Re: Update obsolete text in indexam.sgml

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: "Etsuro Fujita" <fujita(dot)etsuro(at)lab(dot)ntt(dot)co(dot)jp>
Cc: "'PostgreSQL-development'" <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Update obsolete text in indexam.sgml
Date: 2012-11-07 00:37:00
Message-ID: 23747.1352248620@sss.pgh.pa.us
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"Etsuro Fujita" <fujita(dot)etsuro(at)lab(dot)ntt(dot)co(dot)jp> writes:
> Agreed. However, I am concerned about the next comment in the current code:

> /*
> * Our generic assumption is that the index pages will be read
> * sequentially, so they cost seq_page_cost each, not random_page_cost.
> * ...

> I think this assumption is completely wrong, which has given me a motivation to
> propose a patch, though I am missing something.

Mph. It's pretty hard to argue that it's wrong without considering a
specific index implementation, which in practice would have a ton of
other details that need to be accounted for here. I don't have a strong
objection to changing the sample code to use random_page_cost instead,
but I doubt it will help anybody one way or another.

FWIW, the docs' sample code was an accurate transcription of what
genericcostestimate did at the time (8.1 era). I think the case we were
thinking of when that code was written was a recently-rebuilt btree
index, in which logically adjacent leaf pages would indeed often be
sequential.

regards, tom lane

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