Re: Disabling Heap-Only Tuples

On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 10:52 AM Matthias van de Meent
<boekewurm+postgres(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> In this new patch, I've updated a few comments to get mostly within
> line length limits; the name of the storage parameter is now
> "local_update_limit", as per discussion on naming.
> I've also added local_update_limit to psql's autocomplete file, and
> added documentation on how the parameter behaves - including warnings
> - in create_table.sgml.

I feel like this is the sort of setting that experts will sometimes be
able to use to improve the situation, and non-experts will have great
difficulty using. It relies on the user to know what size limit will
work out well, which probably involves knowing how much real data is
in the table, and how that's going to change over time, and probably
also some things about how PostgreSQL does space management
internally. I don't know that I'd be able to guide a non-expert user
in how to make effective use of this as a tool.

I don't know exactly what to propose, but I would definitely like it
if we could come up with something with which a casual user would be
less likely to shoot themselves in the foot and more likely to derive
a benefit.

--
Robert Haas
EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com