Re: [GENERAL] Should SERIAL column have MAXVAL set on sequence

From: Zoltan Boszormenyi <zb(at)cybertec(dot)at>
To: Woody Woodring <george(dot)woodring(at)iglass(dot)net>
Cc: Jim Nasby <decibel(at)decibel(dot)org>, pgsql-bugs(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Should SERIAL column have MAXVAL set on sequence
Date: 2007-07-24 19:19:55
Message-ID: 46A650DB.5020706@cybertec.at
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Jim Nasby írta:
> Moving to -bugs.
>
> On Jul 23, 2007, at 9:02 AM, Woody Woodring wrote:
>> I have a table in our DB that functions as a queue with a SERIAL
>> column for
>> its primary key. At 4am this weekend I started getting the error:
>>
>> ERROR: integer out of range
>>
>> Which was attributed to the sequence incrementing past the size of
>> the int4
>> serial column after several years of operation.
>>
>> I was able to set the sequence back to 1 and everything was happy.
>>
>> I was wondering if the SERIAL column should set the MAXVAL=2147483647
>> when
>> it creates the sequence?
>>
>> I ended up fixing my queue table with the following to avoid the
>> issue in
>> the future:
>>
>> ALTER SEQUENCE transfer_transferid_seq MAXVALUE 2147483647 CYCLE;

Did you already delete old records? Otherwise it will create duplicate
IDs...
Alternatively you can alter the field to be BIGINT.

> I can confirm this is still the case in HEAD:
>
> decibel=# select max_value from s_s_seq ;
> max_value
> ---------------------
> 9223372036854775807
> (1 row)
>
> This does seem like a bug...

No, it is by design. Nothing is stopping you from altering your sequence
after creating your table with SERIALs. Anyway, [BIG]SERIAL is just
a "macro" in PostgreSQL. BTW sequences were modified to produce
BIGINT values some releases back.

> --
> Jim Nasby jim(at)nasby(dot)net
> EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com 512.569.9461 (cell)
>
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
>

Best regards,
Zoltán Böszörményi

--
----------------------------------
Zoltán Böszörményi
Cybertec Geschwinde & Schönig GmbH
http://www.postgresql.at/

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