X-Original-To: pgsql-performance-postgresql.org@localhost.postgresql.org Received: from localhost (av.hub.org [200.46.204.144]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF2949DC880 for ; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:41:20 -0400 (AST) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (av.hub.org [200.46.204.144]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 64233-04 for ; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:41:22 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey- Received: from flake.decibel.org (flake.decibel.org [67.100.216.10]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9EC849DC84E for ; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:41:18 -0400 (AST) Received: by flake.decibel.org (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 31BDE1529A; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 16:41:21 -0600 (CST) Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 16:41:21 -0600 From: "Jim C. Nasby" To: Mark Kirkwood Cc: "Craig A. James" , pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Overriding the optimizer Message-ID: <20051216224121.GW53809@pervasive.com> References: <200512141603.52583.blargity@gmail.com> <7484.1134600423@sss.pgh.pa.us> <1134629567.14248.27.camel@firebolt> <200512150148.16125.blargity@gmail.com> <1134644526.14248.60.camel@firebolt> <43A1C40D.8040006@paradise.net.nz> <43A1F6DB.3080805@modgraph-usa.com> <43A226E7.7040508@paradise.net.nz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <43A226E7.7040508@paradise.net.nz> X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE-p10 i386 X-Distributed: Join the Effort! http://www.distributed.net User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at hub.org X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.011 required=5 tests=[AWL=0.011] X-Spam-Score: 0.011 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200512/411 X-Sequence-Number: 16232 On Fri, Dec 16, 2005 at 03:31:03PM +1300, Mark Kirkwood wrote: > After years of using several other database products (some supporting > hint type constructs and some not), I have come to believe that hinting > (or similar) actually *hinders* the development of a great optimizer. I don't think you can assume that would hold true for an open-source database. Unlike a commercial database, it's trivially easy to notify developers about a bad query plan. With a commercial database you'd have to open a support ticket and hope they actually use that info to improve the planner. Here you need just send an email to this list and the developers will at least see it, and will usually try and fix the issue. -- Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant jnasby@pervasive.com Pervasive Software http://pervasive.com work: 512-231-6117 vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf cell: 512-569-9461