Re: pgsql-server/src/backend/utils/sort tuplesort.c - Mailing list pgsql-committers

From Bruce Momjian
Subject Re: pgsql-server/src/backend/utils/sort tuplesort.c
Date
Msg-id 200403180306.i2I36Ig01265@candle.pha.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: pgsql-server/src/backend/utils/sort tuplesort.c  (Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
List pgsql-committers
Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> > Tom Lane wrote:
> >> During btree index build, sort equal-keyed tuples according to their
> >> TID (heap position).  This doesn't do anything to the validity of the
> >> finished index, but by pretending to qsort() that there are no really
> >> equal keys in the sort, we can avoid performance problems with qsort
> >> implementations that have trouble with large numbers of equal keys.
> >> Patch from Manfred Koizar.
>
> > I think there is also the advantage that many equal keys will access the
> > heap in a more sequential, rather than random, order, which is the part
> > that really excited me.
>
> But we aren't attempting to maintain that ordering after index build.
> (In fact, it was exactly that point that triggered the argument last
> time round ...)

Agreed, but we don't maintain CLUSTER either.  I see no harm in having
it start out ordered, at least.

--
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  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
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