Thread: REINDEXing user table in non stand-alone?

Hi,

I read the manual for the REINDEX command.
The REINDEX command is described as

    "Recover corrupted system indexes under
    stand-alone Postgres "

I am currently trying to reindex an user table.
Does one need to go into stand-alone mode to
reindex an user table?

I have actually REINDEXed an user table when
the database is not in stand-alone mode. It
seems fine but the test environment does not
have much users accessing it, the live site that
I eventually want to REINDEX does.

Is it safe to REINDEX an user table while in
non stand-alone mode when other users are
accessing it?

Thank you in advance.

"Shuzo Kubo" <gardenweasel@hotmail.com> writes:
> Does one need to go into stand-alone mode to
> reindex an user table?

No.  The docs need some improvement in this area.  The pushups mentioned
in the docs are really only necessary if you have a broken system index
that's sufficiently critical that the backend crashes before you can
execute REINDEX.  (For instance, the indexes on pg_class are likely to
cause such problems.)  The basic idea of the pushups is to start the
backend in a mode such that it doesn't use the indexes to access the
system catalogs.

> Is it safe to REINDEX an user table while in
> non stand-alone mode when other users are
> accessing it?

Not sure about that --- I believe it's safe in 7.2, but IIRC, REINDEX
didn't bother to acquire a LOCK on the table in earlier releases.
Best to shut down any other clients that might be trying to access the
damaged table.  Or forget REINDEX and recover via DROP/CREATE INDEX.

            regards, tom lane