The Idea Behind Regression Tests

PostgreSQL provides a comprehensive test suite for performing basic server testing. The set of tests performed by the test suite is commonly known as regression tests and is distributed with the PostgreSQL source distribution.

The original tests were designed and developed by Jolly Chen and Andrew Yu. Extensive revisions and repackaging has been done by Marc Fournier and Thomas Lockhart. Since version 6.1, the regression tests are maintained for every version of PostgreSQL.

Regression testing is an essential part of developing a database system that is capable of running on multiple platforms, because it is an easy way to perform testing operations and to find out whether PostgreSQL is able to perform basic operations on the tested platform. It gives the development team the chance to find and fix obvious bugs quickly.