Tom Lane wrote: So
> the thing would act a lot like the original-relname-plus-OID variant
> that's been discussed so far. (Original relname because ALTER TABLE
> RENAME would *not* change the physical file name. But we could
> think about a form of VACUUM that creates a whole new table by
> versioning, and that would presumably bring the physical name back
> in sync with the logical relname.)
At least on UNIX, couldn't you use a hard-link and change the name in
pg_class immediately? Let the brain-dead operating systems use the
vacuum method.