Horton

Re: [HACKERS] Happy column dropping

Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>

View thread
From: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, Hiroshi Inoue <Inoue@tpf.co.jp>, The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org>, PostgreSQL Development <pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org>
Date: 2000-01-25T14:14:29Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers 
> On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> 
> > New file name will not be just oid.  Too hard to administer.
> 
> How exactly does this play into administration? You don't actually do a cp
> /usr/local/pgsql/data/base/testdb/mytable /some/where to back up? ;)
> 
> What did the Unix kernel programmers think when they first introduced
> inodes? The wrote the readdir() library call. We have that too, it's
> called pg_class.
> 

Ingres has table names as numbered files.  It is a pain to figure out
which files match which tables.  If you need to restore a table from
tape, the pg_class entry is gone and you have no way to figure out the
right table.  When analyzing disk space, figuring who is using the space
is a pain.

Every Ingre admin I ever talked to agreed file numbers are a pain.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026