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Bruce Momjian 59f7d47ed7 Stamp releases 8.2.5, 8.1.10, 8.0.14, 7.4.18, 7.3.20. 
Update FAQs for 8.2.5.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL
Last updated: Sat Nov 29 23:54:03 EST 2003
Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (pgman@candle.pha.pa.us)
The most recent version of this document can be viewed at
http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html.
Platform-specific questions are answered at
http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/index.html.
_________________________________________________________________
General Questions
1.1) What is PostgreSQL? How is it pronounced?
1.2) What is the copyright on PostgreSQL?
1.3) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run on?
1.4) What non-Unix ports are available?
1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL?
1.6) Where can I get support?
1.7) What is the latest release?
1.8) What documentation is available?
1.9) How do I find out about known bugs or missing features?
1.10) How can I learn SQL?
1.11) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?
1.12) How do I join the development team?
1.13) How do I submit a bug report?
1.14) How does PostgreSQL compare to other DBMSs?
1.15) How can I financially assist PostgreSQL?
User Client Questions
2.1) Are there ODBC drivers for PostgreSQL?
2.2) What tools are available for using PostgreSQL with Web pages?
2.3) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user interface?
2.4) What languages are available to communicate with PostgreSQL?
Administrative Questions
3.1) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere other than
/usr/local/pgsql?
3.2) When I start postmaster, I get a Bad System Call or core dumped
message. Why?
3.3) When I try to start postmaster, I get IpcMemoryCreate errors.
Why?
3.4) When I try to start postmaster, I get IpcSemaphoreCreate errors.
Why?
3.5) How do I control connections from other hosts?
3.6) How do I tune the database engine for better performance?
3.7) What debugging features are available?
3.8) Why do I get "Sorry, too many clients" when trying to connect?
3.9) What is in the pgsql_tmp directory?
3.10) Why do I need to do a dump and restore to upgrade PostgreSQL
releases?
Operational Questions
4.1) What is the difference between binary cursors and normal cursors?
4.2) How do I SELECT only the first few rows of a query? A random row?
4.3) How do I get a list of tables or other things I can see in psql?
4.4) How do you remove a column from a table, or change it's data
type?
4.5) What is the maximum size for a row, a table, and a database?
4.6) How much database disk space is required to store data from a
typical text file?
4.7) How do I find out what tables, indexes, databases, and users are
defined?
4.8) My queries are slow or don't make use of the indexes. Why?
4.9) How do I see how the query optimizer is evaluating my query?
4.10) What is an R-tree index?
4.11) What is the Genetic Query Optimizer?
4.12) How do I perform regular expression searches and
case-insensitive regular expression searches? How do I use an index
for case-insensitive searches?
4.13) In a query, how do I detect if a field is NULL?
4.14) What is the difference between the various character types?
4.15.1) How do I create a serial/auto-incrementing field?
4.15.2) How do I get the value of a SERIAL insert?
4.15.3) Don't currval() and nextval() lead to a race condition with
other users?
4.15.4) Why aren't my sequence numbers reused on transaction abort?
Why are there gaps in the numbering of my sequence/SERIAL column?
4.16) What is an OID? What is a TID?
4.17) What is the meaning of some of the terms used in PostgreSQL?
4.18) Why do I get the error "ERROR: Memory exhausted in
AllocSetAlloc()"?
4.19) How do I tell what PostgreSQL version I am running?
4.20) Why does my large-object operations get "invalid large obj
descriptor"?
4.21) How do I create a column that will default to the current time?
4.22) Why are my subqueries using IN so slow?
4.23) How do I perform an outer join?
4.24) How do I perform queries using multiple databases?
4.25) How do I return multiple rows or columns from a function?
4.26) Why can't I reliably create/drop temporary tables in PL/PgSQL
functions?
4.27) What replication options are available?
4.28) What encryption options are available?
Extending PostgreSQL
5.1) I wrote a user-defined function. When I run it in psql, why does
it dump core?
5.2) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions to
PostgreSQL?
5.3) How do I write a C function to return a tuple?
5.4) I have changed a source file. Why does the recompile not see the
change?
_________________________________________________________________
General Questions
1.1) What is PostgreSQL? How is it pronounced?
PostgreSQL is pronounced Post-Gres-Q-L.
PostgreSQL is an enhancement of the POSTGRES database management
system, a next-generation DBMS research prototype. While PostgreSQL
retains the powerful data model and rich data types of POSTGRES, it
replaces the PostQuel query language with an extended subset of SQL.
PostgreSQL is free and the complete source is available.
PostgreSQL development is performed by a team of developers who all
subscribe to the PostgreSQL development mailing list. The current
coordinator is Marc G. Fournier (scrappy@PostgreSQL.org). (See section
1.6 on how to join). This team is now responsible for all development
of PostgreSQL.
The authors of PostgreSQL 1.01 were Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen. Many
others have contributed to the porting, testing, debugging, and
enhancement of the code. The original Postgres code, from which
PostgreSQL is derived, was the effort of many graduate students,
undergraduate students, and staff programmers working under the
direction of Professor Michael Stonebraker at the University of
California, Berkeley.
