Re: GiST VACUUM

On 31/07/18 23:06, Andrey Borodin wrote:
>> On a typical GiST index, what's the ratio of leaf vs. internal
>> pages? Perhaps an array would indeed be better.
>
> Typical GiST has around 200 tuples per internal page. I've switched
> to List since it's more efficient than bitmap.

Hmm. A ListCell is 16 bytes, plus the AllocChunk header, 16 bytes. 32
bytes per internal page in total, while a bitmap consumes one bit per
page, leaf or internal. If I'm doing
my math right, assuming the ratio of leaf pages vs internal pages is
1:200, a List actually consumes more memory than a bitmap; 256 bits per
internal page, vs. 200 bits. An array, with 4 bytes per block number,
would be the winner here.

> But I have to note that default growth strategy of Bitmap is not
> good: we will be repallocing byte by byte.

True, that repallocing seems bad. You could force it to be pre-allocated
by setting the last bit. Or add a function to explicitly enlarge the bitmap.

- Heikki