Subject: Re: TOAST not working
From: Angus Berry <angus.berry@elkenserve.com>
Reply-To: angus.berry@elkenserve.com
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
In-Reply-To: <87bqt03efl.fsf@wolfe.cbbrowne.com>
References: <1149944622.15368.38.camel@vaio1linux>
	<87bqt03efl.fsf@wolfe.cbbrowne.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 22:43:02 -0400
Message-Id: <1149993782.15368.62.camel@vaio1linux>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Ahhh... thank you. This clarifies TOAST for me. I see how TOAST applies
to individual columns that exceed the 8k page size.

Postgres specs state it's possible to have 2GB rows and up to 1,600
columns. Can you tell me what data type would get to fill this spec. I
wouldn't normally push to this limit, but I am expecting to have to
defend Postgres specs. to a 3rd party.

Questions like this also help me get to grips with Postgres internals.

thanks... Angus

On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 17:10 -0400, Christopher Browne wrote:
> Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw when listman@elkenserver.net (list_man) would write:
> > Can someone tell me if I have to 'enable' TOAST on columns to have  it
> > kick in. According to my research, numeric data types are toastable.
> 
> TOAST is only used on individual columns that exceed 8K in size.
> 
> The only way you'll be TOASTing numeric columns is if they are
> individually defined to occupy > 8192 bytes.
> 
> Those are *BIG* numeric values; perhaps you're misunderstanding the
> intent of TOAST...