The original name of the software at Berkeley was Postgres. When SQL
functionality was added in 1995, its name was changed to Postgres95.
The name was changed at the end of 1996 to PostgreSQL.
1.2) What is the copyright on PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL is subject to the following COPYRIGHT:
PostgreSQL Data Base Management System
Portions copyright (c) 1996-2002, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Portions Copyright (c) 1994-6 Regents of the University of California
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written
agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
and this paragraph and the following two paragraphs appear in all
copies.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY
FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES,
INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND
ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE
PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT,
UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.
The above is the BSD license, the classic open-source license. It has
no restrictions on how the source code may be used. We like it and
have no intention of changing it.
1.3) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run on?
In general, a modern Unix-compatible platform should be able to run
PostgreSQL. The platforms that had received explicit testing at the
time of release are listed in the installation instructions.
1.4) What non-Unix ports are available?
Client
It is possible to compile the libpq C library, psql, and other
interfaces and client applications to run on MS Windows platforms. In
this case, the client is running on MS Windows, and communicates via
TCP/IP to a server running on one of our supported Unix platforms. A
file win32.mak is included in the distribution for making a Win32
libpq library and psql. PostgreSQL also communicates with ODBC
clients.
Server
The database server can run on Windows NT and Win2k using Cygwin, the
Cygnus Unix/NT porting library. See pgsql/doc/FAQ_MSWIN in the
distribution or the MS Windows FAQ at
http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faqs/text/FAQ_MSWIN.
A native port to MS Win NT/2000/XP is currently being worked on. For
more details on the current status of PostgreSQL on Windows see
http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/Windows and
http://momjian.postgresql.org/main/writings/pgsql/win32.html.
There is also a Novell Netware 6 port at http://forge.novell.com.
1.5) Where can I get PostgreSQL?
The primary anonymous ftp site for PostgreSQL is
ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub. For mirror sites, see our main web site.
1.6) Where can I get support?
The main mailing list is: pgsql-general@PostgreSQL.org. It is
available for discussion of matters pertaining to PostgreSQL. To
subscribe, send mail with the following lines in the body (not the
subject line):
subscribe
end
to pgsql-general-request@PostgreSQL.org.
There is also a digest list available. To subscribe to this list, send
email to: pgsql-general-digest-request@PostgreSQL.org with a body of:
subscribe
end
Digests are sent out to members of this list whenever the main list
has received around 30k of messages.
The bugs mailing list is available. To subscribe to this list, send
email to pgsql-bugs-request@PostgreSQL.org with a body of:
subscribe
end
There is also a developers discussion mailing list available. To
subscribe to this list, send email to
pgsql-hackers-request@PostgreSQL.org with a body of:
subscribe
end
Additional mailing lists and information about PostgreSQL can be found
via the PostgreSQL WWW home page at:
http://www.PostgreSQL.org
There is also an IRC channel on EFNet and Freenode, channel
#PostgreSQL. You can use the Unix command irc -c '#PostgreSQL' "$USER"
irc.phoenix.net. or irc -c '#PostgreSQL' "$USER" irc.freenode.net.
A list of commercial support companies is available at
http://techdocs.postgresql.org/companies.php.
1.7) What is the latest release?
The latest release of PostgreSQL is version 8.2.5.
We plan to have major releases every six to eight months.
1.8) What documentation is available?
Several manuals, manual pages, and some small test examples are
included in the distribution. See the /doc directory. You can also
browse the manuals online at http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs.
There are two PostgreSQL books available online at
http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html and
http://www.commandprompt.com/ppbook/. There is a list of PostgreSQL
books available for purchase at
http://techdocs.PostgreSQL.org/techdocs/bookreviews.php. There is also
a collection of PostgreSQL technical articles at
http://techdocs.PostgreSQL.org/.
psql has some nice \d commands to show information about types,
operators, functions, aggregates, etc.
Our web site contains even more documentation.
1.9) How do I find out about known bugs or missing features?
PostgreSQL supports an extended subset of SQL-92. See our TODO list
for known bugs, missing features, and future plans.
1.10) How can I learn SQL?
The PostgreSQL book at http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html
teaches SQL. There is another PostgreSQL book at
http://www.commandprompt.com/ppbook. There is a nice tutorial at
http://www.intermedia.net/support/sql/sqltut.shtm, at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/graeme_birchall/HTM_COOK.HTM,
and at http://sqlcourse.com.
Another one is "Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Second Edition" at
http://members.tripod.com/er4ebus/sql/index.htm
Many of our users like The Practical SQL Handbook, Bowman, Judith S.,
et al., Addison-Wesley. Others like The Complete Reference SQL, Groff
et al., McGraw-Hill.
1.11) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?
Yes, we easily handle dates past the year 2000 AD, and before 2000 BC.
1.12) How do I join the development team?
