To: Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
Cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: What needs to be done for real Partitioning?
References: <200503191202.38089.josh@agliodbs.com>
In-Reply-To: <200503191202.38089.josh@agliodbs.com>
From: Greg Stark <gsstark@mit.edu>
Organization: The Emacs Conspiracy; member since 1992
Date: 20 Mar 2005 01:14:01 -0500
Message-ID: <87br9ehmja.fsf@stark.xeocode.com>
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Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:

> -- INSERT INTO should automatically create new partitions where necessary
>     ---- new tables should automatically inherit all constraints, indexes,
>             keys of "parent" table

I think you're going about this backwards.

Phase I should be an entirely manual system where you add and remove
partitions manually and create and drop indexes you want manually. You need
these low level interfaces anyways for a complete system, it doesn't make
sense to have everything automatic and then later try to wedge in a low level
interface. Only once you have that do you then start offering options to do
these things automatically.

I also think there are a few other components mixed up in your proposal that
are really not integral to partitioned tables. Tablespaces and expression
indexes may well be useful features to use in combination with partitioned
tables, but they shouldn't be required or automatic.