pg_background v2.0.3 — follow-up packaging & validation release

Summary

A small follow-up release on top of the v2.0 line. v2.0.2 fixed cluster-crash conditions on the cancel path; v2.0.3 packages those fixes with a couple non-functional follow-ups (packaging, CI validation, docs/metadata cleanup) and re-runs the extended test matrix to ensure the cancel-path fixes are fully validated across supported PG versions and environments.

Highlights

• Includes the cancel-path cluster-crash fixes released in v2.0.2:
  • Removed SIGKILL escalation on cancel — cancellation is cooperative (SIGTERM) only.
  • Fixed early-cancel ResourceOwner delete path: pre-start cancel now exits cleanly without calling ResourceOwnerDelete(NULL).
• Packaging and release hygiene:
  • Rebuilt artifacts and validated the binary against the CI matrix.
  • Minor documentation/metadata cleanups (release notes, control file metadata) to ensure the version badge and release metadata are consistent.
• CI and validation:
  • Re-run installcheck across supported PostgreSQL majors (14–18) and the 19 beta job.
  • Verified the pre-start-cancel regression test under assert/ASan/UBSan lanes.

Notes for operators

• No SQL or API changes: extension SQL surface remains v2.0. This release is a binary/packaging/validation follow-up; no ALTER EXTENSION steps are required.

Upgrade procedure

1. Build and install the new .so:

make clean && make && sudo make install

1. If you use shared_preload_libraries for pg_background, restart PostgreSQL. Otherwise a restart is not required — new workers pick up the new binary on next launch.

Backwards compatibility

• No behavioral changes expected beyond the safety fixes described above.
• The v2 canonical unsuffixed API remains in effect; _v2 aliases remain as deprecated shims during the 2.x lifecycle.

Validation & testing

• The working tree passed:
  • installcheck (PostgreSQL 14–19)
  • assert-enabled builds (PG 18)
  • ASan + UBSan (PG 18)
  • relocatable install matrix (PG 19)
• Added/validated the pre-start-cancel regression test (grace=0 cancel immediately after launch) on the assert/sanitizer lanes.

Changelog / compare

• Primary fixes were introduced in v2.0.2:
  • Cancel-path cluster-crash fixes: SIGKILL escalation removed; pre-start cancel no longer calls ResourceOwnerDelete(NULL).
• For a detailed diff: v2.0.2...v2.0.3 (create the tag to make this link live)

Credits

Thanks to the CI and QA runs and the contributors who helped reproduce and validate the cancel-path scenarios.