Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 21:53:17 -0500
From: Daniel CAUNE <d.caune@free.fr>
Subject: Re: Does PostgreSQL support job?
In-reply-to: <20060202002825.GA10816@surnet.cl>
To: 'Alvaro Herrera' <alvherre@commandprompt.com>,
	'Daniel Caune' <daniel.caune@ubisoft.com>
Cc: 'Owen Jacobson' <ojacobson@osl.com>, pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Message-id: <0IU100CZUHCUBPD0@VL-MO-MR003.ip.videotron.ca>
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> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pgsql-sql-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-sql-
> owner@postgresql.org] De la part de Alvaro Herrera
> Envoy=C3=A9 : mercredi 1 f=C3=A9vrier 2006 19:28
> =C3=80 : Daniel Caune
> Cc : Owen Jacobson; pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
> Objet : Re: [SQL] Does PostgreSQL support job?
>=20
> Daniel Caune wrote:
>=20
> > Yes, that's it.  A job is a task, i.e. set of statements, which is
> > scheduled to run against a RDBMS at periodical times.  Some RDBMS,
> > such as SQL Server
>=20
> ..., the current alpha MySQL, ...
>=20
> > and Oracle, support that feature, even if such a
> > feature is managed differently from a RDBMS to another.
>=20
>=20
> I was amused when I read the MySQL news in LWN.net, because most
> comments were things like "what the hell has this half-baked feature =
has
> to do in a RDBMS anyway".
>=20
> http://lwn.net/Articles/167895/
>=20

It's true that implementing a job management within an RDBMS is somewhat =
reinventing the wheel, especially on UNIX systems where cron exists =
(even on Windows, which supports scheduled tasks).  Anyway, job support =
within a RDBMS sounds more like a facility.

"While I have built a number of large and small applications with =
various time-based event scheduling tables stored in an SQL database, =
including things like triggers that send asynchronous notifications to =
daemon clients to advise them to re-query for updated schedules, it =
never in my wildest imaginings occured to me to actually initiate =
execution autonomously from the database back end."
[zblaxell, 2006-01-25, http://lwn.net/Articles/167895/]

Well, perhaps zblaxell has only worked on operational systems (OLTP), =
but such autonomy is sometimes useful in low-cost business intelligence =
systems (OLAP).

--
Daniel CAUNE