First, download the latest source and read the PostgreSQL Developers
documentation on our web site, or in the distribution. Second,
subscribe to the pgsql-hackers and pgsql-patches mailing lists. Third,
submit high quality patches to pgsql-patches.
There are about a dozen people who have commit privileges to the
PostgreSQL CVS archive. They each have submitted so many high-quality
patches that it was impossible for the existing committers to keep up,
and we had confidence that patches they committed were of high
quality.
1.13) How do I submit a bug report?
Please visit the PostgreSQL BugTool page at
http://www.PostgreSQL.org/bugs/bugs.php, which gives guidelines and
directions on how to submit a bug report.
Also check out our ftp site ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub to see if
there is a more recent PostgreSQL version or patches.
1.14) How does PostgreSQL compare to other DBMSs?
There are several ways of measuring software: features, performance,
reliability, support, and price.
Features
PostgreSQL has most features present in large commercial DBMSs,
like transactions, subselects, triggers, views, foreign key
referential integrity, and sophisticated locking. We have some
features they do not have, like user-defined types,
inheritance, rules, and multi-version concurrency control to
reduce lock contention.
Performance
PostgreSQL has performance similar to other commercial and open
source databases. it is faster for some things, slower for
others. In comparison to MySQL or leaner database systems, we
are faster for multiple users, complex queries, and a
read/write query load. MySQL is faster for simple SELECT
queries done by a few users. Of course, MySQL does not have
most of the features mentioned in the Features section above.
We are built for reliability and features, and we continue to
improve performance in every release. There is an interesting
Web page comparing PostgreSQL to MySQL at
http://openacs.org/philosophy/why-not-mysql.html Also, MySQL is
is a company that distributes its products via open source, not
an open source development community like PostgreSQL.
Reliability
We realize that a DBMS must be reliable, or it is worthless. We
strive to release well-tested, stable code that has a minimum
of bugs. Each release has at least one month of beta testing,
and our release history shows that we can provide stable, solid
releases that are ready for production use. We believe we
compare favorably to other database software in this area.
Support
Our mailing lists provide contact with a large group of
developers and users to help resolve any problems encountered.
While we cannot guarantee a fix, commercial DBMSs do not always
supply a fix either. Direct access to developers, the user
community, manuals, and the source code often make PostgreSQL
support superior to other DBMSs. There is commercial
per-incident support available for those who need it. (See FAQ
section 1.6.)
Price
We are free for all use, both commercial and non-commercial.
You can add our code to your product with no limitations,
except those outlined in our BSD-style license stated above.
1.15) How can I financially assist PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL has had a first-class infrastructure since we started in
1996. This is all thanks to Marc Fournier, who has created and managed
this infrastructure over the years.
Quality infrastructure is very important to an open-source project. It
prevents disruptions that can greatly delay forward movement of the
project.
Of course, this infrastructure is not cheap. There are a variety of
monthly and one-time expenses that are required to keep it going. If
you or your company has money it can donate to help fund this effort,
please go to http://store.pgsql.com/shopping/ and make a donation.
Although the web page mentions PostgreSQL, Inc, the "contributions"
item is solely to support the PostgreSQL project and does not fund any
specific company. If you prefer, you can also send a check to the
contact address.
_________________________________________________________________
Also, if you have a success story about PostgreSQL, please submit it
to our advocacy site at http://advocacy.postgresql.org.
User Client Questions
2.1) Are there ODBC drivers for PostgreSQL?
There are two ODBC drivers available, PsqlODBC and OpenLink ODBC.
You can download PsqlODBC from
http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/psqlodbc/projdisplay.php.
OpenLink ODBC can be gotten from http://www.openlinksw.com. It works
with their standard ODBC client software so you'll have PostgreSQL
ODBC available on every client platform they support (Win, Mac, Unix,
VMS).
They will probably be selling this product to people who need
commercial-quality support, but a freeware version will always be
available. Please send questions to postgres95@openlink.co.uk.
2.2) What tools are available for using PostgreSQL with Web pages?
A nice introduction to Database-backed Web pages can be seen at:
http://www.webreview.com
For Web integration, PHP is an excellent interface. It is at
http://www.php.net.
For complex cases, many use the Perl interface and CGI.pm or mod_perl.
2.3) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user interface?
Yes, there are several graphical interfaces to PostgreSQL available.
These include PgAccess http://www.pgaccess.org), PgAdmin III
(http://www.pgadmin.org, RHDB Admin (http://sources.redhat.com/rhdb/ )
and Rekall ( http://www.thekompany.com/products/rekall/, proprietary).
There is also PHPPgAdmin ( http://phppgadmin.sourceforge.net/ ), a
web-based interface to PostgreSQL.
See http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/GUITools for a more detailed
list.
2.4) What languages are able to communicate with PostgreSQL?
Most popular programming languages contain an interface to PostgreSQL.
Check your programming language's list of extension modules.
The following interfaces are included in the PostgreSQL distribution:
* C (libpq)
* Embedded C (ecpg)
* Java (jdbc)
* Python (PyGreSQL)
* TCL (libpgtcl)
Additional interfaces are available at http://gborg.postgresql.org in
the Drivers/Interfaces section.
