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From owner-pgsql-hackers@hub.org Sun Jun 14 18:45:04 1998
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Received: from hub.org (hub.org [209.47.148.200])
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	id AA07922; Sun, 14 Jun 1998 15:35:13 -0700
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From: dg@illustra.com (David Gould)
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Message-Id: <9806142235.AA07922@hawk.illustra.com>
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Subject: [HACKERS] performance tests, initial results
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To: pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
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Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 15:35:13 -0700 (PDT)
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Mime-Version: 1.0
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
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Sender: owner-pgsql-hackers@hub.org
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Precedence: bulk
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Status: RO
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I have been playing a little with the performance tests found in
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pgsql/src/tests/performance and have a few observations that might be of
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minor interest.
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The tests themselves are simple enough although the result parsing in the
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driver did not work on Linux. I am enclosing a patch below to fix this. I
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think it will also work better on the other systems.
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A summary of results from my testing are below. Details are at the bottom
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of this message.
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My test system is 'leslie':
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 linux 2.0.32, gcc version 2.7.2.3
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 P133, HX chipset, 512K L2, 32MB mem
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 NCR810 fast scsi, Quantum Atlas 2GB drive (7200 rpm).
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                     Results Summary (times in seconds)
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                    Single txn 8K txn    Create 8K idx 8K random Simple
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Case Description    8K insert  8K insert Index  Insert Scans     Orderby
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=================== ========== ========= ====== ====== ========= =======
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1 From Distribution
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  P90 FreeBsd -B256      39.56   1190.98   3.69  46.65     65.49    2.27
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  IDE
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2 Running on leslie
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  P133 Linux 2.0.32      15.48    326.75   2.99  20.69     35.81    1.68
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  SCSI 32M
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3 leslie, -o -F
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  no forced writes       15.90     24.98   2.63  20.46     36.43    1.69
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4 leslie, -o -F
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  no ASSERTS             14.92     23.23   1.38  18.67     33.79    1.58
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5 leslie, -o -F -B2048
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  more buffers           21.31     42.28   2.65  25.74     42.26    1.72
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6 leslie, -o -F -B2048
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  more bufs, no ASSERT   20.52     39.79   1.40  24.77     39.51    1.55
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                 Case to Case Difference Factors (+ is faster)
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                    Single txn 8K txn    Create 8K idx 8K random Simple
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Case Description    8K insert  8K insert Index  Insert Scans     Orderby
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=================== ========== ========= ====== ====== ========= =======
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leslie vs BSD P90.        2.56      3.65   1.23   2.25      1.83    1.35
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(noflush -F) vs no -F    -1.03     13.08   1.14   1.01     -1.02    1.00
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No Assert vs Assert       1.05      1.07   1.90   1.06      1.07    1.09
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-B256 vs -B2048           1.34      1.69   1.01   1.26      1.16    1.02
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Observations:
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 - leslie (P133 linux) appears to be about 1.8 times faster than the
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   P90 BSD system used for the test result distributed with the source, not
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   counting the 8K txn insert case which was completely disk bound.
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 - SCSI disks make a big (factor of 3.6) difference. During this test the
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   disk was hammering and cpu utilization was < 10%.
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 - Assertion checking seems to cost about 7% except for create index where
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   it costs 90%
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 - the -F option to avoid flushing buffers has tremendous effect if there are
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   many very small transactions. Or, another way, flushing at the end of the
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   transaction is a major disaster for performance.
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 - Something is very wrong with our buffer cache implementation. Going from
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   256 buffers to 2048 buffers costs an average of 25%. In the 8K txn case
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   it costs about 70%. I see looking at the code and profiling that in the 8K
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   txn case this is in BufferSync() which examines all the buffers at commit
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   time. I don't quite understand why it is so costly for the single 8K row
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   txn (35%) though.
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It would be nice to have some more tests. Maybe the Wisconsin stuff will
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be useful.
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----------------- patch to test harness. apply from pgsql ------------
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*** src/test/performance/runtests.pl.orig	Sun Jun 14 11:34:04 1998
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Differences %
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----------------- patch to test harness. apply from pgsql ------------
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*** src/test/performance/runtests.pl.orig	Sun Jun 14 11:34:04 1998
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--- src/test/performance/runtests.pl	Sun Jun 14 12:07:30 1998
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***************
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*** 84,123 ****
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  open (STDERR, ">$TmpFile") or die;
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  select (STDERR); $| = 1;
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! for ($i = 0; $i <= $#perftests; $i++)
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! {
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  	$test = $perftests[$i];
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  	($test, $XACTBLOCK) = split (/ /, $test);
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  	$runtest = $test;
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! 	if ( $test =~ /\.ntm/ )
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! 	{
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! 		# 
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  		# No timing for this queries
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- 		# 
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  		close (STDERR);		# close $TmpFile
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  		open (STDERR, ">/dev/null") or die;
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  		$runtest =~ s/\.ntm//;
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  	}
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! 	else
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! 	{
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  		close (STDOUT);
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  		open(STDOUT, ">&SAVEOUT");
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  		print STDOUT "\nRunning: $perftests[$i+1] ...";
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  		close (STDOUT);
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  		open (STDOUT, ">/dev/null") or die;
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  		select (STDERR); $| = 1;
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! 		printf "$perftests[$i+1]: ";
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  	}
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  	do "sqls/$runtest";
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  	# Restore STDERR to $TmpFile
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! 	if ( $test =~ /\.ntm/ )
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! 	{
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  		close (STDERR);
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  		open (STDERR, ">>$TmpFile") or die;
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  	}
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- 
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  	select (STDERR); $| = 1;
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  	$i++;
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  }
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--- 84,116 ----
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  open (STDERR, ">$TmpFile") or die;
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  select (STDERR); $| = 1;
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! for ($i = 0; $i <= $#perftests; $i++) {
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  	$test = $perftests[$i];
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  	($test, $XACTBLOCK) = split (/ /, $test);
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  	$runtest = $test;
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! 	if ( $test =~ /\.ntm/ ) {
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  		# No timing for this queries
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  		close (STDERR);		# close $TmpFile
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  		open (STDERR, ">/dev/null") or die;
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  		$runtest =~ s/\.ntm//;
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  	}
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! 	else {
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  		close (STDOUT);
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  		open(STDOUT, ">&SAVEOUT");
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  		print STDOUT "\nRunning: $perftests[$i+1] ...";
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  		close (STDOUT);
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  		open (STDOUT, ">/dev/null") or die;
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  		select (STDERR); $| = 1;
