This release adds a pattern-based postcode parser to the query frontend. This means that postcodes no longer need to be present in the OSM database in order to be found. Any postcode that corresponds to the postcode format of a country will be recognised. The most notable use case here are US ZIP+4 postcodes.
The search algorithm has received a lot of minor tweaks, improving postcode search and search of complex addresses.
If you are using the geocodejson output format, then you can now get the extra information from extra OSM tags just like for the other output formats.
A more complete list of changes can be found in the Changelog.
If you are already using the Python frontend and pip installation method, then updating is straightforward. If not, it is strongly recommended that you update to version 4.5 first, switch frontend and installation code and then update to the newest Nominatim. As always, read through the migration guide before updating.
Many thanks to all the contributors to this release, especially the many first-time contributors: @shoorick, @IvanShift, @mhsrn21, @eumiro, @otbutz, @TuringVerified