_________________________________________________________________
Administrative Questions
3.1) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere other than /usr/local/pgsql?
Specify the --prefix option when running configure.
3.2) When I start postmaster, I get a Bad System Call or core dumped
message. Why?
It could be a variety of problems, but first check to see that you
have System V extensions installed in your kernel. PostgreSQL requires
kernel support for shared memory and semaphores.
3.3) When I try to start postmaster, I get IpcMemoryCreate errors. Why?
You either do not have shared memory configured properly in your
kernel or you need to enlarge the shared memory available in the
kernel. The exact amount you need depends on your architecture and how
many buffers and backend processes you configure for postmaster. For
most systems, with default numbers of buffers and processes, you need
a minimum of ~1 MB. See the PostgreSQL Administrator's Guide for more
detailed information about shared memory and semaphores.
3.4) When I try to start postmaster, I get IpcSemaphoreCreate errors. Why?
If the error message is IpcSemaphoreCreate: semget failed (No space
left on device) then your kernel is not configured with enough
semaphores. Postgres needs one semaphore per potential backend
process. A temporary solution is to start postmaster with a smaller
limit on the number of backend processes. Use -N with a parameter less
than the default of 32. A more permanent solution is to increase your
kernel's SEMMNS and SEMMNI parameters.
Inoperative semaphores can also cause crashes during heavy database
access.
If the error message is something else, you might not have semaphore
support configured in your kernel at all. See the PostgreSQL
Administrator's Guide for more detailed information about shared
memory and semaphores.
3.5) How do I control connections from other hosts?
By default, PostgreSQL only allows connections from the local machine
using Unix domain sockets. Other machines will not be able to connect
unless you add the -i flag to postmaster, and enable host-based
authentication by modifying the file $PGDATA/pg_hba.conf accordingly.
This will allow TCP/IP connections.
3.6) How do I tune the database engine for better performance?
Certainly, indexes can speed up queries. The EXPLAIN command allows
you to see how PostgreSQL is interpreting your query, and which
indexes are being used.
If you are doing many INSERTs, consider doing them in a large batch
using the COPY command. This is much faster than individual INSERTS.
Second, statements not in a BEGIN WORK/COMMIT transaction block are
considered to be in their own transaction. Consider performing several
statements in a single transaction block. This reduces the transaction
overhead. Also, consider dropping and recreating indexes when making
large data changes.
There are several tuning options. You can disable fsync() by starting
postmaster with a -o -F option. This will prevent fsync()s from
flushing to disk after every transaction.
You can also use the postmaster -B option to increase the number of
shared memory buffers used by the backend processes. If you make this
parameter too high, the postmaster may not start because you have
exceeded your kernel's limit on shared memory space. Each buffer is 8K
and the default is 64 buffers.
You can also use the backend -S option to increase the maximum amount
of memory used by the backend process for temporary sorts. The -S
value is measured in kilobytes, and the default is 512 (i.e. 512K).
You can also use the CLUSTER command to group data in tables to match
an index. See the CLUSTER manual page for more details.
3.7) What debugging features are available?
PostgreSQL has several features that report status information that
can be valuable for debugging purposes.
First, by running configure with the --enable-cassert option, many
assert()s monitor the progress of the backend and halt the program
when something unexpected occurs.
Both postmaster and postgres have several debug options available.
First, whenever you start postmaster, make sure you send the standard
output and error to a log file, like:
cd /usr/local/pgsql
./bin/postmaster >server.log 2>&1 &
This will put a server.log file in the top-level PostgreSQL directory.
This file contains useful information about problems or errors
encountered by the server. Postmaster has a -d option that allows even
more detailed information to be reported. The -d option takes a number
that specifies the debug level. Be warned that high debug level values
generate large log files.
If postmaster is not running, you can actually run the postgres
backend from the command line, and type your SQL statement directly.
This is recommended only for debugging purposes. Note that a newline
terminates the query, not a semicolon. If you have compiled with
debugging symbols, you can use a debugger to see what is happening.
Because the backend was not started from postmaster, it is not running
in an identical environment and locking/backend interaction problems
may not be duplicated.
If postmaster is running, start psql in one window, then find the PID
of the postgres process used by psql. Use a debugger to attach to the
postgres PID. You can set breakpoints in the debugger and issue
queries from psql. If you are debugging postgres startup, you can set
PGOPTIONS="-W n", then start psql. This will cause startup to delay
for n seconds so you can attach to the process with the debugger, set
any breakpoints, and continue through the startup sequence.
The postgres program has -s, -A, and -t options that can be very
useful for debugging and performance measurements.
You can also compile with profiling to see what functions are taking
execution time. The backend profile files will be deposited in the
pgsql/data/base/dbname directory. The client profile file will be put
in the client's current directory. Linux requires a compile with
-DLINUX_PROFILE for proper profiling.
3.8) Why do I get "Sorry, too many clients" when trying to connect?
