Re: Let's make PostgreSQL multi-threaded

On Fri, 9 Jun 2023 at 18:29, Stephen Frost <sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net> wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> * Dave Cramer (davecramer(at)postgres(dot)rocks) wrote:
> > One thing I can think of is upgrading. AFAIK dump and restore is the only
> > way to change the on disk format.
> > Presuming that eventually we will be forced to change the on disk format
> it
> > would be nice to be able to do so in a manner which does not force long
> > down times
>
> There is an ongoing effort moving in this direction. The $subject isn't
> great, but this patch set (which we are currently working on
> updating...): https://commitfest.postgresql.org/43/3986/ attempts
> changing a lot of currently compile-time block-size pieces to be
> run-time which would open up the possibility to have a different page
> format for, eg, different tablespaces. Possibly even different block
> sizes. We'd certainly welcome discussion from others who are
> interested.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stephen
>

Upgrading was just one example of difficult problems that need to be
addressed.
My thought was that before we commit to something as potentially resource
intensive as changing the threading model we compile a list of other "big
issues" and prioritize.

I realize open source is more of a scratch your itch kind of development
model, but I'm not convinced the random walk that entails is the
appropriate way to move forward. At the very least I'd like us to question
it.
Dave