Re: Better name/syntax for "online" index creation

Tom Lane wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com> writes:
> > Bruce Momjian wrote:
> >> Oh, psql needs to know before the command is sent?  How do we handle it
> >> now with CLUSTER?
> 
> > We don't, which is exactly the problem.  If I'm not mistaken, currently
> > psql in autocommit off mode, CLUSTER doesn't start a transaction block,
> > which is arguably wrong because some forms of CLUSTER (single-table) are
> > able to work within a transaction.
> 
> psql could actually tell these apart if it worked just a bit harder.
> CLUSTER with no arguments is the one case, CLUSTER with anything after
> it is the other.  Not sure why we couldn't be bothered to get that
> right in psql the first time :-(.
> 
> But to get back to the point at hand, I think that there should be some
> equally obvious syntactic clue about what CREATE INDEX does --- and
> burying an ONLINE keyword near the end of the command doesn't qualify.

OK, how about CREATE INDEX x NOLOCK ON tab ...  Please don't use it as
the first word.  I am afraid we would regret that.

Or maybe CREATE INDEX x ON tab NOLOCK....  Having the NOLOCK
associated with the table name makes sense.

--  Bruce Momjian   bruce@momjian.us EnterpriseDB    http://www.enterprisedb.com
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