You need to increase postmaster's limit on how many concurrent backend
processes it can start.
The default limit is 32 processes. You can increase it by restarting
postmaster with a suitable -N value or modifying postgresql.conf.
Note that if you make -N larger than 32, you must also increase -B
beyond its default of 64; -B must be at least twice -N, and probably
should be more than that for best performance. For large numbers of
backend processes, you are also likely to find that you need to
increase various Unix kernel configuration parameters. Things to check
include the maximum size of shared memory blocks, SHMMAX; the maximum
number of semaphores, SEMMNS and SEMMNI; the maximum number of
processes, NPROC; the maximum number of processes per user, MAXUPRC;
and the maximum number of open files, NFILE and NINODE. The reason
that PostgreSQL has a limit on the number of allowed backend processes
is so your system won't run out of resources.
3.9) What is in the pgsql_tmp directory?
This directory contains temporary files generated by the query
executor. For example, if a sort needs to be done to satisfy an ORDER
BY and the sort requires more space than the backend's -S parameter
allows, then temporary files are created here to hold the extra data.
The temporary files are usually deleted automatically, but might
remain if a backend crashes during a sort. A stop and restart of the
postmaster will remove files from those directories.
3.10) Why do I need to do a dump and restore to upgrade between major
PostgreSQL releases?
The PostgreSQL team makes only small changes between minor releases,
so upgrading from 7.2 to 7.2.1 does not require a dump and restore.
However, major releases (e.g. from 7.2 to 7.3) often change the
internal format of system tables and data files. These changes are
often complex, so we don't maintain backward compatability for data
files. A dump outputs data in a generic format that can then be loaded
in using the new internal format.
In releases where the on-disk format does not change, the pg_upgrade
script can be used to upgrade without a dump/restore. The release
notes mention whether pg_upgrade is available for the release.
_________________________________________________________________
Operational Questions
4.1) What is the difference between binary cursors and normal cursors?
See the DECLARE manual page for a description.
4.2) How do I SELECT only the first few rows of a query? A random row?
See the FETCH manual page, or use SELECT ... LIMIT....
The entire query may have to be evaluated, even if you only want the
first few rows. Consider using a query that has an ORDER BY. If there
is an index that matches the ORDER BY, PostgreSQL may be able to
evaluate only the first few records requested, or the entire query may
have to be evaluated until the desired rows have been generated.
To SELECT a random row, use:
SELECT col
FROM tab
ORDER BY random()
LIMIT 1;
4.3) How do I get a list of tables or other things I can see in psql?
You can read the source code for psql in file
pgsql/src/bin/psql/describe.c. It contains SQL commands that generate
the output for psql's backslash commands. You can also start psql with
the -E option so it will print out the queries it uses to execute the
commands you give.
4.4) How do you remove a column from a table, or change its data type?
DROP COLUMN functionality was added in release 7.3 with ALTER TABLE
DROP COLUMN. In earlier versions, you can do this:
BEGIN;
LOCK TABLE old_table;
SELECT ... -- select all columns but the one you want to remove
INTO TABLE new_table
FROM old_table;
DROP TABLE old_table;
ALTER TABLE new_table RENAME TO old_table;
COMMIT;
To change the data type of a column, do this:
BEGIN;
ALTER TABLE tab ADD COLUMN new_col new_data_type;
UPDATE tab SET new_col = CAST(old_col AS new_data_type);
ALTER TABLE tab DROP COLUMN old_col;
COMMIT;
You might then want to do VACUUM FULL tab to reclaim the disk space
used by the expired rows.
4.5) What is the maximum size for a row, a table, and a database?
These are the limits:
Maximum size for a database? unlimited (32 TB databases exist)
Maximum size for a table? 32 TB
Maximum size for a row? 1.6TB
Maximum size for a field? 1 GB
Maximum number of rows in a table? unlimited
Maximum number of columns in a table? 250-1600 depending on column types
Maximum number of indexes on a table? unlimited
Of course, these are not actually unlimited, but limited to available
disk space and memory/swap space. Performance may suffer when these
values get unusually large.
The maximum table size of 32 TB does not require large file support
from the operating system. Large tables are stored as multiple 1 GB
files so file system size limits are not important.
The maximum table size and maximum number of columns can be quadrupled
by increasing the default block size to 32k.
4.6) How much database disk space is required to store data from a typical
text file?
A PostgreSQL database may require up to five times the disk space to
store data from a text file.
As an example, consider a file of 100,000 lines with an integer and
text description on each line. Suppose the text string avergages
twenty bytes in length. The flat file would be 2.8 MB. The size of the
PostgreSQL database file containing this data can be estimated as 6.4
MB:
36 bytes: each row header (approximate)
24 bytes: one int field and one text field
+ 4 bytes: pointer on page to tuple
----------------------------------------
64 bytes per row
The data page size in PostgreSQL is 8192 bytes (8 KB), so:
8192 bytes per page
------------------- = 128 rows per database page (rounded down)
64 bytes per row
100000 data rows
-------------------- = 782 database pages (rounded up)
128 rows per page
782 database pages * 8192 bytes per page = 6,406,144 bytes (6.4 MB)
Indexes do not require as much overhead, but do contain the data that
is being indexed, so they can be large also.
