Re: pgbench - allow to specify scale as a size

Alvaro Hernandez <aht(at)ongres(dot)com> writes:
> On 17/02/18 11:26, Tom Lane wrote:
>> Fabien COELHO <coelho(at)cri(dot)ensmp(dot)fr> writes:
>>> Here is a attempt at extending --scale so that it can be given a size.

>> I do not actually find this to be a good idea. It's going to be
>> platform-dependent, or not very accurate, or both, and thereby
>> contribute to confusion by making results less reproducible.
>>
>> Plus, what do we do if the backend changes table representation in
>> some way that invalidates Kaarel's formula altogether? More confusion
>> would be inevitable.

>     Why not then insert a "few" rows, measure size, truncate the table,
> compute the formula and then insert to the desired user requested size?
> (or insert what should be the minimum, scale 1, measure, and extrapolate
> what's missing). It doesn't sound too complicated to me, and targeting a
> size is something that I believe it's quite good for user.

Then you'd *really* have irreproducible results.

regards, tom lane