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! 		print "$perftests[$i+1]: ";
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  	}
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  	do "sqls/$runtest";
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  	# Restore STDERR to $TmpFile
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! 	if ( $test =~ /\.ntm/ ) {
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  		close (STDERR);
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  		open (STDERR, ">>$TmpFile") or die;
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  	}
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  	select (STDERR); $| = 1;
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  	$i++;
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  }
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***************
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*** 128,138 ****
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  open (TMPF, "<$TmpFile") or die;
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  open (RESF, ">$ResFile") or die;
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! while (<TMPF>)
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! {
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! 	$str = $_;
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! 	($test, $rtime) = split (/:/, $str);
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! 	($tmp, $rtime, $rest) = split (/[ 	]+/, $rtime);
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! 	print RESF "$test: $rtime\n";
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  }
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--- 121,130 ----
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  open (TMPF, "<$TmpFile") or die;
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  open (RESF, ">$ResFile") or die;
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! while (<TMPF>) {
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!         if (m/^(.*: ).* ([0-9:.]+) *elapsed/) {
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! 	    ($test, $rtime) = ($1, $2);
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! 	     print RESF $test, $rtime, "\n";
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!         }
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  }
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------- testcase detail --------------------------
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1. from distribution
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   DBMS:		PostgreSQL 6.2b10
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   OS:		FreeBSD 2.1.5-RELEASE
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   HardWare:	i586/90, 24M RAM, IDE
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   StartUp:	postmaster -B 256 '-o -S 2048' -S
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   Compiler:	gcc 2.6.3
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   Compiled:	-O, without CASSERT checking, with
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   		-DTBL_FREE_CMD_MEMORY (to free memory
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   		if BEGIN/END after each query execution)
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   DB connection startup: 0.20
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (1 xact): 39.58
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (8192 xacts): 1190.98
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   Create INDEX on SIMPLE: 3.69
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE with INDEX (1 xact): 46.65
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   8192 random INDEX scans on SIMPLE (1 xact): 65.49
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   ORDER BY SIMPLE: 2.27
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2. run on leslie with asserts
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   DBMS:		PostgreSQL 6.3.2 (plus changes to 98/06/01)
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   OS:		Linux 2.0.32 leslie
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   HardWare:	i586/133 HX 512, 32M RAM, fast SCSI, 7200rpm
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   StartUp:	postmaster -B 256 '-o -S 2048' -S
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   Compiler:	gcc 2.7.2.3
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   Compiled:	-O, WITH CASSERT checking, with
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   		-DTBL_FREE_CMD_MEMORY (to free memory
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   		if BEGIN/END after each query execution)
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   DB connection startup: 0.10
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (1 xact): 15.48
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (8192 xacts): 326.75
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   Create INDEX on SIMPLE: 2.99
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE with INDEX (1 xact): 20.69
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   8192 random INDEX scans on SIMPLE (1 xact): 35.81
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   ORDER BY SIMPLE: 1.68
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3. with -F to avoid forced i/o
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   DBMS:		PostgreSQL 6.3.2 (plus changes to 98/06/01)
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   OS:		Linux 2.0.32 leslie
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   HardWare:	i586/133 HX 512, 32M RAM, fast SCSI, 7200rpm
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   StartUp:	postmaster -B 256 '-o -S 2048 -F' -S
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   Compiler:	gcc 2.7.2.3
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   Compiled:	-O, WITH CASSERT checking, with
 | 
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   		-DTBL_FREE_CMD_MEMORY (to free memory
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   		if BEGIN/END after each query execution)
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   DB connection startup: 0.10
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (1 xact): 15.90
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (8192 xacts): 24.98
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   Create INDEX on SIMPLE: 2.63
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE with INDEX (1 xact): 20.46
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   8192 random INDEX scans on SIMPLE (1 xact): 36.43
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   ORDER BY SIMPLE: 1.69
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4. no asserts, -F to avoid forced I/O
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   DBMS:		PostgreSQL 6.3.2 (plus changes to 98/06/01)
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   OS:		Linux 2.0.32 leslie
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   HardWare:	i586/133 HX 512, 32M RAM, fast SCSI, 7200rpm
 | 
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   StartUp:	postmaster -B 256 '-o -S 2048' -S
 | 
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   Compiler:	gcc 2.7.2.3
 | 
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   Compiled:	-O, No CASSERT checking, with
 | 
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   		-DTBL_FREE_CMD_MEMORY (to free memory
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   		if BEGIN/END after each query execution)
 | 
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   DB connection startup: 0.10
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (1 xact): 14.92
 | 
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (8192 xacts): 23.23
 | 
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   Create INDEX on SIMPLE: 1.38
 | 
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   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE with INDEX (1 xact): 18.67
 | 
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   8192 random INDEX scans on SIMPLE (1 xact): 33.79
 | 
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   ORDER BY SIMPLE: 1.58
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5. with more buffers (2048 vs 256) and -F to avoid forced i/o
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   DBMS:		PostgreSQL 6.3.2 (plus changes to 98/06/01)
 | 
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   OS:		Linux 2.0.32 leslie
 | 
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   HardWare:	i586/133 HX 512, 32M RAM, fast SCSI, 7200rpm
 | 
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   StartUp:	postmaster -B 2048 '-o -S 2048 -F' -S
 | 
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   Compiler:	gcc 2.7.2.3
 | 
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   Compiled:	-O, WITH CASSERT checking, with
 | 
						|
   		-DTBL_FREE_CMD_MEMORY (to free memory
 | 
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   		if BEGIN/END after each query execution)
 | 
						|
   DB connection startup: 0.11
 | 
						|
   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (1 xact): 21.31
 | 
						|
   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (8192 xacts): 42.28
 | 
						|
   Create INDEX on SIMPLE: 2.65
 | 
						|
   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE with INDEX (1 xact): 25.74
 | 
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   8192 random INDEX scans on SIMPLE (1 xact): 42.26
 | 
						|
   ORDER BY SIMPLE: 1.72
 | 
						|
   
 | 
						|
   
 | 
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6. No Asserts, more buffers (2048 vs 256) and -F to avoid forced i/o
 | 
						|
   DBMS:		PostgreSQL 6.3.2 (plus changes to 98/06/01)
 | 
						|
   OS:		Linux 2.0.32 leslie
 | 
						|
   HardWare:	i586/133 HX 512, 32M RAM, fast SCSI, 7200rpm
 | 
						|
   StartUp:	postmaster -B 2048 '-o -S 2048 -F' -S
 | 
						|
   Compiler:	gcc 2.7.2.3
 | 
						|
   Compiled:	-O, No CASSERT checking, with
 | 
						|
   		-DTBL_FREE_CMD_MEMORY (to free memory
 | 
						|
   		if BEGIN/END after each query execution)
 | 
						|
   DB connection startup: 0.11
 | 
						|
   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (1 xact): 20.52
 | 
						|
   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE (8192 xacts): 39.79
 | 
						|
   Create INDEX on SIMPLE: 1.40
 | 
						|
   8192 INSERTs INTO SIMPLE with INDEX (1 xact): 24.77
 | 
						|
   8192 random INDEX scans on SIMPLE (1 xact): 39.51
 | 
						|
   ORDER BY SIMPLE: 1.55
 | 
						|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
-dg
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
David Gould            dg@illustra.com           510.628.3783 or 510.305.9468 
 | 
						|
Informix Software  (No, really)         300 Lakeside Drive  Oakland, CA 94612
 | 
						|
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas.  If your ideas are any
 | 
						|
 good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." -- Howard Aiken
 | 
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 | 
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 | 
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From owner-pgsql-hackers@hub.org Tue Oct 19 10:31:10 1999
 | 
						|
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	for <pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org>; Tue, 19 Oct 1999 10:10:33 -0400 (EDT)
 | 
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	Tue, 19 Oct 1999 10:09:15 -0400 (EDT)
 | 
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To: "Hiroshi Inoue" <Inoue@tpf.co.jp>
 | 
						|
cc: "Vadim Mikheev" <vadim@krs.ru>, pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
 | 
						|
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] mdnblocks is an amazing time sink in huge relations 
 | 
						|
In-reply-to: Your message of Tue, 19 Oct 1999 19:03:22 +0900 
 | 
						|
             <000801bf1a19$2d88ae20$2801007e@cadzone.tpf.co.jp> 
 | 
						|
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 10:09:15 -0400
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <9036.940342155@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
Sender: owner-pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
 | 
						|
Status: RO
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
"Hiroshi Inoue" <Inoue@tpf.co.jp> writes:
 | 
						|
> 1. shared cache holds committed system tuples.
