Jeevan Ladhe
Reading time: 6 minutes
PostgreSQL is the World’s most advanced Open Source Relational Database. The interview series “PostgreSQL Person of the Week” presents the people who make the project what it is today. Read all interviews here.
Please tell us about yourself, and where you are from.
My name is Jeevan Ladhe. I live in Maharashtra state of India, in Pune city. I stay here with my mother, wife and son. My older brother and his family, who are dearer to us, stay in the same state in the city well known as Mumbai.
Jeevan Ladhe
How do you spend your free time? What are your hobbies?
I like to explore the mountains, forts, and historical places, so I try to visit as many of them in my free time. I also like to watch random technology related videos that I don’t get to work on, this helps me keep in conversation when people are talking about the buzzwords. Apart from this I am a foodie, so I like to cook and explore authentic cuisine.
Any Social Media channels of yours we should be aware of?
Last book you read? Or a book you want to recommend to readers?
“Rich dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Also, I read some books by Indian author Sudha Murthy. As far as Postgresql is concerned I generally refer to the documentation.
Any favorite movie, or show?
There’s an Indian comedy movie ‘Hera Pheri (2000)’, my all time favorit, the other one being “Italian Job (2003)”. My childhood favorites were “Jungle Book” (Hindi version), “Different Strokes”, and I still love them when my child watches them :-D.
What does your ideal weekend look like?
A nice outing with the family at the river/beach site or a hill-site.
What’s still on your bucket list?
I really want to explore the north and north-east region of India at the earliest possible.
What is the best advice you ever got?
It was from my father: “Never give-up and never hesitate to do the things that you believe are correct and will not land anyone in trouble”.
The other one I got from Robert Haas: “Do the things which have a definite goal and are achievable”.
When did you start using PostgreSQL, and why?
I started working with PostgreSQL 7 years back. I had gotten a little glimpse of PostgreSQL when I was studying databases, and the concept of working on an open source technology really gave me a goose bump.
Do you remember which version of PostgreSQL you started with?
I started using and contributing from version 9.6. But, I have also worked on some issues that were on v9.5 and v9.4.
Have you studied at a university? If yes, was it related to computers? Did your study help you with your current job?
Yes. I have got a Masters in Computers from the Department of Computer Science at Pune University. It has certainly helped build a strong foundation towards computer science, and for what I could do today a lot of credit goes to the university and professors out there.
What other databases are you using? Which one is your favorite?
Previously I have worked with Sybase ASE and a little bit of Oracle. I have also got a chance to explore MySQL while I was working on mysql_fdw. PostgreSQL is obviously my most favorite, but my next favorite is MySQL.
On which PostgreSQL-related projects are you currently working?
Recently I have been working on backup compression to introduce LZ4 and ZSTD server side compression and decompression, along with Robert Haas and Dipesh Pandit. Hopefully this comes as part of V15 now. Also, I plan to pick some patches for review.
How do you contribute to PostgreSQL?
I generally keep an eye on the hackers and bugs mailing list. I pick the topics which I think I can contribute to, either by writing a patch or reviewing the submitted patch.
Any contributions to PostgreSQL which do not involve writing code?
As mentioned, I review patches written by other community members. Also, at times I try to suggest if there are any modifications/improvements in documentation needed.
What is your favorite PostgreSQL extension?
pg_stat_statements: helps keep track of queries and identify slow queries etc. Also pg_fdw, mysql_fdw and hdfs_fdw. I have also contributed to these fdws.
What is the most annoying PostgreSQL thing you can think of? And any chance to fix it?
The well known bloat. There have been efforts around this with the project called zheap to keep the bloat under control.
Adding to that, what feature/mechanism would you like to see in PostgreSQL? And why?
We can have some pluggable mechanism to generate CDC logs. Now with data lake houses people have different use cases and formats they want to read the logs from.
Could you describe your PostgreSQL development toolbox?
I use vi, cscope, gdb, gcc and git. Apart from this I use a lot of grep, perf for analysis, and the EXPLAIN command.
Which skills are a must have for a PostgreSQL developer/user?
Willingness! Knowledge of SQL or willingness to learn database concepts, and some background of programming and debugging.
Which PostgreSQL conferences do you visit?
I regularly visit PgConf India.
Do you think PostgreSQL has a high entry barrier?
Not at all, in-fact I think PostgreSQL is the one of the most organized open source software I know of in terms of code-base, modularity and starting to contribute to. There is enough material available on each of its components for both internals as well as from users perspective, plus the code is well moduled and documented/commented.
What is your advice for people who want to start PostgreSQL developing - as in, contributing to the project. Where and how should they start?
I think the first step is to subscribe to the hackers list, and keep reading threads that interest one, and try to review the patches. To gain more knowledge of internals these sites, visit www.interdb.jp/pg by Hironobu Suzuki, and Bruce’s blog are really useful. Plus, there are a lot of conference presentations available on YouTube.
Do you think PostgreSQL will be here for many years in the future?
Honestly I think this is just the start of the paradigm shift towards open source. We are seeing a lot of migrations from proprietary enterprise databases to Postgres, and there is a way to go. We can see everyone now accepting the sovereignty and all big names are trying to dive into Postgres by one way or the other. So, no second that PostgreSQL is here to stay for long.
Would you recommend PostgreSQL for business, or for side projects?
Yes of course. Being one of the most supportive, involved open source communities, there is little to be worried about the robustness, support and the future.
Are you reading the -hackers mailing list? Any other list?
-hackers and the bugs list are the ones I mainly follow.
Which other Open Source projects are you involved or interested in?
I have been contributing to mysql_fdw and hdfs_fdw.
Anything else you like to add?
Let’s catch up if you happen to be at PgConf India. Thank you Andreas for presenting this platform which helps expressing the views, also as a reader helps getting to know more from people how they look at PostgreSQL. I will take this opportunity to thank EnterpriseDB for introducing me to the PostgreSQL world, my current employer arcion.io to encourage and I am also thankful to the community for such a healthy open source ecosystem.