NULLs are stored in bitmaps, so they use very little space.
4.7) How do I find out what tables, indexes, databases, and users are
defined?
psql has a variety of backslash commands to show such information. Use
\? to see them. There are also system tables beginning with pg_ that
describe these too. Also, psql -l will list all databases.
Also try the file pgsql/src/tutorial/syscat.source. It illustrates
many of the SELECTs needed to get information from the database system
tables.
4.8) My queries are slow or don't make use of the indexes. Why?
Indexes are not automatically used by every query. Indexes are only
used if the table is larger than a minimum size, and the query selects
only a small percentage of the rows in the table. This is because the
random disk access caused by an index scan can be slower than a
straight read through the table, or sequential scan.
To determine if an index should be used, PostgreSQL must have
statistics about the table. These statistics are collected using
VACUUM ANALYZE, or simply ANALYZE. Using statistics, the optimizer
knows how many rows are in the table, and can better determine if
indexes should be used. Statistics are also valuable in determining
optimal join order and join methods. Statistics collection should be
performed periodically as the contents of the table change.
Indexes are normally not used for ORDER BY or to perform joins. A
sequential scan followed by an explicit sort is usually faster than an
index scan of a large table.
However, LIMIT combined with ORDER BY often will use an index because
only a small portion of the table is returned. In fact, though MAX()
and MIN() don't use indexes, it is possible to retrieve such values
using an index with ORDER BY and LIMIT:
SELECT col
FROM tab
ORDER BY col [ DESC ]
LIMIT 1;
If you believe the optimizer is incorrect in choosing a sequential
scan, use SET enable_seqscan TO 'off' and run tests to see if an index
scan is indeed faster.
When using wild-card operators such as LIKE or ~, indexes can only be
used in certain circumstances:
* The beginning of the search string must be anchored to the start
of the string, i.e.
+ LIKE patterns must not start with %.
+ ~ (regular expression) patterns must start with ^.
* The search string can not start with a character class, e.g.
[a-e].
* Case-insensitive searches such as ILIKE and ~* do not utilise
indexes. Instead, use functional indexes, which are described in
section 4.12.
* The default C locale must be used during initdb.
4.9) How do I see how the query optimizer is evaluating my query?
See the EXPLAIN manual page.
4.10) What is an R-tree index?
An R-tree index is used for indexing spatial data. A hash index can't
handle range searches. A B-tree index only handles range searches in a
single dimension. R-trees can handle multi-dimensional data. For
example, if an R-tree index can be built on an attribute of type
point, the system can more efficiently answer queries such as "select
all points within a bounding rectangle."
The canonical paper that describes the original R-tree design is:
Guttman, A. "R-trees: A Dynamic Index Structure for Spatial
Searching." Proceedings of the 1984 ACM SIGMOD Int'l Conf on Mgmt of
Data, 45-57.
You can also find this paper in Stonebraker's "Readings in Database
Systems".
Built-in R-trees can handle polygons and boxes. In theory, R-trees can
be extended to handle higher number of dimensions. In practice,
extending R-trees requires a bit of work and we don't currently have
any documentation on how to do it.
4.11) What is the Genetic Query Optimizer?
The GEQO module speeds query optimization when joining many tables by
means of a Genetic Algorithm (GA). It allows the handling of large
join queries through nonexhaustive search.
4.12) How do I perform regular expression searches and case-insensitive
regular expression searches? How do I use an index for case-insensitive
searches?
The ~ operator does regular expression matching, and ~* does
case-insensitive regular expression matching. The case-insensitive
variant of LIKE is called ILIKE.
Case-insensitive equality comparisons are normally expressed as:
SELECT *
FROM tab
WHERE lower(col) = 'abc';
This will not use an standard index. However, if you create a
functional index, it will be used:
CREATE INDEX tabindex ON tab (lower(col));
4.13) In a query, how do I detect if a field is NULL?
You test the column with IS NULL and IS NOT NULL.
4.14) What is the difference between the various character types?
Type Internal Name Notes
--------------------------------------------------
VARCHAR(n) varchar size specifies maximum length, no padding
CHAR(n) bpchar blank padded to the specified fixed length
TEXT text no specific upper limit on length
BYTEA bytea variable-length byte array (null-byte safe)
"char" char one character
You will see the internal name when examining system catalogs and in
some error messages.
The first four types above are "varlena" types (i.e., the first four
bytes on disk are the length, followed by the data). Thus the actual
space used is slightly greater than the declared size. However, these
data types are also subject to compression or being stored out-of-line
by TOAST, so the space on disk might also be less than expected.
VARCHAR(n) is best when storing variable-length strings and it limits
how long a string can be. TEXT is for strings of unlimited length,
with a maximum of one gigabyte.
