What needs to be done for real Partitioning?

Folks,

I may (or may not) soon have funding for implementing full table partitioning
in PostgreSQL. I thought it would be a good idea to discuss with people here
who are already using pseudo-partitioning what things need to be added to
Postgresql in order to make full paritioning a reality; that is, what do
other databases do that we don't?

Implementations are seperated into phases I and II, II being
harder-and-optional-stuff that may get done later, I being essential
features.

Ph. I
-- CREATE TABLE ... WITH PARTITION ON {expression}
---- should automatically create expression index on {expression}
-- INSERT INTO should automatically create new partitions where necessary
---- new tables should automatically inherit all constraints, indexes,
keys of "parent" table
-- UPDATE should automatically move rows between partitions where applicable
-- Query Planner/Executor should be improved to not always materialize
paritioned tables used in subqueries and joins.

Ph. II
-- Foreign Keys to/from partitioned tables should become possible
-- Query Planner/Executor should be improved to only join partitions which are
compliant with the query's WHERE or JOIN clauses where reasonable
-- DELETE FROM should automatically drop empty partitions
-- setting of WITH PARTITION ON {expression} TABLESPACE should automatically
create a new tablespace for each new partition and its indexes.
-- It should be possible to create new, empty partitions via a CREATE TABLE
PARTITION OF {table} ON {value} expression.

All syntax above is, of course, highly debatable.

--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco