ambulkinsert

Do we need a new API (ambulkinsert) to support optimized bulk insertion
into indexes?

Browsing the mailing lists I see people trying to improve bulk loading
into indexes. One approach is to side-step WAL, but others have looked
at alternative indexing methods. In my application, insertion speed is
more important than query speed. There are known index methods that
optimize insertion speed, but none are available for PostgreSQL, AFAIK.
Worse, there are no APIs to support bulk insertion into indexes with
COPY.

In the mailing lists:
* A request for non-WAL bulk loading of an index
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2008-08/msg00035.php
* A proposal to integrate an existing non-WAL non-indexing loading tool

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-02/msg00811.php
http://pgbulkload.projects.postgresql.org/
* Special-purpose indexes with bulk loading features
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-07/msg00918.php

B-tree alternatives for bulk insertion:
* A benchmark paper (compares six methods)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/e0495h4744462rk7/
* A survey paper
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/vitter00external.html
* A randomized alternative
http://arxiv.org/abs/cs?papernum=0404028

PostgreSQL APIs include ambulkdelete but not ambulkinsert:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/index-functions.html

--Steve