 | 
						|
> 2. private cache holds uncommitted system tuples.
 | 
						|
> 3. relpages of shared cache are updated immediately by
 | 
						|
>     phisical change and corresponding buffer pages are
 | 
						|
>     marked dirty.
 | 
						|
> 4. on commit, the contents of uncommitted tuples except
 | 
						|
>    relpages,reltuples,... are copied to correponding tuples
 | 
						|
>    in shared cache and the combined contents are
 | 
						|
>    committed.
 | 
						|
> If so,catalog cache invalidation would be no longer needed.
 | 
						|
> But synchronization of the step 4. may be difficult.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
I think the main problem is that relpages and reltuples shouldn't
 | 
						|
be kept in pg_class columns at all, because they need to have
 | 
						|
very different update behavior from the other pg_class columns.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The rest of pg_class is update-on-commit, and we can lock down any one
 | 
						|
row in the normal MVCC way (if transaction A has modified a row and
 | 
						|
transaction B also wants to modify it, B waits for A to commit or abort,
 | 
						|
so it can know which version of the row to start from).  Furthermore,
 | 
						|
there can legitimately be several different values of a row in use in
 | 
						|
different places: the latest committed, an uncommitted modification, and
 | 
						|
one or more old values that are still being used by active transactions
 | 
						|
because they were current when those transactions started.  (BTW, the
 | 
						|
present relcache is pretty bad about maintaining pure MVCC transaction
 | 
						|
semantics like this, but it seems clear to me that that's the direction
 | 
						|
we want to go in.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
relpages cannot operate this way.  To be useful for avoiding lseeks,
 | 
						|
relpages *must* change exactly when the physical file changes.  It
 | 
						|
matters not at all whether the particular transaction that extended the
 | 
						|
file ultimately commits or not.  Moreover there can be only one correct
 | 
						|
value (per relation) across the whole system, because there is only one
 | 
						|
length of the relation file.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
If we want to take reltuples seriously and try to maintain it
 | 
						|
on-the-fly, then I think it needs still a third behavior.  Clearly
 | 
						|
it cannot be updated using MVCC rules, or we lose all writer
 | 
						|
concurrency (if A has added tuples to a rel, B would have to wait
 | 
						|
for A to commit before it could update reltuples...).  Furthermore
 | 
						|
"updating" isn't a simple matter of storing what you think the new
 | 
						|
value is; otherwise two transactions adding tuples in parallel would
 | 
						|
leave the wrong answer after B commits and overwrites A's value.
 | 
						|
I think it would work for each transaction to keep track of a net delta
 | 
						|
in reltuples for each table it's changed (total tuples added less total
 | 
						|
tuples deleted), and then atomically add that value to the table's
 | 
						|
shared reltuples counter during commit.  But that still leaves the
 | 
						|
problem of how you use the counter during a transaction to get an
 | 
						|
accurate answer to the question "If I scan this table now, how many tuples
 | 
						|
will I see?"  At the time the question is asked, the current shared
 | 
						|
counter value might include the effects of transactions that have
 | 
						|
committed since your transaction started, and therefore are not visible
 | 
						|
under MVCC rules.  I think getting the correct answer would involve
 | 
						|
making an instantaneous copy of the current counter at the start of
 | 
						|
your xact, and then adding your own private net-uncommitted-delta to
 | 
						|
the saved shared counter value when asked the question.  This doesn't
 | 
						|
look real practical --- you'd have to save the reltuples counts of
 | 
						|
*all* tables in the database at the start of each xact, on the off
 | 
						|
chance that you might need them.  Ugh.  Perhaps someone has a better
 | 
						|
idea.  In any case, reltuples clearly needs different mechanisms than
 | 
						|
the ordinary fields in pg_class do, because updating it will be a
 | 
						|
performance bottleneck otherwise.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
If we allow reltuples to be updated only by vacuum-like events, as
 | 
						|
it is now, then I think keeping it in pg_class is still OK.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
In short, it seems clear to me that relpages should be removed from
 | 
						|
pg_class and kept somewhere else if we want to make it more reliable
 | 
						|
than it is now, and the same for reltuples (but reltuples doesn't
 | 
						|
behave the same as relpages, and probably ought to be handled
 | 
						|
differently).
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
			regards, tom lane
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
************
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From owner-pgsql-hackers@hub.org Tue Oct 19 21:25:30 1999
 | 
						|
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   id KAA01715; Wed, 20 Oct 1999 10:05:14 +0900
 | 
						|
From: "Hiroshi Inoue" <Inoue@tpf.co.jp>
 | 
						|
To: "Tom Lane" <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
Cc: <pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org>
 | 
						|
Subject: RE: [HACKERS] mdnblocks is an amazing time sink in huge relations 
 | 
						|
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 10:09:13 +0900
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <000501bf1a97$b925a860$2801007e@cadzone.tpf.co.jp>
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 | 
						|
Sender: owner-pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
 | 
						|
Status: RO
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> -----Original Message-----
 | 
						|
> From: Hiroshi Inoue [mailto:Inoue@tpf.co.jp]
 | 
						|
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 1999 6:45 PM
 | 
						|
> To: Tom Lane
 | 
						|
> Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
 | 
						|
> Subject: RE: [HACKERS] mdnblocks is an amazing time sink in huge
 | 
						|
> relations 
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> > 
 | 
						|
> > "Hiroshi Inoue" <Inoue@tpf.co.jp> writes:
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> [snip]
 | 
						|
>  
 | 
						|
> > 
 | 
						|
> > > Deletion is necessary only not to consume disk space.
 | 
						|
> > >
 | 
						|
> > > For example vacuum could remove not deleted files.
 | 
						|
> > 
 | 
						|
> > Hmm ... interesting idea ... but I can hear the complaints
 | 
						|
> > from users already...
 | 
						|
> >
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> My idea is only an analogy of PostgreSQL's simple recovery
 | 
						|
> mechanism of tuples.
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> And my main point is
 | 
						|
> 	"delete fails after commit" doesn't harm the database
 | 
						|
> 	except that not deleted files consume disk space.
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> Of cource,it's preferable to delete relation files immediately
 | 
						|
> after(or just when) commit.
 | 
						|
> Useless files are visible though useless tuples are invisible.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Anyway I don't need "DROP TABLE inside transactions" now
 | 
						|
and my idea is originally for that issue.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
After a thought,I propose the following solution.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
1. mdcreate() couldn't create existent relation files.
 | 
						|
    If the existent file is of length zero,we would overwrite
 | 
						|
    the file.(seems the comment in md.c says so but the
 | 
						|
    code doesn't do so). 
 | 
						|
    If the file is an Index relation file,we would overwrite
 | 
						|
    the file.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
2. mdunlink() couldn't unlink non-existent relation files.
 | 
						|
    mdunlink() doesn't call elog(ERROR) even if the file
 | 
						|
    doesn't exist,though I couldn't find where to change
 | 
						|
    now.
 | 
						|
    mdopen() doesn't call elog(ERROR) even if the file
 | 
						|
    doesn't exist and leaves the relation as CLOSED. 
