Re: Index build temp files

On Tue, Jan  8, 2013 at 05:09:47PM -0500, Stephen Frost wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
>   We were surprised recently to note that the temp files that are
>   created during a CREATE INDEX don't go into either a temp tablespace
>   set for the user or into the tablespace which the CREATE INDEX
>   specifies.  Instead, they go only into base/pgsql_tmp/.  This doesn't
>   allow for any flexibility in defining where to create these
>   potentially quite large sets of files.
> 
>   Shouldn't these temp files be going into the temp tablespace for the
>   user creating the index instead..?  Or perhaps into the tablespace
>   which the index is being created in?

Well, our docs for temp_tablespaces says:

        This variable specifies tablespaces in which to create temporary
        objects (temp tables and indexes on temp tables) when a
        <command>CREATE</> command does not explicitly specify a tablespace.
        Temporary files for purposes such as sorting large data sets
        are also created in these tablespaces.

Are you saying this is inaccorate?

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +