Re: REINDEXing user table in non stand-alone?

"Shuzo Kubo" <gardenweasel(at)hotmail(dot)com> writes:
> Does one need to go into stand-alone mode to
> reindex an user table?

No. The docs need some improvement in this area. The pushups mentioned
in the docs are really only necessary if you have a broken system index
that's sufficiently critical that the backend crashes before you can
execute REINDEX. (For instance, the indexes on pg_class are likely to
cause such problems.) The basic idea of the pushups is to start the
backend in a mode such that it doesn't use the indexes to access the
system catalogs.

> Is it safe to REINDEX an user table while in
> non stand-alone mode when other users are
> accessing it?

Not sure about that --- I believe it's safe in 7.2, but IIRC, REINDEX
didn't bother to acquire a LOCK on the table in earlier releases.
Best to shut down any other clients that might be trying to access the
damaged table. Or forget REINDEX and recover via DROP/CREATE INDEX.

regards, tom lane