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Comments ?
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Regards. 
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Hiroshi Inoue
 | 
						|
Inoue@tpf.co.jp
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
************
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From pgsql-hackers-owner+M6267@hub.org Sun Aug 27 21:46:37 2000
 | 
						|
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 | 
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 | 
						|
To: pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
 | 
						|
Subject: [HACKERS] Possible performance improvement: buffer replacement policy
 | 
						|
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 20:05:29 -0400
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <1601.967421129@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
X-Mailing-List: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
 | 
						|
Precedence: bulk
 | 
						|
Sender: pgsql-hackers-owner@hub.org
 | 
						|
Status: RO
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Those of you with long memories may recall a benchmark that Edmund Mergl
 | 
						|
drew our attention to back in May '99.  That test showed extremely slow
 | 
						|
performance for updating a table with many indexes (about 20).  At the
 | 
						|
time, it seemed the problem was due to bad performance of btree with
 | 
						|
many equal keys, so I thought I'd go back and retry the benchmark after
 | 
						|
this latest round of btree hackery.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The good news is that btree itself seems to be pretty well fixed; the
 | 
						|
bad news is that the benchmark is still slow for large numbers of rows.
 | 
						|
The problem is I/O: the CPU mostly sits idle waiting for the disk.
 | 
						|
As best I can tell, the difficulty is that the working set of pages
 | 
						|
needed to update this many indexes is too large compared to the number
 | 
						|
of disk buffers Postgres is using.  (I was running with -B 1000 and
 | 
						|
looking at behavior for a 100000-row test table.  This gave me a table
 | 
						|
size of 3876 pages, plus 11526 pages in 20 indexes.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Of course, there's only so much we can do when the number of buffers
 | 
						|
is too small, but I still started to wonder if we are using the buffers
 | 
						|
as effectively as we can.  Some tracing showed that most of the pages
 | 
						|
of the indexes were being read and written multiple times within a
 | 
						|
single UPDATE query, while most of the pages of the table proper were
 | 
						|
fetched and written only once.  That says we're not using the buffers
 | 
						|
as well as we could; the index pages are not being kept in memory when
 | 
						|
they should be.  In a query like this, we should displace main-table
 | 
						|
pages sooner to allow keeping more index pages in cache --- but with
 | 
						|
the simple LRU replacement method we use, once a page has been loaded
 | 
						|
it will stay in cache for at least the next NBuffers (-B) page
 | 
						|
references, no matter what.  With a large NBuffers that's a long time.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
I've come across an interesting article:
 | 
						|
	The LRU-K Page Replacement Algorithm For Database Disk Buffering
 | 
						|
	Elizabeth J. O'Neil, Patrick E. O'Neil, Gerhard Weikum
 | 
						|
	Proceedings of the 1993 ACM SIGMOD international conference
 | 
						|
	on Management of Data, May 1993
 | 
						|
(If you subscribe to the ACM digital library, you can get a PDF of this
 | 
						|
from there.)  This article argues that standard LRU buffer management is
 | 
						|
inherently not great for database caches, and that it's much better to
 | 
						|
replace pages on the basis of time since the K'th most recent reference,
 | 
						|
not just time since the most recent one.  K=2 is enough to get most of
 | 
						|
the benefit.  The big win is that you are measuring an actual page
 | 
						|
interreference time (between the last two references) and not just
 | 
						|
dealing with a lower-bound guess on the interreference time.  Frequently
 | 
						|
used pages are thus much more likely to stay in cache.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
It looks like it wouldn't take too much work to replace shared buffers
 | 
						|
on the basis of LRU-2 instead of LRU, so I'm thinking about trying it.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Has anyone looked into this area?  Is there a better method to try?
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
			regards, tom lane
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk Fri Jan 19 12:54:45 2001
 | 
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Received: from henry.newn.cam.ac.uk (henry.newn.cam.ac.uk [131.111.204.130])
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 | 
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	id 14Jfj6-0001cq-00; Fri, 19 Jan 2001 17:53:28 +0000
 | 
						|
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 17:53:28 +0000
 | 
						|
From: Patrick Welche <prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk>
 | 
						|
To: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
 | 
						|
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
 | 
						|
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Possible performance improvement: buffer replacement policy
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <20010119175328.A6223@quartz.newn.cam.ac.uk>
 | 
						|
Reply-To: prlw1@cam.ac.uk
 | 
						|
References: <1601.967421129@sss.pgh.pa.us> <200101191703.MAA25873@candle.pha.pa.us>
 | 
						|
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In-Reply-To: <200101191703.MAA25873@candle.pha.pa.us>; from pgman@candle.pha.pa.us on Fri, Jan 19, 2001 at 12:03:58PM -0500
 | 
						|
Status: RO
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
On Fri, Jan 19, 2001 at 12:03:58PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> Tom, did we ever test this?  I think we did and found that it was the
 | 
						|
> same or worse, right?
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
(Funnily enough, I just read that message:)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
To: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
 | 
						|
cc: pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
 | 
						|
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Possible performance improvement: buffer replacement policy 
 | 
						|
In-reply-to: <200010161541.LAA06653@candle.pha.pa.us> 
 | 
						|
References: <200010161541.LAA06653@candle.pha.pa.us>
 | 
						|
Comments: In-reply-to Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
 | 
						|
	message dated "Mon, 16 Oct 2000 11:41:41 -0400"
 | 
						|
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 11:49:52 -0400
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <26100.971711392@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
X-Mailing-List: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
 | 
						|
Precedence: bulk
 | 
						|
Sender: pgsql-hackers-owner@hub.org
 | 
						|
Status: RO
 | 
						|
Content-Length: 947
 | 
						|
Lines: 19
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
 | 
						|
>> It looks like it wouldn't take too much work to replace shared buffers
 | 
						|
>> on the basis of LRU-2 instead of LRU, so I'm thinking about trying it.
 | 
						|
>> 
 | 
						|
>> Has anyone looked into this area?  Is there a better method to try?
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> Sounds like a perfect idea.  Good luck.  :-)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Actually, the idea went down in flames :-(, but I neglected to report
 | 
						|
back to pghackers about it.  I did do some code to manage buffers as
 | 
						|
LRU-2.  I didn't have any good performance test cases to try it with,
 | 
						|
but Richard Brosnahan was kind enough to re-run the TPC tests previously
 | 
						|
published by Great Bridge with that code in place.  Wasn't any faster,
 | 
						|
in fact possibly a little slower, likely due to the extra CPU time spent
 | 
						|
on buffer freelist management.  It's possible that other scenarios might
 | 
						|
show a better result, but right now I feel pretty discouraged about the
 | 
						|
LRU-2 idea and am not pursuing it.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
			regards, tom lane
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From pgsql-hackers-owner+M3455@postgresql.org Fri Jan 19 13:18:12 2001
 | 
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Message-ID: <8F4C99C66D04D4118F580090272A7A234D329F@sectorbase1.sectorbase.com>
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From: "Mikheev, Vadim" <vmikheev@SECTORBASE.COM>
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To: "'Tom Lane'" <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
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Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
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Subject: RE: [HACKERS] Possible performance improvement: buffer replacemen
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	t policy 
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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 10:07:27 -0800
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MIME-Version: 1.0
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Status: RO
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> > Tom, did we ever test this?  I think we did and found that 
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> > it was the same or worse, right?
