doc: BRIN indexes and autosummarize

Roberto Mello <roberto.mello@gmail.com>

From: Roberto Mello <roberto.mello@gmail.com>
To: PostgreSQL Developers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>
Date: 2022-06-28T23:22:34Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

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  1. BRIN: improve documentation on summarization

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Here's a patch to clarify the BRIN indexes documentation, particularly with
regards
to autosummarize, vacuum and autovacuum. It basically breaks down a big
blob of a
paragraph into multiple paragraphs for clarity, plus explicitly tells how
summarization
happens manually or automatically.

I also added cross-references to various relevant sections, including the
create index
page.

On this topic... I'm not familiar with with the internals of BRIN indexes
and in
backend/access/common/reloptions.c I see:

        {
            "autosummarize",
            "Enables automatic summarization on this BRIN index",
            RELOPT_KIND_BRIN,
            AccessExclusiveLock
        },

Is the exclusive lock on the index why autosummarize is off by default?

What would be the downside (if any) of having autosummarize=on by default?

Roberto

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