David Powell <david(at)drp(dot)id(dot)au> writes:
> I have an application which is using long idle transactions. Whenever
> a transaction is commited, a new transaction is started which may then
> sit idle until the next client access.
This is generally considered bad application design. Long-lived
transactions are a bad idea and definitely can hurt the performance of
other stuff.
Depending on which client library and PG version you are using,
issuing a BEGIN and then doing nothing for a long time might not hurt
you, but I can't recommend it.
regards, tom lane