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> 
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> I tried it and didn't see any noticeable improvement on the particular
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> test case I was using, so I got discouraged and didn't pursue the idea
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> further.  I'd like to come back to it someday, though.
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I don't know how much useful could be LRU-2 but with WAL we should try
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to reuse undirty free buffers first, not dirty ones, just to postpone
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writes as long as we can. (BTW, this is what Oracle does.)
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So, we probably should put new unfree dirty buffer just before first
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dirty one in LRU.
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Vadim
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From markw@mohawksoft.com Thu Jun  7 14:40:02 2001
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Message-ID: <3B1FC9CB.57C72AD6@mohawksoft.com>
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Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 14:36:59 -0400
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From: mlw <markw@mohawksoft.com>
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MIME-Version: 1.0
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To: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>,
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   "pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org" <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
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Subject: Re: 7.2 items
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References: <200106071503.f57F32n03924@candle.pha.pa.us>
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
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Status: RO
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Bruce Momjian wrote:
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> > Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
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> >
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> > > Here is a small list of big TODO items.  I was wondering which ones
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> > > people were thinking about for 7.2?
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> >
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> > A friend of mine wants to use PostgreSQL instead of Oracle for a large
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> > application, but has run into a snag when speed comparisons looked
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> > good until the Oracle folks added a couple of BITMAP indexes.  I can't
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> > recall seeing any discussion about that here -- are there any plans?
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>
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> It is not on our list and I am not sure what they do.
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Do you have access to any Oracle Documentation? There is a good explanation
 | 
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of them.
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However, I will try to explain.
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If you have a table, locations. It has 1,000,000 records.
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In oracle you do this:
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create bitmap index bitmap_foo on locations (state) ;
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For each unique value of 'state' oracle will create a bitmap with 1,000,000
 | 
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bits in it. With a one representing a match and a zero representing no
 | 
						|
match. Record '0' in the table is represented by bit '0' in the bitmap,
 | 
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record '1' is represented by bit '1', record two by bit '2' and so on.
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 | 
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In a table where comparatively few different values are to be indexed in a
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large table, a bitmap index can be quite small and not suffer the N * log(N)
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disk I/O most tree based indexes suffer. If the bitmap is fairly sparse or
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dense (or have periods of denseness and sparseness), it can be compressed
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very efficiently as well.
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When the statement:
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select * from locations where state = 'MA';
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Is executed, the bitmap is read into memory in very few disk operations.
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(Perhaps even as few as one or two). It is a simple operation of rifling
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through the bitmap for '1's that indicate the record has the property,
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'state' = 'MA';
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From mascarm@mascari.com Thu Jun  7 15:36:25 2001
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Return-path: <mascarm@mascari.com>
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	Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:29:31 -0400
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Received: by localhost with Microsoft MAPI; Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:34:18 -0400
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Message-ID: <01C0EF67.5105D2E0.mascarm@mascari.com>
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From: Mike Mascari <mascarm@mascari.com>
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Reply-To: "mascarm@mascari.com" <mascarm@mascari.com>
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To: "'mlw'" <markw@mohawksoft.com>, Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>,
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   "pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org" <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
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Subject: RE: [HACKERS] Re: 7.2 items
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Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:34:17 -0400
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Organization: Mascari Development Inc.
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X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet E-mail/MAPI - 8.0.0.4211
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MIME-Version: 1.0
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
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Status: RO
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And in addition,
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If you submitted the query:
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SELECT * FROM addresses WHERE state = 'OH'
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AND areacode = '614'
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Then, with bitmap indexes, the bitmaps are just logically ANDed 
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together, and the final bitmap determines the matching rows.
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Mike Mascari
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mascarm@mascari.com
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-----Original Message-----
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From:	mlw [SMTP:markw@mohawksoft.com]
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Bruce Momjian wrote:
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 | 
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> > Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
 | 
						|
> >
 | 
						|
> > > Here is a small list of big TODO items.  I was wondering which 
 | 
						|
ones
 | 
						|
> > > people were thinking about for 7.2?
 | 
						|
> >
 | 
						|
> > A friend of mine wants to use PostgreSQL instead of Oracle for a 
 | 
						|
large
 | 
						|
> > application, but has run into a snag when speed comparisons 
 | 
						|
looked
 | 
						|
> > good until the Oracle folks added a couple of BITMAP indexes.  I 
 | 
						|
can't
 | 
						|
> > recall seeing any discussion about that here -- are there any 
 | 
						|
plans?
 | 
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>
 | 
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> It is not on our list and I am not sure what they do.
 | 
						|
 | 
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Do you have access to any Oracle Documentation? There is a good 
 | 
						|
explanation
 | 
						|
of them.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
However, I will try to explain.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
If you have a table, locations. It has 1,000,000 records.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
In oracle you do this:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
create bitmap index bitmap_foo on locations (state) ;
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
For each unique value of 'state' oracle will create a bitmap with 
 | 
						|
1,000,000
 | 
						|
bits in it. With a one representing a match and a zero representing 
 | 
						|
no
 | 
						|
match. Record '0' in the table is represented by bit '0' in the 
 | 
						|
bitmap,
 | 
						|
record '1' is represented by bit '1', record two by bit '2' and so 
 | 
						|
on.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
In a table where comparatively few different values are to be indexed 
 | 
						|
in a
 | 
						|
large table, a bitmap index can be quite small and not suffer the N * 
 | 
						|
log(N)
 | 
						|
disk I/O most tree based indexes suffer. If the bitmap is fairly 
 | 
						|
sparse or
 | 
						|
dense (or have periods of denseness and sparseness), it can be 
 | 
						|
compressed
 | 
						|
very efficiently as well.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
When the statement:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
select * from locations where state = 'MA';
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Is executed, the bitmap is read into memory in very few disk 
 | 
						|
operations.
 | 
						|
(Perhaps even as few as one or two). It is a simple operation of 
 | 
						|
rifling
 | 
						|
through the bitmap for '1's that indicate the record has the 
 | 
						|
property,
 | 
						|
'state' = 'MA';
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From oleg@sai.msu.su Thu Jun  7 15:39:15 2001
 | 
						|
Return-path: <oleg@sai.msu.su>
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Received: from ra.sai.msu.su (ra.sai.msu.su [158.250.29.2])
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	for <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>; Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:39:08 -0400 (EDT)
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	Thu, 7 Jun 2001 22:38:20 +0300 (GMT)
 | 
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Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 22:38:20 +0300 (GMT)
 | 
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From: Oleg Bartunov <oleg@sai.msu.su>
 | 
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X-X-Sender: <megera@ra.sai.msu.su>
 | 
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To: mlw <markw@mohawksoft.com>
 | 
						|
cc: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>,
 | 
						|
   "pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org" <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
 | 
						|
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Re: 7.2 items
 | 
						|
In-Reply-To: <3B1FC9CB.57C72AD6@mohawksoft.com>
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.33.0106072234120.6015-100000@ra.sai.msu.su>
 | 
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MIME-Version: 1.0
 | 
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Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
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Status: RO
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I think it's possible to implement bitmap indexes with a little
 | 
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effort using GiST. at least I know one implementation
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http://www.it.iitb.ernet.in/~rvijay/dbms/proj/
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if you have interests you could implement bitmap indexes yourself
 | 
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unfortunately, we're very busy
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	Oleg
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On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, mlw wrote:
 | 
						|
 | 
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> Bruce Momjian wrote:
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> > > Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
 | 
						|
> > >
 | 
						|
> > > > Here is a small list of big TODO items.  I was wondering which ones
 | 
						|
> > > > people were thinking about for 7.2?
