Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.183]) by developer.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EC35C2E0056 for ; Thu, 15 May 2008 12:52:55 -0300 (ADT) Received: from developer.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.183]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 10092-02 for ; Thu, 15 May 2008 12:52:41 -0300 (ADT) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from lists.commandprompt.com (host-159.commandprompt.net [207.173.203.159]) by developer.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E6E12E002D for ; Thu, 15 May 2008 12:52:40 -0300 (ADT) Received: from perhan.alvh.no-ip.org (200-126-123-196.bk8-dsl.surnet.cl [200.126.123.196]) (authenticated bits=0) by lists.commandprompt.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m4FFrcKL007740 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 15 May 2008 08:53:40 -0700 Received: by perhan.alvh.no-ip.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 18D1747C5E; Thu, 15 May 2008 11:52:32 -0400 (CLT) Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 11:52:32 -0400 From: Alvaro Herrera To: Matthew Wakeling Cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: I/O on select count(*) Message-ID: <20080515155232.GC8221@alvh.no-ip.org> References: <920841.71690.qm@web44808.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> <482B1D5F.EE98.0025.0@wicourts.gov> <20080515020553.GN9838@alvh.no-ip.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17+20080114 (2008-01-14) X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.0 (lists.commandprompt.com [207.173.203.159]); Thu, 15 May 2008 08:53:40 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Archive-Number: 200805/222 X-Sequence-Number: 30190 Matthew Wakeling wrote: Aside from the rest of commentary, a slight clarification: > So, as I understand it, Postgres works like this: > > 1. You begin a transaction. Postgres writes an entry into pg_clog. Starting a transaction does not write anything to pg_clog. -- Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/ The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.