Re: Bug: Buffer cache is not scan resistant - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: Bug: Buffer cache is not scan resistant
Date
Msg-id 27852.1173058603@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Bug: Buffer cache is not scan resistant  ("Luke Lonergan" <llonergan@greenplum.com>)
Responses Re: Bug: Buffer cache is not scan resistant  (Mark Kirkwood <markir@paradise.net.nz>)
Re: Bug: Buffer cache is not scan resistant  (Grzegorz Jaskiewicz <gj@pointblue.com.pl>)
List pgsql-hackers
"Luke Lonergan" <llonergan@greenplum.com> writes:
> The issue is summarized like this: the buffer cache in PGSQL is not "scan
> resistant" as advertised.

Sure it is.  As near as I can tell, your real complaint is that the
bufmgr doesn't attempt to limit its usage footprint to fit in L2 cache;
which is hardly surprising considering it doesn't know the size of L2
cache.  That's not a consideration that we've ever taken into account.

I'm also less than convinced that it'd be helpful for a big seqscan:
won't reading a new disk page into memory via DMA cause that memory to
get flushed from the processor cache anyway?  I wonder whether your
numbers are explained by some other consideration than you think.
        regards, tom lane


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