 | 
						|
> > >
 | 
						|
> > > A friend of mine wants to use PostgreSQL instead of Oracle for a large
 | 
						|
> > > application, but has run into a snag when speed comparisons looked
 | 
						|
> > > good until the Oracle folks added a couple of BITMAP indexes.  I can't
 | 
						|
> > > recall seeing any discussion about that here -- are there any plans?
 | 
						|
> >
 | 
						|
> > It is not on our list and I am not sure what they do.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> Do you have access to any Oracle Documentation? There is a good explanation
 | 
						|
> of them.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> However, I will try to explain.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> If you have a table, locations. It has 1,000,000 records.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> In oracle you do this:
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> create bitmap index bitmap_foo on locations (state) ;
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> For each unique value of 'state' oracle will create a bitmap with 1,000,000
 | 
						|
> bits in it. With a one representing a match and a zero representing no
 | 
						|
> match. Record '0' in the table is represented by bit '0' in the bitmap,
 | 
						|
> record '1' is represented by bit '1', record two by bit '2' and so on.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> In a table where comparatively few different values are to be indexed in a
 | 
						|
> large table, a bitmap index can be quite small and not suffer the N * log(N)
 | 
						|
> disk I/O most tree based indexes suffer. If the bitmap is fairly sparse or
 | 
						|
> dense (or have periods of denseness and sparseness), it can be compressed
 | 
						|
> very efficiently as well.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> When the statement:
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> select * from locations where state = 'MA';
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> Is executed, the bitmap is read into memory in very few disk operations.
 | 
						|
> (Perhaps even as few as one or two). It is a simple operation of rifling
 | 
						|
> through the bitmap for '1's that indicate the record has the property,
 | 
						|
> 'state' = 'MA';
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
 | 
						|
> TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives?
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> http://www.postgresql.org/search.mpl
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
	Regards,
 | 
						|
		Oleg
 | 
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_____________________________________________________________
 | 
						|
Oleg Bartunov, sci.researcher, hostmaster of AstroNet,
 | 
						|
Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow University (Russia)
 | 
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Internet: oleg@sai.msu.su, http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/
 | 
						|
phone: +007(095)939-16-83, +007(095)939-23-83
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
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From pgsql-general-owner+M2497@hub.org Fri Jun 16 18:31:03 2000
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To: Jurgen Defurne <defurnj@glo.be>
 | 
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cc: Mark Stier <kalium@gmx.de>,
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        postgreSQL general mailing list <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
 | 
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Subject: Re: [GENERAL] optimization by removing the file system layer? 
 | 
						|
In-Reply-To: Message from Jurgen Defurne <defurnj@glo.be> 
 | 
						|
   of "Thu, 15 Jun 2000 20:26:57 +0200." <39491FF1.E1E583F8@glo.be> 
 | 
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Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 19:52:28 +1000
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <10210.961149148@nemeton.com.au>
 | 
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From: Giles Lean <giles@nemeton.com.au>
 | 
						|
X-Mailing-List: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
 | 
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Precedence: bulk
 | 
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Sender: pgsql-general-owner@hub.org
 | 
						|
Status: OR
 | 
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 | 
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 | 
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 | 
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> I think that the Un*x filesystem is one of the reasons that large
 | 
						|
> database vendors rather use raw devices, than filesystem storage
 | 
						|
> files.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
This used to be the preference, back in the late 80s and possibly
 | 
						|
early 90s.  I'm seeing a preference toward using the filesystem now,
 | 
						|
possibly with some sort of async I/O and co-operation from the OS
 | 
						|
filesystem about interactions with the filesystem cache.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Performance preferences don't stand still.  The hardware changes, the
 | 
						|
software changes, the volume of data changes, and different solutions
 | 
						|
become preferable.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> Using a raw device on the disk gives them the possibility to have
 | 
						|
> complete control over their files, indices and objects without being
 | 
						|
> bothered by the operating system.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> This speeds up things in several ways :
 | 
						|
> - the least possible OS intervention
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Not that this is especially useful, necessarily.  If the "raw" device
 | 
						|
is in fact managed by a logical volume manager doing mirroring onto
 | 
						|
some sort of storage array there is still plenty of OS code involved.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The cost of using a filesystem in addition may not be much if anything
 | 
						|
and of course a filesystem is considerably more flexible to
 | 
						|
administer (backup, move, change size, check integrity, etc.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> - choose block sizes according to applications
 | 
						|
> - reducing fragmentation
 | 
						|
> - packing data in nearby cilinders
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
... but when this storage area is spread over multiple mechanisms in a
 | 
						|
smart storage array with write caching, you've no idea what is where
 | 
						|
anyway.  Better to let the hardware or at least the OS manage this;
 | 
						|
there are so many levels of caching between a database and the
 | 
						|
magnetic media that working hard to influence layout is almost
 | 
						|
certainly a waste of time.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Kirk McKusick tells a lovely story that once upon a time it used to be
 | 
						|
sensible to check some registers on a particular disk controller to
 | 
						|
find out where the heads were when scheduling I/O.  Needless to say,
 | 
						|
that is history now!
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
There's a considerable cost in complexity and code in using "raw"
 | 
						|
storage too, and it's not a one off cost: as the technologies change,
 | 
						|
the "fast" way to do things will change and the code will have to be
 | 
						|
updated to match.  Better to leave this to the OS vendor where
 | 
						|
possible, and take advantage of the tuning they do.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> - Anyone other ideas -> the sky is the limit here
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> It also aids portability, at least on platforms that have an
 | 
						|
> equivalent of a raw device.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
I don't understand that claim.  Not much is portable about raw
 | 
						|
devices, and they're typically not nearlly as well documented as the
 | 
						|
filesystem interfaces.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> It is also independent of the standard implemented Un*x filesystems,
 | 
						|
> for which you will have to pay extra if you want to take extra
 | 
						|
> measures against power loss.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Rather, it is worse.  With a Unix filesystem you get quite defined
 | 
						|
semantics about what is written when.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> The problem with e.g. e2fs, is that it is not robust enough if a CPU
 | 
						|
> fails.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
ext2fs doesn't even claim to have Unix filesystem semantics.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Regards,
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Giles
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From pgsql-hackers-owner+M1795@postgresql.org Thu Dec  7 18:47:52 2000
 | 
						|
Received: from mail.postgresql.org (webmail.postgresql.org [216.126.85.28])
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
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 | 
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 | 
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 14:57:32 -0800
 | 
						|
From: Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>
 | 
						|
To: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
 | 
						|
Subject: [HACKERS] Patches with vacuum fixes available for 7.0.x
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <20001207145732.X16205@fw.wintelcom.net>
 | 
						|
MIME-Version: 1.0
 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
Sender: pgsql-hackers-owner@postgresql.org
 | 
						|
Status: ORr
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
We recently had a very satisfactory contract completed by
 | 
						|
Vadim.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Basically Vadim has been able to reduce the amount of time
 | 
						|
taken by a vacuum from 10-15 minutes down to under 10 seconds.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
We've been running with these patches under heavy load for
 | 
						|
about a week now without any problems except one:
 | 
						|
  don't 'lazy' (new option for vacuum) a table which has just
 | 
						|
  had an index created on it, or at least don't expect it to
 | 
						|
  take any less time than a normal vacuum would.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
There's three patchsets and they are available at:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
http://people.freebsd.org/~alfred/vacfix/
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
complete diff:
 | 
						|
http://people.freebsd.org/~alfred/vacfix/v.diff
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
only lazy vacuum option to speed up index vacuums:
 | 
						|
http://people.freebsd.org/~alfred/vacfix/vlazy.tgz
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
only lazy vacuum option to only scan from start of modified
 | 
						|
data:
 | 
						|
http://people.freebsd.org/~alfred/vacfix/mnmb.tgz
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Although the patches are for 7.0.x I'm hoping that they
 | 
						|
can be forward ported (if Vadim hasn't done it already)
 | 
						|
to 7.1.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
enjoy!
