskouski)
  - #4038, ST_Subdivide now selects pivot for geometry split that reuses
input
           vertices. ST_ClipByBox2D is stubbed with ST_Intersection because
of
           robustness issues. (Darafei Praliaskouski)
  - #4025, #4032 Fixed precision issue in ST_ClosestPointOfApproach,
           ST_DistanceCPA, and ST_CPAWithin (Paul Ramsey, Darafei
Praliaskouski)
  - #4071, ST_ClusterKMeans crash on NULL/EMPTY fixed (Darafei
Praliaskouski)
  - #4076, Reduce use of GEOS in topology implementation (Björn Harrtell)
  - #4080, Add external raster band index to ST_BandMetaData
  - Add Raster Tips section to Documentation for information about
    Raster behavior (e.g. Out-DB performance, maximum open files)
  - #4084: Fixed wrong code-comment regarding front/back of BOX3D (Matthias
Bay)
  - #4060, #4094, PostgreSQL JIT support (Raúl Marín, Laurenz Albe)


Thanks,
PostGIS Development Team