Re: [HACKERS] DOC: catalog.sgml

Tom Lane wrote:
> Zdenek Kotala <Zdenek(dot)Kotala(at)Sun(dot)COM> writes:
>> There is new version of catalogs overview patch. This version add only
>> one column into overview table which contains Oid/Filename for each
>> catalog table. Oid information is important if someone need make
>> relation with filename on disk and related catalog table.
>
> I still say this is just confusing clutter. The proposed patch even
> goes so far as to give the OID pride of place as the most important
> item you could possibly want to know about a catalog, which is surely
> silly.

You have right that OID is not important information in many cases, but
how I said It is useful when you want know relation between filename and
catalog table.

> People who actually want to know this information can look into the
> pg_class catalog, which has the advantages of being complete (eg, it
> covers indexes too), guaranteed up-to-date, and easily program-readable.
> I really do not see the value of putting it in the sgml docs.

You can look into pg_class catalog only if database is running. If you
have some data corruption problem, OID should help during recovery. But
you have right, that pg_class have complex information and who want to
"play" with datafiles, he must know more than OID.

OK, thanks for response, forget to this patch

Zdenek