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Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:28:37 -0600
From: "ktm@rice.edu" <ktm@rice.edu>
To: "Reuven M. Lerner" <reuven@lerner.co.il>
Cc: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>,
	Marcin =?utf-8?B?TWHFhGs=?= <marcin.mank@gmail.com>,
	pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Very long deletion time on a 200 GB database
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On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 05:25:46PM +0200, Reuven M. Lerner wrote:
> >
> >What is the distribution of end_dates? It might be worth running this in
> >several steps, deleting records older than, say, 90 days, 60 days, 30 days.
> 
> I've suggested something similar, but was told that we have limited
> time to execute the DELETE, and that doing it in stages might not be
> possible.
> 
> Reuven
> 

In cases like this, I have often found that doing the delete in smaller
pieces goes faster, sometimes much faster, than the bigger delete.

Regards,
Ken