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(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

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