From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
cc: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>, suchithjn22@gmail.com,
        pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: The documentation for storage type 'plain' actually allows single
 byte header
In-reply-to: <4977c12e127250fe9777ae57f6f5884b8f5c84ae.camel@cybertec.at>
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 <d99b3e0beebdde0741d28035aaea7f4af56fa050.camel@cybertec.at>
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 <4977c12e127250fe9777ae57f6f5884b8f5c84ae.camel@cybertec.at>
Comments: In-reply-to Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
	message dated "Sat, 30 Sep 2023 00:35:00 +0200"
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Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2023 18:45:52 -0400
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Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at> writes:
> On Fri, 2023-09-29 at 18:19 -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
>> Where did we end with this?  Is a doc patch the solution?

> I don't think this went anywhere, and a doc patch is not the solution.
> Tom has argued convincingly that single-byte headers are an effect of th=
e TOAST
> system, and that STORAGE PLAIN should disable all effects of TOAST.

Well, that was the original idea: you could use STORAGE PLAIN if you
had C code that wasn't yet toast-aware.  However, given the lack of
complaints, it seems there's no non-toast-aware code left anywhere.
And that's not too surprising, because the evolutionary pressure to
fix such code would be mighty strong, and a lot of time has passed.

I'm now inclined to think that changing the docs is better than
changing the code; we'd be more likely to create new problems than
fix anything useful.

I wonder though if there's really just one place claiming that
that's how it works.  A trawl through the code comments might
be advisable.

			regards, tom lane