Richard Broersma Jr <rabroersma(at)yahoo(dot)com> writes:
>> But I DELETE all conflicting those rows prior to the slow DELETE, just
>> so the FK check is never hit. Should I be looking at subverting the FK
>> check mechanism somehow? The necessary index would be huge, and
>> relevant only on this particular operation which happens every few
>> months, if that.
> true, but without an index, it still has to scan the table just to be sure.
If this is only a once-in-awhile thing, maybe you could build the index,
do the deletes, drop the index ...
regards, tom lane