Re: Big 7.1 open items

The Hermit Hacker <scrappy(at)hub(dot)org> writes:
> just to open up a whole new bucket of worms here, but ... if we do use OID
> (which up until this thought I endorse 100%) ... do we not run a risk if
> we run out of OIDs? As far as I know, those are still a finite resource,
> no?

They are, and there is some risk involved, but OID collisions in the
system tables will cause you just as much headache. There's not only
the pg_class row to think of, but the pg_attribute rows, etc etc.

If you did have an OID collision with an existing table you'd have to
keep trying until you got a set of OID assignments with no conflicts.
(Now that we have unique indexes on the system tables, this should
work properly, ie, you will hear about it if you have a conflict.)
I don't think the physical table names make this noticeably worse.
Of course we'd better be careful to create table files with O_EXCL,
so as not to tromp on existing files, but we do that already IIRC.

> or, do we just assume that by the time that comes, everyone will be pretty
> much using 64bit machines? :)

I think we are not too far away from being able to offer 64-bit OID as
a compile-time option (on machines where there is a 64-bit integer type
that is). It's just a matter of someone putting it at the head of their
todo list.

Bottom line is I'm not real worried about this issue.

But having said all that, I am coming round to agree with Hiroshi's idea
anyway. See upcoming message.

regards, tom lane