CHAR(n) is for storing strings that are all the same length. CHAR(n)
pads with blanks to the specified length, while VARCHAR(n) only stores
the characters supplied. BYTEA is for storing binary data,
particularly values that include NULL bytes. All the types described
here have similar performance characteristics.
4.15.1) How do I create a serial/auto-incrementing field?
PostgreSQL supports a SERIAL data type. It auto-creates a sequence.
For example, this:
CREATE TABLE person (
id SERIAL,
name TEXT
);
is automatically translated into this:
CREATE SEQUENCE person_id_seq;
CREATE TABLE person (
id INT4 NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('person_id_seq'),
name TEXT
);
See the create_sequence manual page for more information about
sequences. You can also use each row's OID field as a unique value.
However, if you need to dump and reload the database, you need to use
pg_dump's -o option or COPY WITH OIDS option to preserve the OIDs.
4.15.2) How do I get the value of a SERIAL insert?
One approach is to retrieve the next SERIAL value from the sequence
object with the nextval() function before inserting and then insert it
explicitly. Using the example table in 4.15.1, an example in a
pseudo-language would look like this:
new_id = execute("SELECT nextval('person_id_seq')");
execute("INSERT INTO person (id, name) VALUES (new_id, 'Blaise Pascal')");
You would then also have the new value stored in new_id for use in
other queries (e.g., as a foreign key to the person table). Note that
the name of the automatically created SEQUENCE object will be named
<table>_<serialcolumn>_seq, where table and serialcolumn are the names
of your table and your SERIAL column, respectively.
Alternatively, you could retrieve the assigned SERIAL value with the
currval() function after it was inserted by default, e.g.,
execute("INSERT INTO person (name) VALUES ('Blaise Pascal')");
new_id = execute("SELECT currval('person_id_seq')");
Finally, you could use the OID returned from the INSERT statement to
look up the default value, though this is probably the least portable
approach, and the oid value will wrap around when it reaches 4
billion. In Perl, using DBI with Edmund Mergl's DBD::Pg module, the
oid value is made available via $sth->{pg_oid_status} after
$sth->execute().
4.15.3) Don't currval() and nextval() lead to a race condition with other
users?
No. currval() returns the current value assigned by your backend, not
by all users.
4.15.4) Why aren't my sequence numbers reused on transaction abort? Why are
there gaps in the numbering of my sequence/SERIAL column?
To improve concurrency, sequence values are given out to running
transactions as needed and are not locked until the transaction
completes. This causes gaps in numbering from aborted transactions.
4.16) What is an OID? What is a TID?
OIDs are PostgreSQL's answer to unique row ids. Every row that is
created in PostgreSQL gets a unique OID. All OIDs generated during
initdb are less than 16384 (from include/access/transam.h). All
user-created OIDs are equal to or greater than this. By default, all
these OIDs are unique not only within a table or database, but unique
within the entire PostgreSQL installation.
PostgreSQL uses OIDs in its internal system tables to link rows
between tables. These OIDs can be used to identify specific user rows
and used in joins. It is recommended you use column type OID to store
OID values. You can create an index on the OID field for faster
access.
OIDs are assigned to all new rows from a central area that is used by
all databases. If you want to change the OID to something else, or if
you want to make a copy of the table, with the original OIDs, there is
no reason you can't do it:
CREATE TABLE new_table(old_oid oid, mycol int);
SELECT old_oid, mycol INTO new FROM old;
COPY new TO '/tmp/pgtable';
DELETE FROM new;
COPY new WITH OIDS FROM '/tmp/pgtable';
OIDs are stored as 4-byte integers, and will overflow at 4 billion. No
one has reported this ever happening, and we plan to have the limit
removed before anyone does.
TIDs are used to identify specific physical rows with block and offset
values. TIDs change after rows are modified or reloaded. They are used
by index entries to point to physical rows.
4.17) What is the meaning of some of the terms used in PostgreSQL?
Some of the source code and older documentation use terms that have
more common usage. Here are some:
* table, relation, class
* row, record, tuple
* column, field, attribute
* retrieve, select
* replace, update
* append, insert
* OID, serial value
* portal, cursor
* range variable, table name, table alias
A list of general database terms can be found at:
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/MST/simul/software/docs/pkgs/pgsql/glossary
/glossary.html
4.18) Why do I get the error "ERROR: Memory exhausted in AllocSetAlloc()"?
You probably have run out of virtual memory on your system, or your
kernel has a low limit for certain resources. Try this before starting
postmaster:
ulimit -d 262144
limit datasize 256m
Depending on your shell, only one of these may succeed, but it will
set your process data segment limit much higher and perhaps allow the
query to complete. This command applies to the current process, and
all subprocesses created after the command is run. If you are having a
problem with the SQL client because the backend is returning too much
data, try it before starting the client.
4.19) How do I tell what PostgreSQL version I am running?
From psql, type SELECT version();
4.20) Why does my large-object operations get "invalid large obj
descriptor"?
You need to put BEGIN WORK and COMMIT around any use of a large object
handle, that is, surrounding lo_open ... lo_close.
