Re: Better name/syntax for "online" index creation

Tom Lane wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com> writes:
> > Bruce Momjian wrote:
> >> Oh, psql needs to know before the command is sent? How do we handle it
> >> now with CLUSTER?
>
> > We don't, which is exactly the problem. If I'm not mistaken, currently
> > psql in autocommit off mode, CLUSTER doesn't start a transaction block,
> > which is arguably wrong because some forms of CLUSTER (single-table) are
> > able to work within a transaction.
>
> psql could actually tell these apart if it worked just a bit harder.
> CLUSTER with no arguments is the one case, CLUSTER with anything after
> it is the other. Not sure why we couldn't be bothered to get that
> right in psql the first time :-(.
>
> But to get back to the point at hand, I think that there should be some
> equally obvious syntactic clue about what CREATE INDEX does --- and
> burying an ONLINE keyword near the end of the command doesn't qualify.

OK, how about CREATE INDEX x NOLOCK ON tab ... Please don't use it as
the first word. I am afraid we would regret that.

Or maybe CREATE INDEX x ON tab NOLOCK.... Having the NOLOCK
associated with the table name makes sense.

--
Bruce Momjian bruce(at)momjian(dot)us
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com

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