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
-- 
 | 
						|
-Alfred Perlstein - [bright@wintelcom.net|alfred@freebsd.org]
 | 
						|
"I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my desk."
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From pgsql-hackers-owner+M1809@postgresql.org Thu Dec  7 20:27:39 2000
 | 
						|
Received: from mail.postgresql.org (webmail.postgresql.org [216.126.85.28])
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						|
	for <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>; Thu, 7 Dec 2000 20:27:38 -0500 (EST)
 | 
						|
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 | 
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
	Thu, 7 Dec 2000 17:19:58 -0800 (PST)
 | 
						|
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 17:19:58 -0800
 | 
						|
From: Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>
 | 
						|
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
 | 
						|
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Patches with vacuum fixes available for 7.0.x
 | 
						|
Message-ID: <20001207171958.B16205@fw.wintelcom.net>
 | 
						|
References: <20001207145732.X16205@fw.wintelcom.net> <28791.976236143@sss.pgh.pa.us>
 | 
						|
MIME-Version: 1.0
 | 
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In-Reply-To: <28791.976236143@sss.pgh.pa.us>; from tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us on Thu, Dec 07, 2000 at 07:42:23PM -0500
 | 
						|
Precedence: bulk
 | 
						|
Sender: pgsql-hackers-owner@postgresql.org
 | 
						|
Status: OR
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
* Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> [001207 17:10] wrote:
 | 
						|
> Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net> writes:
 | 
						|
> > Basically Vadim has been able to reduce the amount of time
 | 
						|
> > taken by a vacuum from 10-15 minutes down to under 10 seconds.
 | 
						|
> 
 | 
						|
> Cool.  What's it do, exactly?
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
================================================================
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The first is a bonus that Vadim gave us to speed up index
 | 
						|
vacuums, I'm not sure I understand it completely, but it 
 | 
						|
work really well. :)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
here's the README he gave us:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
           Vacuum LAZY index cleanup option
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
LAZY vacuum option introduces new way of indices cleanup.
 | 
						|
Instead of reading entire index file to remove index tuples
 | 
						|
pointing to deleted table records, with LAZY option vacuum
 | 
						|
performes index scans using keys fetched from table record
 | 
						|
to be deleted. Vacuum checks each result returned by index
 | 
						|
scan if it points to target heap record and removes
 | 
						|
corresponding index tuple.
 | 
						|
This can greatly speed up indices cleaning if not so many
 | 
						|
table records were deleted/modified between vacuum runs.
 | 
						|
Vacuum uses new option on user' demand.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
New vacuum syntax is:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
vacuum [verbose] [analyze] [lazy] [table [(columns)]]
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
================================================================
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The second is one of the suggestions I gave on the lists a while
 | 
						|
back, keeping track of the "last dirtied" block in the data files
 | 
						|
to only scan the tail end of the file for deleted rows, I think
 | 
						|
what he instead did was keep a table that holds all the modified
 | 
						|
blocks and vacuum only scans those:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
              Minimal Number Modified Block (MNMB)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
This feature is to track MNMB of required tables with triggers
 | 
						|
to avoid reading unmodified table pages by vacuum. Triggers
 | 
						|
store MNMB in per-table files in specified directory
 | 
						|
($LIBDIR/contrib/mnmb by default) and create these files if not
 | 
						|
existed.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Vacuum first looks up functions
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
mnmb_getblock(Oid databaseId, Oid tableId)
 | 
						|
mnmb_setblock(Oid databaseId, Oid tableId, Oid block)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
in catalog. If *both* functions were found *and* there was no
 | 
						|
ANALYZE option specified then vacuum calls mnmb_getblock to obtain
 | 
						|
MNMB for table being vacuumed and starts reading this table from
 | 
						|
block number returned. After table was processed vacuum calls
 | 
						|
mnmb_setblock to update data in file to last table block number.
 | 
						|
Neither mnmb_getblock nor mnmb_setblock try to create file.
 | 
						|
If there was no file for table being vacuumed then mnmb_getblock
 | 
						|
returns 0 and mnmb_setblock does nothing.
 | 
						|
mnmb_setblock() may be used to set in file MNMB to 0 and force
 | 
						|
vacuum to read entire table if required.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
To compile MNMB you have to add -DMNMB to CUSTOM_COPT
 | 
						|
in src/Makefile.custom.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
-- 
 | 
						|
-Alfred Perlstein - [bright@wintelcom.net|alfred@freebsd.org]
 | 
						|
"I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my desk."
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
From pgsql-general-owner+M4010@postgresql.org Mon Feb  5 18:50:47 2001
 | 
						|
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 | 
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 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
From: Mike Hoskins <mikehoskins@yahoo.com>
 | 
						|
X-Newsgroups: comp.databases.postgresql.general
 | 
						|
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] MySQL file system
 | 
						|
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 18:30:36 -0600
 | 
						|
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 | 
						|
Status: OR
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
This idea is such a popular (even old) one that Oracle developed it for 8i --
 | 
						|
IFS.  Yep, AS/400 has had it forever, and BeOS is another example.  Informix has
 | 
						|
had its DataBlades for years, as well.  In fact, Reiser-FS is an FS implemented
 | 
						|
on a DB, albeit probably not a SQL DB.  AIX's LVM and JFS is extent/DB-based, as
 | 
						|
well. Let's see now, why would all those guys do that?  (Now, some of those that
 | 
						|
aren't SQL-based probably won't allow SQL queries on files, so just think about
 | 
						|
those that do, for a minute)....
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Rather than asking why, a far better question is why not?  There is SO much
 | 
						|
functionality to be gained here that it's silly to ask why.  At a higher level,
 | 
						|
treating BLOBs as files and as DB entries simultaneously has so many uses, that
 | 
						|
one has trouble answering the question properly without the puzzled stare back
 | 
						|
at the questioner.  Again, look at the above list, particularly at AS/400 -- the
 | 
						|
entire OS's FS sits on top of DB/2!
