Binand Sethumadhavan, 30.03.2012 12:56:
> Is there a comprehensive online document or printed book that explains
> the EXPLAIN output? Something akin to the MySQL documentation here:
>
> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/explain-output.html
>
> I would really like to know what EXPLAIN is telling me, and more
> importantly, what it is not telling me. I have read some documents,
> but none that breaks it down to pieces and explains each piece
> separately.
>
This is a compilation of various articles on this topic:
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Using_EXPLAIN
And then there is
http://www.packtpub.com/postgresql-90-high-performance/book
which also has a chapter dedicated to EXPLAIN
