CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Mark Woodward
Subject CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY?
Date
Msg-id CAO4kwDkwCtzMjnEbj8ttoovUi=KNJcYJHN5xkCK1dKJ3gmy9PA@mail.gmail.com
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Re: CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY?
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I have not kept up with PostgreSQL changes and have just been using it. A co-worker recently told me that you need to word "CONCURRENTLY" in "CREATE INDEX" to avoid table locking. I called BS on this because to my knowledge PostgreSQL does not lock tables. I referenced this page in the documentation:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/locking-indexes.html

However, I do see this sentence in the indexing page that was not in the docs prior to 8.0:

"Creating an index can interfere with regular operation of a database. Normally PostgreSQL locks the table to be indexed against writes and performs the entire index build with a single scan of the table."

Is this true? When/why the change?

When we use "concurrently," it seems to hang. I am looking into it.


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