Re: Compression and on-disk sorting

On Wed, May 17, 2006 at 09:45:35AM +0200, Albe Laurenz wrote:
> Oracle's compression seems to work as follows:
> - At the beginning of each data block, there is a 'lookup table'
> containing frequently used values in table entries (of that block).
> - This lookup table is referenced from within the block.

Clever idea, pity we can't use it (what's the bet it's patented?). I'd
wager anything beyond simple compression is patented by someone.

The biggest issue is really that once postgres reads a block from disk
and uncompresses it, this block will be much larger than 8K. Somehow
you have to arrange storage for this.

I have some ideas though, but as Tom says, should go for the quick and
dirty numbers first, to determine if it's even worth doing.

Have a nice day,
--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> From each according to his ability. To each according to his ability to litigate.