Re: postgres limitation - Mailing list pgsql-admin

Put both in,

the short for the managers who want to compare postgresql to
<insert generic brand sql server here>

and the long for the techies

Andrew

On Sat, Jan 27, 2001 at 09:44:12PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Can I get some feedback from the group?  Should a long or short version
> be used in the FAQ?
>
> >
> > How about the full answer?  I think Tom did a fantastic job of writing up,
> > be a shame to make it go to waste for brevity? :(
> >
> > On Sat, 27 Jan 2001, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> >
> > > OK, how is this?
> > >
> > >
> > > These are the limits:
> > >
> > >     Maximum size for a database?             unlimited (60GB databases exist)
> > >     Maximum size for a table?                64 TB on all operating systems
> > >     Maximum size for a row?                  unlimited in 7.1 and later
> > >     Maximum size for a field?                1GB in 7.1 and later
> > >     Maximum number of rows in a table?       unlimited
> > >     Maximum number of columns in a table?    1600
> > >     Maximum number of indexes on a table?    unlimited
> > >
> > >     Of course, these are not actually unlimited, but limited to
> > >     available disk space and memory/swap space.  Performance may
> > >     suffer when these values get unusually large.
> > >
> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Bruce, I think section 4.6 of the FAQ is a tad on the short and overly
> > > > optimistic side.  Here's a set of more precise statements ...
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >     4.6) What is the maximum size for a row, table, database?
> > > >
> > > > Maximum size for a database?
> > > >
> > > > Effectively unlimited, although you may see performance problems with
> > > > more than a few thousand tables in a database, depending on how
> > > > gracefully your filesystem copes with directories containing many files.
> > > >
> > > > Maximum size for a table?
> > > >
> > > > 2G blocks, hence 16 to 64 terabytes depending on the BLCKSZ
> > > > configuration constant.  (If someone were to run around and make sure
> > > > all the block-number arithmetic is unsigned, we could claim 4G blocks,
> > > > but I think it's not all unsigned now...)
> > > >
> > > > Maximum size for a row?
> > > >
> > > > See limits on field size and number of columns.
> > > >
> > > > Maximum size for an individual field value?
> > > >
> > > > Field values are limited to 1Gb, and in practice are more tightly
> > > > limited by memory/swap space available to a backend; a field value that
> > > > is a large fraction of the maximum process memory size will probably
> > > > cause out-of-memory failures.
> > > >
> > > > Maximum number of columns in a table?
> > > >
> > > > 1600.  In practice probably quite a bit less, even with TOAST, since the
> > > > master tuple still has to fit in a block.  If all the columns are large
> > > > (toastable) then at most you could fit about 250 columns with BLCKSZ=8K,
> > > > since an out-of-line TOAST value pointer takes 32 bytes.  On the other
> > > > hand, 1600 int4 columns would fit easily.
> > > >
> > > > Maximum number of rows in a table?
> > > >
> > > > No specific limit.  Note however that the COUNT() function currently
> > > > uses an int4 counter, so will give bogus results for more than 2G rows.
> > > >
> > > > Maximum number of indexes on a table?
> > > >
> > > > No limit.
> > > >
> > > >             regards, tom lane
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >   Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
> > >   pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
> > >   +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
> > >   +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
> > >
> >
> > Marc G. Fournier                   ICQ#7615664               IRC Nick: Scrappy
> > Systems Administrator @ hub.org
> > primary: scrappy@hub.org           secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
> >
> >
>
>
> --
>   Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
>   pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
>   +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
>   +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026