Re: Idea about better configuration options for sort memory

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004, Tom Lane wrote:

> "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@postgresql.org> writes:
> > On Sat, 31 Jan 2004, Tom Lane wrote:
> >> So, what I'd like to do is make btree index creation pay attention to
> >> vacuum_mem instead of sort_mem, and rename the vacuum_mem parameter to
> >> some more-generic name indicating that it's used for more than just
> >> VACUUM.  Any objections so far?
>
> > Why not create a seperate index_mem variable instead?  index creation
> > tends to be, I think, less frequent then vacuum, so having a higher value
> > for index_mem then vacuum_mem may make sense ...
>
> Well, maybe.  What's in the back of my mind is that we may come across
> other cases besides CREATE INDEX and VACUUM that should use a "one-off"
> setting.  I think it'd make more sense to have one parameter than keep
> on inventing new ones.  For comparison, SortMem is used for quite a few
> different purposes, but I can't recall anyone needing to tweak an
> individual one of those purposes other than CREATE INDEX.

Why not a 'default_mem' parameter that auto-sets the others if not
explicitly set?  note that, at least in my case, I didn't know that
sort_mem affected CREATE INDEX, only ORDER/GORUP BYs ...

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Marc G. Fournier           Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
Email: scrappy@hub.org           Yahoo!: yscrappy              ICQ: 7615664