work-mem tells the size of physical memory only, virtual memory is
always there off course in case you run out of available memory.
I recommend you reading PostgreSQL internals for all this stuff:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/internals.html
--Imad
www.EnterpriseDB.com
On 1/29/07, Campbell, Lance <lance@uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I have been researching how to improve my overall performance of postgres.
> I am a little confused on the reasoning for how work-mem is used in the
> postgresql.conf file. The way I understand the documentation is you define
> with work-mem how much memory you want to allocate per search. Couldn't you
> run out of memory? This approach seems kind of odd to me. How do you tell
> the system not to allocate too much memory if you all of the sudden got hit
> with a heavier number of queries?
>
>
>
>
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> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Lance Campbell
>
> Project Manager/Software Architect
>
> Web Services at Public Affairs
>
> University of Illinois
>
> 217.333.0382
>
> http://webservices.uiuc.edu
>
>