Currently PostgreSQL enforces the rule by closing large object handles
at transaction commit. So the first attempt to do anything with the
handle will draw invalid large obj descriptor. So code that used to
work (at least most of the time) will now generate that error message
if you fail to use a transaction.
If you are using a client interface like ODBC you may need to set
auto-commit off.
4.21) How do I create a column that will default to the current time?
Use CURRENT_TIMESTAMP:
CREATE TABLE test (x int, modtime timestamp DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP );
4.22) Why are my subqueries using IN so slow?
In versions prior to 7.4, subqueries were joined to outer queries by
sequentially scanning the result of the subquery for each row of the
outer query. If the subquery returns only a few rows and the outer
query returns many rows, IN is fastest. To speed up other queries,
replace IN with EXISTS:
SELECT *
FROM tab
WHERE col IN (SELECT subcol FROM subtab);
to:
SELECT *
FROM tab
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT subcol FROM subtab WHERE subcol = col);
For this to be fast, subcol should be an indexed column.
In version 7.4 and later, IN actually uses the same sophisticated join
techniques as normal queries, and is prefered to using EXISTS.
4.23) How do I perform an outer join?
PostgreSQL supports outer joins using the SQL standard syntax. Here
are two examples:
SELECT *
FROM t1 LEFT OUTER JOIN t2 ON (t1.col = t2.col);
or
SELECT *
FROM t1 LEFT OUTER JOIN t2 USING (col);
These identical queries join t1.col to t2.col, and also return any
unjoined rows in t1 (those with no match in t2). A RIGHT join would
add unjoined rows of t2. A FULL join would return the matched rows
plus all unjoined rows from t1 and t2. The word OUTER is optional and
is assumed in LEFT, RIGHT, and FULL joins. Ordinary joins are called
INNER joins.
In previous releases, outer joins can be simulated using UNION and NOT
IN. For example, when joining tab1 and tab2, the following query does
an outer join of the two tables:
SELECT tab1.col1, tab2.col2
FROM tab1, tab2
WHERE tab1.col1 = tab2.col1
UNION ALL
SELECT tab1.col1, NULL
FROM tab1
WHERE tab1.col1 NOT IN (SELECT tab2.col1 FROM tab2)
ORDER BY col1
4.24) How do I perform queries using multiple databases?
There is no way to query a database other than the current one.
Because PostgreSQL loads database-specific system catalogs, it is
uncertain how a cross-database query should even behave.
contrib/dblink allows cross-database queries using function calls. Of
course, a client can make simultaneous connections to different
databases and merge the results on the client side.
4.25) How do I return multiple rows or columns from a function?
In 7.3, you can easily return multiple rows or columns from a
function, http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/SetReturningFunctions.
4.26) Why can't I reliably create/drop temporary tables in PL/PgSQL
functions?
PL/PgSQL caches function contents, and an unfortunate side effect is
that if a PL/PgSQL function accesses a temporary table, and that table
is later dropped and recreated, and the function called again, the
function will fail because the cached function contents still point to
the old temporary table. The solution is to use EXECUTE for temporary
table access in PL/PgSQL. This will cause the query to be reparsed
every time.
4.27) What replication options are available?
There are several master/slave replication options available. These
allow only the master to make database changes and the slave can only
do database reads. The bottom of
http://gborg.PostgreSQL.org/genpage?replication_research lists them. A
multi-master replication solution is being worked on at
http://gborg.PostgreSQL.org/project/pgreplication/projdisplay.php.
4.28) What encryption options are available?
* contrib/pgcrypto contains many encryption functions for use in SQL
queries.
* To encrypt transmission from the client to the server, the server
must have the ssl option set to true in postgresql.conf, and an
applicable host or hostssl record must exist in pg_hba.conf, and
the client sslmode must not be disable. (Note that it is also
possible to use a third-party encrypted transport, such as stunnel
or ssh, rather than PostgreSQL's native SSL connections.)
* Database user passwords are automatically encrypted when stored in
version 7.3. In previous versions, you must enable the option
PASSWORD_ENCRYPTION in postgresql.conf.
* The server can run using an encrypted file system.
_________________________________________________________________
Extending PostgreSQL
5.1) I wrote a user-defined function. When I run it in psql, why does it
dump core?
The problem could be a number of things. Try testing your user-defined
function in a stand-alone test program first.
5.2) How can I contribute some nifty new types and functions to PostgreSQL?
Send your extensions to the pgsql-hackers mailing list, and they will
eventually end up in the contrib/ subdirectory.
5.3) How do I write a C function to return a tuple?
In versions of PostgreSQL beginning with 7.3, table-returning
functions are fully supported in C, PL/PgSQL, and SQL. See the
Programmer's Guide for more information. An example of a
table-returning function defined in C can be found in
contrib/tablefunc.
5.4) I have changed a source file. Why does the recompile not see the
change?
The Makefiles do not have the proper dependencies for include files.
You have to do a make clean and then another make. If you are using
GCC you can use the --enable-depend option of configure to have the
compiler compute the dependencies automatically.
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