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
For example, think how easy dynamically generated web sites could access online
 | 
						|
catalog information, with all those JPEG's, GIFs, PNGs, HTML files, Text files,
 | 
						|
.PDF's, etc., both in the DB and in the FS.  This would be so much easier to
 | 
						|
maintain, when you have webmasters, web designers, artists, programmers,
 | 
						|
sysadmins, dba's, etc., all trying to manage a big, dynamic, graphics-rich web
 | 
						|
site.  Who cares if the FS is a bit slow, as long as it's not too slow?  That's
 | 
						|
not the point, anyway.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The point is easy access to data:  asset management, version control, the
 | 
						|
ability to access the same data as a file and as a BLOB simultaneously, the
 | 
						|
ability to replicate easier, the ability to use more tools on the same info,
 | 
						|
etc.  It's not for speed, per se; instead, it's for accessibility.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Think about this issue.  You have some already compiled text-based program that
 | 
						|
works on binary files, but not on databases -- it was simply never designed into
 | 
						|
the program.  How are you going to get your graphics BLOBs into that program?
 | 
						|
Oh yeah, let's write another program to transform our data into files, first,
 | 
						|
then after processing delete them in some cleanup routine....  Why?  If you have
 | 
						|
a DB'ed FS, then file data can simultaneously have two views -- one for the DB
 | 
						|
and one as an FS.  (You can easily reverse the scenario.)  Not only does this
 | 
						|
save time and disk space; it saves you from having to pay for the most expensive
 | 
						|
element of all -- programmer time.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
BTW, once this FS-on-a-DB concept really sinks in, imagine how tightly
 | 
						|
integrated Linux/Unix apps could be written.  Imagine if a bunch of GPL'ed
 | 
						|
software started coding for this and used this as a means to exchange data, all
 | 
						|
using a common set of libraries.  You could get to the point of uniting files,
 | 
						|
BLOBs, data of all sorts, IPC, version control, etc., all under one umbrella,
 | 
						|
especially if XML was the means data was exchanged.  Heck, distributed
 | 
						|
authentication, file access, data access, etc., could be improved greatly.
 | 
						|
Well, this paragraph sounds like flame bait, but really consider the
 | 
						|
ramifications.  Also, read the next paragraph....
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Something like this *has* existed for Postgres for a long time -- PGFS, by Brian
 | 
						|
Bartholomew.  It's even supposedly matured with age.  Unfortunately, I cannot
 | 
						|
get to http://www.wv.com/ (Working Version's main site).  Working Version is a
 | 
						|
version control system that keeps old versions of files around in the FS.  It
 | 
						|
uses PG as the back-end DB and lets you mount it like another FS.  It's
 | 
						|
supposedly an awesome system, but where is it?  It's not some clunky korbit
 | 
						|
thingy, either.  (If someone can find it, please let me know by email, if
 | 
						|
possible.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The only thing I can find on this is from a Google search, which caches
 | 
						|
everything but the actual software:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
http://www.google.com/search?q=pgfs+postgres&num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&newwindow=1&safe=active
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Also, there is the Perl-FS that can be transformed into something like PGFS:
 | 
						|
http://www.assurdo.com/perlfs/  It allows you to write Perl code that can mount
 | 
						|
various protocols or data types as an FS, in user space.  (One example is the
 | 
						|
ability to mount FTP sites, BTW.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Instead of ridiculing something you've never tried, consider that MySQL-FS,
 | 
						|
Oracle (IFS), Informix (DataBlades), AS/400 (DB/2), BeOS, and Reiser-FS are
 | 
						|
doing this today.  Do you want to be left behind and let them tell us what it's
 | 
						|
good for?  Or, do we want this for PG?  (Reiser-FS, BTW, is FASTER than ext2,
 | 
						|
but has no SQL hooks).
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
There were many posts on this on slashdot:
 | 
						|
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/16/1855253&mode=thread
 | 
						|
    (I wrote some comments here, as well, just look for mikehoskins)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
I, for one, want to see this succeed for MySQL, PostgreSQL, msql, etc.  It's an
 | 
						|
awesome feature that doesn't need to be speedy because it can save HUMANS time.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
The question really is, "When do we want to catch up to everyone else?"  We are
 | 
						|
always moving to higher levels of abstraction, anyway, so it's just a matter of
 | 
						|
time.  PG should participate.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Adam Lang wrote:
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
> I wasn't following the thread too closely, but database for a filesystem has
 | 
						|
> been done.  BeOS uses a database for a filesystem as well as AS/400 and
 | 
						|
> Mainframes.
 | 
						|
>
 | 
						|
> Adam Lang
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> Systems Engineer
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> Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company
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> http://www.rutgersinsurance.com
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> ----- Original Message -----
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> From: "Alfred Perlstein" <bright@wintelcom.net>
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> To: "Robert D. Nelson" <RDNELSON@co.centre.pa.us>
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> Cc: "Joseph Shraibman" <jks@selectacast.net>; "Karl DeBisschop"
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> <karl@debisschop.net>; "Ned Lilly" <ned@greatbridge.com>; "PostgreSQL
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> General" <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
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> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 12:23 PM
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> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] MySQL file system
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>
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> > * Robert D. Nelson <RDNELSON@co.centre.pa.us> [010117 05:17] wrote:
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> > > >Raw disk access allows:
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> > >
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> > > If I'm correct, mysql is providing a filesystem, not a way to access raw
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> > > disk, like Oracle does. Huge difference there - with a filesystem, you
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> have
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> > > overhead of FS *and* SQL at the same time.
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> >
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> > Oh, so it's sort of like /proc for mysql?
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> >
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> > What a terrible waste of time and resources. :(
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> >
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> > --
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> > -Alfred Perlstein - [bright@wintelcom.net|alfred@freebsd.org]
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> > "I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my desk."
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From pgsql-general-owner+M4049@postgresql.org Tue Feb  6 01:26:19 2001
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Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 14:15:55 +0800
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To: Mike Hoskins <mikehoskins@yahoo.com>, pgsql-general@postgresql.org
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From: Lincoln Yeoh <lyeoh@pop.jaring.my>
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Subject: [GENERAL] Re: MySQL file system
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In-Reply-To: <3A775CF7.3C5F1909@yahoo.com>
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References: <016e01c080b7$ea554080$330a0a0a@6014cwpza006>
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Status: OR
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What you're saying seems to be to have a data structure where the same data
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can be accessed in both the filesystem style and the RDBMs style. How does
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that work? How is the mapping done between both structures? Slapping a
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filesystem on top of a RDBMs doesn't do that does it?
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Most filesystems are basically databases already, just differently
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structured and featured databases. And so far most of them do their job
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pretty well. You move a folder/directory somewhere, and everything inside
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it moves. Tons of data are already arranged in that form. Though porting
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over data from one filesystem to another is not always straightforward,
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RDBMSes are far worse.
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Maybe what would be nice is not a filesystem based on a database, rather
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one influenced by databases. One with a decent fulltextindex for data and
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filenames, where you have the option to ignore or not ignore
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nonalphanumerics and still get an indexed search.
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Then perhaps we could do something like the following:
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select file.name from path "/var/logs/" where file.name like "%.log%' and
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file.lastmodified > '2000/1/1' and file.contents =~ 'te_st[0-9]+\.gif$' use
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index
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Checkpoints would be nice too. Then I can rollback to a known point if I
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screw up ;).
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In fact the SQL style interface doesn't have to be built in at all. Neither
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does the index have to be realtime. I suppose there could be an option to
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make it realtime if performance is not an issue. 
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What could be done is to use some fast filesystem. Then we add tools to
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maintain indexes, for SQL style interfaces and other style interfaces.
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Checkpoints and rollbacks would be harder of course.
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Cheerio,
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Link.
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