Re: Table Partitioning is in 8.1

On Thu, 2005-09-22 at 14:37 -0500, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 22, 2005 at 10:11:50AM +0100, Simon Riggs wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-09-21 at 15:39 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> > > Simon Riggs <simon(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> writes:
> > > > Is it possible that the Release Notes do not fully explain the
> > > > Constraint Exclusion feature? Or is it the consensus that it works but
> > > > not quite well enough to make a song and dance about yet?
> > >
> > > I hardly think that the existing constraint-exclusion code is enough for
> > > us to claim we "support table partitioning". There's too much grunt
> > > work that the DBA still has to do to set up a partitioning arrangement.
> >
> > So you think the DBA can do partitioning? Good.
> >
> > Setting up partitioning in Oracle or SQLServer2005 requires lots of
> > syntax and multiple commands. There are fewer commands with PostgreSQL
> > and they are ISO/ANSI compliant also.
>
> Actually, IIRC it takes 2 commands; one to initially setup the
> partitioning and one to create new partitions as needed. 3 commands if
> you count DROP PARTITON.

Which is what it takes in PostgreSQL.

> It's been a while since I looked at what you've done, but I seem to
> recall needing to manually maintain rules every time you create a new
> partition.

All current implementations I am aware of require Declarative statements
each time a new partition is started.

But there is no *need* to create RULEs. You would need to do that if you
wanted automatic routing of INSERT statements. The current PostgreSQL
implementation does not do this, and yes, this would require creating a
set of Rule statements to do this - though possible to do this
automatically with a simple script. My experience with Oracle has been
that one loads into specifically identified partitions, so the loading
case for PostgreSQL is essentially identical to the common case for
Oracle. My experience may not be everybody's, so I may be off-base on
this, but I've not put a priority on solving that issue. Do people
consider that aspect essential to the wider use of partitioning?

I don't consider CE to be complete, any more than any newly introduced
major feature set, but IMHO the important first order functionality is
now available in PostgreSQL.

I'm looking at probably Tuesday to submit first draft docs.

Best Regards, Simon Riggs